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Yes. All he is doing is, for whatever reason, deciding that a stock is going to go up (or down). After that , it really is no longer an "options" trade. You are just using options as a proxy for the stock. If you just buy 10 .50 delta calls,then you bought 500 shares of stock. If you bought 10 50 delta calls,and sold 10 20 delta calls, then you bought 300 shares of the stock. It is a delta trade ONLY. I wouldn't use Trade Machine during the times that I am doing my research for a strictly directional trade. I would look at a chart. The only time that the use of options becomes an advantage in a purely directional play is when you can sell other options to mostly neutralize as much time decay as possible. Personally, for a strictly directional trade, I would most use verticals for that reason. Because now you can get rid of all the other greeks from the picture, and keep it strictly a (Delta) directional trade, that is minimally effected by time decay or IV changes. I have made money more consistently with delta neutral trades. By , by a huge difference, I have made more "money" from successful directional trades. Like GILD this past 2 weeks. You just have to weigh the greater risks that come with directional trading, and allocate much less money to them. Because, even though the best ones can make 800%+++, the losers are in proportion to that.

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.

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.