Real-time options education and strategies
A treader needs the courage to trade when the setup is good but it feels bad. Shorting AAPL while it appeared to still be in an uptrend felt bad. I don’t like shorting stocks in an uptrend but when the price action is telling me, no, not telling me, screaming at me, that this rally … Read more
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
If I handed you a book and said that it had information in it that could potentially make you a great deal of money I’ll assume you’d open it with great anticipation. You might think “I’ll just read the book and start making money right away, what could be easier than that?” You open the … Read more
Some traders may use the SPX short Call Diagonal simply as a way to collect premium and focus less on the potential directional implications of that trade. That isn’t the way that I trade them because I have certain directional expectations based on chart setups. On the chart (below) I show 2 setups. There are … Read more
If I could summarize the overall theme of this blog in one sentence it would be this: spend most of your time figuring out how you’re going to reduce portfolio risk! I think most traders put on a trade and then stick with it until it either goes bust or the pain of holding it … Read more
To address some questions regarding my current position. I’ll add more to this post later. First, let’s look at the PDT account’s combination position of Jan3/6 SPX 6045/6050 short Call Diagonal and 6050 Call Calendar with a $780 cost that was bought when it was a bullish OTM position. Now it’s perfectly centered with an … Read more
I’m expecting a grind up in SPX over the next 2 months so I’m layering on mostly inexpensive positions (and a few expensive ones) in multiple Fri/Mon expirations to add size and build a position. Below is my current position as of Dec4. I’ll likely be adding the trade below at some point in the … Read more
The option chain (below) shows the value of TSLA Calls with 1 week until expiration. If I had bought a Call Calendar spread with short Calls expiring 1 week prior to the long Calls then I can estimate the value of that Calendar spread at the time the short Calls expire. Tesla’s closing price at … Read more
Over the past couple years on this blog I’ve shown countless option strategies and chart setups with the goal of educating traders on ways to reduce risk in trading. Still, there are many, actually I’d say most, traders who are confused and suffering from information overload and I may be guilty of adding to that. … Read more
This SPX chart reflects my current analysis of the daily time frame. The 8 SMA bands are still upsloping which represents a price uptrend although good location for a new long is currently down around 4050. That’s well below Friday’s closing price of 4105 but I’m not basing my current trade on the rising lower … Read more