28 Options Trading Resources That Every Trader Needs

Options Trading Resources

This is the resource page of TradeOptionsWithMe. On this page, you will find a list of all the handy (options) trading resources that I use (on a daily basis). I recommend all of these trading resources and have personally tested them. I truly believe that these resources can dramatically improve your trading performance.

Note that some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that if you buy a product through that link, I earn a small commission (no additional costs for you). But this does not mean that I am only recommending these products because I earn a commission. I have hand picked every single one of the following trading resources and honestly find them helpful. I have experience with all of the following products and can, therefore, recommend them with confidence.


Video Walkthrough

Instead of reading this article, you can also just watch the following video. The contents are more or less the same. The advantage of watching the video is that you can see how some of these resources work and look.


A Broker

To be able to trade, you will have to open a brokerage account. So if you haven’t signed up to a broker and want to get into trading, you can’t get around choosing a broker. When picking a broker, it is important to look at certain metrics like regulation, commission structure, products, features, tool, order executions, customer support and more. This can be an overwhelming procedure.

I have compared dozens of different brokers and can with absolute conviction say that I have found a personal favorite broker:

tastyworks
Tastyworks

I use Tastyworks for all my trading and I love the platform. They offer an amazing broker platform, awesome customer support, very low commissions and much more. In my opinion, Tastyworks is the best broker platform for options (and stock) traders.

Sign up cost: Free

Minimum deposit: $0

Read My Full Tastyworks Review!



Trading Education

You need a broker to trade, however, you need trading education to trade profitably. In my opinion, the secret to trading success is education! Without the proper preparation, trading isn’t much different from gambling. So don’t make the huge mistake and skip the most important part. Here are some free and paid options trading resources to help you become a consistently profitable trader:

Courses

Let’s start with some online trading courses:

TradeOptionsWithMe

Yes, that’s right, TradeOptionsWithMe offers 100% free trading education. Currently, we offer different courses for options trading. Furthermore, we add new educational lessons very regularly. Even though this site focuses on options trading, you can find plenty of lessons that are very relevant for every kind of trader under the ‘Posts’ section.

Cost: Free

Learn More About Our Free Education!


skyviewtrading
SkyViewTrading

SkyViewTrading is more than an options trading course. They offer real-time trade alerts, a trading chatroom, options trading courses, live trade videos, trade review videos and more. If you want someone to take your hand and guide you through options trading step by step, SkyViewTrading is a good choice.

Cost: $99 – $199 / Month

Read My Full SkyViewTrading Review


optionalpha
Option Alpha

Option Alpha is another great site dedicated to teaching options trading. They provide tons of great free resources alongside awesome premium content. For instance, Option Alpha has a paid options trading backtesting software. Furthermore, Option Alpha has some similar features as SkyViewTrading. However, most of the options trading courses on Option Alpha are available for free which is awesome.

Cost: $0 – $299 / Month

Read My Option Alpha Review!


Tim Sykes

Tim Sykes has turned $12 415 into over $4 500 000 by trading penny stocks. He has multiple students that also have managed to turn a few thousand Dollars into Millions. He offers access to chat rooms, thousands of video lessons, DVDs, trade alerts, watchlists and more.

Cost: $75 – $150 / Month

Read My Full Tim Sykes Review



Books

trading in the zone

Besides online trading courses, books are another great way to educate yourself around different trading concepts. Compared to online courses, books are very cheap. Nevertheless, books can give you very good insights into how to make money trading. Even though I am not a huge bookworm, I have learned a lot and enjoyed some trading books. Here are a few of my all-time favorite trading books that I would consider ‘must-reads’:

Trading In The Zone

This book was written by Mark Douglas and it is all about trading psychology. Psychology plays a huge role in trading. The mindset can easily separate winning from losing traders. In the book, ‘Trading In The Zone’, you will learn how to develop a winning mindset and thereby become a consistently profitable trader.

Check Out My Article On The 6 Best Trading Psychology Books!


Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator

‘Reminiscences Of A Stock Operator’ by Edwin Lefevre is the best selling biography of the legendary trader Jesse Livermore. Jesse Livermore lived from 1877 until 1940. During this time, Jesse Livermore made and lost millions of Dollars. The book teaches important psychological and technical trading lessons. Furthermore, it is a great piece of inspiration for traders as it tells the story of one of the most successful traders in history.

Click Here To Check Pricing On Amazon! 


