Concerned about missing a trading alert? Want to have our alerts automatically entered into your brokerage account? When you activate our auto-trading services, brokerages automatically execute orders based on OptionSmart's recommendations.

The service INCLUDES:
1. Optionsmart sends email alerts to your broker.
2. Optionsmart allows your broker to link their auto-trading mechanism to your brokerage account.
3. Optionsmart provides you with monthly statements and analysis from our Control Accounts at e-Option.

The service DOES NOT INCLUDE:
1. Actual execution of our alerts (this is a service provided by your broker).
2. Any activities within your brokerage account (they are performed by you and your broker, we have no access to your account).
3. Any guarantees that the entry and exit prices on your account statement will be similar to the prices from our Control Accounts. (The execution of our alerts is done by your broker, we have no control over it. Even if your account is also with eOption, the actual execution prices may vary).

You should review the relevant terms and conditions, and make sure you fully understand all advantages and limitations offered by particular brokerages before subscribing to our service. Make sure that your broker can accept orders to buy, roll (see about rolls below), and sell option spreads.

Please note that brokers often execute same auto-trading signals differently. It is also quite possible that the same broker executes the same signal differently for two different subscribers. Therefore your performance will inadvertently vary from our official track record and the model portfolio that we may derive from this track record.

Unlike mutual or hedge funds, auto-trading doesn’t mean a full transfer of funds under control of a newsletter publisher. Some control parameters, like allocation, remain in investor’s hands. Investors configure auto-trading settings on broker’s site. Even more, newsletter providers have no information about auto-trading settings with a broker and any activity on brokerage accounts.

Broker Profile Apply now Auto-trading signup instructions OptionXPress Profile Apply now Open Investrade Profile Apply now Open TradeKing Profile Apply now Open eOption Profile Apply now Open Global AutoTrading Profile Apply now Open

Key reasons for possible deviation of an individual portfolio performance (vs. our track records):
1. Investor doesn’t follow timely allocation recommendations
2. Lack of cash on a brokerage account (the investor does not maintain the recommended cash reserve and has no assets available for a transaction)
3. Conflict between recommended picks and existing positions on an account that were opened earlier by an account holder or other newsletter providers (this can be the case if the investor is subscribed to other autotrading services)
4. Partial fills for some new positions (because brokers execute trades on best-effort basis): the broker could not execute the exact alert (limit order, not market order) for this particular account. This can have a snowball effect in case of multiple unexecuted orders and results in a growing discrepancy. This discrepancy is only known to the account holder as the investment advisor does not have access to the account.
5. Occasional option assignments for some options. Brokers inform investors (not newsletter publishers) about such assignments but some investors ignore this information. OptionSmart provides recommendations to the subscribers who ask how to deal with it, but it can only be done on request as the broker does not release such info directly to the publisher.

 ROLLING OPTION SPREADS

Citing from the Tradeking brokerage site:
“Rolling” is a common way options traders adjust options positions when their forecast on the underlying seems wrong in the short-term, and they just want to buy a little more time for the trade to play out.
Rolling can help buy you a little more time and hopefully dodge assignment in the meantime, but it also has risks. Yes, you may believe “time will tell” and a little extra time is all you need for your forecast to play out. But you have no idea what may happen in that timeframe, good or bad. If you choose to roll and your position continues to move against you, rolling can compound your losses. Be very careful about using rolling to “chase” a trade gone sour. Sometimes, you have to just let your trade go, cut your losses, and move on to the next trade.”

Here is an example from the optionsXpress site:
“As the stock moves higher, you might want to roll the put up by selling the contracts you own and buying another one at a higher strike price. This way, you can lock in profit from the move higher. Too many investors have learned the hard way that what goes up rapidly can drop with equal momentum. So, if the stock jumps from $50 to $122, the 45 puts won't provide much downside protection. That's why it would be advisable to lock in profits by rolling the puts up to the 115 or 120 strike.”