Big Money Options Live Review

 

Big Money Options regular service review    Big Money Options Live history

In September of 2009, the Big Money Options guys, Nick Atkeson and Andrew Houghton offered a premium service that was billed as Big Money Options Pro.

There was a charter membership offered at the time, but I did not see any sort of enticement of a discounted rate or money back guarantee that made me sign up.  The charter membership was for the first 500 members. I was surprised that after the cut off period expired there was no last ditch effort to get more subscribers that you might find with the Schaeffer's Research marketing team.

The Pro version was supposed to have one good idea a day, sometimes two, and a daily market preview. It wasn't until December of 2010, that I was intrigued to actually try the service.  They had a buy one month, get one month free at a rate of $199.00 per month.

On December 1, 2010 Big Money Options Pro was renamed Big Money Options Live. At the middle of December 2010 there were 125 subscribers to the newly named Big Money Options Live. I reviewed the trade alerts given with the service from June 2010 until the lanuch in December 2010 and noticed that there were about three option trade alerts issued a week.

Live was touted as a service that expected to have a quicker turnover on ideas and instead of having an expected 30-40 day holding period on options, the ideas found on the Live side were projected to have a 7-10 day holding period.  You receive a daily market preview with the service.

They only issue trade alerts on Tuesdays and Thursdays during their Live webinar session. The live session takes place at 12:30 eastern and runs about a half hour. Both Nick Atkeson and Andrew Houghton are on the call.

Usually the call starts with a market overview and then they will go to the thesis on their first option trade idea.  They present charts and other data points to show you what they like about the trade. I like that you are with the rest of the subscribers and hear the trade at the same time. Each session will have two or three trade ideas.

What I didn't like was that some subscribers seemed adept at figuring out the month and strike price Nick and Andrew would suggest and sometimes get a better price than the rest.  Nick or Andrew would talk about the name and highlight the activity that first captured their attention.  Their policy though was to go out another month or two and sometimes try a different strike price. Once they gave out the name, subscribers probably looked at the option chain and then guessed from their or filled out multiple tickets so they could hit exectute once Nick Atkeson or Andrew Houghton gave out the trade alert.  I suggested on a call that they should give the trade alert first and then let everyone here the thesis while they are entering the order so that everyone had a fair shot and no one could game it by guessing or filling out the ticket and getting a jump on the rest of the subscribers.  They have done this a few times, but most of the time they will go through the thesis first.

The policy of Big Money Options Live is they do not participate in the trade alert until after the option alert is sent by email.  The email is sent about 15 mintues after the Live webinar is over. They must figure that not all subscribers are able to make the webinar each time.

Looking at the Time & Sales data showed that there is at least one "player" in the service.  This player will act on the idea very quickly and sometimes commit $7,000-$12,000 on a trade alert. There have been times where the suggested limit price has been extended higher because of the sudden increase in volatility.

You have a sign in ID for the call and you are allowed to ask questions about past trade ideas or about stock options in the news. A moderator screens the questions and then the question, if approved, is posted on the blog for everyone to see.

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