Options as a Strategic Investment
options as a strategic investment

Lawrence G. McMillan is the author of this awesome options trading book. With 1000+ pages, ‘Options as a Strategic Investment’ really is a options trading bible. The book covers a huge variety of topics ranging from options basics to in-depth analysis of advanced options strategies and much more. Everything an options trader needs to know is thoroughly explained in this book. Nevertheless, I recommend having a fundamental understanding of basic call and put options before reading this book. This will dramatically improve the reading and learning experience. At the time of writing this article, the newest version of Lawrence G. McMillan’s book is the Fifth Edition.C

Check Pricing On Amazon!


trading glossary
A Trading Glossary/Dictionary

Complicated trading jargon can be intimidating especially for newcomers to the world of trading. Therefore, something like a trading glossary can be very useful. If you are interested in a free trading glossary, you should check out my free (options) trading terminology handbook. This is a great tool to use alongside my or other people’s trading education.

Cost: Free

Gain Free Instant Access To My Trading Glossary


Market Wizards: Interviews With Top Traders

This is another great book for (options) traders. The book written by Jack D. Schwager contains interviews with some of the top traders of all time. During the interviews, these top traders share their stories and trading philosophies. Generally, this book shows what it takes to become a massively successful trader both in regards to psychology, lifestyle, trading principles/rules, and other important aspects. Therefore, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to become a trader.C

Click Here to Check Pricing On Amazon!


Other Trading Books

Apart from these three books, there are countless other amazing trading books. I highly recommend reading some books to grow your knowledge on trading!

Browse More Trading Books!



How To Learn Options Strategies

There are countless different options strategies in existence – some more useful than others. Luckily, an options trader does not have to know hundreds of different options strategies. However, a good options trader should be familiar with at least the most popular and fundamental option strategies like vertical spreads, iron condors, strangles, straddles… Finding a good place to learn what these different strategies are, how they work, how they are set up, how they behave for changes in underlying factors and more is important. Here are some free options trading resources that could help you with exactly this:

The Strategy Lab

TradeOptionsWithMe has developed a research tool specifically designed to help traders improve their understanding of options strategies, options pricing and the options markets in general. The Strategy Lab allows you to build your own options strategies and analyze how their payoff behavior changes for changes in certain market conditions. Besides that, The Strategy Lab has many more useful features to help you become a better and more profitable trader.

Check Out The Strategy Lab!


TradeOptionsWithMe Strategy Section

We offer a totally free strategy section in which you can learn about a wide variety of different option trading strategies. We offer in-depth written and video lessons on the setup process and functionality of these different strategies. So if you want to learn how specific strategies work, make sure to check it out.

Cost: Free

Check Out The Strategy Section


Strategy Selection Handbook

I recently published another free options trading handbook. I created this freebie to help options traders with their strategy selection process. Selecting the correct options strategy can be an overwhelming process because you have to take a wide variety of different factors into account. In this handbook, I compare 28 different options strategies in 9 different factors so that you can easily filter out unfitting strategies within seconds. This handbook is a great tool to learn more about options strategies and to find the best strategies for your preferences.

Cost: Free

Check Out This Free Strategy Selection Handbook


Tastyworks Analysis Tab

Another great tool to learn how certain strategies work and how they behave for changes in market factors is the tastyworks analysis feature. In it, you can analyze, customize, optimize and visually build option strategies. For instance, you can visually analyze the impact of changes in time, underlying price and implied volatility. Furthermore, you can even analyze how the Greeks are impacted by changes in all these factors. Summed up, this is a great tool to familiarize yourself with how options and options strategies work.

Cost: Free

Learn More About Tastyworks


A Financial Network

tastytrade
Tastytrade

Tastytrade is a financial network that truly is changing the game. They provide tons of free educational content on options (and futures) trading. The creators of Tastytrade have decades of experience in the business of trading. They provide loads of pure data, backtests, market insights and much more. I highly recommend checking them out as they provide so much value to the industry of options and they do everything for free. On a usual weekday, they stream out eight hours of new, live and very valuable content. All of their content is saved, categorized and can be found on their website.

Cost: Free

Check Out Tastytrade!



Trading Software

Although I don’t use a huge amount of different software, I use some and I am sure that you can find value in the software that I am going to recommend.

Charting Software

No matter what your trading system is based on, you need some kind of charting software. Even if you don’t use any technical analysis in your trading at all, you will want to take a look at price charts to get an idea of the price movement of an asset. Most broker platforms offer a sufficient charting feature. However, there are some better charting solutions than standard broker platforms.

 
tradingview
Tradingview

Tradingview is (one of) the best charting platforms that I know. There are loads of different features and tools that you can use and you don’t have to download anything. Besides the tons of charting features, you can gain access to a backtesting tool, a scripting tool, economic data, integrated trading and a lot more. Furthermore, Tradingview is used as a social trading platform by some which means that you can check out other people’s analysis of certain assets. I personally only really use the charting features which are great. However, Tradingview can be used for much more as well. Most of Tradingview’s features can be used for free.

