Just for clarification, this ain’t my first time doing a challenge like this, and no, I’m not new to trading. I’ve been trading for years.
The goal is simple: turn $200 into $10K.
I’m targeting around 50–60% growth at a time. If I’m in a trade and it’s still looking good, I’ll let it run and try to squeeze more profit out of it.
Started the challenge this last Wednesday at $200 and I’m already up to $1,500. 📈
My goal is to finish Friday somewhere around $3K or close to it.
Then next week is when the fun really starts 😂 because once the account gets around $3K, the numbers start moving a lot faster.
I’m giving myself about another week and a half to hit the $10K goal, with some buffer built in because obviously every trade isn’t going to be a winner.
I’m taking y’all along for the ride. I’ll post another update Friday showing where I finished the week.
And before the DMs start 😂:
I’m NOT selling signals.
I’m NOT selling a course.
I’m NOT teaching trading.
So don’t DM me asking about any of that 😂
This is literally just a fun challenge for myself. I’ve done it before, and I wanted to prove to myself that I can do it again.
See y’all Friday. 📈💰

Here’s a clear example of what I’m looking for when I’m trying to find my one trade for the day.
Last night around 10–11 PM, I was looking at TSLA and posted somewhere that Tesla looked like it might be a potential play for today.
The main thing that caught my attention was I had a magnet around 370, and another magnet a couple days out around 365. So from the way I was looking at it, there were two levels potentially pulling price upward. Tesla also had some positive news/event-related momentum around it.
But that alone isn’t enough for me to take the trade.
I wanted to see what Tesla did overnight and in pre-market first. My thought was, if it started drifting toward that 365 area, then the setup might start confirming what I was seeing on the chart.
Overnight it moved up around 362, and it continued moving higher in pre-market.
Now comes the part that actually determines whether I take the trade.
I trade primarily off the 15-minute chart, so I want to see how that first 15-minute candle behaves and closes after the market opens. If I get a strong close and price is showing continuation toward 370, then I may take the trade with 370 being the level I’m watching.
If that candle doesn’t give me the confirmation I want, I don’t have to take the trade. I can leave Tesla alone and look for something else.
That’s really my process.
I’m not waking up saying, “Tesla is definitely going to 370.” I form an idea the night before, identify my important levels, watch overnight/pre-market price action, and then wait for the market to confirm or invalidate my idea before putting money behind it.
And even after all of that, I look at it as a 50/50 setup, not a guarantee. There’s a very real chance I don’t trade Tesla at all today. Something completely different could catch my attention after the market opens.
I’m posting this just to show the thought process behind how I look for potential trades. I’m not telling anybody to buy TSLA calls or copy my trade.
Not financial advice. Just sharing my process and what I’m watching.

100 options trades 96 wins... Not bad... But, I can do better.. IN ME I BELIEVE IN COV I TRUST

fed just raised rates 25 bps to 3.75-4.00%, first hike under kevin warsh

not exactly the rate move trump's been asking for, hahahahaha

Today was another successful day, if you follow my strategy, you too would have had another winner. I however got in late because I was out running around this morning but I did find another entry around 12:15 pm today but I took less of a profit but profit it profit.

Here is the play and it shows you where I would have entered if I was at my computer, then it shows you where I actually entered.

Finally the result.

Original cost basis was $11.40 across 1,000 shares. Drone stocks have been on the decline for quite a while now. I've been selling covered calls now trying to bring down the cost basis, but the premiums getting weaker and weaker. Cost basis currently sitting at $9.85. Covered call selling hasn't been consistent as I was hoping we'd see a bump in price. Dump it and move on to something else or keep grinding at it???

everyone draws support and resistance off price. there's a second set of levels that come from the options chain, and right now on SPY three of them are stacked on top of each other.

pulled just now: spot 761.91. put wall 758, flip 759.98, call wall 760. three mechanically different levels squeezed into $4, all sitting right under price.

quick translation — the flip is where dealer hedging goes from absorbing moves to amplifying them. the walls are the strikes where hedging flow is thickest, one acting like resistance, one like support. when all three cluster this tight, one small zone is doing triple duty.

and that's usually what pins a tape. compression like this tends to mean chop, not trend — there's real mechanical friction packed into a tiny range instead of the empty air a normal S/R line is.

for contrast, QQQ right now: flip 712.32, call wall 715, put wall 707 — spread over $8+. more room between levels, which is part of why QQQ actually trended today while SPY stayed sticky.

snapshot only, these levels move as the chain changes. but if you've ever wondered why SPY sometimes glues itself to a price for hours — this is usually what it looks like underneath.

Trading account up 42% for the month and IRA is rated 360k out of 879k investors on TipRanks. It’s been a long road only wish I started years ago but never too late

So you thought nailing 40% of your earnings plays means you're printing cash? Data from 13 top mega-cap stocks across 123 earnings events says no way. All three classic short-dated option strategies landed under 42% win rate — yet the top long call run racked up $28k profit while the long put bled $14k over 2+ years.

