Day trading SPX index options. 100% daily ROI possible?

This will take a minute because I want to answer your question completely and truthfully. Bear with me, please.

Beginning almost four years ago and before I made my first trade in SPX I had spent, quite literally, thousands of dollars on memberships, subscriptions and other information on trading. I began by following the conventional 'wisdom' of selling Iron Condors 30-45 days out in a paper trading account on TDA. None of them were ever winning trades. I switched to trading two to ten days out in that same paper account and started having success. I did that for three months and made $30 grand and figured I could probably make money using real dollars.

That went extremely well for one month. I started with $10,000 and by the end of that month, had accumulated $6000 in profits. Then came the first of the next month. I had several trades open spread over the next 10 days. Volatility spiked and SPX tanked. I lost all of that $6000 plus another $3000 and got suspended for violating the PDT rule.

I repeated that pattern for the next three months, a period during which I had put an additional $30,000 into my trading account so as to avoid that nasty PDT rule. By the end of February of this year I had lost ALL of that $30,000 plus another $3,000 of my original stake so I just quit trading altogether and began to re-think everything. One of the things I had come to realize along that path was that the thing that just killed me every single time was overnight exposure. By the time of The Big Freeze, the CORONA Virus shutdown I realized that it was those big, overnight and over the weekend swings that just completely destroyed everything I had set up. That is when I decided to try day trading.

Starting the second week of April I took my balance of just shy of $7,000 to, at the close yesterday, eleven sessions later, $15,095.20, a gain of nearly $8,500.00 in just under three weeks.

So, to answer your question, YES. Day Trading has restored my faith in my ability to setup and execute profitable trades and put both me and my trading account back on the road to a full recovery. What had happened is that I had begun to apply those God, Country and Apple things to my trading.

I could lose a big chunk of that in the next session but I don't think that will happen, not because I'm particularly smart or immune to bad things happening but because I live by those 'rules' enumerated in my initial post. Like a pilot before taking off or a sailor before weighing anchor I try to have as much information available to me as I can and I wait until well after the opening bell to enter my first trade, usually not before 10:30.
Thank you for your very thoughtful reply and sharing your experience.

I have been doing it a little longer than you. In this business we each find our own sweet spot. There is no right or wrong way. In mine case even after read up on @jeffalvinson's approach of day trading options I still couldn't make it work. I had to go from day trade, very short expiration trade to longer expiration trade in order to survive.

Good luck and best wishes.
 
$1/$1=100% :D

Actually ...

His geometric mean is 0.141421
(1/100 x 2/1)^(1/2)

The average loss is 85% per bet.

:D

The arithmetic mean is -49
(-99+1)/2

The average loss is 49$ per bet.

You’ve mixed up the two !
 
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I don't buy options other than as a hedge against those that I sell; I sell vertical spreads, usually one strike wide but, occasionally, two strikes wide, the object being to collect the premium on the sale of the call or option pair or condor, which is both a call spread and a put spread, with the expectation that my spread will expire worthless. I'm not quite following what you are telling me. I apologize if I seem to be responding in excessively simple terms. I do not know your level of experience or sophistication RE trading options.
 
Actually ...

His geometric mean is 0.141421
(1/100 x 2/1)^(1/2)

The average loss is 85% per bet.

:D

The arithmetic mean is -49
(-99+1)/2

The average loss is 49$ per bet.

You’ve mixed up the two !
You know I am an idiot when it comes to math. :vomit::banghead:
 
Romeg, thanks for the details.
"I want Probability of ITM to be in the 0% to 2% range, knowing it will move throughout the day. I want POP to be between 76% and 90%. I want my ROI for the trade to be at least 16% for the day. "

However SPX option chains didn't show anything even close to those guidelines this morning.
Would appreciate an example of such a trade. THX.
 
At the moment. But since I started following the plan I have outlined on this site I've increased each of those three accounts from around $2300, as of April 8, when I started to almost $6000 EACH, about $3800 gain per account. I have now had 13 straight winning sessions (no losses) and am now averaging around $1200 gain each session. As my balances grow then the size of my trades will grow commensurately as does the amount of gain. I expect to surpass $25000 in each account by the end of the year. That is the goal I have set for myself.

As for that $25,000 cap, if you follow what I've laid out above, then that $25000 PDT limit will never come into play. If you structure your trades properly leaving room on both sides of the price line for it to move (an absolute minimum of 10 strikes and I would not hesitate to recommend 12 strikes) then you should be able to avoid adjustments which will result in your Day Trade Counter ticking up each time you make one.

If you have more than three 'Round Trip' transactions (a Round Trip is the purchase and sale of the same security within a 5 day period) then you WILL get suspended. First time, no biggie. Just request a reset. But you only get one of those every 90 days, which is how I wound up with three accounts. I actually have had five, two of which I closed permanently. I would get suspended and use part or all of the balance in that account and open a new account.

Do not exit your trades early. The goal is to have them expire worthless (OTM) Out of The Money so that you keep ALL of the premium you collected when you sold the spread(s) in whatever form they took. And, most importantly, DO NOT TRADE AM EXPIRATIONS. They are a trap and a sucker's bet. You will find yourself either having to exit the trade early, which is costly and that PDT ticker clicks up for each one you exit early, OR you will be stuck in the position until the next day's close which will, almost invariably, cost you not only all of the premium you collected but you will, in all likelihood, have your position expiring ITM (IN The Money) and it will be assigned and exercised and that will ding your account to a fare-thee-well. I ONLY trade weekly and non-standard expirations and ONLY on the day of expiration; IN in the morning and, when the closing bell sounds, I'm OUT and, so far, on average, around a Grand richer. ($1400 yesterday, the 6th of May and $1171 on Monday, the 4th of May).


As always, NONE OF WHAT I HAVE POSTED HERE SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS ADVICE. I AM NOT A QUALIFIED INVESTMENT ADVISER AND WHAT I POST HERE IS FOR INFORMATION, EDUCATION AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT TRADE SPX OR ANY OTHER SECURITY UNLESS YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE YOUR ENTIRE INVESTMENT.
 
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Romeg, thanks for the details.
"I want Probability of ITM to be in the 0% to 2% range, knowing it will move throughout the day. I want POP to be between 76% and 90%. I want my ROI for the trade to be at least 16% for the day. "

However SPX option chains didn't show anything even close to those guidelines this morning.
Would appreciate an example of such a trade. THX.
 
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