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
Below is my current Jan17/21 short SPX Call Diagonal. This is the standard 3-day (Fri/Mon) position that I always use but since Jan20 is a market holiday then this 4-day position becomes the standard for this position only. Because SPX has moved lower I have a $2,700 open profit on the position. The initial cost … 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
Something I need to address before I get into the details of this post. Nobody who reads this post should ever attempt to trade this, or any strategy, based on my or someone else’s experience! I’m here to educate traders based on my many years of trading experience, not to recommend trades. Take what you … Read more
Below is a description of how I traded Tesla this week. This post, as well as all of my other posts on this blog, are for educational purposes. They aren’t trading advice. You should never risk your capital based on how someone else trades. Learn from others then develop your own trading style which suits … Read more