I Lost Nearly My Whole Account In One Day
Recently, I had an important chat with a stock-option manager who is still seeking for the mysterious formula to yielding dependable returns with option investing each month. He mentioned some things which were so obvious to me and brought up many past memories.
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 precisely why I don’t preach the normal style of Iron Condors. If you are a couple days from expiration, and the RUT is right up against the sold contract, subsequently you are investing in the same manner as the average investor does. I’m speaking of the one who has very little investor education, and because of this, shortly you’ll be telling your buddies a similar story. However, it’s a very different story that you’ll be telling your wife! You smile today at this, but you won’t be showing your pearly whites during a time when it happens in your own trading. Another serious problem with this aggressive style of investing is that the anxiety level can be so elevated that it really destroys your well-being on a daily basis. Many of you reading this know what I am talking about.
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.
Besides teaching a safer way to trade Condors, we’ve also developed techniques to lock-in our profits on them. Most option traders exit their trades when they make a profit, but we can lock-in our profits and stay in the trade.
There’s yet another technique we’ve developed that I’d like to mention before we go. Every trader has some trades that don’t work out right? Well we obviously do too, but in our case, we usually end up with a Bonus Trade which gives us a chance to make back our loss with very little or no risk at all. It’s these little details to trading that make all the difference at the end of the year.
So, finally I’d like to say that whether we have a winner or a loser, we have some excellent adjustment tricks that will be sure to greatly improve your personal trading skills.
Tags: business, education, Finance, Investing, iron condor, locking in profits, money management, option trading, retirement, risk management, Stock Market, Trading Stocks