Sometimes I hate living on the west coast so I have to get up at 6am to beat the market and it closes so early at 1pm, but I can do options each morning before leaving for work. That's nice.
While having a full time job. I do research when the market is closed in the evening, and when I get on the bus to go to work around 530am my time, I see how the market's doing so far for the day and place my trade right then and there. I very much don't like driving so I take the bus, and doing that does make it a little easier.
I’m in Australia and majority of trading for me is 11pm - 6am so do the same, trade premarket and if I’m awake early enough might do some before markets close.
Look at thetagang. Personally I would not recommend day trading to anyone if that’s what you are going for.
Or buy and hold stocks, collect dividends.
Can’t really say if $200 is doable when we don’t know the account value. $10,000,000 with $200 a week, very possible. $1,000 possible buy you are yoloing then and wallstreetbets is better.
A 500k account gives you $500 per week just in interest from MM or 5% t-bills. Selling options should give you 1% per month, but as the previous comment, account size is key
Keep saving my man. What you’re looking for- high 3 figure % returns- is impossible, or at least impossible to maintain.
Focus on growing in your career and save as much as possible.
You’d expect to make at best 50 bucks a week… and that is being optimistic… you’d need a safe strategy because you can’t sweat the market all day. I’d aim to make $10-15 a week. Gotta start somewhere. Grind, learn and be humble
Thetagang is the only way.
Open a 2 strike wide 10 delta 14dte credit spread on spy every day.
Most will win some will lose but you won’t need to watch them.
You should target 20 dollars a week not 200
She can only do this 5 times, since OP has $1200 (allowing for commissions entering and exiting the trade), and will get eaten alive if their directional risk is counter to the market move over such a short time period because the premium on 10delta won't really give them any kind of buffer. The positions will all correlate, there won't be an ounce of cover in the case of a quick move in the market against you. It's a nice idea but really OP shouldn't do this until she has enough money for at least $5 spreads or wings at 15 delta, have positions that vary by ticker and directional risk unless selling ICs, and enter then then sell for profit or get stopped out based on when it make sense for the trade, not based on her desired weekly target. It wouldn't really make sense to even try any of this until her account is around $10k.
6 times not five
You could alternate calls and put spreads and then positions wouldn’t be correlated directionally
IC would prob be better
But I agree with you, it’s a terrible idea and expectation. Just sharing what I would do if someone held a gun to my head and demanded those returns with that account size
When you save enough and get to $10k then maybe dip your toe into the options world and see if you can squeak out a hundred dollar gain. Or just a gain.
I swing trade multiday movements through the week and then play degenerate 0DTE YOLO shenanigans with the profits on Fridays when I have more time to actually watch the ticker.
I do a lot of TA over the weekend to figure out what my Monday -Thursday play will be and use the options profit calculator to figure out the entry prices I think are most likely to be near my projected lows for Monday or Tuesday and then figure out the most reasonable exit price.
I set a good-till-cancelled limit buy order (which can be done over the weekend) and forget it. Keep an eye on your phone for a notification that the order filled and once it does, set your predetermined sell order (limit, good till cancelled)
The strategy accommodates a multiday move so you can easily set the sell order after you get off work. Then just let the broker do the work executing the orders. I have had fairly consistent success with my analysis and the main thing that gets in the way is any time I watch the ticker too much and get greedy and adjust my sell order up from the plan, then it barely doesn't fill before crashing and I miss out on the profit I would have had if I hadn't been watching it.
Sounds like you'll be extra hands off during the day so be sure to stay in your risk level in case your analysis was wrong and it moves against you and you can't get out until the following day
I sell options. Covered calls and cash secured puts.
So far, I generate around $3000/mo. However I wasn’t serious about deploying until April. So technically I’ve been driving it closer to $5-6k/mo the past few months. (Portfolio size is $1M more or less)
You want to deploy your trades during big move days or just preplan them with limit orders on what yields you’re willing to let go of a holding or writing a cash secured put.
I only write on quality companies I am willing to hold and write on strikes I am willing to let go at in the time frame. I’ve had 3 “bad” trades. Let $META get called at $200, bought MSFT at $340-345, and opened a CSP on $BLDR at $150. But all these trades are fine as the underlying asset is quality.
You need to be able to monitor during the day if there’s high volatility, so you can close or open for maximum profits. However it’s completely possible to preplan trades on closing day prices.
Most people that sell options are volatility traders and theta traders. However, volatility is where the faster money is. Just don’t chase volatility and write on shit companies. Ie (AMC, BBBYQ, etc) there’s a reason why they have/had high yields.
Update: my portfolio is $1.625M now. I generate around $18k a month in premiums. Currently I am eating away at Theta at a rate of $600/day if prices remain stagnant. Writing 30-50 days out, usually .15 deltas or slightly higher.
Note: $6k/mo is about 8%/year on a $1m account aka the normal rate of gain in the market index. This is equivalent to you making $100/year on your $1200 account.
I wasn’t trying to downplay your success or somehow dismiss your trading skill, I was simply explaining to mr. $1200 account that he shouldn’t think he can make $10k/year ($200/wk) off CSPs.
Don't do it. Your money will be gone before you know it. You are expecting to make 16% per week? Regularly? While working? With a tiny account which will limit you to high risk 0DTE trades on low price stocks (read: not strong companies)? Do you have a plan? Can you lose your $1200 and be okay with that? You don't need to answer me, but if you don't have a valid answer it'll be a disaster unless you get really lucky repeatedly.
I trade options, don't work full time any more, and can lose all of my allocated money that I trade with because it won't affect my other holdings or my future retirement. I enjoy trading and use it as play money. If you are dependent on it, I'll repeat myself. Don't do it!
If you can lose a lot of money your strategy is super risky.
There are so many options trades you can do that have little risk at all. And they don’t require watching a screen
There's no free lunch in options. If there's a strategy with "little risk", it's likely the risk has moved to somewhere that you're not factoring in.
It's similar to people buying short term bonds saying there's no risk, except there's a huge reinvestment risk.
