Home Page
The Market and Volatility
This chart shows how investor sentiment (CBOE Volatility Index) changes with market movement (S&P 500 Index). The CBOE Volatility Index is a broad indicator of market risk perceived by investors. The higher the index, the greater the perceived risks of the market. A lower index signifies investors are confident the market's current price is accurate and will not move a great deal.
Generally, as the market moves upward, investors are less worried about the risks of the market and the volatility index will decrease. Likewise, when the market moves lower, investors become uncertain and fear more unpredicted turmoil, thus the index moves higher.
Furthermore, the volatility index can act as a leading indicator, just as the market indices can. Sometimes an individual stock will move for no reason other than the broad market movement on that day. Options are very similar - an option price can change because of changes in investor sentiment, as indicated by the CBOE Volatility Index.
Please note: the CBOE Volatility Index is a "broad indicator" and all investors must use their own independent investigation as the basis for any business judgments and decisions.
Daily Screen
Each trading day a proprietary screen is run on the O'Neil Database® and the results are presented on the Option Guide home page. These screens include optionable stocks that meet specific criteria for each screen that is run. The entire results page and further details are available by clicking the "More..." link from the Daily Screen section on the Home page.
The Markets
A table highlighting the general markets, including the NASDAQ Composite, S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, NYSE Composite, Amex Composite and NASDAQ 100 Index, is featured on the home page.
Economic Calendar
A list of current and upcoming announcements for a variety of Economic Indicators. Includes the period the announcement covers as well as the consensus estimate for each indicator if available.
^ back to top
Watch List
The Watch List provides a convenient way to store option or stock symbols that you wish to follow and can provide a jumping off point to further detailed research. Clicking the Watch List menu button will open the Watch List window into which you may add option or stock symbols. Once added, the symbol and price change will be displayed in the compressed window and the price change, volume information and SmartSelect® Ratings will be displayed in the expanded view.
Tips
- Store up to 30 option or stock symbols
- Click the
next to any symbol on the site to add it to your Watch List
- Click the
to display a chart of the item (or the option's underlying stock).
- Click on the symbol (like IBM or IBMJM) to see option quotes.
- Click on any Column Header to sort your Watch List.
The Watch List has three modes, Compact, Expanded and Edit:
Compact Mode
The default view. This shows symbol, price and change on the day. This version helps you quickly navigate your stocks and options with the chart and quote links.
- Click the Edit button to add, change or remove stock or option symbols
- Click Expand to show more data about each item in Expanded Mode
- Click Refresh to update price data
Expanded Mode
Display more information about your Watch List items. Get to this version by clicking Expand from the compact Watch List window.
- Shows pricing and fundamental data for stocks
- Shows Last (if traded), Bid and Ask prices and Volume for options in right-most columns
- Type column is included for separating stocks and options together when you have both stock and option symbols in your Watch List (sort by clicking Type).
- Click Refresh to update price data
- Return to Compact mode by clicking Compact.
Edit Mode
In this mode (click Edit from normal Watch List view), you can add, change or remove stock or option symbols from your Watch List
- Enter a stock or option symbol in the upper left text box, then click Add to add to your Watch List.
- Check any item and then click Delete to remove it from your Watch List.
- Checking or unchecking the checkbox at the top will Select All or deselect all items.
- Change any symbol in its text box and click Update to make changes to any item.
- Click Reset to undo any changes.
- Click View to leave this edit window and return to viewing your Watch List.
- Click Show / Hide help so show or hide this text.
^ back to top
Expiration Calendar
The Expiration Calendar provides Expiration dates and Holidays for the current calendar year and coming years.
^ back to top
Options Calculator
The Options Calculator can estimate where an option should be trading given its unique characteristics. Just input the stock price, the option strike price, the stocks volatility (most commonly its standard deviation over a years time), the risk free interest rate, and the time remaining until expiration. The result will be an estimated price of your option given the assumptions inputted. This can be useful in deciding how much to pay for your option. It can also be helpful in approximating your potential return. Time is a critical element of options trading. You can use our options calculator to clarify what effect time will have on your strategy.
^ back to top
Reports
The Reports section includes Option Codes, Stock Lists, Historical Stock Price Volatility data, Option Implied Volatility data, Relative Strength data, and Candidates for Covered Call Writes.
^ back to top
Education
The Education section includes information on the following topics:
^ back to top
Option Quotes
Option quotes may be viewed by typing a stock symbol or option symbol into the Option Quote field on the left side of the page, or by clicking on any underlined symbol (like IBM) anywhere in the Option Guide site.
Option Quote Selector
Seen on the left side of every page in the Option Guide site, use this to show exactly which options you want to see. Select from these parameters to filter which options for a stock are displayed:
- Stock or Option: Enter a stock symbol to see many options on that stock. Enter a specific option symbol to see just one option.
- Months: Select how many months of options you would like to see. The default, three, means options up until three months from now will be displayed. For example, if today is September 4 - and therefore before expiration in September - options will be shown for September, October and November. Select "All" to see all months.
- Strike: Choose the number of strike or exercise prices to display. This number is a percentage above and below the current stock price. For example, if XYZ is trading at $10, and 25% is chosen, all of the strikes between $7.50 and $12.50 will be displayed. Select "All" to show all strikes.
- Calls/Puts: Display both call and put options (select "Both"), call options alone ("Calls") or put options alone ("Puts"). Note that more data about each option is displayed when showing just calls or puts.
