Real-time options education and strategies
Travis I trade on the side. I learned to trade during a time in my life when I could devote my entire attention to it. Now, I have a demanding job with long and irregular hours and young kids at home. I have little time to ponder the market in the evenings and almost no time … Read more
I have a concept for you that might define your success as an options trader. Here it is: At any given moment, an option’s price is determined by the market’s belief about the likelihood of that option expiring in the money, and by how much. Now some of you are probably saying, “Wait. That’s it? … Read more
I’m just a student of Paul’s Vega Option’s method. But as I see it, the Vega Options strategy has three steps: One of the keys to successfully trading this strategy is understanding where your current portfolio is in this three-step process, so that you can have a clear understanding of what is driving your trade. … Read more
In the world of retail trading, selling credit spreads is a very popular strategy. Mostly, credit spreads are taught as so-called income trades. According to the gurus, income trades are “non-directional” trades–i.e., theta-driven positions that don’t really depend on the direction of the underlying. Rather than trade based on where they think price will go, … Read more
On Monday, Paul had a good exchange with a Twitter follower about structures for trading upside moves, particularly in $SPX. Paul mentioned both Broken Wing Condors and the RS+. These structures work to the downside and the upside, but they are particularly effective on those grinding moves to the upside. The RS+ is Paul’s brainchild … Read more
Wednesday, Jan 12th This week’s blog post starts with Wednesday because I wasn’t able to do much the first half of the week. My daughter was home from preschool Monday and Tuesday because of a COVID shutdown, so I didn’t trade much before today. I’ve limped into this little snaggle-toothed position in $TSLA. The position … Read more
Monday, January 3 Happy New Year! I hope that you and yours are safe and warm. The first day of the new year was quiet for me. I was busy with other projects and feeling a bit sketched out by the market, so I decided to take it slow. $SPX My only trade of the … Read more
Monday Today was a grind for me. My open positions managed to grind out measly profits, but nothing else I tried worked. One position stopped out immediately. Two stock trades ran up big off the open and then slowly bled out for the rest of the day. On one option play, I mistyped my limit … Read more
Friday Most of my efforts today were spent adjusting unhedged open positions. I also added positions in UPST. I now have open swing positions in four different names. That’s my max. I may add to/adjust these positions, but I won’t open positions in any other names until I close some of these. $AAPL After testing … Read more
Paul tweets regularly about the need to be patient for good setups. When you’re patient, trading becomes easy. It doesn’t mean you always win, but it’s easy. Good trades move quickly in your favor, giving you plenty of room to take profit, hedge, and sit through pullbacks. Bad trades break quickly, hand you a small … Read more