Strategy/Course I'm looking at

[borgia 0]

I'm a relatively new and inexperienced options trader.  I understand the basics of what a vertical, iron condor, etc are but let's just say I have a lot to learn.  I was looking at a course called options advantage run by a guy named Andy Crowder.  The course requires a commitment of a year and $1000 so it's kind of a big commitment.  I emailed to see if they have any trials and haven't heard back yet.

He has alot of free content only so I've been able to get a good amount of info on his strategy.  From what I gather the guys strategy is relatively simple.  Perhaps this is why I'm looking at it because it's easy for me to understand.  Basically he looks at the 2, 3, 5 and 14 day RSIs  and if it's overbought he will buy a vertical call spread in 80%probability OTM range.  It's vice versa if it's oversold he buys a vertical put spread 80% OTM. He calls this means averaging.   I was wondering what others thoughts are on this strategy and if anyone has any thoughts on this course.  Another thing he seems focused on is the spread between the bid and the ask, as he only uses stocks or ETFs (mostly ETFs) with close bid asks. He says this means it is efficient.  I'm not sure if this is true or if so why it would be, so if someone could help me understand that I would appreciate it.

[borgia 0]

Stupidly I just realized that this site also has it's own course, which I'm also going to take a look at.  I apologize if this is a conflict of interest, I'm just trying to find out which strategies/courses work best. 

[Kim 7,943]

That's fine. We don't censor comments. Competition is always good. We always encourage prospective members to do their due diligence and decide what works the best for them.

Obviously I'm not going to comment about other programs, but here is a good guide How To Evaluate Options Trading Service. 

Check out the service track record, check out reviews (https://www.stockgumshoe.com/ and https://investimonials.com/ are good sources of reviews) etc. and make your own decision.

[gf58 771]

13 minutes ago, borgia said:

He has alot of free content only so I've been able to get a good amount of info on his strategy.  From what I gather the guys strategy is relatively simple.  Perhaps this is why I'm looking at it because it's easy for me to understand.  Basically he looks at the 2, 3, 5 and 14 day RSIs  and if it's overbought he will buy a vertical call spread in 80%probability OTM range.  It's vice versa if it's oversold he buys a vertical put spread 80% OTM. He calls this means averaging.   I was wondering what others thoughts are on this strategy and if anyone has any thoughts on this course.  Another thing he seems focused on is the spread between the bid and the ask, as he only uses stocks or ETFs (mostly ETFs) with close bid asks. He says this means it is efficient.  I'm not sure if this is true or if so why it would be, so if someone could help me understand that I would appreciate it.

I dont know too much about Options Advantage but I couldn't speak more highly of the Steady Options approach. Kim and Yowster take a complete portfolio approach and trade several different trade plans. When you only trade one approach the P&L ride can be pretty bumpy as any approach goes through a period of working and not working as the market shifts around. Taking a portfolio approach we're encouraged to think not just what is the profit potential of this trade but how does this improve the profit potential of my whole portfolio. This leads to exploration of many different types of strategies (straddles, diagonals, calendars, flys and some more innovative ones) that attempt to add the maximum upside whilst reducing the downside risk to the whole portfolio.....ie. a portfolio that can work regardless of whether the market goes up, down or sideways.

 

The other key thing is that its not a trade alert service. The trades approach is explained with reasoning/explanation of the long term edge and members are encouraged to learn the trade and make it their own. This is evident in the number of 'unofficial trades' members propose and trade on their own. Beyond the expertise of Kim and Yowster there is a healthy community of members from all different backgrounds and experience levels who are a great help to anyone wanting to learn. I, myself, have had fantastic and thoughtful replies to questions that probably seem obvious to more experienced members but were still something that had been stumping me. I really cant overstate the benefit of the community in helping each other learn.

 

 

[aircal 1]

There are lots of free learning resources - for example tastytrade 

[SureTrader 40]

@borgia A lot of services hide losses by rolling and say that the position is still open. They won't publish that to even know. Well, your account/ brokerage doesnt care about whats not a realized loss (even though it is, once you roll). SO is very comprehensive and most importantly adapting to dynamic markets. And SO looks at a portfolio as a whole while managing the positions individually too.

1 hour ago, borgia said:

From what I gather the guys strategy is relatively simple.  Perhaps this is why I'm looking at it because it's easy for me to understand.

How is buying straight up calls and puts not gambling. Most often it's day trading too and not to mention it leads to PDT in margin accounts less than 25K. I have seen most traders who are constantly nervous about whether to hold or close or go work out in the gym with such services (I was one like that before). If you have a busy job then it will kill you.

[QuickNick 82]

@borgia  I researched a lot of services in decent depth.  Steady Options is the all around best IMHO because they cover a balanced variety of high percentage trading strategies. 

There is zero need to pay for novice to intermediate strategies that can compliment the long Vega and short Theta of the SO portfolio.  Just watch the hundreds of hours of YouTube videos about premium selling strategies by ProjectOption, OptionsAlpha, and TastyTrade on YouTube.  PO seems the least biased.  I wouldn’t pay for OA, and TT is free but stick to only the best best risk/reward defined risk stuff.  You can even download the TastyTrade app and use the trade ideas for free, you just have to weed out all the many bad ideas.  However, only take their best ideas and leave the rest.  Ignore their statements that contradict the results shown in the SO performance track record because they don’t back it up with properly constructed studies.  Lastly, if I were going to pay for a strategy that would compliment my long Vega, short theta SO portfolio, then I would look no farther than subscribing to Steady Momentum.  

[yalgaar 40]

@borgia Like most people here I only have very good things to say about SO. Following are few things I would like to further add.

 

1) I have not come across anyone, any service that would publish all past performance data like SO does. This data is based on real fills. I was skeptical about this for a long time and thought like most service SO might also be just cooking these reports to make it look pretty and shiny. I was very wrong! I have personally verified nothing fishy going on over here. I have evaluated more than a dozen of similar services and they all failed my expectation of some basic genuine reporting. Without reporting to me, you have nothing. 

2) This is an amazing community of very smart people. Kim and Yowser understand the core dynamics of Options trading. I have not come across anyone with this level of knowledge.

3) You will not come across any service where you can learn so much about the trading. The knowledge you get from here is yours forever. You can use this knowledge in any markets and will always have positive edge.

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I want to add more to this. But ran out of time. I will update this later.

[FrankTheTank 839]

$1,000 could be worth it if the course is truly unique and valuable.   In my opinion, most of the basic option education you need can be learned for free through online courses such as Option Alpha, Tasty Trade, and others.  I also think books are a great way to learn.   One of the best options books for beginners to intermediates I have ever read is only $4 (kindle version which includes free software/Excel tools)  https://www.amazon.com/Trade-Options-Edge-Russell-Richards/dp/1524538183

It probably should take you at least 6 months to go through all the free stuff and do 100s of practice trades on your own.   Only then would I consider spending big money on further education.    For example, the stuff they teach over at Trading Dominion is unique and more advanced then all the free stuff available elsewhere.  Its not cheap (~$1,500) but the amount of content and education you get is worth it in my opinion.

Out of all the things I have tried I keep coming back to Steady Options (as Kim knows).  Its the only place I think we as small time traders have a bit of an edge around earnings events.  I dont even follow the official trades here anymore, I just like the education and ideas I get.