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Options trading alert services can provide a source of substantial profits for investors. They offer timely notifications when a potentially profitable option trade opportunity arises.
There are a lot of options trading alert services. With so many choices available and so many charlatans in the industry, it’s essential to ensure you’re getting alerts from a bonafide and reputable trade alert service.
Trading options can be a great way to make money, but it comes with risk and it can be hard to spot trading opportunities in real time. You can address both by paying for a good options trading alert service.
Options Trading: An Overview
An options trader looks for ways to profit from price movements in the stock market. But instead of buying stocks, they use options as the vehicle for capturing those profits.
Options give someone the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a stock at an agreed-upon price and date.
One reason they are popular among investors is that they use leverage. You can control a lot of shares of stock with a lot less money using options than you could if you were to buy the stocks outright. If your goal is to outperform the S&P 500 and you are ok with taking on the extra risk, then options could be a good avenue for you to explore.
There are a lot of different strategies used for options trading. Since options have expiration dates, most investors who use them are looking at a shorter time frame for their investments.
Options are, therefore, particularly popular for use with swing trading strategies. They are also used by people in the day trading crowd.
It’s important to thoroughly understand the market and how options work before making any trades. That way, you can minimize your risks and maximize your potential profits.
What is an Options Trading Alert Service
Options alert services offer two key features.
One is that they send an alert when an options trading opportunity comes up. That alert could be in the form of a text message, an email, an app notification, or a message in a trading chat room or Discord server.
The trading alerts will typically indicate all the relevant information you would need for an option, including the underlying stock symbol, the strike price, and the expiration date. Options have a lot of moving pieces, which makes them more complicated to trade than stocks. But with options alert services, they typically do all the work for you to determine exactly which option to consider trading.
The second feature of these options alert services is that each has stock market knowledge and expertise that they infuse into each alert. As you’ll see below, each service has its own proprietary way of determining which options are the right ones to buy, and when it’s the right time to buy them.
One of the benefits of getting options trading alerts is that they make it so easy. You get the alert, decide if you want to buy it, and then just open your trading platform and make the trade. It certainly simplifies the investment decision-making process.
Finding the Right Options Trading Alert Service
Each options alert service is different. Our list below shares the services that we feel are the best, but you still have to choose which one from this list is a good fit for you.
Some of the alert services send alerts by text, while others post alerts through a group chat. You’ll have to consider which form of alert fits your lifestyle and preferences best.
These alert services each have a unique approach to identifying good option trading opportunities. Some use technical analysis based on the underlying stock’s price chart. Others do a deep dive into the company’s prospects for growth.
The trade alert services in this article also feature different investment types in general in terms of the length of the investment. Some are for day traders, some are for swing traders, and some are for long-term investors who like to use LEAPs as their option vehicle of choice.
Also, these services offer varying amounts of information with each option trade alert. For example, some alert you to the underlying stock and the expiration of the option they like, but they leave it up to you to choose the strike price. Some give you profit targets and stop losses to use for your options trades, and others do not.
Finding the right options trading alert service is critically important. This industry is one that’s riddled with money-grabbing hype artists. There are definitely some honest, rock-solid trade alert services, and the purpose of this article is to share those with you.
Here are the ones that we think are the best:
Mindful Trader
The Mindful Trader options alert service is run by Eric Ferguson. He’s a legitimately nice and caring person, which is a breath of fresh air in this industry. (And a bonus is that he’s so fast at responding to emails!)
Eric did years of research on stock market price tendencies. And he translated those into an options trading strategy. So when he sends an options trading alert, it’s because he knows from history that the trading strategy has historical odds in its favor.
That’s a big difference from most other trade alert services, who make trades based on gut instincts rather than historical evidence. It’s a more scientific approach to trading than flying by the seat of the pants.
His trade alerts are for swing trades, which means that most trades last several days. And he normally sends about 5-10 options trading alerts per week, although it varies.
Once he picks an option he wants to alert, he gives you all the information you need.
Stoplosses and profit targets are assigned upfront and there is a time limit indicated for each trade. He also specifies the exact ticker symbol, including the expiration date and strike price. His alerts take all the guesswork out of options trading.
So once you see the alert information, you can set up everything for the trade at the start. Then you don’t have to worry about it anymore until the time limit hits (which is also alerted as a handy reminder). It’s a set-it-and-forget-it type of trade alert service and typically only takes a few minutes to set up each trade once you get used to it.
One downside to the service: he doesn’t send actual texts or real-time alerts. He simply publishes the trades on his website, which is his way of alerting subscribers. He says most trades show up in the first 15 minutes of the stock market opening each day. He points out that if you want real-time alerts, you can enable them using a third-party service.
What we love most about Mindful Trader, aside from the fact that there’s so much intelligence that’s gone into his trade decisions, is that this guy is just totally transparent and honest.
There are some periods where his trades don’t do well, but he doesn’t hide that. He puts his trade performance out in the open for everyone to see. And he doesn’t make a secret of the fact that there are periods of strong profits and also periods with no profits or drawdowns.
With some other options trading alert services, they claim to make endless profits without ever losing. In our experience, that’s just not possible, and we’ve tried a lot of trade alert services. So when one of these services makes it clear up front that there are periods of losses, that’s appealing to us because it reflects the type of candor we want from an options alert service.
He’s a little more aggressive with his position sizing than what we would prefer, but he gives you a calculator so that you can calculate how to do half his position size, which is just about perfect for us.
Mindful Trader has just one single price for everything they offer: $47 per month. That keeps things simple. And you don’t have to worry about him hounding you with upsells after you sign up. It’s not his style.