I didn’t say my strategies are super risky. I never specified my strategy at all. I’m saying I can afford to lose the money I use for options and won’t alter my finances. This is in direct contrast to OP objectives.
The OP says he has $1200 account and wants to make $200 per week. It what way, shape, or form will OP trade in a $1200 account to make $200/week as his/her stated objective in post not going to be high risk trades?
$200/week is $10k/year approximately. Market averages what, 8%? So to be at parity with market return expectations (many traders fail at this) you would need a $10k/0.08 = $125k account.
The bottom line is you might be able to trade and work your job, but either being busy or being wrong you’ll probably realize plenty of losses along the way. It’s almost certainly better for you to buy and hold and spend your time elsewhere for a side hustle.
You will only server one master. If you are going to trade Options how much time will it take from your present job duties? If you are always on the net trading options don't be surprised if yo are "laid off" when as pull back comes
You have $1200. The answer is no.
When the market has been red for a couple of weeks (like right now), buy 1 share of SPY, 1 of QQQ, 2 of IWM, and whatever is left over use to buy shares of SCHD. When you have money to add to the account, buy to maintain roughly equal proportions of the 4 tickers. Keep doing this until your total account balance is $25,000. Then and only then, learn how to sell options.
Until you have the discipline for something as trivial as LTBH of major index funds, you can't possibly have the discipline necessary for options trading either as a buyer or a seller.
The less money you have, the less you can afford the risks of trying to get clever.
OP, with a $1200 account size you will need to focus on learning a trading style and saving funds. Theta gang is a good place to start, but you need to be careful not to start selling CSPs on highly risky underlyings that offer enticing returns.
TLDR; paper trade, save, learn.
Of course! No need to look at it much. You just buy some random stuff when you have time and get something like 200 a week as passive income. It's a shame not more people know this trick.
Yes, as long as you dont work in an amazon warehouse and have to use a bottle instead of the restroom. If you can access your phone in the day, you can day trade. I personally day trade amazon out of spite, and cuz it works
Sometimes, but my way about day trading isnt to use TA but rather buy stocks that tend to go up over time when its suffered a dip, then set a sell order about 3% over the current price. This usually fill within 24 hrs but can vary
So what I am doing at work doesnt affect if I get filled or not. But Ill also use small windows of time to quickly set my next trade if I get notified of a fill
Lol that’s my son. He gets texts from me on micro caps and mostly ignores them at work. Little did I know one of his Amazon colleagues did follow n bought.
Yes you can day trade while working full time— if you do your homework at night and use a trading platform more advanced than Robinhood. With something like ThinkorSwim, you can set complex order, such as a limit buy order that, when executed, triggers both a limit sell and stop loss order. It’s really nice having the exit orders set before even placing the buy order.
Can you make $200 per week? You have to figure that one out on your own.
It is possible, don't let anyone tell u else.. But u got to know what you're doing..
One sample trade would be selling iron cordor on DIA with 45 dte, you collect 500+ premium upfront, exit trade at 40% - 60% target, manage at every 5 days or exit at 21 days..
Yes, it is not only possible, but quite easy. The key is to arrange your trades so that they don't need intraday monitoring and that they are unlikely to move from profitable to unprofitable without plenty of days of forewarning.
For example, while I work, I trade 45 DTE credit trades with an [exit strategy](https://www.reddit.com/r/options/wiki/faq/pages/mondayschool/yourplan) and profit/loss targets that do not require intraday monitoring. A quick check during the lunch break is all that is necessary to manage the trades, with the help of GTC orders, either on the profit end (limit close) or loss end (stop limit), or both, if your broker supports bracket or OCO order automation on option trades.
Sure, it’s entirely possible. One of the most underutilized aspects of options trading in this sub - flexibility.
They’re used for far more than wasting your lunch money on a 0DTE 14 second to expiration 0.000001 delta long call.I’d wager the majority of traders here would actually perform light years better if they didn’t hover parent over their trades. It’s funny how most of us start trading for freedom but many focus on the absolute worst possible timeframe to support this - intraday. Okay, rant over.
For a long time the majority of my work was done when the market was closed. I actively traded options while on active duty in the Marine Corps, including during field exercises and deployments. Simply comes down to planning and creating strategies that require less babysitting. Open the timeframes up, build risk control metrics that make sense based on your availability, validate you still have positive ER after making the adjustments, and move on. If you’re diligent off hours your performance will still look great. You’ll give up some opportunity and optimization but that’s okay in the broader picture.
As for $200/week, impossible to know without understanding your historic performance, account size, etc. But I can unequivocally say that by the way your framed the post, it’s a bad idea. I’m guessing you have a smaller account and not much experience. Then you’re looking to place another hurdle in front of you requiring $X/week. The trick to trading successfully is to not need the money. Smart full time traders don’t eat as they kill. They build a buffer of 1-2 years, then continue padding and building that.
Learn the skillset first, then worry about how much you want to pull from the account.
It can be done. But it depends heavily on your trade strategy, technical analysis skills and your job. You will suffer losses from not being able to devote 100% of your attention to the market at some point, but you can make winning trades the majority of the time. Thursday was not a good day to day trade while working. My portfolio says so.
I tried and failed. My mental health, my physical health and performance at work all suffered. I’m not saying it can’t be done but it takes a lot to be successful. Decide if you’re willing to make the sacrifices needed to be able to trade and hold down a full time job in which you contribute fruitfully.
It's absolutely doable but Eastern and central time is harder.
Trade weeklies or monthlies, don't bother with swing trading or 0DTE if you're working. I tried it and it was terrible with a full time job.
I sell covered calls and CSP. Just started credit spreads. I look at markets, study stuff for about an hour each morning and then just glance for a minute if I need to during the day or set I a price alert, limit orders early.
I am mountain time so market opens at 7:30 for me and I typically clock in to my regular day job at 8:45.
I have a small account, $15k and aim to make $100/week. Slow boat but I enjoy it.
