GuestNewBoy

GuestNewBoy

call day trading

GuestNewBoy (2025-07-13 09:45:07) 评论 (0)
Options Day Trading involves buying and selling options contracts (calls and puts) within the same trading day to profit from short-term price movements. It's a high-risk, high-reward strategy and is generally suited for experienced traders due to its complexity and volatility.

What Is Options Day Trading?

Options are financial derivatives that give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy (calls) or sell (puts) an underlying asset at a specific price before expiration. In day trading, you aim to enter and exit positions on the same day to profit from price fluctuations.

Key Concepts

Term Meaning
Call Option Contract to buy an asset at a set price before expiration.
Put Option Contract to sell an asset at a set price before expiration.
Strike Price The price at which the underlying asset can be bought or sold.
Premium The price you pay for the option.
Implied Volatility (IV) Forecast of likely movement—higher IV means higher option prices.
Theta Decay The time value loss of options as expiration nears.

Pros of Options Day Trading

  • Leverage: Control large amounts of stock for a small premium.

  • High Potential Returns: Large gains in short time spans.

  • Flexibility: Profit in rising, falling, or sideways markets.

Cons / Risks

  • High Volatility: Prices can change rapidly, leading to losses.

  • Theta Decay: Time erosion can hurt your position quickly.

  • Complexity: Understanding greeks (Delta, Gamma, Theta, Vega) is vital.

  • Pattern Day Trading Rule (PDT): U.S. traders with

Popular Strategies

  1. Buying Calls or Puts: Simple directional plays.

  2. Spreads (e.g., debit/credit spreads): Limit risk and reward.

  3. Iron Condors: Neutral strategies for range-bound markets.

  4. Straddle/Strangle: Profit from large moves in either direction.

Tools You’ll Need

  • Broker with Fast Execution (e.g., Thinkorswim, Tastytrade, Interactive Brokers)

  • Real-Time Data Feeds

  • Charting Tools (e.g., TradingView, TrendSpider)

  • Options Flow/Unusual Activity Trackers (e.g., FlowAlgo, Cheddar Flow)

Tips for Beginners

  • Start with paper trading to practice.

  • Focus on liquid options (tight bid-ask spreads, high volume/open interest).

  • Use stop-losses to manage risk.

  • Avoid trading during low-volume or overly volatile periods.

Would you like a sample day trading plan, or a breakdown of how to analyze options setups during the trading day?

You said:
To profit from day trading call options, you need to buy a call option when you expect the underlying stock to go up quickly, and sell that option before the trading day ends at a higher price. Here's a breakdown of how to do it effectively:

1. Understand the Basics

  • Call Option = Right to buy a stock at a certain price (strike) before expiration.

  • Day Trading = In and out of the trade on the same day (no overnight risk).

  • You profit if the call premium increases due to:

    • The stock price rising.

    • Increase in implied volatility.

    • Early part of the trading day (less theta decay).

2. Choose the Right Call Option

Look for:

  • Liquid stocks (e.g., AAPL, SPY, TSLA, NVDA).

  • High volume and open interest on the option chain.

  • Tight bid-ask spreads (e.g., $0.02 or $0.05 wide).

  • Strike price: Usually go at-the-money (ATM) or slightly in-the-money (ITM).

  • Expiration: Use weekly options (close expiry) for fast movement.

? 3. Pick the Right Setup

Use technical analysis to identify a bullish setup:

  • Breakouts (above resistance or key levels)

  • Reversal patterns (e.g., double bottom, hammer candlestick)

  • Moving average crossovers

  • Volume spikes

Wait for confirmation (e.g., a strong green candle on increased volume).

4. Execute the Trade

  • Buy the call option as the setup confirms.

  • Set a profit target (e.g., 30%–100% gain depending on volatility).

  • Place a stop-loss (e.g., 20%–30% loss on the option premium).

Example:

  • Stock: NVDA at $125.

  • You buy a $125 call expiring this week for $2.00.

  • Stock jumps to $127, and the call goes to $3.20.

  • You sell and lock in a 60% gain.

?? 5. Manage Time and Risk

  • Don't hold too late in the day (premium decays faster).

  • Monitor implied volatility (IV) — falling IV can shrink your option value.

  • Avoid trading during news events unless you're experienced.

  • Stick to a fixed risk per trade (e.g., 1–2% of your capital).

6. Exit Strategy

  • Exit when your target is hit, or

  • Scale out (sell half to lock in gains, let the rest run).

  • Exit immediately if the trade goes against you and hits stop-loss.

Bonus: Practice With a Plan

Step Example
Stock AAPL
Setup Bullish flag breakout
Call Option $210 strike, expires Friday
Entry $1.50
Profit Target $2.25
Stop-Loss $1.00
Exit Time No later than 2:30 p.m. EST


Would you like a template for tracking your trades or a watchlist of good stocks for options day trading?

You said:
yes
ChatGPT said:
Great! Below is both a Trade Tracking Template and a Watchlist of Stocks that are popular and well-suited for day trading call options.

