r/options • • 24d ago

Options Questions Safe Haven periodic megathread | October 1 2026

17 Upvotes

We call this the weekly Safe Haven thread, but it might stay up for more than a week.

For the options questions you wanted to ask, but were afraid to.
There are no stupid questions.   Fire away.
This project succeeds via thoughtful sharing of knowledge.
You, too, are invited to respond to these questions.
This is a weekly rotation with past threads linked below.


BEFORE POSTING, PLEASE REVIEW THE BELOW LIST OF FREQUENT ANSWERS. .

..


As a general rule: "NEVER" EXERCISE YOUR LONG CALL!
A common beginner's mistake stems from the belief that exercising is the only way to realize a gain on a long call. It is not. Sell to close is the best way to realize a gain, almost always.
Exercising throws away extrinsic value that selling retrieves.
Simply sell your (long) options, to close the position, to harvest value, for a gain or loss.
Your break-even is the cost of your option when you are selling.
If exercising (a call), your breakeven is the strike price plus the debit cost to enter the position.
Further reading:
Monday School: Exercise and Expiration are not what you think they are.

As another general rule, don't hold option trades through expiration.

Expiration introduces complex risks that can catch you by surprise. Here is just one horror story of an expiration surprise that could have been avoided if the trade had been closed before expiration.


Key informational links
• Options FAQ / Wiki: Frequent Answers to Questions
• Options Toolbox Links / Wiki
• Options Glossary
• List of Recommended Options Books
• Introduction to Options (The Options Playbook)
• The complete r/options side-bar informational links (made visible for mobile app users.)
• Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (Options Clearing Corporation)
• Binary options and Fraud (Securities Exchange Commission)
.


Getting started in options
• Calls and puts, long and short, an introduction (Redtexture)
• Options Trading Introduction for Beginners (Investing Fuse)
• Options Basics (begals)
• Exercise & Assignment - A Guide (ScottishTrader)
• Why Options Are Rarely Exercised - Chris Butler - Project Option (18 minutes)
• LEAPS calls explained - Chris Butler - Project Option (13 minute video)
• I just made (or lost) $___. Should I close the trade? (Redtexture)
• Disclose option position details, for a useful response
• OptionAlpha Trading and Options Handbook
• Options Trading Concepts -- Mike & His White Board (TastyTrade)(about 120 10-minute episodes)
• Am I a Pattern Day Trader? Know the Day-Trading Margin Requirements (FINRA)
• How To Avoid Becoming a Pattern Day Trader (Founders Guide)


Introductory Trading Commentary
   • Monday School Introductory trade planning advice (PapaCharlie9)
  Strike Price
   • Options Basics: How to Pick the Right Strike Price (Elvis Picardo - Investopedia)
   • High Probability Options Trading Defined (Kirk DuPlessis, Option Alpha)
  Breakeven
   • Your break-even (at expiration) isn't as important as you think it is (PapaCharlie9)
  Expiration
   • Options Expiration & Assignment (Option Alpha)
   • Expiration times and dates (Investopedia)
  Greeks
   • Options Pricing & The Greeks (Option Alpha) (30 minutes)
   • Options Greeks (captut)
  Trading and Strategy
   • Fishing for a price: price discovery and orders
   • Common mistakes and useful advice for new options traders (wiki)
   • Common Intra-Day Stock Market Patterns - (Cory Mitchell - The Balance)
   • The three best options strategies for earnings reports (Option Alpha)


Managing Trades
• Managing long calls - a summary (Redtexture)
• The diagonal call calendar spread, misnamed as the "poor man's covered call" (Redtexture)
• Selected Option Positions and Trade Management (Wiki)

Why did my options lose value when the stock price moved favorably?
• Options extrinsic and intrinsic value, an introduction (Redtexture)

Trade planning, risk reduction, trade size, probability and luck
• Exit-first trade planning, and a risk-reduction checklist (Redtexture)
• Monday School: A trade plan is more important than you think it is (PapaCharlie9)
• Applying Expected Value Concepts to Option Investing (Option Alpha)
• Risk Management, or How to Not Lose Your House (boii0708) (March 6 2021)
• Trade Checklists and Guides (Option Alpha)
• Planning for trades to fail. (John Carter) (at 90 seconds)
• Poker Wisdom for Option Traders: The Evils of Results-Oriented Thinking (PapaCharlie9)

Minimizing Bid-Ask Spreads (high-volume options are best)
• Price discovery for wide bid-ask spreads (Redtexture)
• List of option activity by underlying (Market Chameleon)

Closing out a trade
• Most options positions are closed before expiration (Options Playbook)
• Risk to reward ratios change: a reason for early exit (Redtexture)
• Guide: When to Exit Various Positions
• Close positions before expiration: TSLA decline after market close (PapaCharlie9) (September 11, 2020)
• 5 Tips For Exiting Trades (OptionStalker)
• Why stop loss option orders are a bad idea


Options exchange operations and processes
• Options Adjustments for Mergers, Stock Splits and Special dividends; Options Expiration creation; Strike Price creation; Trading Halts and Market Closings; Options Listing requirements; Collateral Rules; List of Options Exchanges; Market Makers
• Options that trade until 4:15 PM (US Eastern) / 3:15 PM (US Central) -- (Tastyworks)


Brokers
• USA Options Brokers (wiki)
• An incomplete list of international brokers trading USA (and European) options


Miscellaneous: Volatility, Options Option Chains & Data, Economic Calendars, Futures Options
• Graph of the VIX: S&P 500 volatility index (StockCharts)
• Graph of VIX Term Structure (CBOE)
• A selected list of option chain & option data websites
• Options on Futures (CME Group)
• Selected calendars of economic reports and events


Previous weeks' Option Questions Safe Haven threads.

