Is it possible to make a modest living w/options?

[drcha]

Quote from spindr0:

I think that your interpetation of what you read here is incorrect. There are very few people advising noobs to "give up before they start." What I see is an awful lot of people, myself included, who have learned that this isn't an easy road to riches and are advising noobs that they would be better served by learning the game first and starting slowly. Otherwise, a hefty tuition will be paid. There's an old cliche' that applies:

Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement

A fair point. Yes, starting slowly is a great idea. Maybe the options posts are not so bad. I admit it's mostly the other areas of ET where one finds the "give up now" type of advice. In any case, my comment definitely did not refer to you. You have dispensed a wealth of helpful advice to people posting here.

Appreciate the quote, here's another (not sure who said it):

Experience is a hard teacher; she gives the test first, the lessons afterwards.

 

[options4me]

Quote from wartrace:


I am particularly interested in writing credit spreads. I believe it to be a fairly conservative strategy with limited risk. I realize I will need to fail a few times for the sake of experience so I am now using a paper trading account to test the theory.

Is it possible after two years of trading to be in a position to pull a couple of thousand a month from an options account if you started with 50,000 and reinvested any profits for that time? Is this worth trying? Am I just wasting my time?

Any input would be appreciated. I have a thick skin so don't sugar coat it.

I do this from time to time, with about a 80% success rate on keeping the credit spread premium. Other 20% closed out at breakeven price.
It was mentioned to NOT go for cheap options.
I mainly looked at GOOGLE, BIDU, or any other stock in that price catagory.
Opened the spread with about 10 days left until expiration so the time decay was increasing with each day.
Targeted at least 2 strikes OTM from the current price, but be sure to look at the longer term chart to see if is near any S/R areas. Good idea is to place the spread beyond that S/R zone, if it near it.

I attached a small calculator I use to evaluate potential spreads.
I enter some numbers for GOOGLE (apri 09) just for data.

 

[dagnyt]

Quote from options4me:

I do this from time to time, with about a 80% success rate on keeping the credit spread premium. Other 20% closed out at breakeven price.

Glad those worked for you, but those are EXACTLY the high risk spreads that the OP must learn to avoid if he is looking for long term success.

Your trades are high theta and high negative gamma. A deadly combination.

I recognize that S/R is helpful, but 2 strikes OTM is NOTHING for GOOG options.

Mark