SteadyOptions is an options trading forum where you can find solutions from top options traders. Join Us!

We’ve all been there… researching options strategies and unable to find the answers we’re looking for. SteadyOptions has your solution.

zxcv64

My Seven Stages of being an SO Member

Recommended Posts

This should be required reading for every new SO member.  My experience is almost identical.   

So many people just want to pay for trade alerts and not take the time to figure out why we are making a trade and where we think the "edge" is coming from.  I totally understand this as I was in the same spot a few years ago.  Learning takes time and effort and I know its hard for people to find that right now.   

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
14 hours ago, zxcv64 said:

I’ve started doing something else – I’m now keeping a proper journal. Every trade is logged together with the rationale behind it. 

Hello @zxcv64, first of all thank you for sharing your story. It's really encouraging to go on.

 

The above quoted sentence jumped out for me, since I'm trying to setup a personal trading log for a while. I experimented with different methodes and tools. Varying for 'screen-shooting' everything, till only making short telegram style notes. I'm not doing very well on this area, by not sticking consistent to one methode, or never look at the made log notes and do some evaluating, etc, etc.

 

So I would appreciate if you would share your methode of trade logging. What and how do you register ? Perhaps you can share a sample log ? Any thought / tips / advise regarding maintaining a trade journaal you wish to share. Thanks in advance.

 

Edited by Hielke

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If I am not mistaken most of the success stories at SO come from full or almost full time traders. I wonder if there are people with similar success, who have full time job or for any other reason cant fully commit to trading.

Edited by Jevgeni

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hi there - former member here.  I just wanted to chime in and say that this post really resonated with me as well.  I think SO is a great service, but I dropped out after a couple of years somewhere around step 4 or 5.  At that time, I came to realize that in order for my trading to be both profitable and enjoyable, I needed to move to step 6 and truly make the system my own.  I needed to quit simply following the official trade alerts (and getting frustrated when I couldn't get the same price, or couldn't get filled at all), build a deeper understanding of why the trades worked, and then make my own trades.  However, I also realized I didn't have time in my life to do that as a busy small business owner and a father of four young children.  I didn't have the bandwidth to move to step 6, and it didn't make sense to continue what I was doing, so I made the difficult decision to stop trading and focus on the other aspects of my life.  The time still isn't quite right for me personally, but I do hope to return to trading in general and SO in particular someday in the not-too-distant future.  I just wanted to share that perspective in case it helps someone else sort out their own situation.  Best wishes to all of you in the new year!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a fascinating thread, I find that I'm interested in everybody's story of how they came to be here, now, in this conversation.  I don't know about how many others feel the same as I but I would really enjoy, just from a human curiosity point of view to hear the stories of any others that wanted to say how they got here.  Individual, retail traders get very little (trading) workplace input because most of us are alone at our computers, these kind of threads add some of the missing "coworker" input that one takes for granted in today's society.  It is also kind of a "sanity check".

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Jevgeni said:

If I am not mistaken most of the success stories at SO come from full or almost full time traders. I wonder if there are people with similar success, who have full time job or for any other reason cant fully commit to trading.

Actually most SO members have full time jobs or small businesses, including most of the mentors. Of course different people have different levels of commitments in their daily jobs, so the comparison is not always apples to apples.

It's very important to create realistic expectations, and discussions like this one help to do it. I could tell potential members that it's enough to spend just few hours per month to succeed in trading. Many other services do it and tell you that you can turn $12,415 Into $4M in no time. This would be the easy path to gain thousands of subscribers (People like to believe In Fairy Tales). This is simply not true. Every profession requires time and effort, and trading is no different.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Good Morning all

this old dog couldn’t agree more.  I do have a comment or suggestion.  It’s obvious that SO wants us to succeed, over the years I have tried different services.  This one is unique in the sense that everyone’s voice is heard.  Usually the staff or owners of these services aren’t as engaged.  
 

i have wondered however.  Why does SO have to remind new subscribers to”go read” to start.   Would a library of in-house videos be a better solution to start and depending on the topic an opportunity to review.  Also available on podcasts?  How about zoom seminar teaching us the philosophy and tricks.  I would like to hear from the monthly winner review their work, trick and spreadsheets for an additional fee? I’ve also suggested that a different winner should crowned to allow others to share learn and grow.  
 

thanks for listening

Troy

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
22 minutes ago, Troy Mclure said:

Good Morning all

this old dog couldn’t agree more.  I do have a comment or suggestion.  It’s obvious that SO wants us to succeed, over the years I have tried different services.  This one is unique in the sense that everyone’s voice is heard.  Usually the staff or owners of these services aren’t as engaged.  
 

i have wondered however.  Why does SO have to remind new subscribers to”go read” to start.   Would a library of in-house videos be a better solution to start and depending on the topic an opportunity to review.  Also available on podcasts?  How about zoom seminar teaching us the philosophy and tricks.  I would like to hear from the monthly winner review their work, trick and spreadsheets for an additional fee? I’ve also suggested that a different winner should crowned to allow others to share learn and grow.  
 

thanks for listening

Troy

 

Those are some excellent suggestions, please let me address them.

First, I don't believe in "additional fees". Some services implement this strategy of milking their members for webinars and videos, I don't think it's fair.

We do have some Webinars and Videos, and also some videos on Youtube. Is it enough? Probably not. I still have to find the time to create new videos, but if someone wants to help, please contact me (I will gladly compensate those members for their time and effort). Also I know that some mentors are willing to provide one on one mentoring, if you are interested, please contact me or the mentors.

At the end of the day, it's matter of priorities and workload. At this point I prefer to contribute and be available on the forums, and I believe that our extensive library of topics and educational articles provides an excellent starting point, but obviously there is always more than can be done.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a great post that illustrates both the journey one goes through with SteadyOptions and why that journey may not be for everyone. I was an SO member for a year-plus. Learned a ton, had some winners, had some losers, but ultimately decided that the style of trading was just not for me. As you can see here, it's really a second job. It never made sense for me to put in that much time for something that would be 10-20% of my overall investment portfolio. But, it made me a better investor. As you can see by the fact that I'm posting, here, I still like reading Kim's emails.

Dan

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
12 minutes ago, Dan27 said:

This is a great post that illustrates both the journey one goes through with SteadyOptions and why that journey may not be for everyone. I was an SO member for a year-plus. Learned a ton, had some winners, had some losers, but ultimately decided that the style of trading was just not for me. As you can see here, it's really a second job. It never made sense for me to put in that much time for something that would be 10-20% of my overall investment portfolio. But, it made me a better investor. As you can see by the fact that I'm posting, here, I still like reading Kim's emails.

Dan

I completely agree.

And obviously different people have different goals, different perspectives and different priorities. If someone spends some time learnings the strategies, becomes proficient and makes 50-80% on a $100k portfolio (which is completely doable, many veteran members make more), that's an extra $50-80k a year. For some people it might not be worth the effort, for others it can be a second salary (many people in the US don't make that much as a first salary, not to mention many developing countries). 

btw, many trading ideas shared by members are scalable far beyond the $100k limit we recommend, and this is where treating it as a trading community and not an alert service can be really useful. Many members told me that a single trading idea shared by another member covered their subscription fee for 5-10 years..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
20 hours ago, zxcv64 said:

I open my own calendar trade on PANW for 0.89. The very next day, Kim opens the same Put calendar for 1.05

😁 That feeling when.....

 

Its like a Promethean spark that changes everything.....you suddenly get the confidence to progress to stage 6: doing your own trades => which gets you out of the mugs game of trying to chase alerts => which -after a few more missteps- eventually gets you onto the path to consistency.

 

NB. Alerts are great for learning exactly as you've laid out; by serving as material to understand why did Kim/Yowster do X now and why did they take profit now and....but they're not copy+paste=Learjet

 

Thanks for sharing @zxcv64

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, Hielke said:

So I would appreciate if you would share your methode of trade logging. What and how do you register ? Perhaps you can share a sample log ? Any thought / tips / advise regarding maintaining a trade journaal you wish to share.

 

Hi @Hielke, yourself and another member has asked for this. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that my trading journal is nothing fancy or unique - it's just some Excel and Word documents. But they have been extremely vital to my development. What I think we can do in a few days is to start a new thread dedicated to journalling - where everyone can chip in with what sort of information they like to maintain, what they find useful, etc etc. We don't have such a thread on SO, and I think it would be useful.

 

1 hour ago, Kim said:

If someone spends some time learnings the strategies, becomes proficient and makes 50-80% on a $100k portfolio (which is completely doable, many veteran members make more), that's an extra $50-80k a year.

Totally agreed. For me personally, once Covid goes away, I will be doing a lot of travelling so will not be able to do this full-time, but this is exactly the sort of returns I would be looking for. I am not in any way implying that one should give up their day jobs, but it's very possible to make a decent full-time living from trading these strategies given a $100K portfolio.