1. Trade Tracking Template (Editable in Excel, Google Sheets, or Notion)

Date Ticker Setup Description Entry Price Exit Price % Gain/Loss Strike / Expiry Position Size Notes
2025-07-12 AAPL Breakout of $210 level $1.50 $2.10 +40% 210C / Jul 12 $300 Strong volume, RSI breakout
2025-07-12 TSLA Rejection at VWAP $2.30 $1.75 -24% 750C / Jul 12 $460 Faded quickly, no follow-through
Tip: Track why you entered and exited. This builds consistency and helps refine your edge.

Want a downloadable Excel version? I can help generate one for you.

2. Top Stocks for Options Day Trading

These tickers are known for high liquidity, tight spreads, and daily volatility, making them ideal for quick call/put trades.

Ticker Name Why It’s Good
SPY S&P 500 ETF Very liquid, reacts to market news
QQQ Nasdaq ETF Tech-focused, fast moves
AAPL Apple Inc. Reliable volume, clean chart patterns
TSLA Tesla Inc. Big price swings, active daily
NVDA Nvidia Corp High IV, reacts well to breakouts
AMD Advanced Micro Dev Moves with semis, good for small accounts
AMZN Amazon Strong moves, but higher premiums
META Meta Platforms Popular for short-term moves
MSFT Microsoft Slower but reliable trend-following
NFLX Netflix Trades cleanly, big earnings movers

? Bonus: Tools You Might Want

  • Charting: TradingView, Thinkorswim, TrendSpider

  • Options Flow: FlowAlgo, Cheddar Flow, Unusual Whales

  • Scanning: Finviz, Benzinga Pro

  • Paper Trading: Thinkorswim, Webull, Interactive Brokers

Would you like me to generate an Excel/CSV version of the tracking template or build a custom watchlist based on your risk tolerance and capital size?

r/options icon
Go to options
•
 

Tips for options traders ("day-traders")

 
 
With markets closed today, I figured I'd sit down and take my time to share some of my tips for (options) day-traders.

Here are the things I've learned over the past few years.

- Always know your numbers: Be realistic when it comes to returns on your trades. What's a currently high yield savings account out there? 1.25%? 2.50%? Keep in mind those are annual returns for the most part. If you were to take your hard-earned money, learned a skill (for life) and decided to take life/money into your own hands (because no one else out there cares more about your money other than yourself - mind your own business so to speak), then you can beat a regular savings account if you work at it. If you entered a small trade, and gained 5-10% on it and repeated it for say 2 or 3 more trades each day, AND are consistent at it, you should make much better returns over the long-term than let someone else or another financial institution manage for you.

- Greed kills: The moment you start to day-trade with options, you may have a winning trade, perhaps even 10 winning trades in a row. This is when you need to be careful. Think of it this way, every morning, before you start to trade, remind yourself what you're really after by day-trading. Extra source of income for the long-term. In order to achieve that goal, you cannot, I repeat, cannot let 1 single trade TAKE OUT YOU OF THE GAME. Trade $10.00 gains over a million trades vs try to make $1,000,000 in 1 single trade. The sooner you start to realize that, the sooner you can refine your daily goals. If your daily goal is to make for instance $200 a day, and you give yourself 4 hours of active trading time, you just simply need to to take that $200 number and split into 1-4 trades (because you'll most likely be able to find/spot opportunities within that 4 hours of active trading time you give yourself). We're talking a mere $50 in profit per trade now at this time (if you were to trade 4 times each day). If you entered each trade with say $250 or $500, meaning that's your ultimate risk at hand while in the trade, what are the chances you can take out $50 in profit? Of course, we're all not including the fact that no one can have 100% win rate accuracy. That's a given because losing trades WILL happen. But again, what are the chances you can make $50 off a $250 "bet"? Quite possible wouldn't you agree? So, keep that in mind BEFORE you start your trading day at all times.

- Accept losing trades: Yes, losing trades are part of this game. The sooner you realize that you can be wrong and change your mindset, the better you'll get at trading. I'm talking about entering a $150 - $250 position, and accepting that you could lose $50, $100 or $150 off that trade. You need to be prepared to take the loss and move onto the next trading opportunity. In my experience of "day-trading" with options, I have and love to see losing trades. It simply means that I am setting myself up properly for trading in general long-term. People that DO NOT accept a losing trade, will eventually cause their own demise in a trade that could take them out of the game (forever). Some people prefer hard stops, but I personally like to train and work on myself when it comes to trading as I would like to hope that I improve daily; so I ultimately make myself press the SELL button when I realize a losing trade. You should try it sometime. It's a great thing. I tend to look at exiting a losing trade as a winning trade because now I can focus and work towards spotting another trading opportunity. Who knows, that next opportunity might make up the losing difference you just experienced and even put you "back in the green" for the day. Think positive. Accept losers. It will go a long way.