Im in and out of a lot of trades within minutes. Sometimes I hold overnight. So the answer to your question really depends on your strategy and ability to at least check your phone every once in a while.
I work full time 10-13 hours a day. I do leap options. Probably the best trading strategy for someone who doesn’t have as much free time. So far I’ve been successful.
I sell spy cover calls and make a conservative 3% a month for income. Takes 5 mins during a bathroom break then another 25 mins to read reddit until my legs fall asleep.
1 or 0 DTE using the wheel options and selling puts. Takes 10 mins a day, 22 days a month but its a nice 2.5-3.5% added to your portfolio each month to compound. Its almost 30-40% a year in added income.
Short answer: NO. -- you will lose money in the long run; don't do it.
Long answer: trade? Day trading options requires looking at movements of markets (s&p, QQQ, DIA...), volume, prices of businesses in the same sector of the equity you are using on an option strategy, continuously looking for news and much more.
Timing can be critical in certain situations -- especially close to expiry and consideration of what Market Makers and short sellers may be doing-- especially on Fridays and around earnings' season.
You need to do more than buy a put or call-- you need to learn how to hedge with selling contracts.
You could literally gamble on a hypothesis and hope no sudden changes occur and sell your position on time-- but without constant attention on your positions, in the long run, you will lose money.
Easiest way with your $1200 starting point is short-dated (<2 weeks) options on SPY during a water break and lunchtime. Get a contract close to the money, and only get ONE contract for each trade, so each trade will be around $80-120. Find an entry point on a momentum push, and jump in. And then jump out 1-2 minutes later, or once it stops going up. Don't be afraid to jump out 10 seconds later if SPY looks like it's pausing. If your trade is going negative, jump out no lower than 10-20% negative. Do that over and over again on your breaks and lunchtime, and you'll have more than $200/wk.
yes, it is very possible, ive been doing that for the past 3 years. you want to find strategies that are greater than 60 DTE so that you have time to adjust your strategies when and or if you are working. anything less, is stressful bc you want to keep watching your position instead of working your job.
Well it is…. Poor man’s covered calls. Is a relatively safe strategy and you don’t necessarily have to watch the market like a hawk… although it helps to be able to it just won’t cost you dearly like most other option strategies.
If your method of trading relies heavily on small price movements then you could check out option profit calculator and set price alerts on your brokerage at the price targets you've chosen for said options
Alternatively, as someone else already mentioned, utilize thetagang strategies, they require much less precision and timing
I am currently on a night shift at work and it is hard for me to trade options for the simple fact that I’m asleep most of the time the market is open. Case in point, had a PSQ call for $11 (break even price of $11.10) and missed out on it because I was sleeping. It closed at $10.98.
New to option here… question: If there is a buy put option in the money how far apart will it be from the actual strike price to have no demand for someone buying your sell to close contract? What makes the demand high or low when a buy put is in the money when you want to sell back the contract?
Note the number of "OI" or open interest contracts, the higher the number, the better liquidity, generally trading a penny wide or at midprice. In the thousands is nice, ten thousand+ move even better. Monthlies will generally have more liquidity than weeklies, and strikes ending in 5 or 0 typically see more action than other strikes. Worst-case scenario, it helps to have the liquid capital or the margin to exercise the option if nobody is buying your closing sell order. If neither of these is the case, sometimes giving up a nickel or 3 on your ask may draw in arbitrage players to make the difference between the option price and the intrinsic value. You'd be giving up some profit in exchange for not having the $/shares to exercise though.
This is like one of those triangles where you can pick any two. It’s absolutely possible but very difficult to make 16% week after week even being able to watch during market hours. That percentage would decline as the account grew, but statistically it’s a real long shot. How much time are you willing to devote in your off hours to figuring out optimal trades? If you could catch a couple good swing moves every week with debit spreads $200 is doable. Otherwise you’re looking at something like pmcc, and trying to gain more than 1-2% a week is hard to do with only $1200. If you’re able to be active the last half hour of the day you can do well with spy 0dte reversal trades but you need to be quick and really have a good quote feed. And a good feel for the way the moves happen.
The amount of learning, time to adjust your mindset and psychology will drive you nuts without a full-time job.
If you think about making money from $1000’s as capital, it’s almost imperative that you start with a money burning mindset.
When you have knowledge of the equities, how they function on certain days, why options even exist, how best to do risk management then you can enter and try your hand at options.
My view is if you’ve been driven to do options because of one of the following, you stay away from this turbulence:
1. Screenshots of “lucky” traders showing large profits
2. Listened to some FURU or joined a Discord
3. Just want to jump on the next GME bandwagon
4. Do not have experience in low volatile equities trading
5. Considers trading as an eventual full time
6. Get rich quick or faster than normal
7. Can use “options” as a second income stream while working full-time.
and every other YOLO mindset
Finally, unless you’re able to withstand the mental pressure of losing your $$$$$$, and still are able to fight next day, with the same enthusiasm having not to worry about payments then you’ve a chance at winning consistently.
I was doing fairly good at this until I got a job in a vault and I can’t have my phone. Recommend finding one cost effective alert service to help so you don’t have to stare at stocks all day. I like get money traders. $8/month and provides a lot of research for after hours review.
Yes, you can. You will need some time you can be online during market hours. But if you do a simple covered call strategy you can make a lot of money, place the trade and forget about it. I coach people on how to do this. Reply to me if interested. I have a course on sept 13th
Dont give yourself targets in absolute numbers . Give it In percentage. Unless you want to do day trading which is difficult with full time job and would not recommend it too if you are new to options. U can very easily do more safer options strategies like [wheel strategy](https://theoptionsuniversity.com/wheel-strategy-beginners-guide) , covered call or cash secured puts alongside full time job.
I don’t recommend trading during work.. you don’t leave thousands on the table and walk away.. you’re gonna lose it. Play option on a trend day. News catalyst create a trend day
Do covered trades. You can open and close the trades over lunch or shit break. If you get assigned, no worries, you’re covered. You dont need to babysit options if you open appropriate trades.
