What Option Traders Don't Tell Their Wives

By Donald Scott

Earlier, I had a motivating talk with an option's investor who is still looking for for the key strategy to earning constant returns with option investing. He understood several things which were so well-known to me also.

One thing that stood out was when he said "Non-directional option trading doesn't mean we can make money in any direction. It means that we make money if the underlying doesn't move in any direction. In other words, it's still a directional trade, sideways." This is correct, and most people advertise that it's easy to make money with options because we can make money on any direction. This is true in some respects and not true in others.

Those investing with Condors understand what I am saying, especially if you are investing in the Iron Condors which most programs and written materials preach. If you are investing with this option strategy during 2008 and 2009, you most likely aren't doing much good. The reason for this is that the Iron Condor is just as directional as other option positions only that its direction is called "Sideways." For most traders, it's just as difficult to forecast a neutral move as it is to predict an upward move or downward one.

So many option traders have called me recently to tell me the same thing. "I was doing great with Condors and Credit spreads for a few months, but then last month I lost nearly my whole trading account." This is so common amongst option traders in today's market.

This is the reason why I don't push the popular Iron Condors, Bear Calls or Bull Puts. If you are a couple days from expiration, and the RUT is really near the sold strike, then at that moment you are in a very risky position. I'll remind you that this is the same risky method that many other investors are using to manage this option spread. Shortly all of your friends will be hearing the same story, but you won't be sharing this news with your wife! You smile at the moment, but you won't be if it happens to your trading portfolio. Another sad thing about this investing style is that the fear level is so astronomical that it really hurts your personal life. It makes it tough to sleep or even just relax each day.

Well, San Jose Options Mentoring has really changed the Condor and Credit Spreads that the usual investor is attempting to trade today. While others come into expiration sweating it out, worrying about the market moving past their short strike, we are relaxed, sleeping at night, and trading options in a much safer environment.

Constructing safe trades to begin with is a priority and will improve anyone's trading skills and returns, but another strategy that we've been working hard on lately is locking in profits. We have techniques to lock in profits on nearly all the trades that we do. It's one of the best things you can possibly learn as an investor.

Furthermore, if we ever have a Condor move against us, then we have developed yet another technique which gives us a free bonus trade! So, even though we may have a bad month once in a while, at least we get an excellent, free trade from it where most traders just take the loss and move on.

So there you have it! Whether it's a winning trade or a loser, we have really developed some nice trading tactics that can improve your personal trading immensely. - 32544

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