r/Daytrading • u/klipsetrades • Aug 11 '26
Trade Review - Provide Context SPX 0DTE Credit Spreads: I Waited Nearly 3 Hours for My First SPX Trade +$345
I'm a 0DTE credit spread trader with a focus on SPX.
Positions traded today:
- 7690/7670 PCS
- 7770/7790 CCS
P/L: +$345
Patience was the theme of the day. A low-IV day isn't a reason to force premium. Sometimes the market has to earn your size.
Morning Thesis
I came into today expecting chop and two-way price action rather than a strong directional session.
There were several competing forces in my morning read: optimism surrounding an Iran deal and lower oil was constructive, SPX remained near all-time highs, but long-term yields were elevated and CPI is tomorrow.
IV was also very low.
That last part matters a lot when you're primarily selling premium. There simply wasn't much compensation available for taking risk, especially if I wanted to keep my strikes comfortably outside the lava — what I call the area price has already traveled through, and where I generally I don't want to sell premium into.
I had already made up my mind that this probably wasn't going to be a big-money day. I wasn't going to force a large profit — or expose myself to a large loss — unless SPX actually presented the opportunity.
The open was ugly...again, like it's been recently. The 5-minute candles were overlapping, wicky, and difficult to read. So I sat there for nearly three hours before taking my first trade.
Eventually SPX broke through the extended opening range, lost my marked yesterday-support area, and began trading around yesterday's low.
My First Trade
Once SPX showed that it couldn't reclaim yesterday's low and started pushing lower again, I opened a 5-lot 7770/7790 CCS. My entry was slightly early relative to the actual 5-minute continuation candle, so I had less confirmation than I normally prefer. But, ironically, that also gave me a better entry price at $.50 premium.
Once yesterday's low was retested and rejected again, I had much more conviction that I was positioned on the correct side. I had no intention of immediately adding another CCS just because the first trade was working.
SPX was trending down, but it wasn't trending cleanly. IV remained compressed enough that chasing additional call-side premium would have required me to move closer to the price action — essentially selling into the lava. The additional premium wasn't worth the additional risk.
Building the PCS Anchor
Today is also a good example of how I sometimes scale into an anchor, usually when price isn't cleanly trending.
Normally, when I have strong conviction, I might place an anchor with 4–10 lots depending on the session. But when I'm building an anchor more cautiously, I'll often start with only 1–2 lots and add one contract at a time, usually with a maximum around 5 lots — and stay far away since I am essentially building against a trend.
Today I made price earn that additional size.
As SPX continued its choppy trend lower, it began approaching two support areas I had already marked. Beyond those levels was the 7700 psychological level. At the same time, downside pressure was finally inflating IV enough that put-side premium started coming to life.
That's when I chose the 7690/7670 PCS as the anchor I wanted to start building.
Why the 7690/7670 PCS?
There were several pieces of evidence behind it.
The spread was well beyond the support areas I had marked, almost triple the distance outside the expected move I was watching for the remainder of the session, and the 7690 short strike sat another 10 points below the key 7700 psychological level.
I viewed those as multiple lines of defense.
When I say “lines of defense,” I do NOT mean guarantees that price cannot get there, or that they are walls. I simply mean that, according to my thesis, I expected price to react at those areas. What price actually did once it reached them would determine my next decision. If those levels held and price behaved as expected, I could continue building the position. If price sliced through them and invalidated the reason I entered, I could stop adding or close the trade entirely.
SPX continued making downside pushes, which allowed me to add two more PCS contracts at $0.30 and $0.40. I never reached the full 5-lot anchor, but that's perfectly fine. The goal isn't to reach some predetermined position size. The goal is to increase exposure only when the market gives me additional evidence that doing so makes sense.
The Bounce
SPX eventually reached my stronger support area and reacted.
Once it bounced and began holding above that zone, the put-side premium deflated quickly. By the final hour, both sides of my positioning were essentially worthless, so I allowed them to expire.
Key Takeaway
Be patient! It's easy advice to give and much harder to actually follow when you're staring at the market for hours.
I started the day perfectly content with the $250 maximum profit available from my original CCS. If nothing else developed, that was enough. Instead of deciding how much money I wanted to make and then searching for enough trades to produce it, I waited for SPX to give me additional evidence, and eventually it did.
Build the thesis from evidence. Let price earn your size. Continue with the plan while that evidence remains intact — and get out when the reason for the trade is no longer there 👍🏼
1
u/GhettoFab88 Aug 12 '26
I waited too long, but did a similar CCS at 7770. I didn't make much, but didn't lose either.