- Trade what you're familiar with: Have a small watch list of stocks you follow and trade daily. I'm talking do not scan, spend hours and hours on other newsletters, group chats or forums to spot the next trade. I consider that to be quite wasteful. Remember why you are trading in the first place (yeah yeah, I get it, some just can't get rid of the rush/addiction to "gamble"), but that set aside, we're ultimately all in this to enjoy the freedom that comes with day-trading. Eventually you may be able to stop your regular work-life (whether self-employed or through an employer/job), so you can be your own boss. By simply observing those stocks every day, you get a sense of experience/knowledge that others cannot get because they are not spending as much time with them as you are. You understand if for instance stock XYZ tends to sell off in the morning, because it runs all the way back up into the green. You understand if a certain price level for stock ABC is a magnet and tends to have the stock revert back to that level after every 5-10% up or down move over 2-3 weeks period of time. You will gain "insight" information that will give you the "ultimate edge" in your day-trading. I'd say look for your own stocks. It can be anything that you're dealing with on a daily basis; Companies you understand, you buy products from, anything that interests you, but keep them to a number of perhaps 4-10, and just simply observe them. One or two of them will have a trading opportunity every almost daily. Your job is to spot that opportunity and act, and profit/lose from it.

I can probably add a few more key points in the future, but it's lunch time with family and friends and I gotta run :)

Tips for options traders ("day-traders") PART B

 
 
For those who have not had a chance to read/see previous post (let's call it PART A), here's the link to it: https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/gqemtc/tips_for_options_traders_daytraders/

and here is PART C:

https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/gtfiq7/tips_for_options_traders_daytraders_part_c/

PART D is posted here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/hdftii/posting_to_answer_some_commonrepeated_questions/

PART E is posted here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/hgtk79/dont_get_caught_up_with_focus_on_proper_trading/

- Money/risk management: Every morning, I remind myself about risk. I remind myself that I want to play this game until I die. In order to get to that point, you cannot let 1 single trade wipe out your account. RISK is very important in this game. I view risk split into $$$ and time. When you are about to enter a trade, you and only you get to set up the trade with your personal risk tolerance. If you believe I am not risking more than $200 on this trade, then let it be $200. If you believe that on this particular trade I am willing to risk a little more to make potentially more, than increase the risk but be aware that you could lose it all. When I enter a trade, I always think I lose on it. Setting up one's expectation on the trade properly before you enter is a good habit to get into. With that said, then there's time risk. IF you are in the trade for 30 minutes. You're at a higher risk than someone who happened to enter the trade with the same $$$ risk, but was only in it for 5 minutes. Makes sense correct? If you jump into a trade with say $1,000 and will only stay in the trade for 2 minutes (more to that "discipline" later), you might be at less risk than someone who gets into the trade with $600 but is in the trade for 2 hours. Once you are out of the trade (at this point the result of whether you won or lost doesn't matter), you can no longer be at risk. The market could drop all the way to 0 or run up 1500 DOW points and you could care less. BE AWARE of how much $$$ risk and how much time risk you're planning to give this and everyone of your trades before you enter it.

- Patience is key: Imagine this picture. You're a king sitting on his throne inside your own palace. You've got villains all lined up below you. All that's keeping you and those people apart are 100 stairs up towards your throne. Each and every morning, those villains WANT to come and see you. They want your attention. They may each walk up those 100 stairs, present you with a little gift, and YOU, only YOU get to decide if you want to give them some of your time, or if you simply refuse because what you see is not worth your effort and/or time. You send them back off to the main floor one at a time. ONLY when someone happens to walk up the stairs to you and shows you something that you've been waiting for. Something that you've longed because you know what you want, only then can they spend some time with you. This same principle goes with your selection of stocks. Each and every day, you flip through the charts on your say 10 stocks of choice. You watch them daily. You're very familiar with them and how they tend to move. They're like your kids. You're so familiar with them, that before they react to something or might say something, you rudely interrupt them and say do not do this or say that. They'd be wondering HOW THE HELL DID YOU KNOW...; back to the list of your stocks. You flip through the charts every morning when you decide to trade. You look for certain setups, candle formations, patterns if you will, etc, and you ACT on it alone. If nothing sets up, then let it be. There'll always be tomorrow, when another villain might walk up those 100 stairs and present you with the set up you've been longing to trade again. Then strike and (hopefully) profit. Rinse and repeat (daily).

- Japanese candlesticks: Do yourself a favor, learn about Japanese candlesticks. There are many books out there, but the one I still hold dearly (because I've read it so many times over and over), is the original Steve Nison's Japanese candlestick book. You want to go over that material like your life matters. WHY? Because they will give you the edge in your trading. Yes, you heard it right. They are part of the edge that you have longed for in trading. They speak a language. They speak the language of the bulls and/or bears. They show you visually who has the upper hand. If you trade off that alone, and you can improve on that practice, you'll be better off than too many spaghetti lines (sorry, I just had lunch like I mentioned in my previous post) on your chart. KISS principle. Keep your charts clean. Simple. Trade off the action that is presented (live) in front of you. Price action and/or Japanese candlestick is what you want to spend hours and hours on if there's anything else you'd consider "homework" (screen time very important!).