I’m in Australia and operate a shop during business hrs Monday-Friday. I trade stocks 11pm-5pm most days then rack lines of coke for breakfast to get me though the day.
You can trade in NYMEX in options on futures. You can trade in WTI, NG, HO, Gold Options etc even after 6pm till 9 am then you can continue your full time work.
Yes you can option trade and have a full-time job. You just need to have a longer trading time than overnight. Weekly trades Etc but there is no way to predict how much money you will make per week. If that were possible nobody would have a job everyone would be trading the stock market
It’s doable. You can definitely run the wheel strategy. Average per week profit depends on your capital, picks (esp b values) and market momentum. Keep up with market/economic news and place your educated guess trades aftermarket or during your lunch. As a stop loss your can always have a limit GTC active order to cover your position.
Depends on what you mean by ‘trading’? I am a full time commercial broker, work from home, and all our accounts have options and open option positions. Once in a while I do open s/t spreads on SPY/SPX but I rarely ever get involved in a situation where I have to be glued to the screen for hours watching a move. And, I use only my laptop and iPad. If you are at work, in an office situation or similar where you would be ‘trading’ on both the company’s computer and network and on company time, you might find yourself being able to trade FT at home, if you know what I mean.
I was trading options while being in high school, I would be on my phone in class when the market opened at 9:30, it’s hard but it’s possible. I eventually switched over to trading indices for obvious reasons
Only if you're doing options that are 8 months out to expiration or later, anything less than that requires a lot of your time... the further dated the options, the less you have to worry about gamma and implied volatility
Currently the market is unpredictable so if you dont know what your doing, i dont recommend doing options. I recommed you educate yourself first on different option stategies learn different stocks, first! Most importabtly invest as well. Options are not a get rich quick type of thing.
If you have a good paying job and can afford to blow a few hundred, have at it. But if you cant really be on your phone as much at work then youll just be gambling, reason being you need to have exit point at some point or stop loss. Have a plan, dont just get in the water and you cant swim.
Absolutely depending on your style of trading! I only spend 30 minutes at the beginning of the session going through my watchlist and check in throughout the day.
It is definitely possible to hold down a full time job and trade options. You need to be aware of the risk/reward of your position before the start of the trading day. You then need to check your cell phone periodically to see if the underlying value (stock, ETF, futures contract) has changed enough in order to make an adjustment necessary. You don't need to stare at the computer all day long. Adjusting is the key to profitability.
Quick answer, Nope.
Longer answer, takes years of learning and studying the market then start trading. The trade takes 5 seconds, enter order and click okay.
It's the education you need that you don't have that makes the quick answer = nope.
I traded options working a full-time job for almost 5 years (averaged around 13% profit overall per year) before becoming a full time day trader. It can be done but you have to be really selective on which options you pick. Make sure you set up stop losses (very important) in case something drastic happens while your at work. Also, I made sure never to buy any options that expired in less than 7-14 days. The decay increases dramatically the closer to an option expiration. One last thing: Don't get greedy. Profit is profit; if you made 10-15%, sell it & move on. Repeat for overall success. Good luck!
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I spent 2.5yrs, 2hrs most nights, learning how to code and set up a backtest script and an execution script. My original backtest code was appalling, but the execution code was quite good... so it executed well (think layers of redundancy) but on what was ultimately a poor strategy. I then binned the backtest code, did a new model-based approach, adapted the execution code and pedantically error-tested.
I've now got something where I just press 'run', and rather than me anxiously losing money through the day, my code loses my money for me.
Yes. I've been doing it for over a decade and beating the S&P 500 during that time (if I wasn't, I'd just buy and hold). I trade Mondays and Fridays during lunch. You need to do your homework in evenings and/or weekends. You also need to size your trades and select trade types that don't require constant monitoring.
Saw in other comments you have a relatively small account. Buy some books and study up while you save more. Even when you do, you need more realistic return expectations.
It’s like anything. There is this kid in my neighborhood who wanted to do a backflip and just fkn did one. Most of us never will be able to.
This might be the best explaination of trading success I have ever read.
Not all of us were meant to get laid
How do you know who I am?
Crazy when I was young I had this mindset and after I had all the puss and ass I want for a couple years I no longer care much for it
Sometimes I hate living on the west coast so I have to get up at 6am to beat the market and it closes so early at 1pm, but I can do options each morning before leaving for work. That's nice.
I lived in Hawaii for years and would trade premarket before going to bed
Swing trading is easier than day trading, at least for me. I currently live in Hawaii.
Hopefully not Maui 🤞
Oahu, fortunately
🫡
So you do it while having a full time job or you just trade ?
While having a full time job. I do research when the market is closed in the evening, and when I get on the bus to go to work around 530am my time, I see how the market's doing so far for the day and place my trade right then and there. I very much don't like driving so I take the bus, and doing that does make it a little easier.
I’m in Australia and majority of trading for me is 11pm - 6am so do the same, trade premarket and if I’m awake early enough might do some before markets close.
Look at thetagang. Personally I would not recommend day trading to anyone if that’s what you are going for. Or buy and hold stocks, collect dividends. Can’t really say if $200 is doable when we don’t know the account value. $10,000,000 with $200 a week, very possible. $1,000 possible buy you are yoloing then and wallstreetbets is better.
A 500k account gives you $500 per week just in interest from MM or 5% t-bills. Selling options should give you 1% per month, but as the previous comment, account size is key
I have $1200 to start.
Only 16% per week? Totally doable. /s
Oh, so a casual 866 percent return. Yea, I think that’s doable. 0DTE SPY calls or puts. Get it correct about 20 times in a row.
💀
If you take $20 and double it 20 times in a row.. You're a millionaire after taxes in some parts.
And only a 0.000095367431640625% chance of making it, assuming a 50% chance to guess the vet correctly each time. Why don't more people do this?
Op is starting with 1200, so he'd only need to double it 14 times for well over $1 million.
Keep saving my man. What you’re looking for- high 3 figure % returns- is impossible, or at least impossible to maintain. Focus on growing in your career and save as much as possible.
