The Saved Orders tool can be a very convenient way to be ready to go when the time is right – you can set up and save up to 50 trades for future use without actually submitting them. But there’s still the not insignificant matter of deciding when, in fact, the time is right.

That’s why we’ve added a new link on the Saved Orders page that will take you directly to our popular Trade Calculator, allowing you to break down the trade and better strategize your timing.

We’ve added two new links to the Positions page to help make it easier for futures options traders to more efficiently manage their positions:

- The Roll link takes your current futures options positions and auto-populates the closing and opening trades into a spread form.

- The More link gives you the opportunity to quickly and easily buy or sell more of a position, add a note to the position, or add the position to a watch list.

The closing weeks of 2009 are shaping up to be prime time for options birdwatchers, as optionsXpress dissects the Iron Condor strategy across several FREE webinar presentations:

This Week: November 12 – Condor and Calendar Strategies

Industry veteran Dan Sheridan takes a look at the ins and outs of strike price selection for condor trades.

Next Week: November 17 – Iron Condors – Strategy Discussion

This might be a good place to start for anyone considering the condor strategy for the first time.

Looking Ahead: December 17 – Choosing the “Right” Iron Condor

From volatility to strike prices to timing, assembling a good trade can be tougher than picking the perfect gift. Jim Bittman from the CBOE takes you through your condor shopping list.

Make your plans now to follow the birdie.

With those inscrutable dots and seemingly random patterns of capitalized letters, option symbols have long resembled more of an ancient code than a helpful shortcut for traders.

Perhaps that’s why the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) decided to make overhauling the industry’s symbol system its big resolution for 2010. By February, those awkward, cryptic old symbols that traders love to hate will be history, replaced by intuitive, descriptive shorthand that should be easier to remember, work with, and enter – something like this:

ABCD Corp. $50 strike call option, expires December 18, 2009

Old: .ABABO
New: ABCD (root) Dec09 (expiration) 50 (strike) Call (option type)

Over the next several months, optionsXpress will be rolling out updated symbol functionality alongside the crusty old legacy symbols across various options-related pages on our site. On the Most Actives page, for example, the new descriptive symbols will be joined by their soon-to-be replaced counterparts in parentheses:

When the switchover is complete, the result should be an easier, more logical, and more convenient trading experience. In the meantime, stay up to date on all of the latest changes as we get ready for Symbol Simplicity .

Portfolio margining can be a great way to realize more leverage based on the net risk profile of your entire portfolio. But exactly how much more can you do with how much less?

Our enhanced Portfolio Margin Calculator will help you run the numbers. Now you can add, change, and remove equity and option symbols to get the most accurate, up-to-date picture of your margining power.

The holiday season is upon us in earnest this week, which means overeating, overspending, and, often, over-the-top market behavior. It can be an intriguing time of year for traders, but is there really any discernable rhyme or reason to things like the Black Friday and Santa Claus rallies?

Start your Thanksgiving Week with a tasty investing appetizer on Monday, November 23 with the FREE webinar Seasonal Trends – Trading Around the Holidays featuring Scott Downing of BigTrends.

While the rest of the shopping world is focused on buy, buy, buy this Friday, optionsXpress is giving you a chance to say “bye, bye, bye” to a few of the underperforming stocks in your investment portfolio.

Unload some of your turkeys that the 2009 stock market recovery left behind with 50% off regular commission costs* on all placed and executed stock sell orders during our Post-Turkey Day Event on Friday, November 27.

This sale on selling starts and ends on Friday, so don’t miss out!

*Offer valid for all sell orders placed and executed on November 27, 2009. 50% off Commission credit will be posted to your account on or before December 15, 2009. Offer is not transferable. Limit one offer per person meeting the terms of this offer. optionsXpress reserves the right to restrict or revoke this offer at any time. Products and services intended for U.S. customers and may not be available or offered in other jurisdictions.