- List of rules of yourself: Everyone needs to do this at some point in their trading life/career. You get to sit down, pull out a piece of paper & pen, and start to write down your rules for trading. Some call it goals, plans, or simply a list of trading rules. Be as accurately as possible in that list. It defines you. You will create this list based on your own emotions, life's experiences, life's environment and how important money is to you. You see, for some people, $500 is nothing, so they aim for $1,500/day in profit. Someone else, who works a regular 8-5 job making say $15/hour would be happy to write down $200/day because that would allow them to "stop" working if they choose to do so. Someone might write down that they do not trade off phones. Someone else might write down that they will never touch the market from 10 - 2pm because of little to no activity in the market. Some people might write down that they will never average into a trade. I personally view adding into a trade not as something taboo for trading. Your own trading style and experience will/should tell you when to add or not. Once you've come up with that list, be sure to read it every morning for good several months. If you think this is way too ridiculous, why do football players get together and cheer themselves up before the launch of a game? It is what gets them going. Same should apply to you. It helps with your subconscious to "remind" yourself of those rules. Now, that you have that list of rules. Look at it for 30 minutes. Yes. Just do it right now. Look at it for 30 minutes and tell me what is happening. ... ... 5-minutes go by.....10 minutes go by....20 minutes go by....30 minutes go by. Yep, so? what happened in that time? You'll tell me, that you looked at the list for 30 minutes as asked...but nothing really happened. Exactly. Nothing happened. You see? That list does not change. It is always there. It doesn't think, hope, pray, wish, deny. It has no emotions. YOU as a trader need to be in sync with that list. You're the one full of emotions. You're the one who enters a trade NOT following your pre-defined rules. You need to work on that. It's a constant daily battle, but again like I said. READ IT EVERY MORNING. Not so ridiculous now, is it? :) The sooner you realize to trade what you wrote down for yourself, and that you do exactly as you wrote it out, the better you'll get every day. Form habits. It takes 30-40 times to do something over and over to make something turn into a habit. Let habits do the trading for you. Less to no emotion involved. You're already used to it. Just like driving a car (yes, I'm talking to all those people that make their hair, talk on the phone in one hand, eat a taco in the other and still manage to avoid an accident...how did you do it? Because driving has already turned into a habit for you naturally. You've done it over and over that you no longer think about it. Let trading do the same for you. Trade off your list, read it every morning. Make it automatic.

- Stop loss: Everyone has different risk tolerance. We all are in agreement on that. You, as a trader, should always have a stop loss rule. Some do not believe in themselves to do it manually or on their own, so they rely heavily on the trading platform to do it for them aka a hard stop loss order (hopefully limit order). That is fine. I personally do not use or set stop losses because I make myself get out of a trade. By understanding money/risk management BEFORE I enter a trade, I am aware of where I will get out of the trade. I focus mainly on candles forming in front of my eyes when/once I'm in the trade and act accordingly. I also have a time stop loss rule limit. If I am in the trade for way more than say 20-30 minutes, I really have to reassess if it even makes sense to hold on, or whether I just cut the trade no matter if in profit or at loss. I make myself get out automatically because I WANT ANOTHER (BETTER) TRADING OPPORTUNITY. I rather lose $300 in 4 minutes, than over 6 hours if you know what I mean, because I could have perhaps traded 3 more other trades within all that time each netting me a profit of $150, which means I would have been up +$150. Get the idea now about why you should always embrace to accept losing trades? Get out if the trade goes against you. SMILE. Look for another opportunity. Don't let 1 single trade define you who you are as a trader. If you're a fisherman, you cast your net out for some fish. If after 10 minutes you don't get any single reaction on your net, you don't sit there for 6 hours waiting...you simply take the net back, and re-cast it out again at another location. Will the fisherman dwell on the fact that he just wasted 10 minutes? No, he wants to hurry and get to the next spot so he can catch BIGGER, better tasting fish because this net just now had NONE...

Phew. Lots of typing, but I think and hope it helps some of you out there to perhaps look at trading in a different perspective and improve on it consistently. Trading is a life-long skill. Improve on it daily. It's actually quite fun and boring at times, but that's the job of this activity in my opinion.

*edited (typos and added IMGUR link below):

This is my style of trading.: https://imgur.com/a/XzaDr4U

updated 05/30/2020: https://imgur.com/a/25LCtSb

**2nd edit: I did not anticipate the correspondence when I set my mind to write up those 2 posts 4-6 hours earlier. It's a bit overwhelming to say the least to try to respond to all, but I'll try my best.

***3rd edit (05/30/2020): added link to PART C post (at very top)

****4th edit (06/05/2020): https://imgur.com/a/C6vUZa0

246


Tips for options traders ("day-traders") PART C

 
 
For those who have not had a chance to read/see previous post(s) (let's call them PART A & B), here are the links to them:

PART A: https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/gqemtc/tips_for_options_traders_daytraders/

PART B: https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/gqi2h2/tips_for_options_traders_daytraders_part_b/

PART D: https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/hdftii/posting_to_answer_some_commonrepeated_questions/

PART E:

https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/hgtk79/dont_get_caught_up_with_focus_on_proper_trading/

- Climb your mountain at your own pace: All advice/information presented to you anywhere should only be used as such. It doesn't mean it's right or wrong because it works for some but not for others. When two mountain climbers decide to take on the biggest challenge they have yet to face, climbing the tallest mountain for instance, they each understand their risk and understand their own physical strength/endurance and (hopefully) weakness.