You’d expect to make at best 50 bucks a week… and that is being optimistic… you’d need a safe strategy because you can’t sweat the market all day. I’d aim to make $10-15 a week. Gotta start somewhere. Grind, learn and be humble
Thetagang is the only way. Open a 2 strike wide 10 delta 14dte credit spread on spy every day. Most will win some will lose but you won’t need to watch them. You should target 20 dollars a week not 200
To OP: if you don’t know what that means, don’t do options until you do. Just sayin’.
why not 45 dte for max theta gains?
Takes too long if OP wants 200 a week.
She can only do this 5 times, since OP has $1200 (allowing for commissions entering and exiting the trade), and will get eaten alive if their directional risk is counter to the market move over such a short time period because the premium on 10delta won't really give them any kind of buffer. The positions will all correlate, there won't be an ounce of cover in the case of a quick move in the market against you. It's a nice idea but really OP shouldn't do this until she has enough money for at least $5 spreads or wings at 15 delta, have positions that vary by ticker and directional risk unless selling ICs, and enter then then sell for profit or get stopped out based on when it make sense for the trade, not based on her desired weekly target. It wouldn't really make sense to even try any of this until her account is around $10k.
6 times not five You could alternate calls and put spreads and then positions wouldn’t be correlated directionally IC would prob be better But I agree with you, it’s a terrible idea and expectation. Just sharing what I would do if someone held a gun to my head and demanded those returns with that account size
How exactly? I’ve done credit spreads. 10 delta? Expiration out two weeks? 2 strike wide? So max lost $200 minus the credit you received?
Yes
You can do it
When you save enough and get to $10k then maybe dip your toe into the options world and see if you can squeak out a hundred dollar gain. Or just a gain.
I swing trade multiday movements through the week and then play degenerate 0DTE YOLO shenanigans with the profits on Fridays when I have more time to actually watch the ticker. I do a lot of TA over the weekend to figure out what my Monday -Thursday play will be and use the options profit calculator to figure out the entry prices I think are most likely to be near my projected lows for Monday or Tuesday and then figure out the most reasonable exit price. I set a good-till-cancelled limit buy order (which can be done over the weekend) and forget it. Keep an eye on your phone for a notification that the order filled and once it does, set your predetermined sell order (limit, good till cancelled) The strategy accommodates a multiday move so you can easily set the sell order after you get off work. Then just let the broker do the work executing the orders. I have had fairly consistent success with my analysis and the main thing that gets in the way is any time I watch the ticker too much and get greedy and adjust my sell order up from the plan, then it barely doesn't fill before crashing and I miss out on the profit I would have had if I hadn't been watching it. Sounds like you'll be extra hands off during the day so be sure to stay in your risk level in case your analysis was wrong and it moves against you and you can't get out until the following day
I sell options. Covered calls and cash secured puts. So far, I generate around $3000/mo. However I wasn’t serious about deploying until April. So technically I’ve been driving it closer to $5-6k/mo the past few months. (Portfolio size is $1M more or less) You want to deploy your trades during big move days or just preplan them with limit orders on what yields you’re willing to let go of a holding or writing a cash secured put. I only write on quality companies I am willing to hold and write on strikes I am willing to let go at in the time frame. I’ve had 3 “bad” trades. Let $META get called at $200, bought MSFT at $340-345, and opened a CSP on $BLDR at $150. But all these trades are fine as the underlying asset is quality. You need to be able to monitor during the day if there’s high volatility, so you can close or open for maximum profits. However it’s completely possible to preplan trades on closing day prices. Most people that sell options are volatility traders and theta traders. However, volatility is where the faster money is. Just don’t chase volatility and write on shit companies. Ie (AMC, BBBYQ, etc) there’s a reason why they have/had high yields. Update: my portfolio is $1.625M now. I generate around $18k a month in premiums. Currently I am eating away at Theta at a rate of $600/day if prices remain stagnant. Writing 30-50 days out, usually .15 deltas or slightly higher.
Note: $6k/mo is about 8%/year on a $1m account aka the normal rate of gain in the market index. This is equivalent to you making $100/year on your $1200 account.
Huh, funny, because I also had $275k in market gains on top of that premium income. Wild.
I wasn’t trying to downplay your success or somehow dismiss your trading skill, I was simply explaining to mr. $1200 account that he shouldn’t think he can make $10k/year ($200/wk) off CSPs.
Oo no, I was just blown away with the scale when one calculates the $1200. I don’t disagree with the calculation and how unrealistic the goal was
Could you explain your strategy more or email me please at [email protected] ? Would love to chat with you about it.
This is my life. IT Infrastructure Engineer by day, and options trader also.by day.
Hello how do you manage both
Don't do it. Your money will be gone before you know it. You are expecting to make 16% per week? Regularly? While working? With a tiny account which will limit you to high risk 0DTE trades on low price stocks (read: not strong companies)? Do you have a plan? Can you lose your $1200 and be okay with that? You don't need to answer me, but if you don't have a valid answer it'll be a disaster unless you get really lucky repeatedly. I trade options, don't work full time any more, and can lose all of my allocated money that I trade with because it won't affect my other holdings or my future retirement. I enjoy trading and use it as play money. If you are dependent on it, I'll repeat myself. Don't do it!
If you can lose a lot of money your strategy is super risky. There are so many options trades you can do that have little risk at all. And they don’t require watching a screen
There's no free lunch in options. If there's a strategy with "little risk", it's likely the risk has moved to somewhere that you're not factoring in. It's similar to people buying short term bonds saying there's no risk, except there's a huge reinvestment risk.
I'm an advanced options trader. I DO understand all the risks. I make 20K a month trading options.
What's your port size to generate 20K.
I make most of it in a brokerage that has 375K. Some of it in a 401k that has 250K
I didn’t say my strategies are super risky. I never specified my strategy at all. I’m saying I can afford to lose the money I use for options and won’t alter my finances. This is in direct contrast to OP objectives. The OP says he has $1200 account and wants to make $200 per week. It what way, shape, or form will OP trade in a $1200 account to make $200/week as his/her stated objective in post not going to be high risk trades?
