Real World  |  MAY 2007

Calendar Spreads With Dan Sheridan by John A. Sarkett

Stocks & Commodities V. 25:5 (18-26): Calendar Sprerads With Dan Sheridan by John A. Sarkett In the first part of a series based on a seminar on option strategies with Dan Sheridan, we take a look at calendar spreads. Options and seminars go together like yin and yang, baseball and hot dogs, Abbott and Costello. Can’t separate ‘em, wouldn’t want to. Ten or more years ago, some of the prominent seminars focused on straightforward strategies like put selling or vertical spreads. In a surging NASDAQ market, these one-day affairs served their purpose in helping retail stock traders become more knowledgeable and comfortable with options. Then after the 2000–01 stock market crash and with the equity markets in the doldrums came delta-neutral strategies, making money in options when stocks weren’t moving — timely and helpful. You might have seen infomercials for these “wealth creation” seminars. But not all the attendees were successful, nor even the gurus themselves. One notable “expert” expanded from giving seminars to managing an option trading fund. The fund lost 40% in six months before closing. There are and have been many, many other seminars and countless newsletters, and we’ve all been invited by direct mail to attend or subscribe. Or both. Some of us have, or at least been tempted.

by John A. Sarkett