| May 16, 2013 |
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A new filter for MACD has been added to the PowerOptions Search tool for all strategies! This new filter (located in the Technicals tab) will allow you to search for stocks where the MACD is above or below the Signal Line and by how many days. You will also be able to screen for stocks where the MACD and Signal Line are above or below the Zero line. This filter will allow you to better screen for stocks with positive or negative momentum. |
| April 26, 2013 |
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The new streamlined Search tool is live! The Search tool upgrade will allow you to more quickly find, view and change criteria in the parameter field for any strategy. You will also be able to view your active filters that are being used in a given search and quickly link to those filters to make adjustments. |
| April 3, 2013 |
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Ideally we want to enter a bullish position just as the stock is about to move up. It's not possible to know in advance when the move will occur, but we can get an early indicator once the move has started. Using the PowerOptions screener an investor can scan the entire market very quickly to find a first-time stock price crossing of a moving average - such a crossing occurrence could signal a buying opportunity.
We have added a filter that allows investors to filter stocks by the number of days the stock price is over or under the SMA 20, SMA 50 and the number of days the SMA 20 is over or under the SMA 50. These filters are available in all strategy searches, historical searches and viewable columns in the results. |
| March 20, 2013 |
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Added a measure of the number of up or down days for each issue. This is a short term measure of strength or weakness in each issue. This feature is available as a screening parameter, column choice to display, and for historical searches. |
| March 15, 2013 |
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The position analysis page as part of "My Portfolio" has been updated with a "What if Calculations" link. This link will allow trial calculations on a position based on a price and date projection to evaluate the price performance of the position. |
| February 4, 2013 |
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In response to 'Continuous Weekly Options', we've made adjustments to the expiration selection menus in the Search and Option Chain tools. We have modified the Search tools to allow screening for 'All Weeklies', which includes all weekly options from 1 to 6 weeks out. The standard expiration cycles are separated so you can quickly screen for just the standard expiration cycles (including quarterlies).
In the Option Chain you can select the view of a specific weekly series or all expiration cycles. |
| January 31, 2013 |
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As a result of the 'Continuous Weeklies', the option descriptions have been updated across the site to include expiration day of the month. So each option description will clearly describe the contract, i.e. $SPX 2013 02-FEB 1,500 CALL |
| December 14, 2012 |
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Last November we made available spread calculations based on the mid-point between the bid and ask prices. Those calculations have now been carried over to the Position Analysis pages to show the Liquidation Prices of credit spread positions based on the use of mid-point prices. The use of mid-point values can generally increase returns considerably. |
| September 7, 2012 |
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Backend Power Financial Group Inc. system upgrade. All four of our web sites now have a unified logon with email address and consitent password. New online store sites for easy and consitent product purchases and subscription signup. More security added for sensitive information. |
| March 21, 2012 |
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Upgraded the Position Analysis for Long Puts in the Profit/Loss Portfolio:
* Convert Long Put to Calendar Put
* Roll Put to Lower Strike to lock in profits
* Liquidate Half or All of Profitable Put position |
| November 28, 2011 |
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We have made some major enhancements to the spreads capability on the PowerOptions site. We call the new feature a "Mid-Point Spread Chain". All of the spreads created are based on using the mid-point between the bid and the asked prices. We have found that using the mid-point for limit orders will generally bring in larger credits and increase our returns. Just to summarize the features:
* Mid-points used for the return calculations
* The chain can be screened for:
- Spread width i.e. 1, 2, 5, 10 points
- Minimum credit or max. net debit
- % in or out of the money range
- Minimum % Return
- An expiration month can be selected
In addition, this tool allows you to view the Parity trades of the vertical spreads using the mid-point calculations.
A Profit and Loss Chart and further details can be accessed by clicking the [+] icon next to any spread.
This tool can be accessed by:
* Type in a stock symbol at the top of the page and click 'Spread Chain'
* Link to the Spread Chain from the More Info. buttons on the Search and Search by Symbol tool on vertical spreads and Iron Condor strategies.
There is a brief help video available as well. When you open the Spread Chain tool, simply click the '?' icon next to the tool title. |
| May 19, 2011 |
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For the P/L Position Portfolio Tool: We have merged the events and notes tools into one tool. So, any positions you have notes for will now be shown with the 'events' that our system naturally saves each time a trade adjustment is made.
Summary features of this change:- The time stamp/stock price prefix is populated for your use on each new note entry.