- Exchange: Select which option exchange the quote data will come from:
- Comp composite quotes showing most recent trade from any exchange, total volume and open interest across all exchanges and the best bid and offer. Composite option symbols have no exchange code at the end - they are only five letters long.
- AMEX American Stock Exchange - denoted with an "A" at the end of the option symbol.
- CBOE Chicago Board Options Exchange - "C"
- ISE International Securities Exchange - "I"
- PSE Pacific Stock Exchange - "P"
- PHLX Philadelphia Stock Exchange - "X"
- All show options from every exchange
After entering your symbol and choosing any additional options, click "Go" to display option quotes. You can also click the "Symbol Lookup" link to find a stock or option if you do not know the symbol.
Quotes & Charts page
The Quotes & Charts page displays detailed stock and option data as well as provides links to Charts. The default page includes the following.
- The stock symbol and name of the company and a 20 minute delayed quote of Price, Price Change, Price % Change, Volume and Volume % Change.
- The Option Exchange(s) where the stock's options trade.
- Option details for both Calls and Puts which includes the Option Symbol, Last Price, Bid, Ask, Volume, Open Interest and Strike Price.
Chart Icon. Clicking this icon will open a Graph of the underlying security that contains the price and volume and indicates the high and low trading range, and the closing price for the day. Also included on this chart is a relative strength line (compared to the S&P 500 Index), 50-day and 200-day moving average price lines, articles appearing in major publications, stock dividend changes, stock splits and insider buying/selling. Other information presented includes a company description, company Web address, quarterly earnings per share and sales figures for the latest eight quarters, and annual earnings per share results. A track price tool is also included that can display the high/low/close price information, trading volume, and date may be obtained from any day which appears on the graph. To activate this tool, simply use your cursor to point on a date and then press the right-hand mouse key. A small window will appear in the upper left area of the program displaying the aforementioned data.
Price and volume information is updated intra-day. All of our fundamental and technical data is updated daily at approximately 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Please refer to our update schedule for details.
A new Graph window will open and display the following options:
- Daily—Displays a daily chart of the fund.
- Go To Options—Opens the Quotes & Charts page for the specific stock currently displayed.
- Print—Sends the Graph to the printer.
- Tools
- Name Search - The Name Search tool is capable of locating any equity that is a part of the O'Neil Database®.
The Name Search tool searches the database in one of two ways. The default method is to locate all equities that begin with the letters entered in the Search field. For example, entering the letters "advan" will display a list of companies that begin with words such as "Advanced" and "Advantage".
An optional method is to search the database for company names that contain a combination of letters. This is particularly useful when the registered name of a company is not known. For example, entering the letters "ext" will display a list of companies that contain words such as "Extended", "Next", and "Text". To perform this type of search, place a check mark in the box next to "Company Name Contains…" before pressing the Search button.
When conducting a name search, this tool will display in alphabetical order, the company names of up to 25 stocks at a time. When more than 25 stocks are located in a search, the forward key's ("»") gray font will change to black. Pressing the forward key will display the next group of up to 25 stocks. The backward key ("«") will return the previous list of stocks.
When the desired company name is located in the result field, its graph can be viewed in on of two ways: double-click the company name; or highlight the name and click the "Graph" button.
This tool may be moved outside of the browser window area to allow the entire chart and its data to be seen. Should the Name Search window be covered by another window, it may be brought to the front by clicking the "Company Name Search" button on the Windows taskbar.
To close the Name Search tool, click the "Close" button, the "x" button, or press the "Escape" key (keyboard).
NOTE: Company names that begin with abbreviations or letters are found by typing in the first letter of the name and then a space (example: A T T). The O'Neil stock symbols, especially in the case with foreign or regional exchange stocks, may differ from symbols in other databases.
- Line Pen - To make it easier to view chart patterns, areas of support or resistance and other technical information, we offer the ability to draw red lines on any chart. To create a line, activate the Line Pen tool from the menu, move the mouse cursor to the desired point on the chart and while holding the left mouse button down, move the cursor across the chart. Release the mouse button to complete this task.
- To remove a drawn line, simply refresh the chart by pressing the Enter key (keyboard) or any of the graph buttons. To disable this feature, select the Line Pen tool again.
- NOTE: Lines created with the Line Pen will not appear when printing from the program. See Tips & Tricks for information on how to print a drawn line.
- Data Boxes - Selecting this option will remove the Data Boxes presented in the top left-hand corner of a Daily chart. This feature is helpful when a stock's price line intersects with area, as its removal will provide an unobstructed view of the chart.
- Events - The default setting for Daily charts is to display Corporate Events, Publication Events and Insider Transactions. Activating this feature will remove these items to present a chart focused on price bars and moving average lines.
- Price-Volume Only - Selecting this feature will display the best technical view of a Daily chart. With this tool activated, the chart area is enlarged by the removal of the Quarterly Earnings/Sales Block (at the bottom), the company description (at the top), and the Data Boxes (to the left).
- Volume in Logarithmic/Arithmetic Scale - The default volume scale used for Daily charts is Logarithmic. To view the volume scale as Arithmetic, select this feature from the menu.
Clicking this icon will open your Watch List and add the specific stock or option to your Watch List.
^ back to top
The William O'Neil + Co. 197 Industry Groups