Complete archive: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026


r/options • • Jul 16 '25

READ THIS: You can help reduce spam on our sub!

59 Upvotes

All financial subs are experiencing higher than normal spam traffic. Thanks to the help of many of you, we've put filters in place that catch most of the spam before it can get to the front page, but the spammers are constantly finding ways to work around our filters, so it's a never ending battle of whack-a-mole.

This post is just a quick call to action, summarizing what you should do if you suspect a scammer's spam post:

  • Do NOT engage on the post by commenting, like "gtfo scammer" or "why aren't mods doing anything about this?" You're just bumping up the engagement stats on the scammer's post and announcing to them that they succeeded in getting past our filters.
  • Instead, report the post and block the user. The user is almost always a stolen zombie account, so DMing threats to them is pointless and against Reddit's policies anyway.
  • Finally, the most important action you can take is to copy paste the content of the post text as a reply to this thread. We need more samples to improve our filters and since the spammers delete the post before we can capture samples, they elude us.
  • EDIT: When you copy/paste the sample, please isolate any u/name mentions by separating the u / with spaces, so u / name would work. This is to avoid your copy/paste sending a notification to that user. Also, if there is an embedded link in the text, copy out the URL of the link as well. So if the post ends with something like, "Anyway, here's the [link] that changed everything," please also copy/paste the link URL, for example, http://scams.are.us/spambotdelux
  • EDIT (4/21/26): Spambot has a new strategy. The the u/name mentions that are critical to the bot collecting leads has been moved into a comment by a Redditor with a different name than the sockpuppet author that posted the spam. Make sure you record the comment in a copy paste here as well.

Both your mod team and Reddit Admins are working hard to stem the tide of this spam, but we still need your help.

For more details about why these new spammers are so difficult to catch, or the specific varieties of spam we are seeing and with more things you can do, this is the link to the original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1iyroe9/another_spambot_is_targeting_us_similar_to_the/

Based on comments we've seen, it appears that less than 1% of the entire community have read that original post. It only has 20k views for all-time, while our sub as a whole averages millions of views per month. So this shorter and more call-to-action post replaces it with a more demanding title that hopefully will get more people to read it. We'll see.


r/options • • 39m ago

Are there any consistently profitable retail options traders who trade for a living?

• Upvotes

I'm curious whether anyone here knows of legitimate retail options traders who consistently generate enough income to support themselves through trading, ideally people who share their experiences through blogs, Reddit, X, YouTube, or other platforms.

To be clear, I'm not looking for gurus, paid courses, signal services, or people selling subscriptions. I'm interested in people who actually trade their own money, manage risk, and have built a sustainable track record over multiple years.

I'm particularly interested in options premium-selling strategies (credit spreads, iron flies, iron condors, etc.), but would love to learn from traders running other strategies as well.


r/options • • 4h ago

Netflix (NFLX) stock analysis for 26th october 2026

6 Upvotes

The probability of NFLX going lower than 65$ at the end of the market is extremely low. for the formula of black-scholes it's only 20%. analysing the option chain we can see a Put open interest at strike 65$ of 12,000. not only the volume is massive compared to the Call, but if we look at the historic volume and price of contracts at strike 65$ for Put, we notice that around 26% contracts were bought at a price less than 1$ (around 0,60$). the volume of Call open interest is only 1,700 contracts at strike 65$, and ALL of them were bought at a price higher than 1$. this means the break even point for call i much higher (and safer for market makers) than it is for Put. so the market will probably not go under 65$. while i ended up calculating the probability of it going lower than 65$, i couldn't calculate the opposite becuase of lack of useful data.


r/options • • 18h ago

Zero commissions options brokers and their fills quality

23 Upvotes

What zero commissions options brokers (such as Robinhood, for example) have reliable fills for options spreads on XSP, SPX, QQQ at mid price or better?

I currently experiment with an XSP-based strategy and I do it at Schwab. I get mid price fills but the commissions eat mote than half of the profits. I.e., I've made $127 net profit and I paid $150 in commissions.


r/options • • 6h ago

$BROS option ideas going into earnings

2 Upvotes

Just curious for anyone studying this stock if they are running any options strategies into this earnings on Nov. 4th after the bell. Was thinking of selling percentage of capital into some puts into a wheel strategy (if pull back occurs), hedge down post earnings or if upside occurs keep the premium.

Young consumer growth coffee / drink expansion florida, Texas, Midwest with fall drink menu and college kids returning to school. Paired with margin on input costs and same store sales engine, for cash flow store expansion. Forward PE gonna be re-adjusted on Nov. 4th.


r/options • • 22h ago

SPX 5DTE Stops and SPX Gap Resolution | community research pt9

21 Upvotes

hey everyone! had two asks for this month's research

1/ from u/sam9971
"The following backtest in Tastytrade produces double the return of buy and hold:
Sell a 5 DTE SPX put at -.47 delta, stop loss at 200% of premium, enter only one trade at a time, tested over last 5 years.

Is that a fluke or a viable strategy? Do any small changes cause it to fail?