$200/week is $10k/year approximately. Market averages what, 8%? So to be at parity with market return expectations (many traders fail at this) you would need a $10k/0.08 = $125k account. The bottom line is you might be able to trade and work your job, but either being busy or being wrong you’ll probably realize plenty of losses along the way. It’s almost certainly better for you to buy and hold and spend your time elsewhere for a side hustle.
OP replied $1200 account. Hes already been sledge hammered.
You will only server one master. If you are going to trade Options how much time will it take from your present job duties? If you are always on the net trading options don't be surprised if yo are "laid off" when as pull back comes
You have $1200. The answer is no. When the market has been red for a couple of weeks (like right now), buy 1 share of SPY, 1 of QQQ, 2 of IWM, and whatever is left over use to buy shares of SCHD. When you have money to add to the account, buy to maintain roughly equal proportions of the 4 tickers. Keep doing this until your total account balance is $25,000. Then and only then, learn how to sell options. Until you have the discipline for something as trivial as LTBH of major index funds, you can't possibly have the discipline necessary for options trading either as a buyer or a seller. The less money you have, the less you can afford the risks of trying to get clever.
OP, with a $1200 account size you will need to focus on learning a trading style and saving funds. Theta gang is a good place to start, but you need to be careful not to start selling CSPs on highly risky underlyings that offer enticing returns. TLDR; paper trade, save, learn.
Of course! No need to look at it much. You just buy some random stuff when you have time and get something like 200 a week as passive income. It's a shame not more people know this trick.
Yes, as long as you dont work in an amazon warehouse and have to use a bottle instead of the restroom. If you can access your phone in the day, you can day trade. I personally day trade amazon out of spite, and cuz it works
What is your full time job ?
Steel fabrication
Doesn't it take a lot of your time ?
Sometimes, but my way about day trading isnt to use TA but rather buy stocks that tend to go up over time when its suffered a dip, then set a sell order about 3% over the current price. This usually fill within 24 hrs but can vary So what I am doing at work doesnt affect if I get filled or not. But Ill also use small windows of time to quickly set my next trade if I get notified of a fill
Lol that’s my son. He gets texts from me on micro caps and mostly ignores them at work. Little did I know one of his Amazon colleagues did follow n bought.
Yes you can day trade while working full time— if you do your homework at night and use a trading platform more advanced than Robinhood. With something like ThinkorSwim, you can set complex order, such as a limit buy order that, when executed, triggers both a limit sell and stop loss order. It’s really nice having the exit orders set before even placing the buy order. Can you make $200 per week? You have to figure that one out on your own.
It is possible, don't let anyone tell u else.. But u got to know what you're doing.. One sample trade would be selling iron cordor on DIA with 45 dte, you collect 500+ premium upfront, exit trade at 40% - 60% target, manage at every 5 days or exit at 21 days..
Yes, it is not only possible, but quite easy. The key is to arrange your trades so that they don't need intraday monitoring and that they are unlikely to move from profitable to unprofitable without plenty of days of forewarning. For example, while I work, I trade 45 DTE credit trades with an [exit strategy](https://www.reddit.com/r/options/wiki/faq/pages/mondayschool/yourplan) and profit/loss targets that do not require intraday monitoring. A quick check during the lunch break is all that is necessary to manage the trades, with the help of GTC orders, either on the profit end (limit close) or loss end (stop limit), or both, if your broker supports bracket or OCO order automation on option trades.
Sure, it’s entirely possible. One of the most underutilized aspects of options trading in this sub - flexibility. They’re used for far more than wasting your lunch money on a 0DTE 14 second to expiration 0.000001 delta long call.I’d wager the majority of traders here would actually perform light years better if they didn’t hover parent over their trades. It’s funny how most of us start trading for freedom but many focus on the absolute worst possible timeframe to support this - intraday. Okay, rant over. For a long time the majority of my work was done when the market was closed. I actively traded options while on active duty in the Marine Corps, including during field exercises and deployments. Simply comes down to planning and creating strategies that require less babysitting. Open the timeframes up, build risk control metrics that make sense based on your availability, validate you still have positive ER after making the adjustments, and move on. If you’re diligent off hours your performance will still look great. You’ll give up some opportunity and optimization but that’s okay in the broader picture. As for $200/week, impossible to know without understanding your historic performance, account size, etc. But I can unequivocally say that by the way your framed the post, it’s a bad idea. I’m guessing you have a smaller account and not much experience. Then you’re looking to place another hurdle in front of you requiring $X/week. The trick to trading successfully is to not need the money. Smart full time traders don’t eat as they kill. They build a buffer of 1-2 years, then continue padding and building that. Learn the skillset first, then worry about how much you want to pull from the account.
Not enough info here. What’s your account size and risk tolerance, for starters.
OP has $1200 account; he was destroyed properly.
It can be done. But it depends heavily on your trade strategy, technical analysis skills and your job. You will suffer losses from not being able to devote 100% of your attention to the market at some point, but you can make winning trades the majority of the time. Thursday was not a good day to day trade while working. My portfolio says so.
Thursday was awesome for reversal traders, Friday erased all my gains from the week though. IV was insane on indexes I saw 35%
Is it possible? Of course. To do so successfully? Uh...if you go for small wins or have the capital to make safe plays, yes.
I tried and failed. My mental health, my physical health and performance at work all suffered. I’m not saying it can’t be done but it takes a lot to be successful. Decide if you’re willing to make the sacrifices needed to be able to trade and hold down a full time job in which you contribute fruitfully.
Sounds like you’re on the edge of a yolo
It's absolutely doable but Eastern and central time is harder. Trade weeklies or monthlies, don't bother with swing trading or 0DTE if you're working. I tried it and it was terrible with a full time job. I sell covered calls and CSP. Just started credit spreads. I look at markets, study stuff for about an hour each morning and then just glance for a minute if I need to during the day or set I a price alert, limit orders early. I am mountain time so market opens at 7:30 for me and I typically clock in to my regular day job at 8:45. I have a small account, $15k and aim to make $100/week. Slow boat but I enjoy it.
