Yesterday the MICEX launched the seminar “Options: Pricing and Trading Strategies”, in the course of which Sheldon Natenberg, a world-famous expert on the derivatives market, himself a professional trader and author, will give a series of lectures for Russian professional traders.
The seminar is being held from the 26th to the 28th September and will cover issues combining theoretical approaches with the reality of option trading. The seminar will include the introduction into the theoretical models of options pricing, interpretation of historical volatility data, the use of the theoretical option value and sensitivity ratios, position risk evaluation. Special emphasis will be placed on the practical aspects of options pricing, the analysis of volatility and the selection of strategies which are optimal in terms of the forecast of market behavior and risk-return trade-offs.
Opening the seminar, the MICEX President Alexander Potemkin said that in recent years the Russian derivatives market has demonstrated positive dynamics. At present, the MICEX organizes trading in currency and interest rate futures. In the first eight months of 2006 the volume of trading in derivative contracts on the MICEX amounted to over 21 billion US dollars, exceeding 10 times the turnover of the same period in 2005. “We can see great demand for new instruments on the part of market participants. These include stock derivatives and options on different underlying assets. The Russian derivatives market is maturing, it needs new instruments, new technologies and new strategies. We try to meet the current demand by organizing seminars involving leading experts on the derivatives market. We think this work is of great importance as it encourages trading in the OTC options market, which in future will form the basis of business activity in the MICEX derivatives market".
Introducing the derivatives market expert, the MICEX President reminded participants in the seminar that Sheldon Natenberg is the author of the book “Option Volatility and Pricing: Advanced Trading Strategies and Techniques”. It was first published in the early 1990s and remains one of the most widely read books among active option traders around the world.
In the framework of its educational program the MICEX intends to translate Sheldon Natenberg’s book, the “Bible” of option trading, into Russian. It has already signed an agreement with a publishing house on the publication of the Russian version of the book. The Russian version is expected to be released in the summer of 2007.
Sheldon Natenberg began his trading career in 1982 as an independent market maker in equity options at the Chicago Board Options Exchange. From 1985 to 2000 he traded commodity options, also as an independent floor trader, at the Chicago Board of Trade. While continuing to trade, Mr. Natenberg has also become active as an educator. In this capacity he has conducted seminars for option traders at major exchanges and professional trading firms in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. In 2000 Mr. Natenberg took over full-time management of education at Chicago Trading Company, a proprietary derivatives trading firm.