If you go too fast, you may run out of steam. If you go too slow, others may look at you in a weird way and/or perhaps even laugh at you. If you make a mistake because you let pressure build up on you by others, you may trip and fall to the ultimate demise of death (game-over).

Don't let that bother you one bit. Especially not in trading. Someone who can consistently take in profit from trading TSLA daily doesn't mean you need to give TSLA a go. That's why you should have your own selective stocks on your watchlist that you learn from and watch daily. There is no finish goal in this game. It is a slow and steady process that will teach you and give you the ultimate confidence to take the next step forward when the right time comes. You ultimately will "understand" and "know", when to take 2 steps, then 3 steps forward, and then perhaps even scale back again a little just to preerve what you've got. If you try to follow others, you will fail in this game.

- Hold yourself accountable (for your own actions): When you decide to enter your trading journey at some point in your life, you need to keep in mind that you have to hold yourself accountable. Every other profession/career out there usually comes with being yelled at by your colleague(s) at some point. You'll be scolded for doing the wrong thing (almost daily!). This is a positive thing.

In trading, however, there is no one out there to do that to you. You get to press BUY and SELL at your own leisure, and if you do the wrong thing by breaking your own trading rules, you don't get slapped in the face after having lost money from your trade(s).

Take screenshots after each trade. Journal them if you like. This not only allows you to quickly re-evalute, re-manifest and re-inforce your subconscious while everything's still fresh, but it allows you to share and discuss your trades with others. Doing this will make sure to not let this happen again.

There is a reason why I trade the way I trade. Being in a trade for ultimately 80 seconds or 3 minutes, will potentially reduce errors that /can/ happen outside of your control zone. Take your trading platform for instance. If it decides to take a crap on you after you have already entered a larger position, you are SOL. Does that mean it was your fault? Of course it was. When you point a finger at the trading platform, 3 fingers point back at you! It should "teach" you to trade small, trade often and understand money/risk management at all times.

- "Discipline" translates over to personal life/finance (for cash flow): I believe that once someone sets their mind to do something, they usually will get results. Someone who has been smoking for years, won't ever stop unless they truly put on their mind that smoking has no health benefits, let alone only wastes money. Why do you always hear that traders love to hit the gyms and exercise (more) in general? They have acquired the skill of discipline because to them, whichever activity they may embark on, they understand what has priority. It is a learned skill.

When I say it can translate to your personal finances, I would like to give you this one example: Instead of going out to pay a $4,000 down payment on a used car, what if you took that $4,000 and made $150 in a week from it (remember climb mountain at your own pace rule)? The average used car payment in the United States is anywhere from $300-350 last I checked. Wouldn't that allow you to have a "free" car, "free" insurance and "free" gasoline expense on top of all that? It still required the same capital, but you're doing it "properly" and utilizing trading to your advantage.

Disconnect your personal lifestyle from your trading lifestyle should always be practiced.

Do you have a job? Good. You need to keep cashflow at all times.

Transfer money out of the trading account to pay for lifestyle expenses? Good, that's what it's there for.

Have you just lost $400 from a trade, but it doesn't change your actual personal lifestyle in the slighest? Good!

Trade with money that you can afford to lose but that won't affect your typical day-to-day life.

- Cash account = no PDT: My style of trading prefers to trade in a cash account. I have anywhere from $2k - $4k in my account that I trade with typically daily. Why do I prefer to trade with a small account? Because it helps my emotions/psychology and proper mindset. I am not saying that having 25k+ in a margin account is wrong. I just know for myself that I prefer to trade this way. It has allowed and helped me to be become more consistent. I don't focus on the money part when I trade. I focus to trade properly with my personal rules on my mind at all times. It allows me to gain more confidence with each and every trade I take. It's nice to see a 20%, 30% or 60% gain in a week and you can carry that "happiness" over to your next week's trading. Having more money does not mean you'll make more. Period. You can, but that is not a guarantee, as your next 10th trade from this one, could be your big losing trade because you let greed get in the way and traded way too large on your position.

If you are not consistent yet in your trading, give it a try. Scale down on your account size, see what it does to your emotions/psychology and your trading performance in general. It might just be what you needed to finally start become more profitable.

With that said, I'd like to leave you with my trades from this week after I've made my two posts last weekend.

Hopefully you can get an idea of what I am trying to tell you that you should stick to a small trading account, and to trade only with what you're familiar with (basically my "basic guidelines" on how to trade properly already outlined through my 3 posts).

Keep in mind, confidence can be a great way to enhance your trading!

Conviction and luck usually follows a great mindset to top that all off.

Wish you all a great mindset and good luck on your trading journey.

Friday (yesterday)

Thursday (this week)

Wednesday (this week)

Tuesday (this week)

Monday (no trading) - Memorial Day

https://imgur.com/a/25LCtSb

I traded 8 times this week. All trades combined lasted a total of 1,863 seconds which is basically 233 seconds for each trade on average. That's 3-4 minutes holding time (remember, less time held = less market exposure = less risk). Made $1,000 from my $2k cash account. 50% weekly growth in 4 trading days due to holiday on Monday with markets closed.

