Agent skill

Advanced Options Strategies

by HKUDS in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

Covers volatility-surface modeling (SABR, local volatility), dynamic Greeks management, calendar spreads, skew and volatility arbitrage, and market-making basics for options.

MITAuto-check passedBusiness, Finance & HR

Install Advanced Options Strategies

skills CLI
$ npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill options-advanced -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install HKUDS/Vibe-Trading options-advanced --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HKUDS/Vibe-Trading.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/agent/src/skills/options-advanced .claude/skills/options-advanced && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
options-advanced
GitHub stars
35k
Token cost
~2k tokens
SKILL.md length
577 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
89
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Covers volatility-surface modeling (SABR, local volatility), dynamic Greeks management, calendar spreads, skew and volatility arbitrage, and market-making basics for options.

  • Works in 4 steps: Calendar Spread → Volatility Arbitrage → Skew Trade → …
  • Looking for arbitrage when the volatility surface is abnormal
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Core Concepts, Analysis Framework and Output Format, plus 2 more sections
  • Calls pip

What it does

The skill moves beyond covered calls and protective puts to trading the volatility expectations inside option time value. It describes the volatility surface as strike by expiry by implied volatility, with smile or skew, term structure and surface dynamics as the key dimensions, and notes the left skew typical of China A-share options.

SABR is laid out with typical ranges for its alpha, beta and rho parameters and compared with Dupire local volatility, which fits market prices exactly but extrapolates unstably. Greeks management covers delta hedging frequency, vega isolation with calendar spreads, theta and rho, and second-order Greeks such as gamma and vanna. Use cases include spotting arbitrage when the surface looks abnormal and practical trading in 50ETF, 300ETF and commodity options.

When your agent uses it

  • Looking for arbitrage when the volatility surface is abnormal
  • Managing portfolio Greeks beyond delta hedging
  • Building calendar spreads to isolate vega exposure
  • Fitting a SABR model to an implied volatility smile

Example prompts

  • “Explain the typical SABR parameter ranges and what a negative rho means for skew.”
  • “How often should I rebalance delta for ATM versus OTM options?”
  • “Design a calendar spread that isolates vega on 50ETF options.”
  • “Compare local volatility with SABR for extrapolating the surface.”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Calendar Spread
  2. Volatility Arbitrage
  3. Skew Trade
  4. Option Market-Making Basics

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit e532650. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • pip

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use pip, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Advanced Options Strategies loads about 2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 53 tokens; SKILL.md has 577 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~53
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from HKUDS/Vibe-Trading at commit e532650, republished under its MIT licence (© HKUDS). 577 words, ~1,996 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/options-advanced/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
options-advanced
description
Advanced options strategies: volatility-surface modeling (SABR / Local Vol), dynamic Greeks rebalancing, calendar spreads, volatility arbitrage and skew trading, and option market-making basics.
category
asset-class

Advanced Options Strategies

Overview

Go beyond basic option strategies (covered call / protective put) and focus on trading opportunities along the volatility dimension. Core idea: option price = intrinsic value + time value, and advanced trading essentially trades the volatility expectations embedded behind that time value.

Applicable scenarios:

  • Identifying arbitrage opportunities when the volatility surface is abnormal (skew / term structure)
  • Fine-grained management of portfolio Greeks exposures (not just Delta hedging)
  • Building structured strategies across maturities and strikes
  • Practical application in 50ETF / 300ETF / commodity options

Core Concepts

Volatility Surface

Three-dimensional structure: strike × expiry × implied volatility.

