Overview: The October RUT Butterfly is now closed and I learned a few good lessons over the course of the trade.  I opened the trade on Friday, August 21, 2015, which was fairly poor timing considering it was the Friday before the big push lower on Monday.  At the time, I thought RUT was oversold and […]

I’m generally somewhat poor at predicting market direction on a daily timeframe.  As a result, I frequently have the opportunity to learn from market moves and adjust options trades.  In the past few days the Russell 2000 has rallied a few percent and that move has put my October $RUT Butterfly under pressure.  As a […]

Have you ever taken a big loss on an Iron Condor or a Vertical Spread? Do you know what it feels like to sell a weekly vertical spread (DANGER!) only to see the market rip towards your short strike and tear your face off?  Alternatively, have you sold an Iron Condor right before the market went […]

A while back we discussed some tips for trading options with a small account.  This post builds on that material and provides a specific Butterfly trading strategy for small accounts. Overview: If you trade a small account, you probably know that one of the biggest challenges is that commissions eat up a good chunk of your […]

Note:  The following is an excerpt from a guest post that appeared at Steady Options.  Steady Options offers a subscription service for traders with an impressive track record and their blog is filled with high quality information.  Make sure to check them out if you haven’t already. —————- The other day I was having a conversation […]

Timing markets is hard, really hard.  Part of why I like trading non-directional option strategies is that they reduce my need to time the market well.  I’m not horrible at market timing, but I’m definitely not gifted either and, for options trading, that’s good enough. The steps below outline how I assess the market when […]