Most "capital" in any given trade was $1,510.

Least "capital" on any given trade was $151.

Would you be happy with an extra $1,000 for "working" for 31 minutes?

**2nd edit: adding this just in case people ask about it.

***3rd edit (06/05/2020): https://imgur.com/a/C6vUZa0

Posting to answer some common/repeated questions to answer all who have approached me for options (day) trading after my Posts A, B and C

 
 
Some of you might have already come across my (4) posts I made a few weeks back, some may not have.

Here are the links again to Part A , Part B , Part C, Part D if you're interested.

I've been approached by a lot of people for general advice even through my comments on various other posts, but especially after I shared my posts with the public. I have said it many times before but here it is again: (Day-)trading is something you've got to make work for yourself. There's no one out there who will truly hold your hand telling you to press the BUY and SELL button other than yourself. Your risk tolerance may not be same as someone else's whose bankroll is perhaps 30x that of your own.

Always know your numbers (one of my tips/rules - re-read all my posts please - might answer some of your questions you may have already) and keep things always in perspective. If you make $120 in 3 minutes, you've got to understand that someone else might work for this kind of money all day/week/month in other parts of the world.

Have an open mind about reading/learning from other people's successes and failures. Take the information and incorporate into your own trading to your own advantage.

Don't get greedy because there is no true finish line with trading. Always trade at your own pace. Some days might be less profitable, some more. The market's always right, and you can't "force" it to give you a specific amount every day just because you think so.

Trade properly daily and don't focus on the $$$. The $$$ will follow (eventually) if you trade properly. In the end, making $233 in a day is not a life changing amount, but it is a life changing habit if you can be consistent with your trading, because ultimately small profits will and do add up over time.

Instead of responding to some of the questions from others rather individually, I've decided to make another post ("I'll call this Post D") just to get everyone a chance to read up on any of my previous posts again (there may be additional info you may have missed in the comments that was added after you went through my posts originally) and to save myself a lot of time basically. I can then simply and shamelessly refer them to this very post and hope they'll get a better understanding on what I'm trying to tell them, and how they should approach trading for themselves while answering some of their questions without me having to repeat myself over and over.

The beautiful thing also (if some of you are not aware of it yet) is that reddit has the capability for you to go through someone's post history if you're interested, intrigued or perhaps even fascinated by their responses or comments. You're free to check out what they have said in the past. I think some people sometimes love to go the shortcut route by simply just asking questions rather than take their own time to do simple online searches for information that is already freely available.

Shortcuts are not to be taken for many reason on anything with your life. Period. "Shortcut driving" on the highway might get you killed. Using shortcuts at work might get you in trouble. Shortcuts in trading trying to go for the home-run trade instead of focusing on singles can cause a major set-back on your account. Don't do shortcuts. If you want to do or learn something, do it properly. Put in all your energy, time and focus, and you may end up acquiring just the right attitude/discipline/skill to help propel you into the right direction of success.

Now to the actual reason of this actual post as I want to illustrate the frequent questions with a bunch of screenshots and following information:

PDT rule is not affected by cash accounts. You don't need 25k+ to dive into the world of your preferred choice of trading. Talk or contact your brokerage firm to make the switch and trade from a cash account. I am merely talking about buying option premium if that's what you have interest in like I've been doing. I'm scalping with options. I "day-trade" them because I open and close a trade and am always back to cash at the end of the day. My "day-trading" is typically less than 30 minutes of total time spent.

If you want stocks or utilize other techniques/strategies that involve selling premium, such as spreads for instance, you probably would be more interested in a margin account. In that case, have a margin account on the side so you can utilize that way of trading as well.

Also, if you come from the Robinhood world (as I I'm approached by this so many times through DMs and chat requests), to my knowledge RH starts out a brand new account on margin. You will get flagged for PDT if you don't specifically request a change (which by logic would mean you have to wait several days before you can trade after you deposit money into your account; on margin, those funds are available instantly).

I hope this answer the many questions I get daily on how I can avoid PDT with just a $2-4k account.

updated progress (06/19/2020) is here

Here's how I trade (and I'll give you a timeline with screenshots along with some personal notes/thoughts):

Friday 05/29/2020: in the morning when I mentally/verbally go over my own trading rules to myself (took a screenshot of my accounts).

Proceeded to trade AMZN twice on cash account (you see the result there)

Monday 06/01/2020: sometimes tough to work in trades due to having meetings on Mondays at work. Sometimes meetings happen sooner, sometimes they happen later and I still manage to place a couple trades or so. This time I just had a chance for one quick scalp. Don't get greedy, there's always another day/trade. Focus at work. Trading + distractions don't combine well.

Tuesday 06/02/2020: with meetings out of the way from Monday, I should have more chances to spot/do my usual trading (as work allows).

Wednesday 06/03/2020: just had 1 trade on cash account. Initiated a ZM spread trade to hold overnight and you'll see that I closed it next morning.

Thursday 06/04/2020: 3 scalp trades on cash, 2 spread trades

Thursday 06/04/2020: Pay myself (withdrawal). This resets my accounts back to a combined $3,500 again (2,000 in cash account for scalping and $1,500 in margin account for selling weekly spreads).

