Category Archives: Uncategorized

Time comes when you’ll want to trade live rather than in simulated mode. Here are some things to consider as you contemplate this transition: Don’t begin trading live until you become consistently successful trading paper. Before applying any successful trading … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]This week ends a full year of studying options by extensive paper trading using a variety of approaches. I’ve learned a lot about what kind of trader I am and the ways I … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]Trading a futures index like ES bears a lot of similarities to trading indices like SPX or XSP. But there are significant differences as well. Before you start trading futures contracts or their … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]Play Trading an index is a different game. The best known and most traded index is SPX. You can’t buy shares of the SPX, but you can buy and sell options. And many, many … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]Here’s a trade from last week. It consisted of two credit spreads. One was a put spread, the other was a call spread The strikes for each spread were 1 dollar wide. I … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]The box spread SPY written about in yesterday’s post has expired. SPY closed at $362.79. The call side of the spread expired OTM and the put expired ITM. We had received a combined … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]Below are orders for two vertical spreads on SPY that I submitted yesterday: When these orders were submitted, SPY ranged between 375 and 378. The P/L profiles for each of these orders is … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]We’ve been experimenting with SPX 0DTE iron condors (ICs) for a while with mixed success. To improve the performance of our trades, we’ve considered opening them during later trading hours, when the markets … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Yesterday’s trades provided a too-good-to-be-true profit. Today we’ll take a close look at what happened. Our trading activity was complicated. It involved three vertical credit spreads. We’ll look at them and see … Continue reading →

[responsivevoice_button rate=”0.9″ pitch=”0.5″ volume=”0.8″ voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] The trade, constructed from a put and a call credit spread opened a little before 1:30 this afternoon: Stop losses were set at the short strikes. My technique is to initiate a … Continue reading →