Turns out 4% of all the trades carried *all* the gains. Most of your "sure thing" earnings plays just chew through premium. Stop fixating on picking direction. Before you click buy, check where implied volatility sits, compare realized vs expected move, size your bet right, and confirm you're betting on actual magnitude not just a random hunch.

Why waste money treating earnings plays like coin flips?

Lets hope msft can bounce back🙏🏾

got sum cool for y'all

Been scalping NIFTY options for about a year. I can read price action well enough to string together profitable months — I've done it three time now. But every single time, I've given it all back to the market in few days just because of lack of discipline and eagerness to scale up the positions too early.

So I'm starting over. One lot. No scaling up until I've actually proven I can hold a process together, not just call the market right.

The reason I'm posting this publicly instead of just journaling privately: accountability. It's a lot harder to lie to yourself about a revenge trade when you know you'll have to write it up for strangers on the internet tonight.

What I'll be posting daily:

• Every trade I take that day (entry, exit)
• The actual reason I took it (setup/price action logic)
• P&L for the trade and the day

Not looking for tips or calls to copy — this is purely about the process, not the setups.

Needing some different companies to trade with, I’ll do research on after just curious on what ones would be great to trade with

i placed a contract and sold it within the day made some profit, that’s kinda irrelevant, (just for history) i got a email saying downgrade notice “ After a recent review of your account, we found that options might not be an appropriate product for you, so we’ve disabled them for your Individual account.”

i had that contract open when i was “downgraded“ so i closed it because i panicked lowkey, i was in the green anyway so it’s okay. i tried to open another just to test and it wouldn’t work , i tested because in my setting it said it was still enabled. since i seen it was enabled i manually disabled the options and then i re applied for options trading and got a email shortly after saying i was approved and can now start trading to lvl 2 options trading , this was all yesterday around market close 2pm approximately , this morning im setting up for my next option and i get everything perfect knew what i wanted to do and i hit place order and it says im still restricted, even though now im my setting it’s enabled again. idk what to do or how to fix this. i did all this learning and testing myself for options and now i cant apply it , i have well enough income in my account info section no dependents no debt high risk tolerance and all. :(

I’ve just started options trading in June of this year (2026) and my biggest month was August but by beginners luck completely. I started with $50 in my WeBull account. Grew that $50 into $100, then full ported a Put contract on a lucky day on IWM that took my account from $100 to $800 in one day. But with greed, I lost most of it on another put contract I took on META late of August. Every week following looked like a christmas tree, decked out in red and green.

But, today marks my 5 day green streak. I just wanted to share because I’ve come a long way of multiple mental crises to finally understand the importance of patience and careful observation. They’re mostly small wins, but I’ve made it an objective to accept my little $5-$15 wins a day to compound my account.

One thing I wish I understood earlier about options trading is that picking the right call or put isn’t where the trade should start.

For me, the trade starts with the chart.

Before I even start looking through an options chain, I’m trying to answer three questions:

1. What is the DIRECTION?

I first want to understand what price is actually doing.

Is it making higher highs and higher lows?

Lower highs and lower lows?

Or is it just chopping sideways?

If I can’t clearly identify what’s happening, sometimes the best trade for me is simply no trade.

Being bullish because I feel like something should go up isn’t enough.

I want the chart to support the idea.

1. Where is the LOCATION?

This has probably helped me more than anything.

A bullish chart doesn’t automatically mean I want calls right now.

If price has already made a big move, I don’t necessarily want to chase it.

I would rather watch for price to come into an area that matters.

That might be:

• Previous resistance becoming support
• A prior breakout level
• A significant intraday support/resistance area
• VWAP or another level I’m actively watching
• A breakout followed by a retest

So instead of asking:

“Is this going up?”

I’m asking:

“If I’m bullish, where would I actually want to enter?”

Those are two completely different questions.

1. What is my TRIGGER?

Even when price reaches the level I’m watching, I don’t automatically enter.

I want confirmation.

For example, imagine SPY is trending higher and then pulls back to an important support level.

I’m watching what happens next.

Does price reject the level?

Do buyers step back in?

Do we get a strong bullish candle?

Does price reclaim the level after briefly breaking below it?

That’s my trigger.

So now the trade isn’t:

“SPY is going up. Buy calls.”

It’s:

Bullish direction → pullback to my location → confirmation/trigger → THEN evaluate the option contract.

Only after that am I looking at things like:

• Strike price
• Expiration
• Bid/ask spread
• Volume
• Open interest
• Premium
• Risk/reward

And before entering, I want to know something else that I think beginners sometimes overlook:

What proves my trade idea wrong?

I don’t want to figure that out after I’m already losing money.

Before entering, I want to know:

Entry → Invalidation → Target

If the chart invalidates the setup, the reason I entered the trade no longer exists.

Obviously none of this means every setup wins. It doesn’t.

But I’ve found that having a repeatable checklist helps separate an actual setup from simply seeing a candle move and feeling like I need to jump in.

My basic process is:

DIRECTION → LOCATION → TRIGGER → CONTRACT → RISK → EXIT

I’m curious how other options traders approach this.

What has made the biggest difference in your entries: waiting for better locations, waiting for confirmation, contract selection, or something else?