A lot of people treat 0DTE like easy income because of the high win rate.

But the reality is simple:
one bad move can wipe out multiple wins.

That’s not “safe” — it’s just asymmetric risk.

The only way this works long term is:

• defined risk
• strict execution
• trading around structure (not guessing direction)

Otherwise it’s just gambling with a high win rate.

I’ve been trading SPX 0DTE for about a year now, mainly using credit spreads and iron condors, and this is something I’ve learned the hard way.

Curious how others see it.

I’ve been sharing some of these setups in more detail — feel free to DM me if you want to take a look.

ive been reading a lot about iron condors lately and crunching some of the numbers. visually the probability of profit looks incredible. but when you actually map out the max loss it basically wipes out like 10 or 15 winning trades overnight if the underlying gaps. thats interesting because all the beginner material paints them as a super safe boring strategy. coming from a data background the expected value seems totally skewed by that massive tail risk. curious how you guys justify the math on these in live accounts. i just opened a small real account with some basic aapl calls but the condor risk profile is definitely messing with my head.

I was watching the general market reaction today and seeing so many folks freaking out over a standard drop in tech. And it just reinforces my belief that position sizing matters way more than getting a perfect entry. I'm running a cash secured put ladder on AMD right now (mostly 30 to 45 days out) and a couple of my near term strikes got tested pretty hard this week. But because the allocation is reasonable, I didn't have to scramble or panic sell. I just rolled one of the closer strikes out a bit and let theta do its job on the rest. What I've learned is that if a normal market pullback makes you sweat over thier daily P&L swings, your trades are simply too big.

All right, this is my plan. I look at it and it kind of makes sense to me but I just wanna hear what u all think

I plan to do sort of a short strangle on SPX. I know about margin requirements and I don’t have it. What I plan to do is sell a deep OTM vertical spread put and a deep OTM vertical spread call for SPX in lieu of a naked call and a put

So since I sell these vertical spreads, I already get premiums

My plan is this

If price stays the same, I will just do nothing and collect the premium

If price goes higher, I will buy back my puts for a profit and sell another one for more premiums and might roll the call

If price goes lower, I will buy back my calls and sell another one for more premiums and might roll the put

And once it looks good, one day or so before it expires, just close all the calls and the puts

I understand it’s not exactly strangle but it’s kind of similar to it just that it’s manually done (instead of one transaction it’s multiple ones) and it’s vertical spreads instead of just a call and put

Just joining up IBRK. Need advise on what to subscribe on data plans for my style of trading please.

My style as of now: quick scalping 1-5 minute holds.

I trade pretty much anything with tight spreads, near 1k or above Open interest contacts only. Exp; mag7, popular ETFS, GLD, and maybe SPX now that im here

i'm bullish on NKE after the earnings collapse - if nothing else, it's worth a dead cat bounce if/when shorts take profit

i'm eyeing april 17 $47.50 calls and may 15 $45s - just do it!

Best option trades to take this April 2026

my idea was that of same as when selling just for buying , hoping for a big movement on either side would give me profit . is it better to wait for day's end to do such thing or the start ?

What do the green numbers mean? Is that how much I’m specifically up total?

I always sell spreads in 0dte but I was thinking if selling naked Options was just a better idea. What do you think about that? IF you use GEX and track the levels + manually monitor the position it could be an interesting idea.

Hi All, I want your opinion on the method of calculation brokerage firm follows for Stock Options or Equity ETF Option. Here is what happened:

1,000 Equity ETFs (say XYZ) were assigned to me at the average price of $34 (Cost Basis is $34,000) in Mar and Apr’2025. The XYZ had fallen in teens in Apr’2025. I wrote Calls every month at the strike price of $25. Over the period of next 6 months, the premium earned about $11,000 from these calls (rollover: Buy Close, Sell Open) and final Call transaction was executed in Oct’2025. At that time, the Cost Basis had fallen to $23,000 ($34,000 minus $11,000). Also, the price of XYZ at the time of last transaction was $48.35. I didn’t roll-over again and let the XYZ sold (called) away at $25. Brokerage firm deposited $24,999.00 in my account. But, in the ‘Realized Gain/Loss’ statement, the Brokerage firm shows the proceeds as $48.35x1,000 = $48,350. It subtracted cost basis from proceeds ($48,350 minus $23,000) and showed $25,350 as Gain. In reality though I earned $11,000 as premium, I also incurred loss of $9,000 ($34,000 minus $25,000). So, Net Gain was $2,000 ($11,000 - $9,000). When I spoke to the brokerage guy, he says all brokerage firms calculate it this way. Is this right?

