Weekly Options & NADEX Options - Best Home Career

[WklyOptions]

Hi, T2W members,

I just recently found the T2W forums and wanted to say "hello" to you.

I am a retired professional trader/risk manager for a private prop trading firm. I spent most of my trading career using technical analysis and options to swing trade the ETF & Equity options on the U.S.-listed exchanges.

I am retired from the corporate setting and have been trading the Weekly Options and the Nadex forex options (and sometimes the indices/metals) as my primary home-based career.

I have really enjoyed trading the Weekly Options and the Nadex options (primarily the spreads & binaries). I find these instruments deeply liquid and transparent and fairly priced. Commissions are extremely cheap/fair.

My trades are < 9 days max in duration. I trade butterfly spreads and condors and credit spreads.

However - I focus on selling At-The-Money (ATM) premium - unlike most credit spread traders that focus on far Out-of-The-Money (OTM) short options.

Once the ATM premiums are seriously depleted - if enough time is still available - the butterfly/condors may be adjusted to capture more ATM premium.

I use technical analysis on multiple-time frame analyses, and focus on Support and Resistance levels, and Fibonacci Retracement & Extension zones. Other indicators include the MACD and the EMA(20,100) tools. I have found that looking at multiple time frames have significantly helped in my overall trading accuracy.

Most of my trades have a defined max risk of loss of (-$1000) (USD). However, because of the short ATM premiums, and the ability to adjust, most of my spread trades are successful. I adjust the positions when it hits +/- 1 std dev, or at key Support/Resistance zones, or at Trend Change points from the multiple time frame technical analysis scenario.

By attacking the ATM premiums, my winning trades are significantly higher than the OTM credit spread winners. The ATM winners tend to be from (+25% to +50%), and sometimes (+250% or more on butterfly spreads) - most OTM credit spread wins are in the (+2% to +5%) per wk.

I would like to meet and openly discuss with other full-time traders especially if trading from home. I am open to sharing the ideas, books, videos, etc., that I have found to be of greatest help for individual trading growth and success.

I have nothing to sell - I am not affiliated with any trading brokers, platforms, software vendors, etc.

Just a full-time individual trader from home - and enjoying the extreme short-term focus and advantages of the Weekly Options and NADEX options.

In my opinion - there is no better time than now for the individual trader.

I hope to meet and exchange ideas with you. Thank you!

WklyOptions

PS - will post later my new opened trades from today to allow/stimulate discussions hopefully.

 

[calisto77]

new member

hello, just joined T2W and found your thread at the right time
I'm also retired, have been trading stocks for years but am interested in trading options
I know there's a lot to learn but one must start sometime -- now is good !
past couple of years have been accumulating books & videos re option trading and am about to get started.
I was just about to print out Cottle's book to study

I'm interested in short term trades-- like you were saying -- couple of days to 2-4 weeks
I've heard of trading Weekly options for income -- sounds ok
I understand a bit about the Greeks, but with time & study will make it
can you suggest which books may be better to start with

how/where do you recommend I start ?
thanks

 

[lloydbee]

how/where do you recommend I start ?
thanks

Seeing you have a basic understanding about Options, forget about reading books and start a Virtual trading account. Books are filled with old basic information that is almost irrelevant in todays trading especially with Weekly Options.

Books won't teach you to trade to current market condition, virtual trading will.
Lloyd

 

[WklyOptions]

Where should a new trader begin his/her trading journey?

hello, just joined T2W and found your thread at the right time
I'm also retired, have been trading stocks for years but am interested in trading options
I know there's a lot to learn but one must start sometime -- now is good !
past couple of years have been accumulating books & videos re option trading and am about to get started.
I was just about to print out Cottle's book to study

I'm interested in short term trades-- like you were saying -- couple of days to 2-4 weeks
I've heard of trading Weekly options for income -- sounds ok
I understand a bit about the Greeks, but with time & study will make it
can you suggest which books may be better to start with

how/where do you recommend I start ?
thanks

Hi, calisto77,

I agree w lloydbee's comments about trying to get up to speed as fast as possible using some form of virtual trading platform or demo account(s).

I have found that many, many, many.... (is that too much emphasis?)... individual traders have a few mental paradigms (collective lifetime habits learned from others) that need to be "reprogrammed":

(1) the need to be certain - the need to be right on the "next" trade;
(2) the need to belong - the need to have other traders/analysts support their own trading bias/beliefs;
(3) the need to have variety - the inability to follow a positive EDGE idea/plan without errors for at least 20-30 consecutive trades - because it is literally too "boring" or "painful" to not have individual freedom/creativity.

