I've been doing the 14 day free trial of Optionetics Platinum (http://platinum.optionetics.com/). It's currently priced at $50/mo. ($500/yr.) for the stock or futures version (it's 50% more for the combined version) but it's scheduled to go up to $60/mo. ($695/yr.) in September. It's a web based, end of day options analysis service and it has what I consider to be four main functions:
1) There are charts for underlying price, put/call volume, put/call ratio, statistical volatility, ATM implied volatility, and volatility skew. There is also charting of statistical vs. implied volatility. You can get very similar information at ivolatility.com (for volatility data) and SchaeffersResearch.com (for put/call data) for free and if you're willing to pay (about $14.95/mo. at ivolatility.com and $9.95/mo. at SchaeffersResearch.com) then the data you get from these other sources is in many ways superior.
2) There is tabular data for option chains including bid, ask, implied volatility, delta, gamma, vega, theta, volume, and open interest. I pay an extra $20/mo. to get options data in my QCharts subscription that is much better but you can also get this information as part of that $14.95 at ivolatility.com or even get the basic data for free almost anywhere and work out the greeks using the free tools at Peter Hoadley's site (http://www.hoadley.net/options/options.htm).
3) There is a search function. I'm a bit skeptical about the value of option searches since I don't think that most searches are smart enough to really make things much easier for you. I do like getting a table that shows costs, breakeven, max. risk, and max. profit for comparison though. Optionetics Platinum powers the free search tool at the Yahoo Options Center (http://platinum.optionetics.com/yhmain.htm) which is a less robust version of the one included in the fee based service.
4) There is a trade analysis function. It includes risk graphs but what I like is the "what if?" feature which shows the effects of changes in the underlying, volatility, and time on both option prices and greeks. For the most part you can work this information out for yourself using the free tools at Peter Hoadley's site.
In summary, I think that the Optionetics Platinum service is reasonable but I think that by combining other services you can get the same functionality for either free or at least for significantly less. In fact, I think you actually get superior quality using the alternatives (like ivolatility.com and schaeffersresearch.com). Platinum does put things together in a convenient way and you might feel differently if you're more enthusiastic about the search function. At least with Optionetics there appears to be solid support and a community of users.
I've looked at Optionetics Platinum because it offers a free trial (and I found PowerOptionsPlus - which also offers a free trial - to be even less impressive) but I'd be interested in what anyone else thinks about this or other services/packages.
Mark |
