The Strategy Scan is designed to help investors, at all levels of sophistication, discover trading strategies that match their objectives.
Navigate to the Toolbox tab and select Strategy Scan.
Determined the security (symbol) in which you would like to scan and input the following criteria to design your strategy:
Trading Level: The Trading Level will determine the types of strategies that will be returned in your scan results. Keep in mind that your current trading level has been carefully determined based on your trading experience, income level, age and overall knowledge of options. If any of this information has changed, please update this information via your account profile.
Investment/Risk Amount: Enter the amount you are interested in investing.
Specific Strategy (Optional): Use this if you already know the specific strategy you want to use and are looking for the specifics of a trade.
Once you've entered the information above click Go. Each time you press the Go button, the Strategy Scan will look up the pricing in real-time and display the results.
Once you select a strategy in the Basic View, you can further explore that strategy in the Explore View. Explore View (for spreads) allows you to compare and analyze, side by side, different trades using the same strategy. You can compared up to 9 trades of the same strategy in an easy matrix view. The Initial Strike determines the first strike in the strategy, while the Interval sets the amount between strikes. Changing the first strike drop down updates the entire row, while changing the interval updates the entire column. Click on Detail to obtain more information about the particular trade. Click Basic View to return back to Basic View.
For a better understanding of the resulting strategies, review the Option Strategies Overview section.
StreetSmart Central™ makes no investment recommendations and does not provide financial, tax or legal advice. Content and tools are provided for educational and informational purposes only. Any stock, options, or futures symbols displayed are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to portray a recommendation to buy or sell a particular security. Products and services intended for U.S. customers and may not be available or offered in other jurisdictions.
Commissions, taxes, and transaction costs are not included in any of these strategy discussions, but can affect final outcome and should be considered. Please contact a tax advisor to discuss the tax implications of these strategies. Many of the strategies described herein require the use of a margin account. With long options, investors may lose 100% of funds invested. In-the-money long puts need to be closed out prior to expiration, since exercising them could create short stock positions.
Options carry a high level of risk and are not suitable for all investors. Certain requirements must be met to trade options through Schwab. Multiple leg options strategies will involve multiple commissions. Covered Calls provide downside protection only to the extent of the premium received and limit upside potential to the strike price plus premium received. Spread trading must be done in a margin account. Please read the options disclosure document titled "Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options."