 

Just to re-iterate that the transformation and growth occurs when we create our own trades. When we just follow someone else's trade, then physiologically, we are not as emotionally invested in it. If it goes wrong, we're upset at losing money of course, but we have the convenience of mentally blaming someone else for it. When we enter our own trade, then we hold ourselves more accountable and we have to look internally to explain why it didn't work out. Similarly, a successful outcome is even more sweeter.

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
9 hours ago, Jevgeni said:

If I am not mistaken most of the success stories at SO come from full or almost full time traders. I wonder if there are people with similar success, who have full time job or for any other reason cant fully commit to trading.

I have a more than full time job and a business to run - I do take the trading as a form of relaxation -i.e. not doing the day job. Not watching television tends to free up enough time to do it on the side. However - to be perfectly fair - when I am too busy professionally I do scale down trading to reduce the error rate.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, Jevgeni said:

If I am not mistaken most of the success stories at SO come from full or almost full time traders. I wonder if there are people with similar success, who have full time job or for any other reason cant fully commit to trading.

I work a full time job (office job) plus a side business I started plus have three elementary aged kids at home with me (home schooling during COVID).  Time is really tight right now which is why I like these earnings trades. 

I can fire up VOLHQ in the morning and take a look at a handful of stocks that may be good entries.  The trades I am already in I use limit orders to manage them.   If I really tried I could probably get buy with 20-30 minutes per day of earnings type trades.

I am lucky though because I have a quiet office and several computers and screens to work from.   I don't think you could do this well on your own if you worked outside or were in a car all day.

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I must admit how inspirational your individual commitment and dedication is.   As a Junior 60’s retired guy.  I’ve decided to treat SO as my part time job starting 01 Jan.  What that looks like, I’m not sure.  But as I’ve sat here for the past 5 months (w/o a trade) truly learning about the spirit, tricks and theories from kind individuals who cheer their successes and share their mistakes.  
 

What a wonderful motivating discussion to leave 2020

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Keep yourself and family safe 😷 

Troy

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
19 hours ago, Troy Mclure said:

I must admit how inspirational your individual commitment and dedication is.   As a Junior 60’s retired guy.  I’ve decided to treat SO as my part time job starting 01 Jan.  What that looks like, I’m not sure.  But as I’ve sat here for the past 5 months (w/o a trade) truly learning about the spirit, tricks and theories from kind individuals who cheer their successes and share their mistakes.  
 

What a wonderful motivating discussion to leave 2020

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. Keep yourself and family safe 😷 

Troy

Always loved your account name.  

Edited by FrankTheTank

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm a newbie here (but very experienced with options altogether, mainly strangles).  Are the trades displayed with their logic behind? or did you kind-of reversed engineered the thinking process behind it?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@elistn. There is always a link to the strategy been used see below. The Ratio(nal) Trade(r) . Also it is important to read the Must Read Topics. https://steadyoptions.com/forums/

 

Edit. I am deleting the STZ trade as I have just realized this is probably a public forum. Just to say there is a link to the Strategy used for each trade that is posted. 

 

 

 

 

Edited by mccoyb53
correction

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you for this post, it really sets the expectations.  I see a lot of people complaining in other forums (e.g. reddit) but clearly they were looking for a crystal ball and not willing to put in any work.

Question for you on this:

Quote

I’ve started doing something else – I’m now keeping a proper journal.

Could you share what journal software or site you use?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's a very good post.. I remember that in March 2020 I feel very comfortable with my Steady options portfolio while the market fell close to 30%.. Need to take time to learn strategies and how to execute trades perfectly. A little bit too active portfolio for me but I'm thinking if I use those strategies less active its even worth it (?). Need to put time to create own risk management, profit target and patience must be learnt..
I prepare to take time to re-learn..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 11/30/2021 at 4:07 PM, jammit88 said:

Could you share what journal software or site you use?

@jammit88, my journal is nothing more than good old Excel.  I've not used any formal journaling software. I'm sure there are some very good tools out there. Maybe others can add their experiences of what they use?

23 minutes ago, Tamas said:

A little bit too active portfolio for me but I'm thinking if I use those strategies less active its even worth it (?).

