Trader Mentoring · Options
Advanced Options & Portfolio Management
Level IV · 16 live sessions · 90 minutes each
Manage complex options positions and portfolios through volatility analysis, hedging, stress testing, liquidity management, capital allocation and systematic risk control.
Fee
US$3,200
Payment for every course is 40% at enrolment, 30% after session 4, and 30% after session 8.
US$1,280 at enrolment · US$960 after session 4 · US$960 after session 8
Cancel before session 4: refund of 50% of the deposit.
Designed for
Advanced options traders who want to move beyond individual strategies and manage complex positions, portfolios and volatility exposures.
Prerequisites
Options Level III or demonstrated equivalent competency, plus a documented options journal, portfolio case or approved practical assessment.
Curriculum
16 live sessions
Each session includes a learning objective, practical work, and a competency demonstration. Session titles below are the full syllabus.
01From Trade Management to Portfolio Management
What you learn. Understand the difference between managing an individual options trade and managing an options portfolio. Translate portfolio objectives, capital constraints, liquidity requirements, risk tolerance and time horizon into structural requirements.
Practical work. Write an options portfolio mandate defining objective, capital, maximum loss, target exposure, liquidity requirements, hedging requirements and risk limits.
Competency. Produce a portfolio mandate and explain how it determines the structures that may—or may not—be used.
02Advanced Strategy Selection
What you learn. Select structures based on expected direction, magnitude, timing, volatility, skew, probability, convexity, liquidity and portfolio interaction.
Practical work. Compare multiple structures designed to express the same market thesis.
Competency. Defend one structure against at least two alternatives and explain the trade-offs.
03Advanced Asymmetric Structures
What you learn. Understand advanced structures such as broken-wing butterflies, ratio structures and asymmetric butterflies as tools for shaping risk rather than as strategies to memorize.
Practical work. Construct several asymmetric structures and analyze their payoff, Greeks and risk regions.
Competency. Explain precisely where the structure makes money, loses money and becomes particularly sensitive to price movement or volatility.
04Complex Multi-Leg Structures
What you learn. Study structures such as Christmas trees, Jade Lizards, Twisted Sisters, Big Lizards, Guts and Reverse Guts. The emphasis is on understanding the economic exposure created by the structure rather than memorizing names.
Practical work. Decompose complex structures into their component legs and compare them with simpler alternatives.
Competency. Take an unfamiliar multi-leg structure and reconstruct its payoff, Greeks, risks and intended market thesis.
05Synthetic Positions & Financing Structures
What you learn. Understand synthetic stock, synthetic calls and puts, box spreads, conversions and reversals, and their relationship to financing and put-call parity.
Practical work. Compare theoretical and executable synthetic positions.
Competency. Determine whether an apparent arbitrage or financing opportunity survives bid/ask spreads, commissions, margin, settlement, funding and execution constraints.
06Carry, Dividends & Calendar Arbitrage
What you learn. Understand the interaction between interest rates, dividends, borrow costs, futures basis, option pricing and expiration.
Practical work. Analyze a theoretical carry or calendar-arbitrage opportunity.
Competency. Identify the assumptions required for the trade to work and quantify the risks that could eliminate the apparent edge.
07Volatility Trading & Volatility Risk Premium
What you learn. Move from using volatility as an input to trading volatility itself. Study implied versus realized volatility, volatility risk premium, volatility carry and the conditions under which selling volatility can become dangerous.
Practical work. Construct and analyze a volatility-trading hypothesis.
Competency. Explain the source of the expected edge, the risks being taken and the conditions that would invalidate the thesis.
08Dispersion, Correlation & Relative Volatility
What you learn. Understand the relationship between index volatility, constituent volatility and correlation. Explore dispersion trades and the difference between being long/short volatility and being exposed to correlation.
Practical work. Construct a simplified dispersion hypothesis and identify its major risk factors.
Competency. Explain where the P&L comes from and what happens if the assumed correlation relationship breaks down.
09Event Volatility & Volatility Surface Positioning
What you learn. Go beyond basic earnings trades. Study event volatility, term structure, skew, volatility crush, pre-event positioning and post-event repricing.
Practical work. Compare alternative structures around a major event.
Competency. Construct an event-volatility position and defend the structure against alternative approaches.
10Dealer Positioning, GEX & Market Microstructure
What you learn. Understand dealer positioning concepts, gamma exposure, open-interest concentration, pinning hypotheses and potential liquidity effects. Critically evaluate the limitations of inferring dealer behavior from public positioning data.
Practical work. Analyze a real option chain and build a positioning hypothesis.
Competency. Clearly separate observable positioning data, reasonable inference and unsupported narrative.
11Dynamic Hedging & Portfolio Overlays
What you learn. Design hedges around an existing portfolio rather than simply buying puts. Study delta hedging, put spreads, collars, put spreads with futures, dynamic hedging, hedge budgets, hedge timing and hedge decay.
Practical work. Design protection for an equity portfolio under a defined budget.
Competency. Explain what the hedge protects against, what it does not protect against, its cost and how it should be managed.
12Tail Risk & Convexity
What you learn. Understand tail risk, convexity, gap risk and correlation breakdown. Learn why portfolio risk can change dramatically during stress even when individual positions appear controlled.
Practical work. Stress-test an options portfolio through multiple crisis scenarios.
Competency. Identify the portfolio's hidden tail exposures and propose appropriate mitigation.
13Portfolio Greeks & Risk Aggregation
What you learn. Aggregate exposures across multiple underlyings, expirations and strategies. Study delta, gamma, vega, theta, skew exposure, correlation, concentration and expiration clustering.
Practical work. Build a portfolio-level risk dashboard.
Competency. Identify the dominant risk factor in the portfolio and explain how it changes under different market scenarios.
14Capital, Margin, Liquidity & Concentration
What you learn. Understand that a theoretically attractive options portfolio can still fail because of capital and liquidity constraints. Study initial and maintenance margin, buying power, liquidity, bid/ask impact, concentration, gap risk, assignment, forced deleveraging and capital allocation.
Practical work. Build an exposure and capital-utilization map.
Competency. Determine whether the portfolio can survive its own adverse scenario without being forced to liquidate at the worst possible time.
15Research, Validation & Monitoring
What you learn. Develop a professional framework for evaluating options strategies. Study hypothesis formation, data quality, historical testing, look-ahead bias, survivorship bias, selection bias, overfitting, transaction costs, slippage, regime dependence and ongoing monitoring.
Practical work. Take an options strategy and create a complete research and monitoring protocol.
Competency. Present evidence for the strategy and identify where the apparent edge could be false or disappear.
16Capstone: Options Portfolio Defence
What you learn. Integrate market thesis → volatility thesis → structure → portfolio exposure → capital → hedge → execution → monitoring → failure conditions.
Practical work. Construct and manage a complex options portfolio or portfolio overlay with multiple positions, producing investment thesis, volatility thesis, strategy selection, position sizing, payoff analysis, Greeks, volatility and correlation exposure, liquidity assessment, margin requirements, hedge plan, stress scenarios, adjustment rules, exit conditions and failure conditions.
Competency. Defend the portfolio as though presenting it to an investment committee—answering what you are trying to capture, where the edge is, what risks you are paid to take, what happens if you are wrong, if volatility changes, if correlations break down, how much capital you can lose, and what causes you to adjust or exit.
Ready to enrol?
Submit an application for Advanced Options & Portfolio Management. Placement and payment instructions follow after review.
Educational content only. Not investment advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss, including loss exceeding amounts invested. Trade at your own risk. Full educational disclaimer.