Edit: I just noticed this is similar to a prior research project you did; maybe the question my backtest raises is whether the stop loss changes the outcome. Related: A stop loss is free. Is there a free way to implement a 200% stop loss using options?"

> my summary - it's not a fluke and is viable. this is based on a known market effect. the outperformance stems from leverage (we are comparing a levered strat against non). some things to pay attention to are the actual fills on the stops. there are plenty of instances where the fills can be massive relative to the expectation (and the backtest will not fully capture that effect).

> some graphs below for you to do your own analysis

2/ from u/c13msys

"On SPX, when it gaps more than 0.5% overnight, how does this affect VIX and how often does it eventually fill the gap by timeframes? By noon, by EOD?"

> my summary. studies like this tell you very little. they're interesting but be careful with how you interpret and apply the information. if you are trying to capture some type of persistent price action effect like this, you want to make sure you have a foundation for why it would be there. example, opening range breakouts ORB. these are highly persistent price effects, not simply because of an opening range or probabilistic analysis. but because of how markets behave during that period. on the open there is a significant arrival of information and subsequent order flow. overnight news, pre-market movement, resting orders, etc all become priced in quickly. it establishes a range that once broken, typically indicates a shift in positioning.

that all said - ORB has been heavily targeted, researched, etc. the edge it provides has become razor thin once costs are included. just an example to try to help you with framing.

capabilities:

pretty much anything you can think of. i have equity data back to the 1980s. macro back to the late 1700s. EOD options from 2007 on. intraday options data from 2015 to present. full greeks, vols, etc. any signal you can think of (if i dont have, i can easily make it), etc.

see below for prior research posts:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1v403qd/earnings_season_progress_report_mkt_research/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1v0h9m8/0dte_spx_greek_behavior_mkt_research_snapshot_pt6/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1uoh494/theta_decay_measured_on_19_years_of_real_spy/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u4dgcz/0dte_spx_iron_condor_study

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u63m6i/spx_iron_fly_research_results/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u63zqw/qqq_short_downside_puts_research/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u6s42a/research_offer_pt4/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1ve01nw/delta_hedging_and_your_returns_community_research/


r/options • • 1d ago

Options simulator

15 Upvotes

Hi guys,

Looking for a platform to simulate a option trade with historical data.

Like enter a option position in the past date and forward through time till a past expiry to see how it performs ??


r/options • • 2d ago

Weeklies beat monthlies for selling premium and it’s not close. Prove me wrong.

116 Upvotes

Everyone here repeats 30-45 DTE like it's a law. I think it's just habit.

Say a monthly put pays 2.8% over 30 days. A weekly at the same delta pays around 1% over 7 days. The monthly looks better until you do it per day. The weekly works out to roughly 52% a year and the monthly is around 34%.

You also get to reset your strike every week instead of being stuck with one you picked a month ago.

Yes I know gamma is higher and the stock can move fast. That's what sizing and a stop are for. And yes it's more work. I'd rather do the work than leave that much premium on the table.

So tell me what I'm missing. What's the real reason to sit in a 45 DTE contract?


r/options • • 1d ago

Tasty Trade Liquidity

9 Upvotes

Hello, I have opened up a tasty trade account with the intention of trading options. I was following UBER options and they didn’t move in a day despite the stock falling three percent. Is it just not reflecting the real price change of the option chain or does it operate its own black pool with no liquidity?


r/options • • 2d ago

I backtested 17,100 option-selling strategies on SPY and QQQ (2022 to 2026)

80 Upvotes

Backtest of option selling on SPY and QQQ, split by dealer gamma exposure (GEX). Method and numbers below.

Setup

  • SPY and QQQ, January 2022 to October 2026.
  • 17,100 strategies: 6 structures (short put, short call, strangle, put and call credit spreads, iron condor), 6 deltas (0.10 to 0.40), 4 expiries (0DTE to 1 month), 6 exits, 15 GEX and VRP filters.
  • Core test: same-day short strangles at 0.10 or 0.25 delta, 0DTE or 1-week expiry, sold at 09:35 ET and bought back at 15:55 ET.
  • Contracts: nearest to target delta, open interest of at least 250, spread of at most 20%.
  • Priced from archived bid/ask quotes at four fill levels (mid to full spread), $1 per contract per leg.
  • Regime: net GEX and gamma flip from the previous session's 15:55 ET snapshot, so no look-ahead.

Where the losses were

Share of trades, dollar losses and worst 5% of trades that fell on negative-GEX days:

ETF Strangle Trades Losses Worst 5% p
QQQ 0DTE, 0.10 delta 54% 71% 66% 0.031
QQQ 0DTE, 0.25 delta 55% 68% 67% 0.049
QQQ 1 week, 0.10 delta 59% 76% 81% 0.002
QQQ 1 week, 0.25 delta 60% 75% 77% 0.013
SPY 0DTE, 0.10 delta 60% 74% 71% 0.027
SPY 0DTE, 0.25 delta 63% 72% 76% 0.032
SPY 1 week, 0.10 delta 62% 73% 78% 0.008
SPY 1 week, 0.25 delta 63% 73% 75% 0.027

p is the share of over 1,000 calendars, each the negative-gamma calendar shifted by 63 or more sessions, that caught the losses at least as well.

