large short positions were closed out on URA today.

uranium sector has been getting hammered most of this year, it's looking ready to push up

in for june 17 $45 calls and short dec 18 $33 puts

noticing some trends in the market the last few weeks - most of the bullish activity i've noticed is coming from defensive sectors.. perhaps not great for the economy at large

some assets i've been following:

JNJ - 3/19 $280 call - currently $7.20

MRK - 1/15 $160 call - currently $5.05

WMT - 6/17 $150 call - currently $2.17

XLU - utilities ETF - 3/19 $45 call - currently $0.92

curious if others are noticing similar things - also interestingly, am tracking DAL for a rally into november, the 11/20 $82.5 call is $1.35

GOOGL CALL DEBIT SPREAD - exp 2026-10-26 (11 DTE)

LEG 1 (BUY): Call $362.50 @ $2.52/sh
LEG 2 (SELL): Call $385.00 @ $0.37/sh
Net debit: $2.15/sh ($215.00 per contract)  |  Width: $22.50  |  Long-leg delta: 0.50
Max loss: $215.00 per contract  |  Max profit: $2,035.00 per contract (947% on risk)  |  Breakeven at expiry: $364.65

SIZE: 5 contract(s) - max risk $1,075.00 = 5.00% of $25,000 account.

EXITS (decide these BEFORE entry - no exceptions):

• Profit target: close at ~60% of max profit (spread value near $14.36/sh) - or trail after +50%.
• Stop loss: spread value at or below $1.07/sh (-50% of net debit).
• Time stop: exit by 14 DTE - never carry a spread into expiry week (short-strike pin/assignment risk).
• Event exit: close before earnings unless that IS the trade (then halve size).

be nice i am new to this !

Selling premium sounds straightforward as theory. Collect the credit, let theta work, and you don't necessarily need a huge directional move.

With 0DTE, though, the same short expiration that gives you fast theta decay also gives you much more sensitivity to a sudden move.

The chart is an example of the type of setup where I'll at least consider selling premium.

SPY is moving sideways after the earlier push. Candles are overlapping, the shorter EMAs are compressing, and price keeps rotating through the same area rather than extending in either direction.

In that situation, I'd rather sell premium than pay for a directional option if a few other things also line up.

Before entering, I'm checking:

• Is there a clear range rather than just a temporary pause?

• Is there an economic release, Fed event or other catalyst coming up?

• Where are my short strikes relative to the edges of the range?

• What happens to the position if SPY breaks that range quickly?

• Is the loss defined before I enter?

The last two matter more to me with 0DTE because theta isn't the only thing accelerating near expiration. Gamma is high too, especially near the money, so a position that looks comfortable can change quickly once price starts moving toward the short strike.

You can see that transition on the right side of the chart.

The setup spends most of the session rotating inside the range, then price finally breaks higher. If I'm still holding short calls into that move, I'm no longer relying on the same conditions I entered under.

This is also why I don't treat “SPY is ranging” as enough reason to sell premium. I want to know what I'm risking if the range stops holding.

On a 0DTE trade, I'll usually give up some credit in exchange for defined risk rather than leave the position open-ended. The maximum premium isn't worth much to me if one fast move can put the funded account close to its drawdown limits.

I've been applying the same thinking on my Vanquish funded account and the goal was never to collect premium every day. Some sessions make sense for it, and some are much cleaner as directional trades or no trade at all.

For anyone selling SPY 0DTE premium, what tells you the range is worth selling rather than waiting for a breakout?

I sold cash-secured puts on SPY and QQQ. If they exercise and I buy the shares, the wheel strategy says to immediately sell covered calls. What if the current price of the shares is well below my buy strike price on the exercised puts? Do I sell covered calls with a strike price LESS than my buy price?

I have a margin account at IBKR worth around $320k, all invested in a single stock, with no debt. I’m considering selling long-dated put options on margin expiring in January 2028. The margin requirement for one contract is currently around $3k. I understand that the requirement changes with volatility, but I don’t really understand how the maintenance margin will change.
For example, what happens if the put becomes deeply ITM but there is still a year until expiration?
I also have another question: what percentage of my total portfolio value should I use at most for selling puts if I want to stay “safe”? My current thinking is a maximum of 20%, so at the moment, for example, 3x puts at a $200 strike. That would mean that if I were assigned, I would have around 20% debt.
I’m just starting out, so I’d appreciate any opinions or personal experiences.

For those of you who trade credit spreads, what size lots are you using? I make sure I stay below 2% of my total buying power for any single trade. How are you evaluating position sizing? Any or all of these considerations:

• How much capital is already allocated?
• How much buying power remains?
• How many positions are currently open?
• How diversified are those positions across underlyings and expiration dates?
• What would happen emotionally and financially if several trades moved against you at the same time?
• If you can follow your rules if the market produces an outcome you did not expect?

ollow-up to my CSP post from earlier this week. Opened two bull call spreads yesterday, deliberately structured very differently around earnings:
AAPL — bought the 350 call, sold the 360 call, both expiring Oct 16 (which is before their earnings date). I wanted defined-risk upside exposure but specifically chose an expiration that closes out before the print, since I didn't want IV crush or an earnings gap working against the spread.
RKLB — bought the 75 call, sold the 85 call, expiring Oct 30. No earnings-avoidance logic here, this one's just a straightforward bullish view on the stock over a longer window.
What I'm still working out: for AAPL, is deliberately expiring before earnings actually the smarter play, or am I just leaving upside on the table by not giving the spread more time (and accepting the IV risk) to capture a potential post-earnings move?
Curious how people here generally handle earnings dates when structuring spreads — do you actively avoid them, or lean into the extra IV?

