I got stubborn and held them. I normally only buy 3-4 options at a time, but bought 9 this time and got emotional and didn't want to take such a big L (relatively), so now will most likely take a much bigger L down the line.

This is probably a pretty good anecdote illustrating why the vast majority of retail traders, much like amateur poker players, lose in the long run.

Most retail traders lose because they have zero edge, and fees bleed them out over time. People come up with all kinds of narratives for why they lose (tilting, bad trades, chasing, not stemming losses, lack of discipline and emotional control etc) but it's all nonsense: most people simply have no edge. It's quite an amusing trait: when you win you assume it's because you did something right; when you lose you assume it's because you did something wrong. For the large majority of traders there's no right or wrong because they have no edge.

Not controlling size matters to how often you go bust (especially in options), but not your EV, and that's usually the problem. When you trade options you need an incredible edge to overcome the crazy fees and spread. Most simply don't have enough of an edge (or usually any edge) and random walk their way up and down to permanent losses.

weeeee was a fun day in the PA yesterday:

https://www.stockwatch.com/News/Item...l=AEF&region=C

Revenues were $97.8 million and $144.4 million compared with $40.4 million and $82 million in the comparative period. The increase in revenue resulted from higher volumes of sales of the Company's products. The Company augmented existing customer demand and attracted new customers for its cleanser and sanitizer products.

EBITDA of $30.1 million and $38.5 million compared with EBITDA of $3.6 million and $9.4 million in the comparative periods. The improved EBITDA reflects higher volumes of sales of the Company's products.

Fair enough.

Some fake job news came out this morning, so market is gonna pump probably. Maybe there will be some fake vaccine news later.

It is what it is.

While this used to be true it really isn't the case anymore. Option fees are now very low and spreads are ultra tight. At least spreads are tight if you are trading the very liquid etf's and stocks. There are some stocks I would like to trade more options on but they don't have the liquidity and are just too wide. But if you are trading SPYs or QQQs or some of the very big names you spread will basically be a penny meaning there is no execution edge to really give up.

This doesn't mean most rookies won't lose money trading options just that fees and spreads won't be the main reason. It will come from lack of understanding, trade management, and poorly thought out theses without a real plan.

PENN torches me yet again. Silly old me to ever bet against this thing.

This is so so so important. If you cannot describe your edge, you are not a profitable trader. If you are making traders here and there based on feel or news or whatever, you are on a random walk to 0, because of fees.

TS right, mrbaseball wrong. Trade management, thesis, stops, whatever else, mean jack **** if you don't have an edge. Once you have an edge, you can then work on the other stuff. Too many people worry about the details, when they don't quantify how they are going to beat the market (edge).

I was talking about fees and spreads but okay.

Define edge! There is no execution edge for anyone outside of the most sophisticated market makers. So your edge is your skill at reading the market and managing your trades. I use technical analysis to identify good risk/reward scenarios and trade them accordingly. And there is edge in properly managing those trades once you have you have entered them.

What is your edge?

Perhaps a misunderstanding then. I thought you were talking about edge and not execution/fees, since you quoted TS' post.

I defined edge earlier as something you could explain to someone else on how you're beating the markets. Your edge is the bolded. I trade pretty niche markets, so I don't want to go into too much detail, but my edge is identifying large order flows and taking the other side of that trade. If I had perfect trade management, I would still lose money if I did not have that edge to begin with.

There is obviously value in managing your trades well, having good stops, being disciplined, etc etc. But my point was that all that is worthless if you do not have an edge. You will just bleed your way down to 0.

If you read what I quoted I was disagreeing with the notion that fees and spreads are what kills newbs. But rather lack of edge is what gets them however you decide to define that. The spreads and fees are negligible compared to how you are actually trading.

That view above is called an edge. Did you bet it?

FWIW I have been very lightly hedged to the downside for a while now but just started layering back into at least a normal hedge. Still think we will hit all-time highs before any kind of ugly down move but if it does sell off hard I need to have some self hate protection in place. Still think grind up is most likely but we haven't had a real shakeout for a while.

Anyone playing DKNG earnings? It's definitely risky but I went heavy on the stock today, bought a lot of commons around 34.50 and some 40 calls simultaneously for a few weeks out. If the market stays where it's at now or improves and there's no big negative sports news, I feel like it might even hit 40 tomorrow. With this market climate, it just seems like the market will find some way to love the earnings almost no matter what. In any event, I still like it as a long, especially it being a robinhood darling.

If you want to be long earnings you could buy the Aug 21 32 calls and sell the 40's for a 3.55 debit. 4.45 max profit

I sold the 36 straddle and bought 30 puts and 39 calls for a $3.20 credit. No risk to the upside. Hoping to close for a dollar in the am

Sold 8/21 20:22.50p PRPL spreads. The stock was like 24.50 and those spreads netted 170. Too strong to pass up.

I had some call options. So gonna be bloodbath when I look at my account tomorrow. I take it you had a premonition the earnings report would be bad? I guessed the opposite obviously.

That's actually a bull position but b/e is 20.80 so felt like it wasn't likely to drop 20%. Max pain is only 80 per

WSB was like, all in on PRPL, people were buying way OTM calls, probably millions of losses

I believe that people have been effectively using wsb to pump low float stocks all year. Riding meme trains and getting out right when mouths get frothy has been extremely profitable

So I was reading about what happened to Prpl and it appears due to some accounting issue they moved some revenue Earned in Q2 to Q3, which is why their revenue was lower than expected.

So should the stock rebound (after everyone’s 8/21 calls expire worthless of course)?

Appreciate the suggestion/help, I haven't engaged in any selling yet and haven't even looked into it. I've said it in here a few times before, but, since it's been awhile and I want to make sure people don't take any of my opinions about trading or investing too seriously, I'm still new to trading and only buying calls and puts atm.

Have 49 338 spy calls expiring tomorrow. In at $0.70 and down a bit, bought near end of day after I sold my puts. Hoping that spy will go up.

If it wasn't obvious, I am dumb. I sold call credit spread, which I guess is even better. I should have realized that price was too good to be true lol.

Will be dumping at open

Can someone explain how BBY (Best Buy) is not only around an all-time high but impressively beyond its pre-pandemic high? Seems particularly absurd to me but I didn't start following the stock until the last few weeks. Like, what's even the narrative here?

Just go to their investor relations page and read what they have to say. Look at 10Q's, press releases, etc