Key dimensions:

DimensionMeaningTypical Shape
Smile / SkewIV across strikes for the same expiryChina A-shares: left-skewed (put IV > call IV)
Term StructureIV across expiries for the same strikeNormal case: near-month IV < far-month IV
Surface dynamicsParallel or nonlinear movement of the entire surfaceIn panic, the whole surface lifts, and near-month IV lifts faster

SABR model parameters:

α (alpha): initial volatility level, around 0.2-0.5
β (beta): CEV exponent, equities usually use 0.5-1.0
ρ (rho): correlation between volatility and the underlying, usually -0.3 to -0.7 in China A-shares (negative = left skew)
ν (nu): volatility of volatility (vol of vol), around 0.3-0.8

Local Vol vs SABR:

  • Local Vol (Dupire): backed out from market prices, exact fit but unstable extrapolation
  • SABR: parameterized model, 4 parameters capture surface dynamics and extrapolate more reasonably
Dynamic Greeks Management

First-order Greeks:

GreekMeaningManagement Approach
Delta (Δ)Sensitivity to underlying priceHedge frequency: daily for ATM, every 2-3 days for OTM
Vega (ν)Sensitivity to IVCalendar spreads can isolate Vega exposure
Theta (Θ)Time decayShort-option strategies are naturally positive Theta, but watch Gamma risk
Rho (ρ)Sensitivity to ratesRelevant for long-dated options, usually ignorable for short-dated options

Second-order Greeks:

GreekMeaningKey Scenario
Gamma (Γ)Rate of change of DeltaHighest near ATM and spikes before expiry
VannaSensitivity of Delta to IVCore Greek for skew trading
Volga / VommaSensitivity of Vega to IVImportant when volatility moves sharply

Delta hedge frequency decision:

Hedging cost = trading frequency × slippage per rebalance
Unhedged risk = Gamma exposure × underlying volatility²
Optimal frequency (Zakamouline criterion):
  Trigger hedge when Gamma × S² × σ² × Δt > 2 × transaction_cost
Practical rule: ATM Gamma is large -> hedge daily; OTM -> hedge weekly or on threshold triggers

Analysis Framework

1. Calendar Spread

Principle: sell the near-month option and buy the far-month option at the same strike, profiting from faster near-month Theta decay.

Entry conditions:

  • Normal term structure (near-month IV ≤ far-month IV)
  • Expect the underlying to stay in a narrow range
  • Open the position 20-30 days before near-month expiry

50ETF example:

Underlying: 50ETF current price 2.80
Sell: 50ETF near-month C2800  IV=18%, collect premium 0.045
Buy: 50ETF far-month C2800   IV=20%, pay premium 0.082
Net debit: 0.037 (max loss)
Breakeven: profit if the underlying stays in the 2.76-2.84 range at near-month expiry
Max profit: when near-month expires with the underlying right at 2.80, roughly 0.045 minus the time-decay differential

Risk-control points:

  • Large breakout in the underlying → stop loss (if loss exceeds 50% of net debit)
  • Near-month IV suddenly rises above far-month IV (term-structure inversion) → close position
Show full SKILL.md (205 more words)Show less
2. Volatility Arbitrage

Long Gamma strategy (buy volatility):

Scenario: realized volatility is expected to exceed implied volatility
Trade: buy ATM straddle + Delta hedge
Profit source: Gamma-scalping gains > Theta decay
Key metric:
  Breakeven volatility = IV + Theta/Gamma cost
  Example in 300ETF: buy straddle at IV=16%; if realized volatility >18%, the trade is profitable

Short Gamma strategy (sell volatility):

Scenario: realized volatility is expected to stay below implied volatility
Trade: sell ATM straddle + Delta hedge
Profit source: Theta income > hedging loss
Risk control: set max loss = 2x premium received, close when hit
3. Skew Trade

Risk Reversal:

Scenario: skew is too steep (put IV excessively high relative to call IV)
Trade: sell OTM put + buy OTM call (zero-cost or slight net credit)
Exposure: long skew (profit if skew mean-reverts)
50ETF example:
  Sell P2700 IV=22%  collect 0.025
  Buy C2900 IV=16%   pay 0.018
  Net credit 0.007, profiting from skew mean reversion

Butterfly skew trade:

Scenario: localized skew abnormality (IV deviation at a particular strike)
Trade: build a butterfly centered on the abnormal strike
  If IV is too high -> sell that strike (middle leg of the butterfly)
  If IV is too low -> buy that strike
4. Option Market-Making Basics

Quoting strategy:

  • Bid-ask spread = f(Gamma risk, inventory skew, market volatility)
  • Narrow spreads attract flow; wider spreads protect risk
  • Inventory-skew management: if Delta exceeds the limit, tilt quotes to induce the other side to offset inventory

Inventory management:

Delta limit: ±500 underlying-equivalent lots
Gamma limit: daily Gamma PnL should not exceed 2% of account equity
Vega limit: PnL from a 1% IV move should not exceed 1% of account equity
When over the limit: hedge in the market first, adjust quotes second

Output Format

Volatility analysis report:

=== Volatility Surface Analysis ===
Underlying: 50ETF  Current price: 2.80
ATM IV: 18.5%  Historical percentile: 35% (relatively low)
Skew (25D): -3.2% (put IV is 3.2% higher than call IV)  Historical percentile: 70% (relatively steep)
Term Structure: normal (near-month 17.8% < far-month 19.2%)

=== Strategy Recommendation ===
Opportunity: steep skew + low IV
Strategy: Risk Reversal (sell put / buy call) + Calendar Spread
Expectation: skew mean reversion + mild IV rise
Risk control: keep Delta neutral, keep Gamma within ±200 lots

=== Greeks Monitoring ===
Portfolio Delta: +15 (neutral)
Portfolio Gamma: -180 (short Gamma, watch gap risk)
Portfolio Vega: +3200 (long Vega, benefits from higher IV)
Portfolio Theta: -450 / day

Notes

  1. China A-share option characteristics: liquidity in 50ETF / 300ETF options is concentrated in near-month ATM ± 3 strikes; deep OTM and far-month options are illiquid and have large slippage
  2. Margin management: short-option margin changes dynamically with the underlying; keep >30% buffer to avoid margin calls
  3. Expiry-week effect: Gamma rises sharply during the week before expiry, Pin Risk increases, and short-option traders should reduce size early
  4. Market-making barrier: real market making requires high-frequency infrastructure, low latency, and professional risk controls; retail traders should not attempt pure market making
  5. SABR calibration: calibrate parameters daily after the close with market data, then use prior-day parameters plus real-time adjustment at the open
  6. Gamma scalping PnL: actual profit = 0.5 × Gamma × (RV² - IV²) × S² × T; realized volatility must exceed IV by a meaningful margin to cover transaction costs

Dependencies

bash
pip install pandas numpy scipy

© HKUDS, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in agent/src/skills/options-advanced of HKUDS/Vibe-Trading.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit e532650

Compare with similar skills

Advanced Options Strategies next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Advanced Options Strategies compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Advanced Options Strategies this skillHKUDS/Vibe-Trading35k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Relative ValuationYijia-Xiao/FinanceHarness195—~446Automated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Forecastingericrisco/rsc-harness174—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Multi-Symbol Market Scannertradesdontlie/tradingview-mcp6.8k2 repos~447Automated safety check: PassCustom licence
Pine Script Development Looptradesdontlie/tradingview-mcp6.8k2 repos~617Automated safety check: PassCustom licence
Creating Financial ModelsChen-zexi/open-ptc-agent7293 repos~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Relative Valuation

    Yijia-Xiao/FinanceHarness

    Value an equity against its peers — peer-median trading multiples applied to the company's metrics for an implied range, cross-read against its own valuation ratios.

    195 GitHub stars~446 tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Forecasting

    ericrisco/rsc-harness

    A skill your agent uses when projecting history forward — sales, demand, units, revenue, signups, traffic — into a defensible number with an error band: method by data shape, rolling-origin…

    174 GitHub stars~2.8k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Data & AnalyticsAuto-check passed
  • Multi-Symbol Market Scanner

    tradesdontlie/tradingview-mcp

    Scans a list of trading symbols in TradingView for setups, patterns or strategy results and reports them as a ranked comparison table.

    6.8k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~447 tokens
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Pine Script Development Loop

    tradesdontlie/tradingview-mcp

    Runs a write, compile, fix and verify loop for TradingView Pine Script indicators and strategies, pushing code into the Pine Editor and checking it on the chart.