Just got started writing options as an income strategy alongside my regular portfolio.

First trade: a cash-secured put on ACKB (Ackermans & van Haaren, a Belgian holding company).

The setup was simple — I already wanted to enter ACKB around a certain price level, so instead of just waiting for the stock to get there, I sold a put at that strike and get paid to wait.

Two outcomes: either it expires worthless and I keep the premium, or I get assigned and end up buying ACKB at an effectively lower price thanks to that premium.
A few things that tripped me up as a relative beginner:
• Direction (Long/Short) vs. Type (Call/Put) seem obvious on paper but confused me at first when logging the trade
• Figuring out how to record the "cost to close" correctly depending on whether you let it expire, close early, or get assigned
• Realizing position sizing (never too much of the portfolio in one trade) matters just as much as picking the right strategy

I've been tracking everything in a spreadsheet I built with a dashboard (win rate, premium income, etc.) — happy to share more details on the setup if anyone's interested.
Curious what strategies people here lean on most for income — covered calls, CSPs, spreads?

I do not try to outsmart the market and I really don’t believe that is possible. I simply trade what is in front of me with lots of small winners (85%) and a few small losers. Over time those wins have added up. One of the ways I do this is by simplifying trading using a consistent $5 spread width. This drastically reduces the amount of decisions I need to make. I'm trading 12 underlyings each week with a full time job so I have to be extremely time efficient (like 15 minutes trading per week). My process makes the important decisions before emotion enters the picture. Like most of you, I'm using pre-defined set up rules. I wanted to get your take on spread width. My standard starting point is a $5-wide Put Credit Spread, typically for underlyings between $50 to $500. Obviously, I scale up if needed in larger underlyings. Spread width has a significant impact on your maximum risk, buying power reduction, premium collected, position sizing, trade management, and ultimately your psychology as a trader. By standardizing the width of the spread, I remove another variable from the trading process, which makes my entire trading plan easier to understand and execute. What about you, are you using a standard spread width, or are you varying trade by trade? Do you go narrower or wider?

Hey guys,

I’m into trading and quantitative research, mainly exploring derivatives, options, volatility, market making, market microstructure and trading systems.

I’m in Gurugram and thought it would be nice to connect with people who are into similar stuff — whether you're working at a trading/quant firm, doing research, building trading systems, or trading independently.

Would be great to grab a coffee sometime, talk about what we're working on, exchange ideas, discuss strategies/systems and learn from each other.

If you're around Gurugram and interested, DM me.

And if enough people are interested, we can make a small Gurugram trading/quant group and meet sometime. For group link also dm me.for that outsider can also dm me!

No formal networking stuff 😄 Just people interested in markets, trading and research getting together.

Coffee + markets + random trading discussions sounds good to me. ☕📊

Put on a short strangle last week on AMAT: Sept. 18 470P/600C. I received $14.54 for the short Call, $11.82 for the Put. Today the Call was priced at $2.80. I bought the Call back thinking the short Put can either get exercised or expire.

What are your thoughts on breaking the wings of option combo's?

I have made a website using claude and chatgpt using SMC & ICT concepts which i extract daily data that most rejected stocks list etc..

One famous guy who gives tips on telegram and whatsappp which his accuracy is damn level

He gives the picks which my scanner is rejecting the most what should i do my scanner is too much over engineered i think 😭😭

Looking for something that can be applied in practice without much of the PDE black Scholes textbook stuff

.

Any recommendations?

Hello!

I want to start option selling probably on SPX, or XSP or NDX cash settled indicies. i have experience in commodity derivatives, but i want to trade the etf/equity side with my own portfolio.

so far, i am exploring a strategy that suits me best, but still find it hard to implement it and have difficulties to identify potential trades.

the strategy i was thinking is around selling spx vertical spreads in the days where premium is thick for the 30-45dte and 0.15-0.28 delta. my main gates are the vix and spx iv rank, iv% and vrp, along with emas20-50, expected moves and gex for significant levels.

would you have any suggestions or open for discussion around what could be not working or limiting the strategy?

thank you in advance!

Anyone got any clues about which coin fomo going to go up

Hi All.

Experienced options/ stock trader here with 10+yrs of experience. I don't do it full time as I do have a full-time job but I do get enough screen time per day.

Looking to meet and chat with local traders in a similar situation within the greater Toronto area if there's enough interest possibly put together a quick coffee meetup could be a monthly thing to trade ideas chat and grow the community.

Let me know if there's interest.

Just discovered SPX options could be traded with 0DTE , quite lucrative. Does anyone trade SPX , if so how does this end.

Edit- blew up the account in 2 days.

INTC is ~$101.20 as I write this.

I've held a INTC 100 18-DEC-26 $25 CALL option for just over a year, the cost was $2.91 x 100 = $291. Today's bid for that option is ~$75.70 x 100 = $7,570. If I sold the option I would net $7,570 - $291 = $7,279.

If I exercise the option, the exercise cost is 100 * $25 = $2,500. 100 shrs of INTC = $10,120 minus the exercise cost nets $7,620.

However my desire is to hold the shares long term.

I tried to exercise the options and ToS interceded with the message : "Uneconomical request - time premium exists. If exercise was not an error, please contact Margin Risk"

Am I missing something here by trying to exercise the options instead of selling them?

Anyone considering INOD covered calls this week?

My strategy.

Prepared for covered calls this week for INOD

2 weeks ago acquired shares.

This week multiple catalysts:

--Analysis indicating another beat of EPS and Revenue on the 6th.

--Positive results from software and AI, PLTR, MSFT, AMZN

Catalysts causing price to ramp up.

Strategy, Jan 2027 70 strike, 80 strike, 90 strike, 100 strike

About 4250 premium at this time.