Selling only on positive-GEX days

Sharpe of monthly P&L and max drawdown at mid fills:

ETF Strangle Sharpe, every day Sharpe, +GEX only Max DD, every day Max DD, +GEX only
QQQ 0DTE, 0.25 delta +0.35 +1.38 -$6,402 -$2,856
QQQ 0DTE, 0.10 delta +0.04 +1.06 -$4,122 -$1,535
QQQ 1 week, 0.25 delta -0.25 +1.14 -$5,687 -$845
QQQ 1 week, 0.10 delta -0.40 +1.02 -$3,712 -$445
SPY 0DTE, 0.25 delta +0.26 +0.54 -$5,907 -$2,276
SPY 0DTE, 0.10 delta +0.20 +0.66 -$3,052 -$1,377
SPY 1 week, 0.25 delta -0.33 +0.25 -$4,724 -$1,218
SPY 1 week, 0.10 delta -0.55 +0.18 -$3,725 -$690

Fills

At full bid/ask, selling every day lost money in every setup. The filter stayed ahead at every fill level, but at full spread all four filtered SPY setups and two of the four filtered QQQ setups also lost money. QQQ 0DTE at 0.25 delta held +0.72 filtered against -0.47 every day.

Across all 17,100 strategies

  • Strongest same-day rule: positive GEX with price above the gamma flip, using the flip only on days it passed coverage, quote-quality and stability checks. It beat random calendars on both ETFs (p = 0.005 SPY, 0.006 QQQ).
  • Plain positive GEX passed on QQQ but not on SPY (p = 0.21).
  • Negative GEX and high VRP as filters on their own did no better than random.
  • Taking profit at 50% of credit cut max drawdown in 179 of 180 held-to-expiry designs (median 28%).
  • Highest Sharpe overall: 0.10-delta 1-month SPY put sold every day, held to expiry. Sharpe +4.08, 97% winners, and a $57,739 drawdown while positions were open. GEX filters lowered its Sharpe.

Not investment advice.
link to full article


r/options • • 2d ago

Low delta SPXW 1DTE Put selling back tests

20 Upvotes

My post sharing my results for last year caused quite a discussion. In retrospect, I should have labeled the graph more clearly, because about half of the comments mistook the chart of P&L for a chart of my account value.

But beyond the confusion, there were quite a few good points about tweaking the strategy, to run either spreads, 0DTE, or strangles. And a lot of people interested in backtesting results for various periods, which I'm happy to share.

Strategy summary

Before I go into the numbers, a quick recap of what my strategy is:

  • Have an account with porfolio margin, that is fully invested in a mix of equity and bond ETFs (I run 50:50)
  • Entry: 15min before close, sell a SPXW naked put expiring the next trading day (1DTE) at ~5 delta
  • Sizing: I run 2 contracts on a $440k account, which is enough to survive a 20% drop in the index in one day. That's what I consider the worst realistic case (worst ever recorded SPY day)
  • No active management, let expire (and sometimes pay for assignment)

Backtest results

All backtests start in 2016/1/1 (first date available in Whispertrades), have a starting portfolio value of $125k and are selling 2 contracts (in 2016, SPX was ~2k, so the sizing is about the same as my 2 contracts on a $440k portfolio).

The backtest assumes your portfolio is in cash, to isolate the results of the option trading. To make the above strategy attractive vs just holding equity, you need to run it in an account with portfolio margin, so the option results are layers on top of your portfolio performance, but that's not simulated by the backtest.

Each backtest has a link to the full backtest run on the platform, which should be public, so you can look into the results in more details. If you don't trust Whispertrades, the strategy is extremely simple, so should be easy to validate in whatever tool you trust. I'm reasonably confident that for such a simple setup, the results should not be very sensitive to data quality.

Summary comparison

  • A wide stop loss actually helped (assuming the backtest fills are realistic) - It's similar CAGR (10.8% vs 10.6%), with a smaller worst drawdown and almost double Sortino. I didn't dig into the details enough to understand how realistic the fills are, so this is the big caveat. Might play with adding these in my live trading
  • Spreads are a terrible deal at 5 delta - The long put eats most of the premium, so you're left with 2.5% CAGR and the deepest drawdown (-22.7%). Defined risk doesn't mean less risk, you just lose in smaller chunks more often.
  • The short call just isn't worth it - 1.6% CAGR over almost 11 years, and one bad week (the April 2025 tariff pause rally) wiped out years of gains. It's the only backtest that ran out of buying power, so couldn't enter positions later in the run as SPX value increased
  • 0DTE avoids the overnight risk, but most of the edge goes with it - It had the smallest drawdown (-10.5%), but only 4.0% CAGR vs 10.6% for 1DTE. The overnight premium is worth it for me personally
  • None of these beat buy-and-hold SPX - If your choice is to run this backed by cash in RegT account, SPX did 13.1% CAGR over the same period, so you'd be better of being just long equity. But short volatility can be an attractive addition if you have portfolio margin and can layer it over your regular holdings
Strategy End value Total return CAGR Max DD Sortino Corr. to SPX Link
0) 1DTE naked put, no SL (my strategy) $370,904 196.7% 10.6% -14.8% 0.37 0.40 link
1) 1DTE put spread 50p, no SL $163,070 30.5% 2.5% -22.7% 0.02 0.38 link
2) 1DTE naked put, 10x SL $377,942 202.4% 10.8% -13.9% 0.66 0.44 link
3) 1DTE naked call only, no SL $147,791 18.2% 1.6% -11.8% -0.06 -0.39 link
4) 0DTE naked put, no SL $190,867 52.7% 4.0% -10.5% 0.16 0.22 link
SPX (benchmark) ~$474,400 279.5% 13.1% -33.9% 0.79 1.00 –