Cost: $0 – $40 / Month

Click Here To Check Out Tradingview For Free!


Stock Scanner

There are millions of different assets that you could trade on every single day. However, the vast majority of these assets are irrelevant for your trading system. To filter out these irrelevant assets, you can use a stock scanner. Stock scanners scan through millions of assets and filter out those that don’t fit the custom preset criteria.

Finviz

Finviz is a good stock scanning tool. You can customize and filter by technical, fundamental and other criteria. If you want to perform very broad or very specific scans, Finviz is a great tool to do so. Most features of the stock scanner can be used on the free version of Finviz. Just note that the data is delayed by 3-5 minutes on the free version. But in my opinion that is good enough. If you sign up (for the free version), you can even save your custom criteria for future scans. Besides the scanner feature, Finviz also has other tools like a backtester, news and more. However, I have never used those tools before.

Cost: $0 – $25 / Month

Test Out Finviz!


Tastyworks Watchlist

The tastyworks watchlist tab is not a stock scanner per se. Nevertheless, it is an excellent tool to find potential assets to trade (options on). There are multiple default watchlists inside of the broker platform tastyworks. These can all be ordered by a multitude of different categories. This can be very helpful when finding underlying assets to trade options on. I personally use this feature all the time. For instance, if I want to sell options, I can just head over to the watchlist ‘High Options Volume’ and then filter this watchlist by IV Rank to find the assets that are most suitable for my strategy.

Cost: Free

Read My Tastyworks Review



More

I still have many more options trading resources that can dramatically improve your trading. Besides trading software and education, there are still many useful things that successful traders use and need.

Trading Journal

Keeping a trading journal is one of the most important things to improve your trading performance. If you aren’t tracking your trading results and thereby aren’t analyzing your trades, you will never learn from your mistakes. So please do yourself the favor and track your trades and find out what you can do better on future trades. Here are some very useful resources that can help you with this:

Excel

In my opinion, the best way to track your trading performance is using Excel. But it is important that you create a good Excel spreadsheet that tracks the right aspects of your trading. I personally track all my trades with Excel. If you want to save yourself a lot of time, you could use my Excel trading journal template instead of having to create your own.

Download My Excel Trading Journal Template!


Evernote
evernote

Evernote is a great free software designed for note-taking. A great thing about Evernote is that it syncs all your notes across all devices. So if you write something on your computer, Evernote automatically saves your progress to your phone and all other devices where you have Evernote installed. I personally use Evernote for note-taking and some trade analysis. But you can really use Evernote for whatever you want to. In my opinion, the free version is more than enough.

Cost: $0 – $67 / Year

Get Evernote!


profit.ly
Profit.ly

Profit.ly is a more advanced tool to track your trading progress and compare it to that of others. Profit.ly was created by Tim Sykes and he uses the same platform. So if you want something more advanced to track your trading and thereby improve it, you could check out Profit.ly.

Cost: $30 – $75 / Month

Check Out Profit.ly!


google spreadsheets
Google Spreadsheets

Google spreadsheets, Excel or Numbers are all excellent programs to keep track of trades. You can easily track your results, take notes, compare trades and analyze them inside of programs like Google spreadsheets. A great thing about Google spreadsheets is that it is totally free of charge. I personally also use it for watchlists.

Cost: Free

Sign Up To Google Spreadsheets!


Pen and Paper

Some people still prefer the good old pen and paper. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you are that kind of person then just continue doing it your way. I prefer using digital programs as I find this the easiest way to keep track and find previous data. However, if you have a good system and are organized, you can totally use pen and paper for your trade analysis/trading journal.

Cost: Free


News

Keeping track of current and upcoming relevant news events can also be important for traders. Generally, it is not a bad idea to have some market awareness and know what is going on. Nevertheless, you should not try to read and find out about every single news event in existence. If you do this, you won’t have time for anything else. Only few news events are of any importance. Therefore, I don’t necessarily recommend watching hours of news on TV to stay up to date. There is a lot of unnecessary information on most (financial) news channels. Here are some handy trading resources that can help you stay updated efficiently.

Economic Calendar

An economic calendar is a great tool to give you an overview of ongoing and upcoming market events. This is a great way to know what is going on without having to spend a lot of time. Here are two different economic calendars:

FxStreet

FxStreet is a free online economic calendar. It displays all the important information like date, time, country, headline, importance, estimates and more. You can also customize some of the criteria and filter by date. Generally, it is a good tool to filter out irrelevant events and it allows you to easily find the most important upcoming events. One thing that I don’t like about FxStreet though is their extensive use of ads.

