Investment Bracketology: Tipping the Odds in Your Favor

Every March since I was 8 years old, I’ve enthusiastically filled out an NCAA Tournament bracket. Way before the Internet, I would submit my picks to the local newspaper with the hope of getting my picture in the paper.
It was easy. I picked a few of my favorite basketball teams from my most-beloved conference at the time and allowed the chips to fall where they may.
There was no process behind my selections. Other than the obvious mismatches, I simply guessed. While this simplistic strategy occasionally works for gamblers (and 8-year-olds), it’s not the tactical approach most savvy bracketeers would employ.
Serious bracketologists gather as many statistics as they can to make the most informed decisions possible. Factoids such as that a No. 12 seed has beaten a No. 5 seed 24 out of the last 27 years. Or that two teams seeded 10 or lower have gone to the Sweet Sixteen in 14 out of the last 16 years.
These facts can only increase the probability of accurately predicting a winner. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for those of us in the know), most people approach their picks with a gambler’s mentality –  randomly placing a bet and hoping for the best.
And the ignorance of the gambler carries over into the investment arena, particularly in the world of options.
In the spirit of March Madness, I hope to teach you, the self-directed investor, some “investment bracketology.” In other words, how to approach the market with a statistical advantage using options.
There is no denying that options trading can befuddle even the most sophisticated investor. Professionals and retail investors alike struggle to understand the core fundamentals of options. And it shows in the ongoing ignorance of how most investors choose to use them.
But options make intuitive sense if they can be viewed in an easily understood framework, such as basketball. Take, for instance, the most basic and frequently observed characteristic of an option: delta.
Delta is the probability of an option finishing in-the-money. In basketball terms, it’s the probability that one of the teams will win.
For example, let’s take my beloved Oregon Ducks versus the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
The professional oddsmakers predict the game as a toss-up, a coin flip. So, before the game begins Friday, each team has an equal chance of winning – or, as I like to say, a 50% probability of success.
With options, 50% is a typical delta for an at-the-money option (i.e., the underlying asset’s price is equal to the option’s strike price).
In basketball terms, the tipoff hasn’t occurred. The Ducks and Cowboys are tied. Each team is neither ahead nor behind, just like the option isn’t in- or out-of-the-money.
Now suppose the Ducks are heavily favored. They might have a delta of, say, 80%. And since the game has yet to begin they would be considered in-the-money.
Vice versa, if the Ducks were the underdogs they would have a delta less than 50%, say 20%. An option with a delta of 20% would have a very difficult time closing in-the-money – above 50% – by the time it reached expiration day.
So, if we can predict a winner with 80% accuracy, why do we insist on guessing, thereby decreasing our odds to a lowly coin flip? Again, gamblers, investors and many newbie traders insist on taking this approach, even though we have resources that enable us to increase our odds significantly.
If you are interested in how I make trades with an 80% chance of success, don’t miss today’s webinar at 12 p.m. EDT. I will discuss my step-by-step, high-probability approach to trading options for income, plus I will go over a few real-time trades on the trading platform.
I will be discussing, in great length, my favorite way to trade options. It’s an extremely simple strategy to learn, and arguably the most powerful strategy in the professional options trader’s tool belt.

One Simple System to Win Nearly 9-out-of 10 Trades.

Regular investors dream about these kinds of opportunities– but few ever believe they’re real. Like dragons, the idea of making money on nearly 9-out-10 trades seems the stuff of legend… or if real, reserved exclusively for the market’s slickest traders. Yet, it’s very real. And easily within the reach of regular investors. You can learn all about this safe, simple strategy – and the next three trades shaping up right now – by clicking this link here. Slay your own dragon – Go here now.