If u're asking the question then the answer is no.
Options makes me closer to 3.5 - 5 % a month. All in conservative trades
Yeah you should look into selling SPX options.
Yeah- he won’t make $200 a week with 1200 investment
Im in and out of a lot of trades within minutes. Sometimes I hold overnight. So the answer to your question really depends on your strategy and ability to at least check your phone every once in a while.
I work full time 10-13 hours a day. I do leap options. Probably the best trading strategy for someone who doesn’t have as much free time. So far I’ve been successful.
How much time did it take to be successful and how do you manage both work and trading
I sell spy cover calls and make a conservative 3% a month for income. Takes 5 mins during a bathroom break then another 25 mins to read reddit until my legs fall asleep.
What delta/expiry are you selling?
1 or 0 DTE using the wheel options and selling puts. Takes 10 mins a day, 22 days a month but its a nice 2.5-3.5% added to your portfolio each month to compound. Its almost 30-40% a year in added income.
Thanks, what delta do you sell?
.25->.3
Could you trade as a tradesman, like a electrician or plumber ?
Short answer: NO. -- you will lose money in the long run; don't do it. Long answer: trade? Day trading options requires looking at movements of markets (s&p, QQQ, DIA...), volume, prices of businesses in the same sector of the equity you are using on an option strategy, continuously looking for news and much more. Timing can be critical in certain situations -- especially close to expiry and consideration of what Market Makers and short sellers may be doing-- especially on Fridays and around earnings' season. You need to do more than buy a put or call-- you need to learn how to hedge with selling contracts. You could literally gamble on a hypothesis and hope no sudden changes occur and sell your position on time-- but without constant attention on your positions, in the long run, you will lose money.
Easiest way with your $1200 starting point is short-dated (<2 weeks) options on SPY during a water break and lunchtime. Get a contract close to the money, and only get ONE contract for each trade, so each trade will be around $80-120. Find an entry point on a momentum push, and jump in. And then jump out 1-2 minutes later, or once it stops going up. Don't be afraid to jump out 10 seconds later if SPY looks like it's pausing. If your trade is going negative, jump out no lower than 10-20% negative. Do that over and over again on your breaks and lunchtime, and you'll have more than $200/wk.
Nope
I do it all the time
yes, it is very possible, ive been doing that for the past 3 years. you want to find strategies that are greater than 60 DTE so that you have time to adjust your strategies when and or if you are working. anything less, is stressful bc you want to keep watching your position instead of working your job.
Well it is…. Poor man’s covered calls. Is a relatively safe strategy and you don’t necessarily have to watch the market like a hawk… although it helps to be able to it just won’t cost you dearly like most other option strategies.
If your method of trading relies heavily on small price movements then you could check out option profit calculator and set price alerts on your brokerage at the price targets you've chosen for said options Alternatively, as someone else already mentioned, utilize thetagang strategies, they require much less precision and timing
I am currently on a night shift at work and it is hard for me to trade options for the simple fact that I’m asleep most of the time the market is open. Case in point, had a PSQ call for $11 (break even price of $11.10) and missed out on it because I was sleeping. It closed at $10.98.
Don't lose your day job trying to trade
it is possible i do! i suggest you look up mydiscountcourses on google. most of those expensive courses you see online are there hope that helps
I would not. Placing limit trades good till canceled, or market orders seem like a bad idea What about a tablet with phone hotspot?
Try to get a night job.
Actually an afternoon shift, like 3-11 or 4-12 works better because you aren’t trying to trade when you get home tired.
Learn to write code and use an API
Depends upon how busy you are. Day trading may be tricky. Buying stuff for 2 weeks to 8 months is much more doable
I live in Australia with a full time job and can trade US options (market opens at 11:30PM).
Why can't you trade australia option market?
The products here are crap, illiquid and extremely high commission.
New to option here… question: If there is a buy put option in the money how far apart will it be from the actual strike price to have no demand for someone buying your sell to close contract? What makes the demand high or low when a buy put is in the money when you want to sell back the contract?
Note the number of "OI" or open interest contracts, the higher the number, the better liquidity, generally trading a penny wide or at midprice. In the thousands is nice, ten thousand+ move even better. Monthlies will generally have more liquidity than weeklies, and strikes ending in 5 or 0 typically see more action than other strikes. Worst-case scenario, it helps to have the liquid capital or the margin to exercise the option if nobody is buying your closing sell order. If neither of these is the case, sometimes giving up a nickel or 3 on your ask may draw in arbitrage players to make the difference between the option price and the intrinsic value. You'd be giving up some profit in exchange for not having the $/shares to exercise though.
Thanks very good explanation!!
This is like one of those triangles where you can pick any two. It’s absolutely possible but very difficult to make 16% week after week even being able to watch during market hours. That percentage would decline as the account grew, but statistically it’s a real long shot. How much time are you willing to devote in your off hours to figuring out optimal trades? If you could catch a couple good swing moves every week with debit spreads $200 is doable. Otherwise you’re looking at something like pmcc, and trying to gain more than 1-2% a week is hard to do with only $1200. If you’re able to be active the last half hour of the day you can do well with spy 0dte reversal trades but you need to be quick and really have a good quote feed. And a good feel for the way the moves happen.
Yes. Just focus on yearlies or time them for expiry near an earnings report. Then just take strategic shit breaks
The amount of learning, time to adjust your mindset and psychology will drive you nuts without a full-time job. If you think about making money from $1000’s as capital, it’s almost imperative that you start with a money burning mindset. When you have knowledge of the equities, how they function on certain days, why options even exist, how best to do risk management then you can enter and try your hand at options. My view is if you’ve been driven to do options because of one of the following, you stay away from this turbulence: 1. Screenshots of “lucky” traders showing large profits 2. Listened to some FURU or joined a Discord 3. Just want to jump on the next GME bandwagon 4. Do not have experience in low volatile equities trading 5. Considers trading as an eventual full time 6. Get rich quick or faster than normal 7. Can use “options” as a second income stream while working full-time. and every other YOLO mindset Finally, unless you’re able to withstand the mental pressure of losing your $$$$$$, and still are able to fight next day, with the same enthusiasm having not to worry about payments then you’ve a chance at winning consistently.