Cost: Free

Check Out FxStreet!


dailyfx
DailyFX

DailyFX has more or less the same features as FxStreet however with fewer ads. Generally, I find DailyFX to be a cleaner interface.

Cost: Free

Check Out DailyFX!


Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Finance is another good tool that can give you a good idea of what is going on. However, I only use Yahoo Finance to look up news and other information on specific assets. For example, if you want to know if there is any new news on a certain stock, you can do so by entering the ticker symbol in the search bar. Besides news, you can also find loads of other statistics and more about the asset.

Cost: Free

Visit Yahoo Finance!


MarketWatch

MarketWatch is very similar to Yahoo Finance. It has similar news articles and it too can be used to look up information on specific assets.

Cost: Free

Learn More About MarketWatch!


Twitter
twitter

Even though Twitter might seem like an inappropriate site for trading, it actually can be quite helpful. If you set up a Twitter profile and follow the right accounts, you can use Twitter to create your own personalized newsfeed. However, it is very important that you don’t follow spammy, irrelevant or generally too many accounts as you otherwise won’t pay attention to ‘important’ updates.

Cost: Free

Sign Up To Twitter!


Hopefully, you can find value in the provided options trading resources. If you have any questions regarding any one of the recommended tools, please let me know in the comment section below!

28 Replies to “28 Options Trading Resources That Every Trader Needs”

  1. This is an AWESOME and comprehensive list of trading resources here. Thanks for sharing!

    Your reference to Tim Sykes caught my eye. I’ve never actually bought any of his courses or content, but I’ve read through tons of his free content, and he has some pretty fantastic strategies.

    I’ve only done a very small amount of trading before, but when I did, I used the Robinhood app, and applied a few of his ideas. I made 65% on my investment in 3 weeks. I’ve only ever messed with penny stocks that I can buy cheap ever since.

    Do you have much experience with penny stocks that you can share? The few penny stock trades I’ve made have been ultimately successful, gaining 65% and 25% respectively. But I now have a few pot stocks that I’m holding, that are highly speculative and I’m not really sure whether i’ve made good picks.

    Thanks!

    1. Hey Jordan,

      Thanks for your comment! Tim Sykes provides some great content and there is an awful lot to learn in his lessons. I personally only have limited knowledge on penny stocks. Most of what I’ve learned about penny stock strategies is from Tim. Therefore, I sadly, probably can’t give you too much advice other than to check out more of Tim’s lessons.

      However, I recently published an article on penny stocks. Hopefully, you can learn a few things from my Penny Stocks article.

  2. Hi Louis,

    I’ve read a few of your posts now and really enjoy your content. I’ve found tradeoptionswithme to be a dependable resource in my trading journey.

    I’m glad you’ve included Trading in the Zone as a resource here. I’ve also read Way of the Turtle which was quite valuable also.

    Have you ever read The Trading Game by Ryan Jones? I found it a great go-to for risk, money management and trade sizing. Still have trouble here and there though.

    Would you know of any other handy resources on money management?

    Cheers,

    Rohan

    1. Happy to hear that you enjoy my content. 

      I have heard of ‘Way of the Turtle’ before. But I haven’t read or heard of ‘The Trading Game’. Both books sound good though and are definitely on my list of future books. 

      Sadly, I currently don’t know of any other great money management resources. 

  3. Hi and thanks for the helpful guide on brokers and useful resources for new traders. I am sure many people will find you work very informative and if followed correctly they could improve their chances at being successful. I hope you will continue to educate new wannabe traders by sharing more interesting articles. Thanks Kenny

  4. This is the all in one list and guide that I am looking for. Before this it takes me hours searching the web all corners. Today this blog post made my day. I need some books to increase my knowledge and tools to make my work easier. The stock scanner is really helpful. Never had one before.

  5. Wow, what a great compilation of resources! Thank you for putting these all together for people like me who don’t know where to look for help. 

    I have thought a little about trying to get into trading but I always thought it would be too difficult to figure out or too hard to do successfully. But your post gives me new hope. I have bookmarked your page and will definitely be checking out your free training option. After that I will see if I want to move on to any other paid training or other things like that.

    1. That sounds like a great plan! Without the right education and training, trading may seem very difficult. That’s why it is so important to find some helpful education.