- A 6 month stock chart is shown on the notes/events page to help your analysis and feed your note thoughts.
- Add custom event entries for your positions as before but you no longer have to click a link to make the entry box appear.
- Edit existing custom notes entries anytime.
- Add notes to any automatic event entries that are created from position modifications anytime.
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| February 3, 2011 |
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Strategy Search Summary updated with expiration date dropdown so that it dynamically updates itself for stock symbol changes in the text box provided.
The dropdown will list only the expiration dates available for that particular stock. It will show a "(weekly)" next to a weekly expiration and a "(quarter #)" where # is a 1, 2, 3, or 4 for quarterly expiration. |
| January 24, 2011 |
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Added the capability to set an alert to trigger when earnings are within X days from the current date. This is an early warning that earnings are about to be announced. Also added an alert for "Days to Ex-Div." |
| November 9, 2010 |
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The tab navigation has been modified to change sub-tab menu items in real-time as your mouse pointer hovers over each main tab. This eliminates the need for clicking the main tab to see the sub-tab then clicking again on the sub-tab item. Once your mouse leaves the tab navigation area, the menus will restore back to the original selected main tab and sub-tab for your current page. |
| September 14, 2010 |
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The Power Financial Group, Inc. is proud to announce the issuance of our 3rd US patent, entitled, System and Method for Analyzing and Searching Financial Instrument Data. |
| August 31, 2010 |
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Added %Call and %Put OTM for Covered Combinations as column choices
Added a brief stock detail report for non-optional stocks
Clear these settings button now also clears the SMA boxes of screen parameters |
| June 11, 2010 |
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MY Home page was modified to show recent market data using pods. Pods are available for new highs, new lows, earnings announced, stock splits, most up, most down and more can be added based on request. Click on the "?" next to the "Add a new Pod" to learn more about it. Give us some feedback. |
| March 1, 2010 |
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Our new "Iron Condor" book just arrived. It is selling like hot cakes and no wonder, Iron Condors describes the strategy we have been using over the last year that has yielded 6% per month. Our Optium, Iron Condor service is up over 70% in the last year. Click HERE or PowerStore tab to get your copy of the book. |
| January 27, 2010 |
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The whole industry is updating and changing for the Options Symbology Initiative (OSI). We have gotten some questions regarding what will be shown on PowerOptions and how our subscribers will be able to interact with their brokers. As a result, we have sent out an email to explain the changes and also posted a blog article. As more information becomes available, we will continue to post comments here and to the blog article. |
| November 22, 2009 |
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The charts on Position Analysis, Profit/Loss, Options Research and Allocation have been updated with new features:- 3 line capability shows present and expiration values.
- Show/Hide each line by clicking the legend.
- Data pop-up to see the numerical data when mouse is over any data point.
- Right mouse click chart to print or expand to full page.
We also added a previous and next link next to portfolio selection in the Profit/Loss portfolio. Investors that have several portfolios can now easily click through multiple portfolios.
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| November 13, 2009 |
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The Portfolio Tools have been updated to include a "Portfolio Alerts Summary" page. This allows you to view all of the alerts you have set, and have triggered, for any position in any portfolio all at once.
This page will be especially useful for investment advisors, financial planners, and large scale retail investors who follow many positions and/or many different portfolios since it allows a quick snapshot of all positions whose alerts have been triggered without having to load each portfolio separately.
To use the new tool: From the 'MY PORTFOLIO' Tab, just click the 'ALERT SUMMARY' sub-tab. |
| November 3, 2009 |
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The Search tools have been expanded to include "# Days Short Interest". This parameter is often used by investors to anticipate a short squeeze. Also both "# Days Short Interest" and "% Short Interest" have been added as possible column display values.
For more information: Blog Article on the "Short Squeeze" |
| October 22, 2009 |
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The following changes have been made to the PowerOptions Portfolio tools:- Cash on Hand is now displayed on the QuickAdd list. A cash on hand of $100,000 is shown by default for new portfolios.
- Portfolio Name and Cash on Hand are now displayed on the new position entry form.
- Two new sets of alerts have been added for option positions:
- Time Value ($)
- Time Value (%)
- Lower and Upper limits are available for each alert.
