Interview  |  BON 2009

Adjusting Option Trades With Bill Ladd by John Sarkett

Adjusting Option Trades With Bill Ladd by John Sarkett Bill Ladd, a full-time, independent option trader, spent 20-some years in the pharmaceutical industry (Burroughs Wellcome, which became Glaxo Smith/Kline) as a certified internal auditor and a certified fraud examiner. Ladd was one of the early students of 22-year Cboe veteran turned teacher Dan Sheridan, regarded as one of the foremost option mentors. When he’s not trading, Greensboro, NC–based Ladd volunteers for the Service Core of Retired Executives (Score) organization and also at a local retirement community. He agreed to answer some questions on August 22, 2008. The interview was conducted by Stocks & Commodities contributor John Sarkett. Bill, when and how did you begin trading? I was interested in options for several years before I began trading. After I left the pharmaceutical industry and began my own consulting business, I started to trade covered calls on stocks I currently owned, but only had limited success. How did you come in contact with Dan Sheridan and his option mentoring service? I met Sheridan through OptionVue. I was using OptionVue software and their representative told me about his mentoring program. So I was introduced to his style of monthly income strategy trading that way. Some of Sheridan’s students seem to specialize in condors. Is that what you do? No, but I do trade high- and low-probability iron condors, calendars, and broken-wing butterflies. Each strategy has its own entry and exit rules. Managing trades once they are on is the heart and soul of option trading, and that only comes with experience.

by John A. Sarkett