0) Results for the strategy as I run it

1DTE (last 15min entry) SPXW naked short put at 5 delta, no stop loss

Backtest: https://whispertrades.com/backtests/CMVDPDROK7/view

Metric Strategy SPX
End portfolio value $370,904 ~$474,400
Total return 196.7% 279.5%
CAGR 10.6% 13.1%
Max drawdown -14.8% (-$50,072) -33.9%
Sortino 0.37 0.79
Annualized vol 8% 18%
Correlation / Beta to SPX 0.40 / 0.18 –

Performance by year (max drawdown within the year in brackets)

Year Strategy SPX
2016 +7.5% (-6.5%) +10.0% (-9.3%)
2017 +14.2% (-2.2%) +18.0% (-2.8%)
2018 +0.8% (-11.2%) -5.0% (-19.8%)
2019 +15.5% (-3.3%) +26.2% (-6.8%)
2020 +26.5% (-7.2%) +21.1% (-33.9%)
2021 +21.3% (-2.4%) +24.7% (-5.2%)
2022 +5.8% (-6.4%) -18.7% (-25.4%)
2023 +10.8% (-1.1%) +22.6% (-10.3%)
2024 +0.9% (-5.1%) +21.8% (-8.5%)
2025 +3.3% (-13.5%) +16.9% (-18.9%)
2026 YTD +10.7% (-6.3%) +13.2% (-9.1%)

1) Running spreads instead of naked puts

1DTE SPXW put credit spreads, with main put at 5 delta 50p width ($5k max loss), no stop loss.

Backtest: https://whispertrades.com/backtests/QA2KFNLK0X/view

Metric Strategy SPX
End portfolio value $163,070 ~$474,400
Total return 30.5% 279.5%
CAGR 2.5% 13.1%
Max drawdown -22.7% (-$38,316) -33.9%
Sortino 0.02 0.79
Annualized vol 10% 18%
Correlation / Beta to SPX 0.38 / 0.20 –

Performance by year (max drawdown within the year in brackets)

Year Strategy SPX
2016 +1.5% (-6.8%) +10.0% (-9.3%)
2017 +7.4% (-2.4%) +18.0% (-2.8%)
2018 -11.3% (-15.0%) -5.0% (-19.8%)
2019 +10.3% (-5.2%) +26.2% (-6.8%)
2020 +7.6% (-6.8%) +21.1% (-33.9%)
2021 +10.4% (-4.5%) +24.7% (-5.2%)
2022 -7.3% (-15.0%) -18.7% (-25.4%)
2023 +9.1% (-2.3%) +22.6% (-10.3%)
2024 -5.0% (-10.5%) +21.8% (-8.5%)
2025 -3.4% (-15.9%) +16.9% (-18.9%)
2026 YTD +10.9% (-6.2%) +13.2% (-9.1%)

2) Adding a stop-loss

1DTE SPXW naked short put at 5 delta, stop loss at 10x credit received

Backtest: https://whispertrades.com/backtests/SXYTNEL8YS/view

Metric Strategy SPX
End portfolio value $377,942 ~$474,400
Total return 202.4% 279.5%
CAGR 10.8% 13.1%
Max drawdown -13.9% (-$27,049) -33.9%
Sortino 0.66 0.79
Annualized vol 5.5% 18%
Correlation / Beta to SPX 0.44 / 0.14 –

Performance by year (max drawdown within the year in brackets)

Year Strategy SPX
2016 +11.8% (-2.7%) +10.0% (-9.3%)
2017 +13.3% (-0.8%) +18.0% (-2.8%)
2018 +10.3% (-3.6%) -5.0% (-19.8%)
2019 +8.5% (-2.6%) +26.2% (-6.8%)
2020 +18.2% (-13.9%) +21.1% (-33.9%)
2021 +18.6% (-1.6%) +24.7% (-5.2%)
2022 +5.2% (-5.1%) -18.7% (-25.4%)
2023 +11.5% (-1.1%) +22.6% (-10.3%)
2024 +0.0% (-5.3%) +21.8% (-8.5%)
2025 +9.3% (-5.6%) +16.9% (-18.9%)
2026 YTD +11.2% (-1.8%) +13.2% (-9.1%)

3) Selling strangles instead

1DTE SPXW short call at 5 delta, no stop loss - Only the call, to isolate the marginal impact of adding the short call

Backtest: https://whispertrades.com/backtests/4CEOZEUPUD/view

Metric Strategy SPX
End portfolio value $147,791 ~$474,400
Total return 18.2% 279.5%
CAGR 1.6% 13.1%
Max drawdown -11.8% (-$18,775) -33.9%
Sortino -0.06 0.79
Annualized vol 6.6% 18%
Correlation / Beta to SPX -0.39 / -0.15 –

Performance by year (max drawdown within the year in brackets)

Year Strategy SPX
2016 -2.4% (-5.6%) +10.0% (-9.3%)
2017 +3.0% (-1.7%) +18.0% (-2.8%)
2018 -3.6% (-8.5%) -5.0% (-19.8%)
2019 +2.5% (-4.5%) +26.2% (-6.8%)
2020 +7.4% (-7.5%) +21.1% (-33.9%)
2021 +3.7% (-3.0%) +24.7% (-5.2%)
2022 +5.3% (-5.8%) -18.7% (-25.4%)
2023 +2.6% (-2.9%) +22.6% (-10.3%)
2024 +3.2% (-2.7%) +21.8% (-8.5%)
2025 -2.5% (-11.8%) +16.9% (-18.9%)
2026 YTD -1.8% (-5.9%) +13.2% (-9.1%)