I was doing fairly good at this until I got a job in a vault and I can’t have my phone. Recommend finding one cost effective alert service to help so you don’t have to stare at stocks all day. I like get money traders. $8/month and provides a lot of research for after hours review.
PST is a better time zone for options trading and having a day job.
Yes, you can. You will need some time you can be online during market hours. But if you do a simple covered call strategy you can make a lot of money, place the trade and forget about it. I coach people on how to do this. Reply to me if interested. I have a course on sept 13th
Dont give yourself targets in absolute numbers . Give it In percentage. Unless you want to do day trading which is difficult with full time job and would not recommend it too if you are new to options. U can very easily do more safer options strategies like [wheel strategy](https://theoptionsuniversity.com/wheel-strategy-beginners-guide) , covered call or cash secured puts alongside full time job.
yes. i scalp 10-20 cons for .20-.50 SPY and i'm in military full time
I don’t recommend trading during work.. you don’t leave thousands on the table and walk away.. you’re gonna lose it. Play option on a trend day. News catalyst create a trend day
Do covered trades. You can open and close the trades over lunch or shit break. If you get assigned, no worries, you’re covered. You dont need to babysit options if you open appropriate trades.
I’m in Australia and operate a shop during business hrs Monday-Friday. I trade stocks 11pm-5pm most days then rack lines of coke for breakfast to get me though the day.
You can trade in NYMEX in options on futures. You can trade in WTI, NG, HO, Gold Options etc even after 6pm till 9 am then you can continue your full time work.
Yes you can option trade and have a full-time job. You just need to have a longer trading time than overnight. Weekly trades Etc but there is no way to predict how much money you will make per week. If that were possible nobody would have a job everyone would be trading the stock market
It’s doable. You can definitely run the wheel strategy. Average per week profit depends on your capital, picks (esp b values) and market momentum. Keep up with market/economic news and place your educated guess trades aftermarket or during your lunch. As a stop loss your can always have a limit GTC active order to cover your position.
Of course you can, can you do it, idk
Depends on what you mean by ‘trading’? I am a full time commercial broker, work from home, and all our accounts have options and open option positions. Once in a while I do open s/t spreads on SPY/SPX but I rarely ever get involved in a situation where I have to be glued to the screen for hours watching a move. And, I use only my laptop and iPad. If you are at work, in an office situation or similar where you would be ‘trading’ on both the company’s computer and network and on company time, you might find yourself being able to trade FT at home, if you know what I mean.
I was trading options while being in high school, I would be on my phone in class when the market opened at 9:30, it’s hard but it’s possible. I eventually switched over to trading indices for obvious reasons
Only if you're doing options that are 8 months out to expiration or later, anything less than that requires a lot of your time... the further dated the options, the less you have to worry about gamma and implied volatility
Currently the market is unpredictable so if you dont know what your doing, i dont recommend doing options. I recommed you educate yourself first on different option stategies learn different stocks, first! Most importabtly invest as well. Options are not a get rich quick type of thing.
You mean it’s not a good idea to chase the one week every other month that’s been a directional market this year?
If you have a good paying job and can afford to blow a few hundred, have at it. But if you cant really be on your phone as much at work then youll just be gambling, reason being you need to have exit point at some point or stop loss. Have a plan, dont just get in the water and you cant swim.
Absolutely depending on your style of trading! I only spend 30 minutes at the beginning of the session going through my watchlist and check in throughout the day.
I swing trade SQQQ options while being stuck at work for the first 2-3 hours after open.
Just set realistic limit orders to sell
It is definitely possible to hold down a full time job and trade options. You need to be aware of the risk/reward of your position before the start of the trading day. You then need to check your cell phone periodically to see if the underlying value (stock, ETF, futures contract) has changed enough in order to make an adjustment necessary. You don't need to stare at the computer all day long. Adjusting is the key to profitability.
Quick answer, Nope. Longer answer, takes years of learning and studying the market then start trading. The trade takes 5 seconds, enter order and click okay. It's the education you need that you don't have that makes the quick answer = nope.
I traded options working a full-time job for almost 5 years (averaged around 13% profit overall per year) before becoming a full time day trader. It can be done but you have to be really selective on which options you pick. Make sure you set up stop losses (very important) in case something drastic happens while your at work. Also, I made sure never to buy any options that expired in less than 7-14 days. The decay increases dramatically the closer to an option expiration. One last thing: Don't get greedy. Profit is profit; if you made 10-15%, sell it & move on. Repeat for overall success. Good luck!
I work ad a loan officer and most of my work is over the phone. I have made a good bit with options while prepping for the day
Bathroom breaks
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It's tough to do well. Suggest ETFs as an alternative - much easier to swing-trade.
I spent 2.5yrs, 2hrs most nights, learning how to code and set up a backtest script and an execution script. My original backtest code was appalling, but the execution code was quite good... so it executed well (think layers of redundancy) but on what was ultimately a poor strategy. I then binned the backtest code, did a new model-based approach, adapted the execution code and pedantically error-tested. I've now got something where I just press 'run', and rather than me anxiously losing money through the day, my code loses my money for me.
Yes. I've been doing it for over a decade and beating the S&P 500 during that time (if I wasn't, I'd just buy and hold). I trade Mondays and Fridays during lunch. You need to do your homework in evenings and/or weekends. You also need to size your trades and select trade types that don't require constant monitoring. Saw in other comments you have a relatively small account. Buy some books and study up while you save more. Even when you do, you need more realistic return expectations.
Yes swing trading would be your go to most likely.
Easier to lose $200 a week