Stocktwits going crazy with people who read the false earnings and shorted the AH action. We dropped to the $61's, and probably took 20 minutes to get back to green. Lot's of outlets still reporting an earnings miss.

I didn't know I could sell naked puts/calls, I always just assumed I didn't have the equity for that, much less multiple contracts. Should have seen what the margin requirements were a long time ago

A particular spread or whatever isn't inherently profitable. You can apply them profitably if you have a good strategy. But asking if iron condors are profitable is basically like asking if betting MLB money lines is profitable.

thank you

i know you're main advice would be to stay away from this, as you decided im not intelligent enough (you could be right)...
...but if i was to insist on looking in to this what would you suggest i do for starters?

i thought id read about/learn basic strategies and then deposit the minimum amount with some broker to play around and get a feel for whats happening?

if its anything like poker(most likely is), i assume the micro limits will make it near impossible for me to profit cause of higher "rake"...but thats ok if the minimum deposit isnt too large

Stupid and stubborn. Got to fix one or the other. Try the beginner questions thread in this forum.

you get off on talking like this to people, dont you....makes you feel good?

Believe it or not, I'm offering the best advice you're ever going to get.

haha, you did it again

I think what TS is trying to illustrate here is that the ol' "asking questions" in regards to trading options is a sign that failure is very likely on the horizon.

Reason being, is that solving the problem on where to start in options trading is going to be a simpler task than learning to beat options.

thanks for clearing that up for me, you must be one of the smart ones

like i said, all that i knew about the stock market till a week ago was that it existed, ive never looked in to any part of it at all...hence my lack of understanding on the topic

well...i thought that coming here and asking fellow poker players where and how to start LEARNING options was a good place to start, i was obviously wrong

It's like going to the sports betting forum and asking where you can LEARN to beat horse racing. Why would anyone teach you? If there's a reliable edge somewhere, people just play it, not give it away for free to someone else. This isn't like poker where you can make more selling knowledge than using it, or where you can only play a few tables at once. Alpha at a poker table involves being more conscientious than at least half a table of randoms, or having good tracking software to make decisions for you; alpha at trading is another beast entirely. Anyone who has decent alpha at trading is making millions, not teaching random donks for $100 per signup.

Again, try the beginner thread.

Pop.,

I'm familiar with Option Alpha from his free material (youtube and podcast). What he advocates is definitely a grinder style, not a get rich quick, and I wouldn't fault him for wanting to make some low variance income on the side with his website and videos.

That said I find he oversimplifies things quite a bit. His motto is "implied volatility is always overstated." Of course he doesn't actually believe that because he does have some criteria for determining if he's getting enough credit to enter the position. He trades credit spreads, short iron condors, which is basically a credit spread above and below the market, and some naked short options.

I also find he focuses too much on probability instead of expectation. Once you know what I'm talking about, you will find his material very annoying, as over and over again he stresses "high probability trades". But the probability alone is meaningless without also factoring in analysis of how much you're losing when you lose and how much you're getting when you win, i.e. expectation.

Credit spreads, short iron condors, and naked short options are low reward, high risk trades that require a fairly high win probability just to break even. It's not enough to just look at probability, which is something you could do in an even-money risk:reward situation. You're going to have to know how to evaluate potential trades for expectation, and you're also going to need to know how to adjust your position over time as it goes in your favor or against you, which is an art in itself.

Now naked option selling is a very risky strategy, and most brokers aren't going to let you do it without a good amount of money in your account, and option trading experience as well. This also applies, to a slightly lesser extent, with spreads. Although in a spread the position is covered, there are some risks any time you have a short leg: you could be assigned because someone does an early exercise, and find yourself with a long or short stock that you do not have enough funds in your account to hold. There is also pin risk and other weird things that can happen at expiration: Link. So basically your plan to deposit the minimum in a broker account and "play around" with credit spreads and such is a non-starter.

yeah, there is no such thing as grinding options unless you just short them over time. If you want to grind options, just buy PUTW and then don't do anything else.

If you get bored with the grinding lifestyle of grinding options by just owning PUTW and waiting around for it to go up slowly, try watching videos of cats or something whilst owning PUTW.

Yeah I do a decent amount of option selling and it works okay, buying options is harder. I also like cat videos

thanks a lot TimM!
what you wrote is likely the most helpful information i got since i started researching few days ago...
yeah i figured he was oversimplifying things...he kind of has to in order to reach the new audience hes going for...thanks for letting me know exactly how and where he is doing it!

...aren't there other simpler strategies(less broker approval and risk involved) i can start with first, with the minimum deposit?

https://www.optionsplaybook.com/option-strategies/

Decent explanation that covers how the greeks work in layman terms, basic to intermediate strategies ,etc.

Didn't know about PUTW until now. That is hilarious.

I think I will add it to my permanent basket of AGO, SLP and watching cat videos.

I'm sticking with this, $100-1 has proven to be pretty consistent resistance and if it breaks above this range then I'd cover and move on. Short via 1x2 ratio spreads.

Both of these had nice pops post ER, took some off of each and rolled. All the quarters from the Vegas casinos were very strong considering the shooting happened during this previous quarter. MGM is reporting next week to finish out the group, chart isn't as strong as the others which is why I'd be more cautious ST.

Anyone in shippers? :P

lol what's the story with DCIX? Can't imagine what the catalyst is.

reverse split that just turned into a mega squeeze?

edit: lol it really is just that. 7 to 1 reverse and just super low float pump. This is going to be such an epic drop when it does. Can't even imagine the high though. $40-$50?

Not touching. Fun to watch though.

Long DRYS (the other one) 4.51 for super quick scalp

out 4.55, boring. Watching the rest of the way. Ship has sailed (no pun intended?)

long TOPS from 81 cents....

Wow out 1.27 from 81 cents. gonna try again

odds people accidentally buy some Diana Shipping thinking it's Diana Containerships?

yeah im in+out of TOPS 71 to 115

Once more from 1.09

edit: out 1.24

Man this is like printing $



ok these look done. Weekend time, have a good one dudes

Today's action in ATVI is pretty strange considering earnings beat and guidance raised. I loaded up a ton of Jan/18 $65 calls this afternon, looks like good value and it's hard for me to see the bear case when you compare this to peers like TTWO and EA.