    6.8k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~617 tokens
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • Creating Financial Models

    Chen-zexi/open-ptc-agent

    This skill provides an advanced financial modeling suite with DCF analysis, sensitivity testing, Monte Carlo simulations, and scenario planning for investment decisions

    729 GitHub starsUsed in 3 repos~1.3k tokens
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed
  • CCXT Crypto Exchange Library

    2025Emma/vibe-coding-cn

    Reference help for the CCXT library covering crypto exchange APIs, market data, trading and order management across 150+ exchanges in JavaScript, Python and PHP.

    23k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~4.4k tokens
    Business, Finance & HRAuto-check passed

More from HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

All 89 skills in this repo
  • Eastmoney Market Data

    HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

    Index of Eastmoney's free, no-token market data interfaces for China A-shares and Hong Kong stocks: fund flows, dragon-tiger lists, margin trading, reports and news.

    35k GitHub stars~1k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • OKX Market Data

    HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

    Retrieves public OKX cryptocurrency market data such as spot prices, candlesticks, funding rates and open interest through the OKX V5 REST API, with no authentication.

    35k GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • SEC EDGAR Filings Fetcher

    HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

    Fetches U.S. SEC EDGAR data: resolves tickers to CIK numbers, lists recent 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filings with document URLs, and pulls XBRL financial series.

    35k GitHub stars~1.4k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • A-Share ST Risk Screener

    HKUDS/Vibe-Trading

    Predicts whether a mainland China A-share company risks an ST or *ST warning after its next annual report, using financial thresholds and Sina penalty records.

    35k GitHub stars~4.9k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • Breaks a structural trend such as AI infrastructure into its physical supply chain and ranks lesser-known listed companies sitting on each bottleneck.

    35k GitHub stars~2.7k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed
  • Plans and drafts an eight-part, roughly 120k-word investigative series on one company, built around a strict fact-check pass rather than fast drafting.

    35k GitHub stars~2.4k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Auto-check passed

Questions about Advanced Options Strategies

What does Advanced Options Strategies do?

Covers volatility-surface modeling (SABR, local volatility), dynamic Greeks management, calendar spreads, skew and volatility arbitrage, and market-making basics for options. The skill moves beyond covered calls and protective puts to trading the volatility expectations inside option time value. It describes the volatility surface as strike by expiry by implied volatility, with smile or skew, term structure and surface dynamics as the key dimensions, and notes the left skew typical of China A-share options.

When should I use Advanced Options Strategies?

Advanced Options Strategies fits situations like: looking for arbitrage when the volatility surface is abnormal; managing portfolio Greeks beyond delta hedging; building calendar spreads to isolate vega exposure; fitting a SABR model to an implied volatility smile.

How do I install Advanced Options Strategies in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill options-advanced -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (agent/src/skills/options-advanced in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading) into .claude/skills/options-advanced in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Advanced Options Strategies in Codex?

Run `npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill options-advanced -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (agent/src/skills/options-advanced in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading) into .agents/skills/options-advanced in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Advanced Options Strategies in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add HKUDS/Vibe-Trading --skill options-advanced -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/options-advanced, .gemini/skills/options-advanced, .github/skills/options-advanced and .opencode/skills/options-advanced in your project.

What does Advanced Options Strategies need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Advanced Options Strategies needs the command-line tools its instructions call (pip).

Does Advanced Options Strategies access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use pip, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Advanced Options Strategies safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Advanced Options Strategies use?

Advanced Options Strategies is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Advanced Options Strategies use?

About 2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Advanced Options Strategies?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Advanced Options Strategies: Relative Valuation (Yijia-Xiao/FinanceHarness, 195 stars), Forecasting (ericrisco/rsc-harness, 174 stars), Multi-Symbol Market Scanner (tradesdontlie/tradingview-mcp, 6.8k stars) and Pine Script Development Loop (tradesdontlie/tradingview-mcp, 6.8k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Advanced Options Strategies?

HKUDS (a GitHub organization) maintains it in HKUDS/Vibe-Trading, which has 35,043 GitHub stars. The repository holds 89 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 8, 2026.

Source: HKUDS/Vibe-Trading on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.