The CBOE Volatility Index - VIX (PDF / 1.71MB)
VIX provides a snapshot of expected stock market volatility over the next 30 calendar days and is calculated real-time from index option premiums.

Collar Trade (PDF)
A collar trade consists of selling one out-of the-money (OTM) call and buying one at-the-money (ATM) put for each 100 shares of stock owned. The expiration month is the first one available that is at least one year away. As a result, the position consists of a covered call (long stock and short OTM call) to collect income and a long put for protection.

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• Customer Portfolio Margin Overview
• Taxes & Investing Pamphlet (PDF)

Equity Options Trading 2008: Rising Out of Obscurity is a study conducted by the TABB Group to examine the explosive demand of equity options trading in the institutional community.  Recent changes in regulatory initiatives and the introduction of new technologies have created seemingly insatiable demand from every quadrant of the asset management community... (February 2008)

Click here to read more or to access the document.

Striking Price Daily: October 2, 2008
Don't Bet Against Rising Market Fear

OCTOBER 6, 2008
Playing With House Money

How some traders are hedging the bailout's effects.

Collaring the Cube: Protection Options for a NASDAQ 100 ETF Portfolio (PDF) 
A study by Szado and Kazemi of the University of Massachusetts evaluated nine years of data on the Powershares QQQ exchange traded fund and found that a protective collar strategy using a six month put purchase and consecutive one month call writes provided far superior returns compared with buying and holding the NASDAQ-100 Index® ETF with about one-third of the index volatility. Over the 108 month study period, this collar strategy returned more than 150% cumulatively, while the cube portfolio lost over 12%.

You can also view the six page summary (PDF) of the paper which also provides a collar tutorial on the back pages.