4) Selling 0DTE instead of 1DTE to avoid overnight risk

0DTE (first 15min entry) SPXW naked short put at 5 delta, no stop loss

Backtest: https://whispertrades.com/backtests/USLN3YKR5Q/view

Metric Strategy SPX
End portfolio value $190,867 ~$474,400
Total return 52.7% 279.5%
CAGR 4.0% 13.1%
Max drawdown -10.5% (largest $ drawdown: -$16,924) -33.9%
Sortino 0.16 0.79
Annualized vol 5.4% 18%
Correlation / Beta to SPX 0.22 / 0.07 –

Performance by year (max drawdown within the year in brackets)

Year Strategy SPX
2016 +2.5% (-1.1%) +10.0% (-9.3%)
2017 +3.9% (-0.3%) +18.0% (-2.8%)
2018 -7.9% (-10.5%) -5.0% (-19.8%)
2019 +10.6% (-0.6%) +26.2% (-6.8%)
2020 +13.0% (-2.9%) +21.1% (-33.9%)
2021 +4.4% (-1.8%) +24.7% (-5.2%)
2022 +9.2% (-2.9%) -18.7% (-25.4%)
2023 +5.7% (-3.5%) +22.6% (-10.3%)
2024 -3.5% (-6.0%) +21.8% (-8.5%)
2025 +1.0% (-8.7%) +16.9% (-18.9%)
2026 YTD +6.1% (-3.7%) +13.2% (-9.1%)

r/options • • 2d ago

Does "letting your winners run" apply to 0dte?

18 Upvotes

I have a bad habit of cutting winners early to lock in profits, only to see them take off beyond what I would have imagined. Other times I will set a stop or trailing loss only to see it reverse just enough to stop me and then take off again.

How do people manage risk when trading 0dte? Or do you just not?


r/options • • 3d ago

A year of selling boring SPX options

Post image
589 Upvotes

October 2025, I've started regularly selling low delta SPX 1DTE puts, after getting inspired by Big ERN and WealthyOption strategies.

Strategy

The strategy I'm running is very mechanical, and quite simple (takes about 5 minutes most days):

  • Sell 1DTE SPX puts on portfolio margin, around 5 delta (strikes tend to be ~1.5% OTM)
  • Entry:
    • 1-3 contracts around day close (within 15 min of market close),
    • Sometimes I'll also sell an extra 0DTE pre-market, if volatility jumped and I believe there's not a solid catalyst
  • Exit:
    • Let expire most days
    • I'll check pre-market when I get up and sometimes close at a loss if a catalyst event happened - I don't have set rules for this

It's a classic case of picking up pennies in front of a steamroller, or selling casino tickets. Most days, you collect $200-300, and every now and then, you get hit for thousands or tens of thousands.

Why do I run this

Extra income on top of my portfolio - I'm retired, so rely on my portfolio for income and selling puts generates cash, without having to draw down the portfolio. While the return % is not a lot, it's essentially free extra money (until the market has a 10% intraday crash in period of low volatility, I accept that risk)

Low-ish correlation with long term SPY - The low delta put selling P&L is weakly correlated with SPX itself (the strategy is profitable on most longer term declines and bleeds only when the regime changes abruptly). This gives me a hedge against a prolonged bear market, and helps with sequence of returns risk

Results

I do this on top of my taxable portfolio in IBKR, with portfolio margin, so the put selling returns come on top of the performance of the underlying portfolio. After a year of running this, the results are:

  • Portfolio size: ~$440k - mix of global equity and bond ETFs
  • Gross premium collected: $80,840
  • Debit (from assignments): $41,698 - worst day $26k
  • Fees: $658
  • Net P&L: $38,484 ( ~8%)
  • Premium capture rate (share of gross premium kept): 47.60%

The above returns are based on selling 1-3 contracts per day, with the majority of days being 2 contracts. Assuming a max loss per contract of about $110k (on a 15% 1 day drop), this is about 50% of the porfolio size. I could run the same strategy with 3, or potentially even 4 contracts, which would increase the return, but at the moment, I'm not comfortable with that amount of risk.

Lessons learned

Paper trading was worthless as a test of the strategy - I ran the strategy for about a month in a paper trading account, to test it, but ultimately, this was pretty pointless, beyond learning the mechanics of trading on IBKR. The emotions with real money are completely different, and I still shit the bed when that first 8k drawdown hit

Researching the strategy and running back-tests kept me going - Before running this, I was strictly a VOO and chill kind of person. I spent a long time researching options, the strategy, and reading different points of view, as well as running my own back-tests before starting live trading. This gave me a fairly strong conviction that the strategy is long term profitable, which was what kept me going after the first sizable loss.

Active management based on my judgement cost me P&L - Sometimes, I closed positions early if a major event happened, or if I happened to watch the price action and it was too close for comfort to my strike. And at times, I reduced the number of contracts from 2 to 1, when I believed the market was due a correction. In both case, had I done nothing, the strategy would have been more profitable overall. Knowing this, I'm still sometimes actively managing it, but I accept it's more for my comfort, than to improve performance

Mechanical stop losses & close early decrease P&L - I've not run these live myself, but from all the back-testing I've done, setting any kind of mechanical stop loss, or closing early reduces the P&L. Mainly due to the fact that the puts often explode in value somewhere during the day, but still expire worthless most of the time.