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| August 10, 2009 |
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The Position Analysis tool and Position Simulator tool have been updated for Collars and Long Stocks. Long stocks that have a profit of more than 20% could be insured with put protection or hedged by writing a call against the position or both. The before and after scenario can be graphically viewed with the position simulator. |
| July 10, 2009 |
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Our webinar archive has been upgraded to include webinars in multiple file formats in case your computer has trouble loading or showing them. Recorded webinars that teach some option trading strategies, option search tools, option trade management are now available in the following formats: Flash, Silverlight, WMV, YouTube. |
| June 17, 2009 |
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The following enhancements have been made to the PowerOptions search tools...
Collar search tools upgraded to find collars where expiration dates for both options are equal or separated, i.e. some investors like collars where put and call expire at the same time, others like collars where the put expires further out in time from the call, and still others like puts to expire before the call.
Upgraded Position Portfolio now allows you to enter a dividend event for a position you are tracking, as a result, the EFFECTIVE COST PER SHARE column is then updated to reflect the dividend.
Position Analysis Tools have been upgraded for the LONG CALLS strategy to now show some roll-out opportunities/ideas. |
| May 25, 2009 |
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Updates have been made to the PowerOptions tools...
Short Collars strategy added to the site so subscribers can search for, track, and get help managing short collar trades.
Enhanced the Married Put and Collar Position Analysis Tools to show roll-out opportunities. |
| April 6, 2009 |
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Upgraded Position Analysis & Management: With one-click ease, the PowerOptions Portfolio tools show you POSITION ANALYSIS on all of your positions. Most of these analyses show ROLL OUT OPPORTUNITIES - that is, trades you might consider if your position has made or lost a significant amount of money. NOW, most of the ROLL OUT OPPORTUNITIES have been upgraded to show you a SIMULATE TRADE comparison. That is - you can see your current trade on the same screen as the new trade that would be created if you did perform the roll-out idea - for easy comparison. |
| February 13, 2009 |
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PowerOptions in Conjunction with RadioActiveTrading is offering a one-day live seminar presentation on the Married Put strategy and the use of PowerOptions to implement this unique methodology.- Learn how to control and limit risk.
- Learn Optimal Position Sizing.
- Learn to Earn Income while your capital is protected.
- Learn to limit your total losses to less than 10%.
These are proven techniques that allow you to better control your investment success over the long term - even when the markets are down 30% to 40%. |
| October 16, 2008 |
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We have just purchased the rights to publish and distribute a new course for "Bulletproofing" your trades. More details are available in this free white paper called: The Sketch. We are planning a live webinars to show it off. Anyone trading covered calls owes it to their financial well-being to check this out. To be alerted of any new developments as we update this course, please join The Sketch mailing list. We have also updated our Simulated Trading Tool and the manual and instructional video to accompany the tool. |
| August 20, 2008 |
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Our advisory newsletter service, PowerOptionsApplied.com, has introduced the Chromium TradeFolio. This service provides recommendations using neutral credit spreads (Iron Condors) with a targeted goal of 4%/mo. return. Generally 9 out of 10 positions are profitable. |
| July 18, 2008 |
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Since the addition of the MARRIED PUT strategy tools, we have received plenty of feedback and suggestions for improvement. As a result, we have upgraded the MARRIED PUT POSITION ANALYSIS tool to show possible follow-up management trade ideas for your existing married put trades.
The nature of the trade is that it won't be profitable unless the stock rises significantly or you do some management trading to help pay for the cost of the put insurance you purchased.
Now, when you analyze your married put trades in the position analysis tool, and your stock has moved up or down by 5% or more, the tool will show you some trading ideas that may help generate income and make you more profitable faster. |
| June 9, 2008 |
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Got a stock that is profitable right now and you want to lock-in that profit to guarantee it will stay no matter where the stock goes? You can do exactly that by purchasing a long put option and making your long stock a married put strategy.
We have just added a new tool to the site that will illustrate each married put that might be created from your exact stock position - the tool will show you what puts you might purchase and what profit you can lock in and for how long.
In fact, you might even consider selling some call options to help finance the put purchase, and the tool will show you those details as well - helping you turn a long stock or married put position into a collar play.
Two ways to access the POSITION INSURANCE tool...
1. From the MORE INFO button next to a long stock position in the portfolio.
2. From the MARRIED PUT or COLLARS strategy tabs. |
| May 15, 2008 |
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You can now view the price and return data in a chain view for Fixed Return Options (FROs). To access this chain simply click the Other Strategies Tab and add Fixed Return Options to your available strategies. If you are unfamiliar with FROs, there are numerous resources available in the Fixed Return Options Learning Center located on the FRO Home Page. |
| May 7, 2008 |
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A new strategy has been added to the PowerOptions tools, Extended Collars. This new strategy will allow you to screen for Collars where:- The put can have the same expiration month as the call or be further out in time.