In fact - trading is all about exploiting one's creativity and FOCUS. The trading plans, different positive EDGES, etc = this is the outlet for creative thinking.

Creative trading does NOT mean being impulsive on your open trades, changing your bet sizing, changing to a different EDGE in the midst of a campaign, etc.

Actually - trading profitably and consistently is VERY simple to lay out. The great difficulty is for the individual to deal with his/her paradigms and to think in larger groupings of 20-30 closed trades to allow EDGES to work its "magic". :idea:

The random distribution of outcomes of Wins vs Losses, plus the lack of structure and systems enforced on the individual trader - creates a highly addictive ("seems easy to win", "maybe the next one is the BIG WIN", etc) and inconsistent trading mindset/performance = almost always to guarantee trading losses on a consistent basis (weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually)! :whistling

So with all that said - what can the individual trader do throw every EDGE and advantage to his/her trading journey?

(1) Decide on a finite $$$ amount of total risk capital - this is real $$$ that you have committed and focused 100% towards your trading education. Meaning - that 100% loss of this capital -
(a) Will not adversely impact your lifestyle;
(b) Will not cause you to condemn/punish yourself internally;
(c) Will give you many well-defined trading (and life) Lessons Learned;

(2) Decide on the reality of how much TIME can you devote to your trading journey?
(d) How long and how frequent - can you devote time to trading screens?
(e) How much time/effort will you COMMIT/FOCUS/SPEND on your EDGE?
(f) How much time/effort to paper trade via virtual/demo account?
(g) How much time to study your errors, deviations from Plan, etc.?
(h) What time-frame/duration of trades best fit your real-time schedules?

(3) Ok - what about real trading resources?
(I) Plenty here within T2W - read thru especially the threads for newbies;
(j) Ask/model winning traders here in T2W that post their trades & results;
(k) Chart reading - again, tons of resources here in T2W.
(l) Options? Too early - if you do not know your EDGE, trade duration, etc.

For now - if you do not know yet how to clearly define and WRITE the items in (2) above, it may not be time yet to go into options trading.

One "alternative" perspective = if you are just looking to trade options from a trading alert/subscription service, then you may not necessarily NEED to understand technical analysis or options trading. IF - you can really/truly follow the service's recommendations without deviations for at least some 20-30 closed trades! :whistling

Note: I have always found that individual traders do best following a subscription service's recommendations - when they KNOW and BELIEVE in the trading EDGES being applied by that service and its alerts. :!: :idea:

Well, start from the above items - get methodical, get curious, train yourself to become highly FOCUSED in all that you do for your trading efforts. This will have a positive translational impact in your non-trading life as well!

I heard it said before that EXCELLENCE = the commitment to completion!

This is even more true in your commitment and focus to complete the many "steps" in the trading journey. But with every step forward - when you get to a certain point - the next step(s) forward will reveal itself to you.

Calisto77 - good luck. Again - tap into the tons of resources herein T2W! :clap:

Regards,

WklyOptions

 

[kc8flq]

I heard it said before that EXCELLENCE = the commitment to completion!

Hello WO and fellow T2W members
Long time no type :cheesy:

Aristotle said it best
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."


I've been away studying and building on the KNOWING and BELIEVING of the edges that I've seen WO use, forming the habits for excellence.

Calisto77 I'd look over and read all of WO's posts, his has some of the best nuggets offered here.

:cheers:
KC

 

[WklyOptions]

he's back... :>)

Hello WO and fellow T2W members
Long time no type :cheesy:

Aristotle said it best
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."


I've been away studying and building on the KNOWING and BELIEVING of the edges that I've seen WO use, forming the habits for excellence.

Calisto77 I'd look over and read all of WO's posts, his has some of the best nuggets offered here.

:cheers:
KC

Hi, KC,

Well, I wondered what happened to you - and hoped that you at least was off on an extended vacation with the Mrs and family!

Nice to see you check in here again. Been tons of volatility in the markets recently so placing spread orders help to reduce the impact of increased extrinsic value from higher implied volatility.

Hopefully you are now able to detect Dominant Trends and good TR setups also.

Some good setups - but need to stay nimble and move/adjust positions quickly.

Good to hear from you here at T2W! Will drop you a line via email.

Regards,

WklyOptions