Who won the ASX Options Trading Game?

The ASX Options Trading Game is now over for 2019, and we’ve seen an impressive effort from the players. The results have significantly improved since the last game and we saw more consistent trading and more strategy involved, in no small part due to a greater level of engagement in our educational materials. You did the homework and it paid off – The top five players all made more than 200% return compared to the roughly 100%-180% return rate of previous winners*.

The final leaderboard stood as:

1. Nick (aka FatCat), with a 293% return
2. Brendon with a 285% return
3. Philip with a 228% return

Here’s a breakdown of the top three players and which trades helped them win big:

Nick from New South Wales (aka FatCat) won the game with $148,306, a return of 293%. He traded ten positions, one of the most profitable of which was CYB Long Call. The long call is one of the basic, quintessential strategies if you’re expecting the market to go up with unlimited reward and a maximum loss limited to the premium you paid. It’s basically a reverse insurance policy, which pays off if the market goes up.

Nick bought 5500 CYB long calls on the 11th of October. CYB took a giant leap and Nick sold the calls again on the 16th of October. He made $153,615 on this one trade.

The CYB long call was a highly leveraged trade and it was worth around $25,000 of value at the time, so it was perfectly timed by Nick. This is a great example of how you can take advantage of short-term movements in the market.

Brendon came in second with a final portfolio of $142,659 and a return of 285%. Employing a similar approach to Nick, he traded long calls and puts and was just $6,000 from taking first place.

Philip from Victoria came in third. Philip traded 34 different legs which resulted in a final portfolio of $113,926 – a return of 228%. Instead of simply placing calls and puts, he engaged in more complicated strategies. Some of Philip’s strategies came from the trading scans in the strategy builder. These are built on quant-tested research and are a great way to gain inspiration for a trade.

Congratulations to Reach Markets and TradeFloor staff as well. If they had been eligible to win, TradeFloor and Reach Markets staff would have been well represented on the leaderboard as well. Tim and Blake from Reach Markets would have come in first and third respectively, while Belinda would have come in fifth.

We sincerely want to thank everyone for participating in the game and we look forward to having the next round of the game next year!

If you would like to practice your Options Trading skills take a seven-day trial to the Implied Volatility Platform, the same technology used for the Options Game. This free** trial gives you access to free education on how to use the platform and become a better trader as well as Australia’s most powerful Options Trading technology that allows you to trade the live market directly through the screen. Start your trial by clicking here.

 

*Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

**No credit card is required to start the trial & there is no obligation to continue using the platform after your trial. You will have the option of continuing with a paid service should you wish.

Trading options is not suitable for everyone. There is a risk that you can lose more than the value of a trade or its underlying assets. You should only trade if you are confident that you fully understand what you are doing. If you are thinking about acquiring a financial product, you should consult our Financial Services Guide (FSG) at www.reachmarkets.com.au and the relevant Product Disclosure Statement first.