- The put can be OTM for standard collars or ITM to allow for greater protection, but less return.
- The put can be below the call strike price or above.
These new strategy tools allow much more flexibility to find positions with a very low risk, but still include the standard Collar positions as well. The "Extended Collar" feature will eventually replace the "Collar" strategy presently used. If you use the collar strategy, we suggest you replace it with the Extended Collar version by using the Other Strategies tab. |
| April 25, 2008 |
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A date filter has been added to allow screening for earnings out several weeks independent of expiration date. This will allow a search for recent earnings events when using straddles, strangles, or buying puts or calls. |
| March 20, 2008 |
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The PROFIT/LOSS CHART links on the SmartSearchXL and OneStrike tools has been updated to use the custom spread builder/analyzer tool. This link is more informative than the previous link which only showed a chart. This tool will show the chart and allow you to make position adjustments and see how the position could turn out over time with price changes. |
| March 19, 2008 |
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Search filters have been added to the SmartSearchXL for Bid/Ask Spread on the following strategies:- Covered Call/Put
- Naked Call/Put
- Long Call/Put
- Married Call/Put
The bid/ask spread data is available for filtering, sorting, and viewable in the result set. |
| March 18, 2008 |
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The Custom Spread Tool has been updated to include a new theoretical profit/loss line in the P/L graph. This line is an estimate of P/L at the half way mark between today and option expiration. If you recalculate the position, then the half-life line adjusts to the new analysis date. This feature is particularly important for option strategies like straddles, strangles and married puts where you expect to exit the position before expiration. Also, we have added the % Maximum Risk for applicable strategies. |
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The following search filters have been added to the SmartSearchXL for Iron Condors and Iron Butterflies:- % Prob Above Short Put
- % Prob Below Short Call
These columns are available for filtering, sorting, and viewable in the result set. |
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The SmartSearchXL tools have been updated to allow sorting by Industry & Sector. |
| March 13, 2008 |
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The site has been updated with two more option strategies: Married Puts and Married Calls. These new strategies have been added to the SmartSearchXL, OneStrike, SmartHistoryXL tools for searching and back-testing. You can search for them by some value-added calculations like maximum risk and percent maximum risk. For more information, each strategy has a strategy help page like our other 20 strategies. |
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Due to popular demand the stop-loss columns have been added back into the regular Position Portfolio view. |
| February 27, 2008 |
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The Position/PaperTrading Portfolio has been upgraded with some new features.- The Portfolio now handles custom spread positions with up to four legs, including ratio spread positions. Further increased flexibility allows closing any number of trades in a multi-leg position. The custom spread tool allows one-click convenience for adding any spread position into the portfolio.
- An improved alert system allows alerts to be set for stock price, option prices, value change, percent change, Bollinger Band crossover, 52 week high/low crossover, and SMA crossover.
- An improved position events/notes feature allows you to track all of the changes and adjustments you encounter with each position, including the ability to add custom notes.
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| January 16, 2008 |
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The SmartHistoryXL tool has been updated to include the search by symbol allowing you to screen one stock symbol at a time. Stocks in your Watch List have also been added into the Recommended List field of the SmartHistoryXL tool. These features were previously added to the SmartSearchXL tool. |
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You can now screen for and view %Probability Above Call and %Probability below Put in the Collar Strategy. |
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We have updated the Sample Search section for all strategies. These are not recommendations of what to trade, but the criteria can be used as a stepping stone to help you create your own search that matches your risk-reward tolerance. |
| January 2, 2008 |
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New updates have been made to the SmartSearchXL Tools. You can now use the full filtering capability of the SmartSearchXL tool while searching for one stock or index at a time by simply entering a stock symbol in the SEARCH BY SYMBOL box on the tool itself. This works much like the current search by symbol tools, but affords the greater filtering capability of the SmartSearchXL tools.
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You can now use the stock symbol list that is in your PowerWatch WATCHLIST as a RECOMMENDED LIST to filter in the SmartSearchXL tool. Your WATCHLIST will appear in the RECOMMENDED LIST for each strategy. |
| December 24, 2007 |
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The Bollinger Band capability has been enhanced. Two new screening variables have been added % BB (20) and % Band Width (20). Our present capability could only find stocks outside the bands, with % BB (20) you can now screen for a stock price any place in or out of the band. Zero is defined as the bottom of the Band and 100 as the top. A number of greater than 105 would be all break outs 5% over the top band.