Friday 06/05/2020: 1 NFLX scalp trade, 1 spread trade on margin (notice the PDT warning coming up again, so I'll be more patient with margin account unless I see a good trade opportunity or the warning falls off again in a few days).

Saturday 06/06/2020: a quick morning screenshot of both accounts again

Monday 06/08/2020: Had my morning meetings again. By the time I came back to my office and at the computer, I thought I already missed out on all the morning action. But for just the sheer idea of having some trades, I went ahead and did a couple quick scalp trades. TSLA wanted to pay me more if I was a little bit more patient, but in the end, I'll take what I can get. BYND spread trade on margin account wasn't moving quick enough as I had hoped, so I closed it for a tiny profit. Overall, end result is nothing to be proud of, but hey, like I said before, can't always "force" the market to give you what you want. Some days are less profitable, some are more profitable, gotta go with the flow and not get greedy. The spread (day) trade now gave me more dire warning as I was at the max of 3 trades within 5 trading days at this point. Time to do another internal transfer (next morning).

Tuesday 06/09/2020: Morning internal transfer completed, now it's back to simply just scalping on cash account until PDT warning falls off before I do any other spread trades.

Wednesday 06/10/2020: morning screenshot of both accounts (margin has no funds as I can't really use it for any daytrading of course at the moment). I'm only scalp trading on cash account for a little while (no PDT rule affects cash accounts). TDA refunds ATM fees on any ATM world-wide. Needed $200 cash that evening, so what better ways to take $200 out at ATM from today's AMZN's scalp trade.

Thursday 06/11/2020: PDT warning improved back to 2 day-trades left for margin account. Decided to do another internal transfer from cash account to margin so I can trade from both. Worked out out great again as both were profitable for the day.

Friday 06/12/2020: Took another quick morning screenshot of accounts upon arriving at work. Internally transferred funds to cash account so I don't get tempted to "risk" PDT on margin account.

Saturday 06/13/2020: quick snapshot again of accounts

Monday 06/15/2020: Blah, Monday morning meetings again. Didn't get to trade until like 10:20am ET. Back to only scalp trading on cash account for a while though (still have PDT warning up for my margin account)

Tuesday 06/16/2020: Only managed to get in quick scalp trade in the morning. Greed kills, so I went back to doing some work.

Funny thing is, yet another person approached me on reddit chat, asking how I trade or how they should start out with trading options.

I tried to explain to them to go slow by simply doing 1 lot contract trades; perhaps spend $100-150 per contract and just get through the learning experience of how emotions can affect a trader, etc. That person was still confused, so I went ahead and proceeded to simply place a few trades to illustrate. Nothing major, but that should tell you, with the right attitude and skill set, you should be able to play any direction (played SPY PUTS and CALLS per screenshot). Actually wanted to place a few more trades to get to a true $50+, but work got busy again, so I just left it at that.

Needless to say, the other person was very appreciative that I actually went and did real trades for illustration purposes as they could not believe at first that they should be able to make $50 a day "consistently". They've been trying and trying but always failed.

I wanted to reinforce that small profits add up: $5 buck here, $17 bucks there, $12 bucks there, after 3-5 trades, there's your $50 and you barely broke a sweat by "trading small".

Wednesday 6/17/2020: Usual morning screenshot of accounts. Managed to get a screenshot after 1st scalp trade at 8:37. (I'm in central, so that's 7 minutes after market open). And then did another screenshot after my second scalp trade on FB. I'm done for the day (again). All it took was 2 fairly quick trades. It's not even 9:00am CST yet and I'm already done for the "day".

Thursday 06/18/2020: Morning screenshot of accounts as usual again. Only managed to get in 1 trade due to busy work. An hour later as I managed to glance at the market again, I realized: Oh shit! It then darned on me. Look, the PDT warning fell off! It's Thursday already. Maybe it's time to internally transfer funds from cash account to margin again and perhaps I get to spot a spread trade on my margin account. Success! I'll take a $100 for barely lifting a finger for "the day".

Friday 06/19/2020: Morning snapshot of accounts again. 2k on cash account. Plenty of fire/buying power for scalp trading. Let's utilize margin account too since there is still no PDT warning. Again, success. Sold AMZN call spreads with 0 DTE (same day expiration) for very directional strong bias. Scalp traded spreads basically and it was yet another successful trade.

Saturday 06/20/2020: Another quick snapshot off the accounts. Hm, maybe I pay myself again soon (remember, last time I paid myself was June 4th). Or maybe I'll grow it a little more. We'll see. Ready for Monday? :)

Imgur list snapshot

Phew, alright, that took me a while to get together. I hope I edited and added all correct IMGUR links to all dates, etc. If not, let me know and I'll be glad to edit and get it corrected.

There ya go. You can avoid PDT if you asked me those questions in a DM or through chat requests. You can make consistent money. Remember, trade at your own pace. $30 a day is still $30 a day (insurance companies would love to get your $5 / day for reference!). Trade properly. Be consistent. Study your own actions/reactions/emotions. Be confident!

