These things are absolute lotto tickets.
Today a $SPY put went from $0.27 to $17.00 after a sudden market reversal.
10 contracts: $270 bet
$17,000 payout.
100 contracts: $2,700 bet $170,000 payout.
Same-day expiration options (0DTE) on SPY are a ton of fun to trade, and nothing compared to natural gas! Here is how it works: you pick a strike price right next to where SPY opens. For example, if it opens at $750 and you think it's going up, you buy the $751 Call. If you think it's going down, you buy the $749 Put. Usually those are priced at somewhere between 50 cents and $1.50 so if you buy 10 contracts at 50 cents it cost to $500. It's a fast game—one of those options is going to zero, and the other is going to shoot up to $2, $3, or more. The whole thing starts at 8:30 AM and it's completely over by 2:00 PM Chicago time. Next day repeat That’s it!
My first red day in 5 weeks cost me $1,080. The worst part? It wasn't my strategy that failed—it was trying to trade someone else's. 🧵
1/ For 5 weeks, I had straight green days just watching the tape (puts and calls flow). I didn't even look at the $SPY chart. Today, I decided to try a guru setup using the 13/48/200 EMA indicators on the S&P 500. Big mistake.
2/ The trade was doomed from the start. I went bullish but messed up my sizing. On the add, I only took 10 contracts instead of matching my initial 10 to double it. I should have added 20 contracts total.
3/ I was up $400 at one point and should’ve cut it. But since I’m on the road most of the time, I missed the exit. By the time I checked, it was too late. Lesson learned: stick to your own rules and don't trade setups you aren't familiar with.
4/ The bottom line: I risked $2,000 in buying power to lose $1,080 after being up only $400. If I had sized up correctly on the adds, that $400 move would have put me at +$800. Also if you look at the" order to close" I came within $0.10 cents of happening.. I wanted the 500 profit, not the 400..lol
Back to tracking the flow tomorrow. 📈 $SPY
Wow, the SPY 471 puts hit a low of $0.27 and ran all the way to $3.00!
Think about it—10 contracts for $270 could have cashed out for $1,000, $2,000, or even $3,000 in profit. But nope, I’m not on that street right now because I have these ridiculous rules I have to follow! 🤦♂️🤣
$SPY
+ $171 calls bought
Back to basics for me: if I see $100 or $200 in the green, I'm cutting it loose.
Of course, every time I do that, the position runs for a $1,000 profit anyway! 🤦♂️ 😂
Either way, used $2,000 buying power today .. no more trades
See ya tomorrow! $SPY
I think the quick plan works for the first hour or two of the day. But once the market establishes its clear direction for the session, if you are on the right side of that trend, you have to just let it ride and let the market do its thing... the options don't Decay like someone's are saying, no way
Look at today: it trended down all day. If you held that position, you made massive gains, and you have all the way until 2:00 p.m. Chicago time to let it play out. Yesterday was the exact same thing, just to the upside.I think I have to get away from this quick $200 strategy. Honestly, it is just a boring way to trade when the macro trends are this massive.
Yeah, natural gas is way too complicated because you have to worry about weather, supply and demand, and all that extra crap. You don't have to deal with any of that when you trade SPY options. SPY is so much easier—no indicator overload, just prior/night session highs and lows. Above all 3 EMAs is bullish, below is bearish. Done by 2 PM Chicago time. I posted how my charts look right below.. literally you don't have to be an expert to trade Odtes.. which also means same day expiration options
Market $SPY was so oversold this morning that I didn’t want to rush into buying puts at the bell.
I decided to wait 15 minutes, but ended up missing the whole drop and the chance to buy puts .
Still, walked away up $131 for the day buying calls 🟢
Done for the day unless something crazy pops up.
SPY has to get above EMA 200 to buy calls ... but it's also risky..
@eshqiyah Yes, I do take trades when the price is above all levels or if the price bounces off 200 EMA, as long as I have buying power remaining within my $2,000 daily limit. As for natural gas, I didn't quit; I'm just taking a break for the summer.
Took one more trade to bring today's total to +$351.
The market repeated yesterday's playbook, coming down to retest the low. Entered the retest and exited at my first entry level. Used ~$1,200 in capital to secure that $351 gain. 📈
$SPY
@DougRidgley Man, glad you’re dropping the average down strategy before it completely wipes you out.But keeping it real: just switching to 10% trades with hard stops isn't going to work either. You’re just going to get bored and break your own rules.
Took one more trade with my remaining $1,500 to bring my day's total to $291.
Knew we’d retest the LOD, but the hardest part of trading is cutting it at your $100-$200 target when you know it could hit $1,000
$SPY
Quick +$190 on the board and most likely done for the day. 🎯
Bought $SPY Strike 756 Puts: 10 contracts @ $0.68 = $680
Closed at $0.87
Funny thing is I did exactly what I said I was going to do.
#DayTrading#Options#RiskManagement $SPY
@DougRidgley Lmao yeah, only way to make money on those puts was buying the morning dip. It topped at $0.70 and that was literally it. How much capital did you end up deploying for those trades today? Did you use the whole bankroll?
I trade small. $1k or $2k max per play. Hit a quick hundred bucks and I’m usually done.Just used $500 of my capital for this one. Got $1,500 left in the pocket if something else pops up later today. Otherwise, I’m done for the day. 🎯
$SPY
@DougRidgley The night session retested yesterday's low, and price is now holding below yesterday's close. This keeps the market looking weak ahead of the open.
Hey! How did you do today? I was in the red $250 but managed to finish green $150. That’s my usual daily target, but I actually left a lot of money on the table because I was using market orders to buy and sell. Slippage cost me a few points on execution
@DougRidgley
Man, here goes another runner!
I was down $250 for most of the day, fought my way back, and closed out up $160. But right after I closed (odte calls), my position jumped from $0.60 to $2.50. Can you imagine if I just held a little bit longer? I left an extra $2,000 on the table
$SPY
#ODTE #SPY