Creating Slaves

Unchanged (no gradation)

% Change from the current value (default; gradation created by dividing 100% by the number of slaves selected)

Difference from the current value (difference in days for time).

These choices are available through menus displayed when you select a displayed gradation type in the table.

Once you make a gradation type selection, the Slave Strategies menu automatically produces default gradation levels. However, you are not bound by the default gradations. If you want to change a gradation for any slave, position the mouse pointer on top of the gradation you want to change and click the left mouse key. This displays the gradation value in an edit box. To change the value, type an alternate value and press b.

For example, to create slave strategies that show time decay on a percent change basis and volatility increase as expiration approaches on an absolute difference basis, you would set the table up as follows:

This table creates strategy OEX1 that has a time to expiration that is 16.67 percent less than the actual time to expiration. Furthermore, OEX1’s volatility is increased by one point (if OEX’s current volatility is 10, OEX1’s is 11). The rest of the slave strategies are adjusted similarly.

Creating slave strategies has two effects. First, it renders more lines on your options chart. Second, it creates slave strategy menus for each slave strategy. Let’s look at these two effects more closely.

As a result of creating six slave strategies, you option chart would display six strategies:

The master strategy is colored green. Slave strategies are colored using unique colors. Use the cursor window and the option chart labels at the top of the window to identify the color of each strategy.

Additionally, the content of the Strategy menu changes as follows:

Each slave strategy is assigned a unique name. The unique name employs the name of the master strategy followed by a unique number (1, 2, 3, 4, and so on). If you create slave strategies from a strategy named “oex,” the resulting slaves will be named oex1, oex2, etc. Choosing a slave strategy displays a Strategy menu for the slave strategy. For example, selecting a slave strategy named bonds1 displays the following menu: This menu is created when the slave strategy is created and will remain until you delete the slave strategy. The functions on this menu are specific to the slave strategy:

Selection	Function
Slave Strategies	Displays the Slave Strategies menu.
Master Strategy	Displays the Strategy menu for the master strategy.
Show	This toggle indicates the current display state of the strategy. If the menu displays Show, the strategy is currently being displayed in the option chart window. Toggling Show hides the strategy, and the menu item changes to Hide. Likewise, toggling Hide displays the strategy and changes the menu item to Show.
Option Chart Menu	Displays the Option Chart menu.
DELETE	Deletes the slave strategy.
Cancel	Returns you to the active option chart window.