Day Trading Options is a bad idea. Anyone else?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 3acor
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PM @jeffalvinson. He has been successfully day trading options for over 20 years with a system.

If you search his posts, he was very willing to discuss his method and there were a number of his posts outlined how he traded and how he selected his entries and exits. Like day trading the underlying, he established exit/stop before hand.

I tried it myself but could not generate enough profit to make it worthwhile.

Thanks a lot for your sharing!
 
@3acor If spread is your key concern, why not apply your thinking / strategy to higher value and highly liquid stocks, or the indices, rather than individual stocks?

I only trade "stocks in play" high liquid/high volatility but I started using options to trade the expensive stocks (150$+) but I found its better to just get a bigger capital and trade the stock itself
 
If you are "messing" you are not trading like a professional trader. You are giving money away to the floor traders to pay for their mistresses and for their cocaine habits.

I meant messing as in I never traded options before and looking to see how it is. I am not just gambling
 
If spreads are a concern then try to get away from those tickers that have more than .10 difference between the Bid/ask. Day trading options is a little different in that you are trying to predict a 1 to 2 standard deviation. They are out there and you can find them. You want to look for compression in the underlying. Also you don't have to go DITM to get your pay day. ATM works also and helps with risk due to the gamma. The opposite direction the underlying goes the slower the losses become. The reverse is for the underlying moving in your favor.

Do you use TOS? If so I can show you another trick a lot of options guys don't know about. There is an options chart just as well as the underlying chart, where you can see the position in a chart and apply studies or oscillators to it as well.
GL

Thanks for your reply. No I use IB TWS. The thing with options is that I use the OptionChain Trader and so when I want to enter a trade I have to use the mouse whereas if I trade the stock I can just use hotkeys. So by doing that I am very slow
The other thing is that the spread is huge so if I enter the trade and it goes against me right away, I immediately lose a lot.

I can see the option chart on TWS. I have VWAP and MA on it
 
In the money used to have tighter spreads and not much of a time decay bonus and track well at 10c accuracy.

Just means your paying $5 for a $53 stock strike 50, yes it can go to zero like a SL, but it can rebound back to $55+ Before expiration then all is good.

Traded stocks like above after PDT came in for a year full time, before screwing it up ofcourse.
 
Just means your paying $5 for a $53 stock strike 50, yes it can go to zero like a SL
"
How long have you been trading and around forum's LOL

Stop Loss, the Exit price on stocks / index's / Forex and even on Options, price drops to, it closes."
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you should learn correct terminology. An option/equity position can go to zero, not a stop loss.
 
"
How long have you been trading and around forum's LOL

Stop Loss, the Exit price on stocks / index's / Forex and even on Options, price drops to, it closes."
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you should learn correct terminology. An option/equity position can go to zero, not a stop loss.

Ahhh you can use SL's with Option to prevent going to Zero.

What I was refering to, was a fixed loss being $5 x 100 so $500 Max loss, but unlike a SL which when hit is over and gone on a stock, if you have enough time a Option can get back to profitable.

More you buy into the money, bigger your Stop Loss, lower the odds on taking a 100% loss, further out you go, more chance of getting back to + but also more added on for the time value.
 
I did it for a while. I had no problem with the spread. I traded SPY. I used simple EMA/MACD charts. I usually waited until 10 a.m.(CST) to get in, and I was usually out before 2:30 p.m.(CST). I held overnight a few times, which I don't like to do, but usually came out ahead.
 
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