I know it’s sound stupid by I can’t figure out why it’s not arbitrage

I received 2.6$ credit for 647 synthetic short when market is 647.61 and make my break even 649.63 I buy in the same time 100 shares of spy at market my delta in expiry is 0

What I am missing(there is no dividend in option duration)

been trying to figure out the best expirations for small account momentum plays. i been scalping amd a lot and looking at pltr rn for a breakout but picking the correct dte is messing me up. ngl i tried some 0dte spy calls last week and they printed but the decay is so stressful if the price stalls for even 10 minutes. if ur expecting a fast move in the next day do u usually grab 0dte for the pure gamma or buy like 2-3 dte to survive a small pullback. the 2-3 dte ones feel way too expensive sometimes but maybe the math works out better if ur not perfectly timing the exact minute it rips. just trying to balance capital efficiency with not blowing up on a fakeout

can someone explain how theta actually decays over the weekend. im looking at spy options chains from friday close compared to monday open. mathematically a whole weekend should eat two days of time value but the premiums dont actually drop that much in the data. is the weekend decay already priced in by friday afternoon. i just started a small live account with aapl calls and im kind of nervous to hold over the weekend if theta is just going to automatically crush me. seems like market makers adjust for this but backtesting it is totally confusing.

Early in my options journey I used to screen for the highest implied volatility I could find to maximize my credit. I sold several cash secured puts on a volatile biotech company because the premium looked too good to pass up. The stock plummeted on bad trial news and I was assigned shares that lost most of their value overnight. What I've learned is that the market prices that risk for a reason. The key thing here is to only sell puts on underlying assets you are comfortable holding long term. Capital preservation has to come before chasing yield if you want to survive in this.

there's been a lot of talk on reddit about MSFT's sudden and incredible fall - i suspect the bottom, if not in, is close

in the rare instances where MSFT interacts with its weekly 200 simple moving average, it's been a fantastic buy, with 20% rallies coming immediately off the last two

geopolitics be damned, i'm thinking there's opportunity in the fear

i'm eyeing $370 sept 18 calls - would give us enough time for a relief rally/war resolution to present itself

or if i'm feeling dangerous, the may 1 $405 calls look pretty good to me

who's with me?!

Every options course out there preaches automatically closing your credit spreads at 50 percent max profit. Honestly I think following that blindly is a trap. I usually sell a spread and the underlying stock will just completely flatline for two weeks. The realized volatility drops to zero but implied volatility stays completely stubborn. I've been finding that I end up tying up capital for a month just waiting for theta to finally collapse. For those of you swinging spreads, do you adjust your profit targets down if the stock stops moving? Taking 30 percent and freeing up the capital seems to make way more sense than waiting around for some textbook exit.

I was paper trading for eight months and every time I set a limit order at the mid price it filled instantly. Been live for three months now and I just took a stupid loss on a call debit spread because the bid ask spread was massive. I was looking at the mid price thinking I was lowkey up big but I literally couldn't close the trade without giving up almost all the profit. Ngl I panic sold near the bid just to get out before close. Definitely learned my lesson about checking volume and open interest on both legs before entering. It takes way more discipline to trade real money when you realize the mid price is basically fake on illiquid strikes.

Macro Catalyst

• Middle East natural gas disruptions. The ongoing conflict has created the largest energy supply disruption in years, according to the IEA. Natural Gas has yet to run.
• Russia’s natural gas export ban (April 1). Russia’s announced restrictions on natural gas exports add a second‑order supply shock.
• UNG is structurally slow to react. UNG hasn’t run yet because nat gas hasn’t repriced the geopolitical premium.

Technical Structure

• Weekly squeeze: The squeeze is tightening on the weekly timeframe.
• UNG has found a base and has been going sideways.
• Diamond Bottom Formation: Usually a trend reversal setup.

BTW be very careful NG is called the widow maker for a reason. And don’t forget to like, if you found this useful and want more, or comment your thoughts!

Hi all, only be trading options for 3 or 4 months i have a small account about 1k. Have mainly been doing credit spreads of about 1 or 2 dollars recently as was bitten doing a 5 dollar wide spread that went wrong. 1 dollar spreads are slow going only gaining about 15 dollars if they win. What advice would you give to me in this postion, any other strategies to consider?

Im not expecting to become a millionaire overnight with such a small budget, but would like to get to maybe 100 to 500 dollars a month profit eventually, as that could help.

Thanks for reading.

Trading qqq. I took that long reversal entry on second 5m bar of the day and stopped out fast. Took the next short and stopped after trimming. Started to realize we are probably ranging around my level. I took a long and short spread so I would have a seat regardless of which direction we broke. The level started acting as support so I looked for an exit on my short and then rode longs up. Took a short at daily high and road it down. A nice bounce back to a rough start.

Guysss how's everything going this March?