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Wanted to write a short bio as well. I trade options since about 20 years. I started very young with the idea to double my money every few weeks needless to say I burned my account a few times back then. Thankfully very low amounts but it still hurt as back then that was a good chunk of my (non existing) savings. It still inspired me to pursue a career in option trading. So for 12 years I traded options for a number of banks. I survived the financial crisis while trading bank stocks and options (fun times). But I left years later when banks got out of trading due to more regulation, compliance and margin pressure. From that time I think I have a very good technical option knowledge. I traded my own money full time for a year after that. I was surprised how different that was from trading at a bank. I learned more about position sizing, discipline, psychology and myself as a trader than in the years before and I found that SO helpful for that. I had time to do extensive research on every trade Kim suggested and find my own trades and I would have my own timing and entry levels. I was quite active on the forum in that time and many of the well over 1,000 comments/posts I made are from that time. I’m back to a ‘normal’ day job since a few years now so have a lot less time for all of that and scaled my trading back to a few systematic, low maintenance trades – Steady Condors is one of them (I have my own setup and timing but its not too different what SC does). I’m trying to add a few single stock earnings trades back into the mix so I’m getting a bit more active again on the forum as well and will try to be helpful when I come across a question and as time allows. I will tend to pick up question that are option or trading specific (Greeks, assignment, trade setup… etc) as I will only be in a handful of trades a quarter so will have little to say about the specific setup of a particular trade unless I’m in it.

The API they provide is very good: https://developer.tradier.com/documentation If you call/email them, they will give you your personal key, so that you do not need to worry about oath 2.0 authentication, which would be necessary if you developed software for somebody else. It is an important point, and will save a lot of time. Then you can use their /positions and /quotes API to get what you currently have open and the current prices (both underlying and options). Then you will need to use some heuristics to combine the legs into positions (date/time mostly). If the straddles are rolled, it gets complicated, as the positions need to be combined differently and the cost basis changes. But even without those complications with rolls, the information you get is already good enough and not less helpful than what, for example, TOS mobile provides.

My experience starts in the 90's when I used to do phone trades with commodities. With the internet and such I passed the Series 7 and started trading stocks with Bright Trading in 2001 for a few years in their heyday. That tapered off a few years later with the introduction of high frequency trading. I just couldn't compete. I traded both stocks and options on my own after that with mixed success. Good enough to keep going but not making much. I have tried many services and am surprised when we actually get openings for new members, as Steady Options is easily the best out there for retail option traders from home. I hope to contribute by answering questions from these new traders as they come on line with us. The regular newbie questions that get asked again and again, whenever spots become available. I trade and understand the official Steady Options strategies and will help there as much as possible (allocations, how to get well priced fills, some of the whys), although there are obviously quite a few very advanced and knowledgeable people here. I trade full-time and am usually available, however I have been traveling the past few weeks.