It has been a little less than 2 weeks doing full-time options trading.  I’ve learned that if the day goes well I am active from roughly market open at 9:30am until about noon.  Most successful days I’ve called it quits by noon with a profit number I am satisfied with.  For the most part I am buying options at a cost of about $.30 and usually buy between 10-100 contracts.  Buying 100 contracts vs buying 10 contracts is a huge difference maker (assuming you don’t take long shots!!!).  You can turn a quick profit or quick loss buying lots of contracts.  If you purchases wisely (aka expensively) you will greatly avoid quick loses that can’t be recovered from.  When a long shot bet happens it can turn bad quick and there is usually no way to control the lose.

Some New or Renewed Lessons

– Take Your Profits!.  Just take it and call it a day.  More times than not you’ll lose out trying to gain more.  It creates a hope in your mind waiting that is hard to back away from.  So, take your profit… you can always buy again if you want.  Sure, watch it go back up.  Torture yourself and learn (with your profits hopefully).

– Accept Your Loses! Just accept that it is over.  You risked $2000 and cashing out now means $1000 lose.  Just cash it out and look for your next move.

– Watch the Big Players as they dictate the trend usually.  Normally I buy SPY options of which Microsoft, Google, Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon more or less control.  If those 5 stocks are up or down then there is a good chance that SPY is doing the same.  Watching these 5 provides a good sense or when to buy or when to sell.  All Green – Buy.  All Red – Sell.  Simple as that in most cases – don’t complicate things.

Reality Statement: Today I made $5500 profit in the morning but lost $2000 in the afternoon.  What I learned mainly is that I should have called it a day early and enjoyed a nice lunch or dinner with my wife instead of continuing to play the market.  Once again – Take Your Profits, Have a  daily goal, and don’t get greedy.  ps – if you profit $5000 then you better stash $2000 away somewhere for the tax man because he is surely coming and he does not care that you lost $2000 in the afternoon!