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As I’ve done the past few years, I’ve broken down the Steady Options 2015 trade performance by trade type (there are a few open trades but these may not be closed until January). Here’s are this year’s stats along with some comments from my perspective... Pre-Earnings Calendars 51 Trades – 41 win, 10 loss (80% win) Average gain 12.67% Comments: Again one of our best performing trade types. Basically the same number of trades as last year (51 vs 48). We were probably on pace to have significantly more of these trades than last year, but large volatility jump in the Fall made entry prices not good from a historical perspective and therefore not many of these trades were placed during that timeframe. Win rate up from last year (80% vs 71%) Average gain down slightly from last year (12.67% vs 13.80%) Note that there are a few non-earnings calendars in here (like GOOG), but I included all company calendar trades in this section. Pre-Earnings Straddles/Strangles 34 Trades - 23 win, 11 loss (68% win) Average gain 2.61% (3.88% if you exclude the large QIHU loss) Comments: Count of these trades way down from last year (74 down to 34). Avoided trades on low IV stocks that were the poorest straddle/strangle performers in past years. Win percentage and average gain both up from last year’s percentages of 62% and 2.54%. Despite modest gains on straddles/strangles compared to some of the other trade types, these trades receive a lot of discussion in the forums. Rolling strikes as the stock price moves around is a big topic – note to some of the newer members, rolling does not lock in profits! (it may do so on one leg of the trade but the overall trade may still be down). There is no right answer to the rolling vs not rolling question as sometimes each will perform better. Index trades (RUT, SPY, SPX, TLT) 31 Trades - 21 win, 10 loss (68% win) SPY/TLT Combo: 6 win, 4 loss, avg loss -0.32% SPX and RUT Iron Condors: 3 win, 1 loss, avg gain +4.95% SPX and RUT Calendars: 5 win, 1 loss, avg gain +4.73% SPX Butterfly: 7 win, 4 loss, avg gain +3.49% Average gain 2.69% Comments: Large market moves this Fall were not good for these trades. When the market was relatively calm these trades performed well, when the market was volatile they performed poorly. VIX trades 11 trades - 10 win, 1 loss (91% win) Average gain 28.15% Comments: Overtook pre-earnings calendars as our best performing trade type this year. 8 of the 11 trades were VIX calendars and the ability to place these trades is very broker-specific. If you are not using IB ($150 margin per calendar) other brokers margin requirements are much higher and some will not even allow you to open the trade. I fear that many SO member missed many of these trades because they use brokers other than IB, which is a real shame as the stats clearly show that these trades were the best performers.

"1.) I haven't yet matched his performance - I've come to believe simply following his alerts, you will NEVER match his performance - you must learn to anticipate and make this system your own (and the folks in this community are more than happy to help you do that) 2.) Losing streaks are expected (which is what I'll discuss for now)" Absolutely agree on both. But to make this system your own, you need more than few weeks or even months. Those articles might help: Why Retail Investors Lose Money In The Stock Market Are You Ready For The Learning Curve? Can you double your account every six months? How to Calculate ROI in Options Trading Performance Reporting: The Myths and The Reality Are You EMOTIONALLY Ready To Lose? "This STATISTICALLY allows a worst-case losing streak of about 7." Agree. "To be conservative, let's assume each loser loses 50% - that's nearly a 35% draw-down on the account." This is where I would have to disagree. While we did have one 7 losers streak since inception - https://steadyoptions.com/performance_2013 (January 2013), it was nowhere near 35% drawdown. Our average loser is around 13%, so 7 13% losers with 10% allocation gives you 9% drawdown. We had few 5 losing streaks, and I believe the largest drawdown since inception was around 20%. For a system that produces triple digit gains year after year, that's completely acceptable. Does it mean that 7 50% losers is impossible? No, it is possible, just extremely unlikely. But if you are still not ready, then yes, reduce the allocation. To demonstrate my point, I will use the Steady Condors strategy. The reason is that this is a simple and totally reproducible system (so there is no question of missing some good trades), and we also report performance on the whole account including commission. SC produced 24% average annual return since 2008. But it had pretty bad year in 2014, producing almost 19% drawdown. Guess what? In 2015, it produced 47% return (best year ever). First 2 months of 2016 have been tough so far. Imagine someone who joined in 2014, lost 15-20% (depending on timing), cancelled just to see the system producing 47% return in 2015, then rejoined just to be down another 10%+ in 2016.. Not a pretty experience. But if you believe in a system in general and it suits your trading style, you should stick through good times and bad.

Steadyabc, As you mention, I'm not sure this is the proper thread for performance discussion, but here goes: It's discouraging - I want to offer some empathy because I've had a bad losing month too. But that doesn't mean Kim's system doesn't work. I've missed a few of the SPX butterflies, and have experienced BAD losses on the trades I have gotten into. January has been a bad month for me. I admit that I myself have not been satisfied yet with my own consistency using Kim's system, but that's due to two reasons: 1.) I haven't yet matched his performance - I've come to believe simply following his alerts, you will NEVER match his performance - you must learn to anticipate and make this system your own (and the folks in this community are more than happy to help you do that) 2.) Losing streaks are expected (which is what I'll discuss for now)Others have noted that the positions you listed aren't even closed yet - but for the sake of discussion, let's say they are. Let's assume you're matching Kim's performance, and talk about losing streaks: Even in the BEST systems, statistically, losing streaks are bound to happen. In fact, they can even be mathematically quantified by the following equation: LS=ln(TS)/-ln(1-PW/100) Where LS is the worst potential losing streak, TS is the trade sample, and PW is the probability of winning (ln is the natural log). Since inception, SO has experienced 831 trades, with a win ratio of 62.1%. This STATISTICALLY allows a worst-case losing streak of about 7. That means, that on ocassion, this strategy will experience 7 losers in a row. That's IF you match how well Kim does (and that's a big IF!). That's also assuming Gaussian distribution (which isn't the best assumption - meaning statistical anomalies are more likely than given in normality). But the system works. The VAMI speaks for itself. It just needs time and consistency. Drawdowns can be pyschologically devastating though. If you have the time, I cannot recommend this talk highly enough (about 21 minutes in is where he talks about losing streaks): Ask yourself - can you handle 7 losers in a row with a 10% allocation? To be conservative, let's assume each loser loses 50% - that's nearly a 35% draw-down on the account. If you require a lower risk tolerance, you should lower your allocation.