  6. I can’t believe how many great resources you have available on your website!  I have always been a low key trader, but lately I have been wanting to step into the day trader ring.  What course do you suggest for a guy like me, who really knows nothing, but wants to hit the ground running?  Now that our kids are gone, my wife and I have been thinking about trying a higher risk bracket, but we really don’t know where to start.  Thank you for the knowledge.    Clay

    1. Hi Clay,

      Day trading is definitely not easy. Therefore, you really need to study and put in work before you start with any significant amount of money. Please don’t start off by risking more than you can afford to lose! 

      You could check out my Timothy Sykes review. He teaches day trading and has a very extensive training library. In addition to that, he actually has a few millionaire students (who turned a few thousand Dollars into millions). 

  7. Hey Louis;

    I’ve been into learning affiliate marketing for awhile, and I keep hearing about not putting all of your eggs in one basket. So, I’ve been researching other sectors for diversification. Options trading would certainly be another way to have multiple income streams.

    You have put together an awesome list of resources here. You really caught my attention when you talked about it not being a gamble if you have the right knowledge. I have to admit that I always thought of trading as just gambling, and some people got lucky. I didn’t realize there were so many resources to help a person get started and learn properly. And, I understand now that a broker is a must have.

    Def bookmarking this to my research file! Thanks! 🙂

    1. Thanks for the awesome comment Stella. Many people think that the markets are a huge casino and that is actually true to a certain extent. Sadly, a lot of people blindly risk their money in the markets. Doing this is very similar to going to a casino. But if you educate yourself and actually put in the time and effort, you can become the casino.

  8. I am not very knowledgable with the whole topic of trading, so this was all very new for me. Because I am so new to the topic, I really appreciated the video addition on your page! It really helped me understand what these product options were about. 

    I see there are a couple options for gaining knowledge and training on trading. Which option would you recommend for someone like me who is interested in learning more? Is the trading education through your site the best place to start to see if it interests me and makes me want to learn more? 

    I love how there are so many options to choose from, and you did a great job of laying it all out. 

    1. Thanks for the comment. I wouldn’t necessarily say that my website is the best site to start out. But it is definitely a good free option. So if you don’t want to spend money on a course right away, TradeOptionsWithMe is a good way to get started for free. If you enjoy what you find and stay interested and dedicated, you could move on to a premium course later down the road.

      If you rather want to start out with a paid options right away, you could, for instance, check out Skyview Trading.

  9. As someone who is new to trading it’s great to get so many useful tool recommendations, it does seem like everything you need to get started is right here, I haven’t tried out trading in the past as I always figured alot of risk came with it but I might have to give it a trial using some of the tools you mentioned.

    My concern is the cost needed and for many products mentioned they require investment, for someone who is brand new which tools would you consider absolute essentials? 

    1. Great question! Honestly, for someone who is just starting out, I would recommend focusing mainly on the free resources. There is no point in investing in some fancy software or similar product if you aren’t even familiar with trading basics. 

      After you took advantage of a lot of free education, a good investment would be to purchase some form of trading course. 

      In addition to that, books are very valuable (and relatively cheap) resources as well.

  10. I’m becoming a big fan of your site the more I read your articles! You’re really dedicated in giving some solid advice and helping people out.

    So I think the first thing people serious about trading need to do is read every article on your site, as like you said, it is free. After that they’re gonna be in a much better position to choose, if necessary, on of the paid platforms.

    Once again, top notch post! 

    1. I agree. Before spending money on any paid services, it is a very good idea to take advantage of free stuff first.

  11. I am very much surprised that you do not mention the TOS platform from TDAmeritrade as a resource.
    I have been with them for many years and find their content to be excellent and with their improved stock and option pricing making them a fine choice for even the newbie investor.

    1. Hi,
      Thanks for your comment. I agree that TOS is a good platform. However, all around I prefer tastyworks as a broker. TOS was originally developed by the same people currently developing and working at tastyworks.

  12. Louis,
    Thanks very much for the time taken to collect all the information.
    TD Ameritrade who owns TOS has excellent webinars and they are all free for all TOS users.
    Thanks again for your dedication.

  13. Hi Louis,

    What Options trading Broker/Platform you recommend to use in Canada? Unfortunately TastyWork is not available here in Canada?

    1. Hi Mohammad,
      I don’t know if these are available in Canada, but Interactive Brokers and TradeStation are two good brokers (even though the IKBR platform isn’t nearly as beginner friendly as tastyworks’ platform).
      I hope this helps.

  14. Hi Louis,
    Thanks for the information today and for all the information so far.
    I make sure I study everything and I think I’m doing well, I’m satisfied.
    Your student Slobodan.
    Best Regards!

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