If you're sending me DMs and chat requests, I'll probably sent you to this post for a reason as this truly saves me time having to repeat my answers over and over. Read all my posts including comments particularly for additional information. I've made it my best to answer everyone who commented. Have a wonderful evening and be ready for Monday trading (blah, work - morning meeting(s) again, but we'll see how it goes).

Don't get caught up with $$$, focus on proper trading.

 
 
Some of you might have already come across my (4) posts I made a few weeks back, some may not have.

Here are the links again to Part A , Part B , Part C, Part D if you're interested.

I simply wanted to share one of my main thoughts again that came up recently after speaking with a bunch of other (stranger) traders, particularly with anyone who ("day"-)trades options just like I do pretty much every morning.

If you want to make day-trading work, you truly have to stop looking at profits in terms of $$$. You need to simply focus on the trading aspect in itself. You need to understand that you need to execute your trades per your own trading rules you have already pre-defined hopefully.

After you enter a trade, if it goes against you, figure out what prevents you from executing and exiting the trade for a loss. Does it really hurt you to see/realize a losing trade? Is it because no one is there to hold you accountable for your own actions? Would it make a difference for your trading if you had a partner sitting beside you to slap your face every time a trade goes against you literally forces you to execute and exit for a loss? I believe it would make a BIG difference in terms of enforcing a good habit into you to start accepting losing trades.

Losing trades are all part of this game. They are guaranteed to happen over the life of your trading career. Accept them for what they are. They're there to help you get better as a trader. They're not your enemy. The quicker you learn that and really start to embrace them as your "friends", the better and sooner you will turn into a profitable trader. You see, if you cut a losing trade "early", not only will you have not wasted a lot of time, but you'll also allow for more time to spot another trading opportunity that could erase the loss you just experienced and realized.

Let me give you an example:

Let's say you want to risk $200 for this one particular trade. You "decide" that this chart looks bearish.

You buy a PUT contract for $1.98 (right around $200 basically), just perfect per your own risk tolerance/trading plan.

If now the trade goes against you and 5 or 10 minutes later that contract now is at $1.64, you should simply NOT ASK QUESTIONS as to why it's losing value or look for various other reasons to fight the fact that you are in fact losing (check for news, look to put on other indicators for the excuse to hold onto the trade much longer, etc..etc..).

Just execute (imagine your partner slapping you in the face right this moment to make you press the SELL button) and exit the trade!

You have to trade like that. By doing this over and over on every trade transaction, you will instill this wonderful thing we all call HABIT. It's a great thing to have for trading in general. Anything you do out of habit, requires little to no emotions. You may not even have to think about it because it just "automatically" happens.

Someone, who has a habit of running 5 miles every day after a long day at work, would be considered to be "disciplined" by many others. You want people to call you that "disciplined" person, because they cannot do it themselves. They believe it requires TOO much will power and, well, discipline to continue running 5 miles every day after work. To you, however, it's just a habit. You seem to do it so effortlessly, because it's basically automatic.

Now take that habit back into your trading world. You want habits that enable and help you become profitable over the long term. Executing (perfectly) and accepting a losing trade is such a great habit. Learn that skill (for life) and no one can ever take it away from you. You could lose your house, your car, your employment (bless all people affected by COVID-19 in one way or another out there in the world!), but you could still trade from prison if your life depended on it because you have learned to embrace losing trades.

Don't focus on $$$.

Focus on trading and executing properly.

It truly goes a long way.

With that said, I'll leave you with some more inspirational screenshots (so you can get back to work and make, what I just posted about, work for your own trading. Good luck!)

Recent update on trading progress (especially with this volatile trading week)

Friday 06/26/2020

Thursday 06/25/2020

Wednesday 06/24/2020

Tuesday 06/23/2020

Monday 06/22/2020

Friday 06/19/2020

Thursday 06/18/2020

Wednesday 06/17/2020

Tuesday 06/16/2020

Monday 06/15/2020

Friday 6/12/2020

Thursday 06/11/2020

Wednesday 06/10/2020

Tuesday 06/09/2020

etc... (previous posts A, B, C, D have more from the past)

Money will follow correct actions.

View in terms of percentages, not necessarily at just dollar amounts.

You can grow a small account and you can also just do all this with part-time trading (I only "trade" for less than 30 minutes a day).

Just work on the trading aspect. Learn this life-long skill that no one can ever take away from you. You could trade until your death bed if you so wish.

You can work at this and for instance pay yourself a "free" car if you'd like: $30/day from "simple" trading would give you $600 in a month which would you can turn around and use for your car payment, insurance payment + free gasoline expense.

Being consistent comes from being disciplined.

Luck also follows the people that are consistent.

You can do it too.

Blame yourself for every mistake that happens with trading (point a finger at others & 3 fingers point back at yourself).

If you are one of the few who follow my posts/progress, you should know that my last frequent payday (withdrawing money from my accounts) was on 06/04/2020. I took out $1,818 and it reset my combined accounts back to $3,500. You can see for yourself where I am at today. Next payday coming up again soon (or perhaps I keep growing it, we'll see).

Also, greed kills (just wanted to say that again to remind everyo