We begin with a warning, of sorts. The greeks have two significant shortcomings:
They suggest what could happen in terms of the rate and the magnitude of profit or loss. However, they tell you absolutely nothing about what actually is happening in terms of profit or loss.
They are purely theoretical. Each Greek value assumes that all other factors that could affect your position (e.g., stock price, implied volatility, etc.) will remain constant, which is completely unrealistic.
Suffice it to say that the greeks possess a potent irony: they'll always tell you what theoretically could happen, but they'll never tell you what actually is happening - the latter is ChartBender's domain. The greeks have an established place in trading, but it is important to remember that their service is providing theoretical projections, and that those projections have limitations.
The figure to the left is a visual representation of the Greeks. It's the "Greeks-at-a-Glance", if you will.
You can see that the Greek theta applies to decay, Vega applies to implied volatility, and Delta applies to directional movement in the underlying stock price. The two arrows facing each other in the "Direction" row indicate no movement in the stock price; we'll explain later why these correspond to theta and not delta.
You can easily learn what the Greeks for any position "look like" using ChartBender's Opium system.
Note: All components of the Greeks-at-a-glance are static. The only thing that changes is their color, which is either red or green.