@Tamas, I admit that trading can be very time intensive. I do it full time. Generally in non-Covid times, I travel a lot and these lockdowns have made it possible for me to really get stuck into trading. However, in Jan, I plan to travel again for a few months and I won't be able to dedicate as much time. So, to work around that, I plan to implement two strategies : 

 

(1) Trade about an hour at the market open, and also another hour leading to market close

(2) Trade only for the 6-8 week period during every cycle when most of the earnings occur. So, this would mean between 15-Jan to 15-Mar for the next cycle. 

Edited by zxcv64

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
23 minutes ago, zxcv64 said:

@Tamas, I admit that trading can be very time intensive. I do it full time. Generally in non-Covid times, I travel a lot and these lockdowns have made it possible for me to really get stuck into trading. However, in Jan, I plan to travel again for a few months and I won't be able to dedicate as much time. So, to work around that, I plan to implement two strategies : 

(1) Trade about an hour at the market open, and also another hour leading to market close

(2) Trade only for the 6-8 week period during every cycle when most of the earnings occur. So, this would mean between 15-Jan to 15-Mar for the next cycle. 

Thank you very much for your advices its very helpful for me. Another issue for me to monitoring  the RV changes to get good entry and exit price. I'm thinking to worth it if I would program the alert service if stocks RV reach the target number.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was also a former member and will probably return at some point. I did break even over a year of being a member, which was far better than any previous trading or systems used. I didn't go through any of these stages except the beginning enthusiasm and probably lost some money due to struggling with the IB platform, but I understood I needed to work harder to get successful. I didn't have the time and still don't, but like I said, I will probably return at some point. Kim is the best and has some ethics about these things. The only other service that I subscribe to as a lifetime member is Stock Gumshoe, which takes all of these crazy emails that try to lure folks into the next Amazon and investigates the clues to find the company. I believe Kim and the guy who runs that outfit are the best in the business. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Want to express a frank opinion for frank responses. I tried Steady Options for a few months and stopped. It was hard to do these trades with a full time job. I am willing to put in intense learning and go through these stages but I am told this is suitable only for $25K portfolio. If that is the case I can not generate enough income to support my family trading this strategy. My question is has anyone tried and got steady returns, say on a $250K/$500K portfolio? If yes then, it is worth the effort for me, otherwise I am not sure.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
20 minutes ago, VNambula said:

My question is has anyone tried and got steady returns, say on a $250K/$500K portfolio? If yes then, it is worth the effort for me, otherwise I am not sure.

The official line is that the maximum portfolio size for the SO strategies is $100K. And I agree with this. (I've traded with much higher than this in 2020, but that was only possible due to the very high vol.)

So, a portfolio of $500K trading in calendars/straddles will be a problem.

 

Also, pls be careful if you require trading to provide an income to feed the family. It's possible to have a couple of losing months (see the Performance table on this site) and then our fear kicks in, and that can affect our trading ability. Trading with 'scared money' is a different game, in my experience.

 

Finally, if you are thinking of getting into trading the SO strategies again, I suggest starting with $10K, then each month, increasing this amount, as you build experience.

 

Good luck!

 

Edited by zxcv64

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@zxcv64 excellent advice, couldn't say it better!

As for "generate enough income" goal - I recommend reading Debunking the "Trading Options forIncome" Myth

Trading's goal is NOT generate income, despite what some "gurus" will claim. There is no such thing as income from trading. If you want steady and stable income, buy dividend stocks.
 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, VNambula said:

My question is has anyone tried and got steady returns, say on a $250K/$500K portfolio?

I guess the income term depends on what it means to you.  I've been a contractor or business owner pretty much my whole life, so if I pick a quarter up off the pavement, it is income to me.  But I understand what the others are saying, "if you need a regular check coming in to survive, this is probably not a good way to do it".  @zxcv64 is right, scared money has a way of departing your account very quickly.  But regarding the 250-500k portfolio, I would want to have all that in one type of trade (or a couple).  A single system approach is a point of failure.  Diversify into other styles/types of trading.  Buy some real estate, my buddies that are slum lords let the "property manager" do it all and never get off their beer soaked posteriors.  I still buy and sell industrial machinery.  If you've got over 40% of your net worth in the markets, you're going to get hurt.  20-25% is probably max.

 

But just to emphasize, that scared money thing is the real horror, you'll get so wound up it will not only break your account, it'll break you.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm new to this community, and your post literally enlightened me, because I'm currently a frustrated/losing option trader that is trying to learn from others with the aim to build his own method, in order to be independent, profitable and possibly helpful to others in the future.
So I think that your story is gold for people like me and I hope this will be an auspicious "new" beginning!

Edited by Emanuele

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account. It's easy and free!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.