Overall, Mindful Trader is right for someone who is looking to generate long-term wealth, is willing to commit about 15 minutes per weekday to managing trades, and wants to be educated by someone who takes a very academic approach to trading.
Mindful Trader is not right for you if you’re looking to day trade, if you want to be looking at the stock market all day, or if you want overnight riches. You’ll see below that there are other options trading alert services we’d recommend if those are your objectives.
Motley Fool Options
The Motley Fool Options service is a subscription-based service that provides investors with access to a team of options traders and analysts. The service offers recommendations for options trades, as well as educational resources and tools to help investors learn about options trading. This service claims to have over 750,000 loyal members.
The Motley Fool Options service costs $999 per year and boasts an 86% profitability rate. They say they have had years where they racked up returns over 100% on the options trades they alerted.
Their options trade alerts come in the form of emails. For some, that’s not appealing because email alerts aren’t always as convenient or timely as text alerts. But for others, email alerts for options trades are a good fit for their communication preferences.
Motley Fool’s service also offers an extensive options education. They work hard to make their tutorials easy for people to digest.
Motley Fool is probably the most famous and well-known service on our list. They have an excellent reputation, which helps explain their service’s price tag.
The options trade alert service from Motley might be right for you if you want to pay for quality and ensure the trade alerts are based on world-class research.
Swing Trading Club
The Swing Trading Club is a service that uses a discord server as a trading chat room. As you can imagine, this service doesn’t focus on day trades. It stays in one lane, and that is the lane of swing trading.
The alerts for options trade opportunities come from within the discord chat and are provided by the community members. They have channels within the group specializing in options swing trades.
There are a wide variety of options trading alerts that you’ll see in their group chat. Some are for deep-in-the-money options and others are for affordable out-of-the-money options with homerun potential but lower odds of success.
In addition to the trade alerts, they also offer a trading course that teaches a lot of swing trading chart patterns and indicators. Those can be helpful for swing trading options. Those patterns and indicators provide the basis for the trade alerts you see in their discord chat room.
The Swing Trading Club is the most affordable of all the services on our list. It’s only $19 per month. There’s not a lot to lose by checking it out.
Trade alerts from this service are only sent during market hours, just like most other options alert services, so if you are not available to monitor your trades throughout the day, you may miss some potential profits.
This service might be the right fit for you if you are looking for an affordable way to get your foot in the door with options trading alerts. It’s also good for you if you like the idea of joining a community that’s eager to collaborate.
Benzinga Options
Benzinga Options is a premium options service that provides real-time options trade alerts, educational content, and research. The service is designed for options traders of all levels of experience, from beginner to expert.
The most basic service level for options trade alerts from Benzinga costs $297 per year. This service follows a renowned trader, Nic Chahine, and allows you to model your strategy after his. You will get both SMS text and email notifications of options trades, including an explanation and analysis.
Benzinga Pro is $1,997 annually and is a news and data software that gives you access to news before major price changes occur. If you are unsure if this option is the best for you, Benzinga pro offers a free two-week trial to let you give it a test run.
Benzinga Options offers an options trading school for $4,997 annually. If you sign up for this course, you also get access to Benzinga Pro. Their options trading course provides you with live college-level classes led by well-established investors. Their live trading chatroom also hosts other successful investors for you to learn from.
Benzinga is also widely known in the industry. Their options trading alerts might be right for you if you want a name-brand alerts service.
Options Trading Club
Options Trading Club is a Discord-based platform focused on options trading. They market themselves as a skilled, selective group of traders who focus on educating each other.
The trade alerts from Options Trading Club come through their Discord chat room. They focus on a high ROI with their investing strategy, which is similar to many other options trading strategies considering the leverage that options provide.
Their standard membership rate is $99 a month and gives you full access to their Discord chat room.
The Options Trading Club might be a good fit for you if you like the idea of being part of a community. It’s also a good option to consider if you’re already familiar with Discord and are a member of other Discord servers.
Market Chameleon
Market Chameleon is an options specialist who has been around for a long time. They cater well many types of traders. Whether you’re a beginner just getting started in the world of options trading or a seasoned pro, they can offer value to you.
Their most popular package, the Premium, is $99 a month and offers a 7-day free trial. The Premium package gives you access to their live trading room and one-on-one coaching with a professional options trader.
In the live trading room, you’ll be able to watch and learn from other successful traders. That’s where you get real-time options trading alerts as well as guidance from their experts. With all the tools and services they offer, you’ll get the personalized approach you may be looking for.
The Trading Analyst
The Trading Analyst has a number of testimonials speaking to the benefit of its options trading alert service. Started by Tyler Corvin, a former teacher, this service focuses on educating its users about reducing losing trades and being profitable in any market condition.
The Trading Analyst uses a swing trading method with options that focuses on volume-based trades. They like tickers with abnormally heavy volume that are in consolidation patterns.
Their trade alerts save you enough time that, according to them, you can engage in options trading while still maintaining your full-time day job.
The Trading Analyst costs $148 per month. Regardless of the service level, Trading Analyst Options recommends a minimum of $25,000 account size. Membership gives you 2-3 trade alerts per week, all swing trades, and access to a real-time portfolio tracker and a member-only newsletter.
In Conclusion
You can take advantage of short-term price fluctuations in the stock market with options trading alert services, which offer timely notifications when trade opportunities become available.
Given the leverage that options provide, they offer a high levels of both risk and reward. You have a better chance of maximizing your profits from options trading if you find a service within your budget that provides reliable alerts. Our list here of the best options trading alert services aims to make it easy for you to do exactly that.
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