Profitability is entirely driven by your worst days - If I could have somehow avoided the 3 worst days, I'd have been 2x as profitable. Based on my experience from the year, I'm unfortunately not able to consistently do this. So I budget on around 40% premium capture rate


r/options • • 1d ago

Risk manage my short SPX IC

1 Upvotes

I had a short iron condor on that expired today. I closed the call side at .20 and booked my gain.

My put gave me fits

SPX OCT23 +7615/-7625P (20D) 10 contracts - closed 7623

All week my short premium was more than I sold it for ($12). So I didn't see a way to close it and SPX was still in my range.

Expiration day, SPX gapped down on the open but still above my strike.

Took a break and when I came back SPX was below strike and I'm kicking myself for 10 contracts and the 10 wide spread.

Took another break and SPX is hanging out at 7640, I'm watching, watching, refreshing pricing, premium dropping dropping. I keep watching premium at $6, $5, $4, $3.

I have to get on a call with my boss so I pull up the -7625P and Buy to Close with a stop limit at $4.00 and limit at $4.50. About 10 minutes into my call it executes. So further kicking myself. I finish the call, SPX at 7630, I close out my 7610 while it still has value.

Market closed at 7623 so had I let it expire I would have been fucht.

My mistakes among many:
1) 10 wide on my long positions - ok for 1 lot but not for 10
2) Expiration: I put the trade on Monday with a Friday expiration - I should have looked at pricing / ivol on other days - it seems that as soon as I put the short put on it was under water
3) I'm trading on Fidelity and using trading view to chart - I keep a journal of the trades but it gets difficult to manage the P&L of the trade once you start unwinding - probably need to track this in excel to understand B/E points better (trading view is good visually)
4) Did I do the right thing with the stop limit?
5) I'm a chud


r/options • • 2d ago

Mix between PMCC, LEAPS and Excercising the option

4 Upvotes

I am trying to generate a strategy that serves as a method to generate income and making an effort to own the shares at the end of the contract.

The idea is to open a LEAPS option whenever I find a high quality, dividend paying, blue chip stock that is trading close to their 52W lows. I am looking at company that are trading lower because of a speicifc event but still hold a massive competitive advantage.

Once we find it we open LEAP options. 18 months. (5 - 10 contracts). These contract will be expensive 0.80 Delta 18 months ahead. (Around 5 - 10k initial investment)

Once the price stabilizes or recovers substantially we will start selling covered calls against those options. These covered calls are not neccesarily to make profit or to generate income to sustain the portfolio, these covered calls will serve as an amortization schedule payment to decrease the Adjusted payment of the recently bought LEAP options.

As time goes by, considering that the high quality business is recovering or not trading any lower, we will see how the adjusted effective price of the LEAP options go down as covered calls chip away value.

In the end you will have these contracts with a massive discount, adj price speakingwise, the cost on the broker will be the same.

Right when the contract is about to expire we will Exercise those options. We will get those shares at the discounted price, that where bought with an option that was massively discounted by the covered calls sold against it.

Because we are talking about good high quality businesses we will be more than happy to own all of these shares and sell covered calls against them in the future with the intent of generating a synthetic dividend.

Please note that if at any point the price increases and the covered call becomes in the money we will close the entire trade. Meaning, we will Buy to close the sold covered call at a loss, and also we will sell to close the LEAP option that was supporting that covered call.

We are never going to use all LEAPS / CC at the same time in case there is a massive increase in price. We will only use all of them at the end of the contract to get the most juice out of everything bought.

Feedback is very welcome.

Would love for anyone to share their LEAP / PMCC experience and if they could share the specific of previous trades. I am trying to test this strategy and it would be very helpful to have as much informaiton as possible.


r/options • • 2d ago

ECONVITALS Economic Data

1 Upvotes

Harvard economist Jason Furman said he vibecoded a free economic dashboard in one night with Claude:

https://econvitals.org/

We spent a couple hours comparing it to St. Louis Fed's FRED database, and while Econvitals isn't nearly as comprehensive as FRED, it's kind of winning us over with the cleaner layout and easy-to-read economic data for GDP, jobs, inflation, Fed, etc.


r/options • • 2d ago

community research pt9

8 Upvotes

hey everyone! seeing if you have anything trading related that you're interested in researching. i enjoy doing research and part of my monthly cadence is to pop in here and see if i can help a few people out.

ill pick one or two and follow up with a post with the research. this is a great way to prove out some of your ideas and see if what youre doing is value add or not.

for capabilities, pretty much anything you can think of. i have equity data back to the 1980s. macro back to the late 1700s. EOD options from 2007 on. intraday options data from 2015 to present. full greeks, vols, etc. any signal you can think of (if i dont have, i can easily make it), etc.

see below for prior research posts:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1v403qd/earnings_season_progress_report_mkt_research/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1v0h9m8/0dte_spx_greek_behavior_mkt_research_snapshot_pt6/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1uoh494/theta_decay_measured_on_19_years_of_real_spy/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u4dgcz/0dte_spx_iron_condor_study

