Dan27

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've been doing a number of trades that I've discovered on the Trade Machine, including a lot of the bullish call trades around earnings. One thing I'm mulling over is what, if anything, to do when a trade has made a good move, but not to my exit point. For example, I'm in the THO trade right now and it's been going between 15-25% gain. I'm aiming to get out at 40%. I've toyed with the idea of, after a decent move like this, buying puts to cushion the blow if the trade reverses. Yes, I lose some upside gain if the stock continues higher, and I risk additional theta loss. Wondering if anyone does this or has thoughts on if it's worthwhile. I trade these directional trades at 1/2 the amount I risk in a deta-neutral trade - so I'm already reducing my risk that way. Thanks. Dan

I trade on TastyWorks and ThinkOrSwim. Tastyworks is great for quickly and easily entering trades. Very intuitive interface. Commissions are just about as low as you can get. Lacks advanced features, however. If you are new to trading, I would actually recommend ThinkOrSwim. Although the interface is more complicated - it's not tough to learn the basics. But, crucially, the "Risk Profile" on the Analyze tab enables you to 'visualize' the trades - which will make the trades make a lot more sense. I think getting a grasp on this is necessary. Less necessary with more experience. You can call them to get a $1.00 per contract commission rate. I just opened a Tradier account and placed some trades last week (using Trend). So far, so good. Will probably be moving my full margin account from Tasty. Will post a review after more trading.

@Ophir Gottlieb, I had to cut out of the webcast early yesterday. Can you post a link to view a replay of it? Thanks.

Excellent point.

I have no idea how many people actually only trade in a $10,000 account; however, my hunch is that those that do are often not successful. They are paying $1,000+ a year to be members - which is 10% of their account. Those that have such small accounts are probably not experienced traders/investors and are thus more likely to make mistakes (i.e. chase) which further reduces their likelihood of success. I honestly think that this service is not suitable for novices. Perhaps I'm making unfair assumptions - and I truly do not mean to offend anyone or sound elitist (I am far from an expert options trader). My points: (1) upping the model portfolio to $20,000 will probably not alienate many members; and (2) it may be a more suitable perceived barrier to entry.