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% Band Width (20) gives a measure of the recent volatility. A narrow band is interpreted as low volatility, which will eventually expand. Large numbers can be used as an overbought indicator. Both default and sample search settings have been set up to get you started. |
| November 27, 2007 |
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We have just released a spread building tool for all of you who are looking for specialty spreads. This tool allows you to build and analyze: Ratio Spreads, Reversal Spreads, All Call and All Put Condor Spreads and Butterfly Spreads, etc. You can build any spread that can be built with up to 4 separate option trades in any proportion or long/short stock in combination with up to 3 options. Once built, the tool will present you with margin requirements, max risk, max gain, and graphical analysis of the potential risk/return for the trade. Further, since most investors don't have option symbols memorized, we have outfitted this tool with a new way to view the available options for any given stock and the capability to add them into the analysis with ease. You can find the new custom spread builder tool as a new TAB you can add using the OTHER STRATEGIES tab in the navigation - or as a secondary tab under each regular spread strategy tab. |
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We have just released our first recorded Webinar. This Webinar is an 11 minute session introducing PowerOptions tools from logon to performance of a SmartSearch. We plan to have other recorded Webinars available on the site under the Learning Center in the near future and also plan to host some live Webinars for those interested in getting more out of the PowerOptions suite of tools. You can access the Webinar from the Learning Center: Webinars link. |
| November 26, 2007 |
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Due to popular demand the SmartSearchXL Tools have been upgraded to include search criteria for Bollinger Band breakouts. This feature allows you to find stocks that are breaking out above upper bands at 20, 50, 100, and 250 days or breaking out below lower bands at 20, 50, 100, and 250 days - based on 2 standard deviations or stock price movement. Many popular investment strategies operate based on the belief that stocks will continue to operate outside the Bollinger Bands or belief that stock prices will return within the bands. |
| October 19, 2007 |
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The "Search by Symbol" tool is now available to SmartHistoryXL subscribers. You can now view historical positions one stock or index at a time for any day since April 2006 using the historical Search by Symbol tool. |
| October 16, 2007 |
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The Option Chain tool has been upgraded to allow historical data. The tool appears normal with current data by default - Now you can use the PREV, NEXT, and CURRENT links to see the option chain with data from previous days. Up to 8 previous trading days is available to everyone - a chain from any day in our historical data is available for SmartHistoryXL subscribers. |
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A subscription to SmartHistoryXL allows you to backtest and fine-tune any of your search criteria or our default search criteria interactively on any day since April 2006 and see how your search results would have performed from search to expiration day. |
| September 26, 2007 |
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You can now roll Covered Calls with one click in the Profit/Loss Portfolio. Simply select "Roll Out" from the "Position Options" menu to access the new feature. |
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You can now roll Covered Call opportunities from the Position Analysis Roll Out Opportunities into your Profit/Loss Portfolio. |
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% Unchanged Annual has been added to the Calendar Call and Put SmartSearchXL tools. |
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% EPSG has been added to the Credit and Debit Spread, Straddle, and Strangle SmartSearchXL tools. |
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The navigation menu has been updated to allow for up to eight strategy tabs to be viewable at one time. In the "Other Strategies" menu configuration, default menu configurations have been provided for Bullish, Bearish, and Neutral strategies. |
| August 7, 2007 |
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The Position Portfolio tool has been updated with a new user interface and now has the added capability of seeing some Position Analysis data. The Position Analysis data is still available for each position by clicking the More Info link next to a position, but now you can monitor the liquidation and expiration information for all positions in a portfolio at once.
Also added some market averages (Dow Ind., S&P 500, and NASDAQ) to the Profit/Loss page to allow comparison to your portfolio changes.
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| July 19, 2007 |
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The Position Analysis tool has been updated to show Roll Out opportunities for the Naked Put Strategy. If you are tracking a Naked Put trade in your portfolio click the More Information button, select Position Options then Position Analysis to view potential management techniques. |
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The Stock Research Tool has been expanded to include the % Current Option Volume and the Average Daily Option Volume. |
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The Power Tips have been expanded. There are now a variety of helpful hints available on the various tools and strategy home pages. |
| June 7, 2007 |
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A month selector was added to the Profit / Loss Portfolio. This will allow you to view just the options expiring in a given month to help manage rolling trades. |