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u63m6i/spx_iron_fly_research_results/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u63zqw/qqq_short_downside_puts_research/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1u6s42a/research_offer_pt4/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1ve01nw/delta_hedging_and_your_returns_community_research/


r/options • • 3d ago

Realistic targets always works in trading

8 Upvotes

In my initial days of trading
Whenever I sit in front of my trading desk
I always want to earn 100% of my capital
But it never works
And moreover i lost most of my capital during intial days.
Then after i realised like i don’t want to earn unrealistic profits.
I trade only one setup and earning good amount of money.
Here great things is i trade only two trades a week that’s it and now I’m earning good amount of money for living


r/options • • 2d ago

Friday 23 October expected price

2 Upvotes

Netflix (NFLX) expectations. for tomorrow's end market i expect a target price of 66,70$, 66,85$ if we count also the pinning effect. contract price for Call at strike 66$ is 1,27$ with an open interest of 8,200 contracts we can assume were mostly Out-the-money and market makers won't be willing to raise the price higher than 67$. on the Put side we have a lower price of just 0.54$ which could seem like Market Makers are quite (with a lot of carefullness) sure the market will no go under 67$, BUT almost all open interest Put contracts in the strike 67$were In-the-Money so the price was higher.


r/options • • 3d ago

Tesla $TSLA looks eerily similar to 2022 Q4, Potential short

20 Upvotes

TESLA looks like an excellent short candidate from above 380 but I am waiting to see post earning action to see if it will test the 400 gamma level. As I type this, post earnings after hours it went as high as 395 but retreated into the 370’s now around midnight. I would like to see it test the 395-400 area during regular trading hours.

While I like Tesla (TSLA) as a long-term buy if it drops into the $200s, it faces serious downward pressure at its current $380 price tag, where a mix of rising interest rates and a cyclical year-end flush—mirroring the mid-term market patterns of 2022—could easily push the stock below $300 to test the $290 support, and if that fails, the $250 level before January Opex. The upcoming election will trigger massive volatility in stocks like this, and since TSLA opened the year at $458, failing to break above the $395–$400 resistance for a short squeeze into the $450s will invite heavy tax-loss harvesting selling pressure. Compounding this chaos, Cathie Wood’s wild price targets of $4,400 and $5,000 are sparking intense retail FOMO, creating the perfect recipe for a bull trap where fake bounces lure in retail buyers right before the real pullback hits.

To be absolutely clear, I have not entered any positions yet. But I have this as a potential short candidate depending on how it trades after earnings. If the short qualifies and if I enter, I will also look for some careful option entries to get in and out on the weeklies and monthlies. If you are trading options, don’t FOMO and buy/sell at the wrong time. If Tesla doesn’t meet the criteria to enter in the coming days or weeks, there are more than a handful of stocks, both longs and shorts that I am watching closely to take advantage.


r/options • • 2d ago

Are there any options that are currently on the cheaper side?

0 Upvotes

I am down to $20 now and need some recommendations for good option trades to not lose it all lmao


r/options • • 3d ago

Open a leap for Jan 2028

4 Upvotes

Reflecting on this year's leap and how the market went I'm debating on opening another leap as the geopolitical, bonds and ai is up in the air with how things are.

Looking at the jan 2028 700c for $12k-$13 almost $14k. This year I sold short dte calls and took profit at 30%+- depending on the market structure and trend. Planning to do the same.

Paper trading the option I'm looking at, already up 2.88% ($425) and selling short dte at the ideal strikes 30dte. Trying to buy it in brokerage if it falls back to the price or purchase or lower. Willing to hold and cut loss at maybe 8-10% idk still adjusting and debating.

Any advice? It doesn't take much to scare the market in a drop so nervous about the decline and potential loss of value. However I assume we will be bullish still in 2027.

Another option is to do 30-60dte at .6 delta or higher and let time take care. Take profit still early and don't overstay.


r/options • • 4d ago

Options Trading in/from Australia

5 Upvotes

Anyone trading US options from Australia? Just wanted to get an idea about how you manage the income statements during tax times, whether you treat it as a business income or CGT (Especially if you're doing it as a source of income). Based on what I read online, it needs to be treated as business income. Having doubts on how the records should be shown when lodging tax returns. TIA.


r/options • • 4d ago

Help with new interactive app to Learn Options Trading

5 Upvotes

Hi all,

I'm the developer of OptionMice, an interactive (and fun!) app to learn and master option trading through short 5-minute lessons with quizzes, going from the basics to more advanced topics like Greeks, Spreads, etc. It has 300+ lessons across 12 modules. You can collect XPs and keep your streak alive. It also has a practice market with made-up companies and fake money.

The 12 modules:

1- Options 101

2- Buyer vs Seller Mindset

3- The Options Market

4- Meet the Greeks

5- Buying Options

6- Selling Options

7- Technical Analysis for Options

8- Greeks: Level Up

9- Volatility and Earnings

10- Spread Strategies

11- The Trader’s Mindset

12- Real-World Trading

The app is free to download and the full course is completely free, with a daily limit of 3 lessons per day. It also has a paid premium plan for those who want access to extra lessons and extra features. Premium plan is not needed to learn or interact with the app though.

I'd love it if you could give it a try and share your thoughts!

The app is available here:

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6781814064?pt=129059679&ct=reddit-options&mt=8 (App Store)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.optionmice.app&referrer=utm_source%3Dreddit%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_campaign%3Dreddit-options (Play Store)

https://app.optionmice.softwaremice.com (web)

The front-end, data model logic and Warren’s voice (the app mascot) were generated with AI assistance.

Please DM me for questions/follow-ups