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It depends on how much option trading you do with U.S.-traded options, i.e.,
on the CBOE, the Amex, Phila., Pacific and NY stock exchanges. If "little,"
then I suggest you buy "Option Master" or some other "manual" option
evaluation program, rather than Option Station. By "manual," I mean that you
have to input some prices of the underlying security or commodity or index
(typically, you need to input 10 weeks' worth of closing data, i.e., 10
entries). Then, typically, you can ask for either (a) the optimum price of
the option, given the volatility; or (b) the volatility, given the price
quoted by your broker or in the paper. It certainly isn't sophisticated.
Option Station - if you do "a great deal" of option trading (say, 10 trades
a day, or very high values) - is designed to pick up the quotes (you have to
input the option symbols, and your computer has to be able to store them)
from a data feed (you can use whatever you use on Super Charts). If the data
feed is end-of-day, then of course your option data is only as good as the
last option and stock trade. I used Option Station for a couple of months,
with a real-time data feed. The results were fine, but for my purposes they
were no better than Option Master - and the data requirements were enormous
(for example, looking at only the put options on Fastenal requires you to
enter the months, which could be July, Sept., Nov. and Feb., and the strikes,
which vary by month if the stock is moving). Most of us who trade options
know that the quote we get from the broker is what we are going to pay
(unless the underlying stock/commodity/index shifts a great deal), and we use
an option-evaluation program to ensure some reasonable profit if our price
targets are hit and to make sure we aren't getting screwed at a particular
point; we may put in a limit order (I do that a lot), and in many cases the
limit order is placed a quarter point (say) away from the market, just to
ensure that (a) the trade is executed but (b) we don't lose our shirts in a
"market" order in tough NYC pits such as Nymex or the coffee exchange. (My
experience is that the grain and bond option pits are pretty fair.)
Good luck.
Larry
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