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We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Tradier Brokerage to provide special commission structure for SteadyOptions clients. Tradier offers a special $40/Month $10/Month as of Nov.2019 of Flat Price Trading for SteadyOptions Clients. For $40/month $10/month the SteadyOptions client can trade unlimited options trades and there will be no per trade commissions. Conditions: This offer for commission free option trades is valid for new accounts opened at Tradier Brokerage and funded with a $5,000 minimum within 30 days of account opening. Your account will be charged a monthly subscription fee of $40 $10 at the beginning of each month for this promotion. Subscription excludes other fees such as options exercise and assignments. Tradier Brokerage passes along all exchange and regulatory fees. Applicable minimums may apply. This special offer valid for Tradier Brokerage accounts funded within 30 days of account opening with $5,000 or more. Click here to take advantage of this offer. Note: Tradier started to support international accounts in Feb 2018. Please send a note to service@tradierbrokerage.com or call (980) 272-3880 and they will work with you to open an account electronically (they then send you online Docusign application link to for account opening and request supporting docs). The deal includes IRA accounts too. They offer Limited Margin IRA accounts where customers can trade option spreads of any type as long as they are covered. They cannot trade naked calls. IRA accounts can only be opened with level 2 options, but customers can complete 2 forms via DocuSign after the account is opened and they can upgrade the account to a Limited Margin IRA with level 3 options trading. For your reference, here are these DocuSign links: Options Limited Margin Nov. 2019 update from Tradier: The new subscription pricing is: $0 for equity $10 for equity and options (previously $40) Access to tradehawk equity and options One change to note with this new price is that they will be charging .35 a contract for single listed index options (SPX, RUT, VIX ect ..) The disclaimer is as follows; Single Listed Index Options are subject to a $0.35/contract fee in addition to any pass-thought exchange fees. Tradier Brokerage passes along all exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. February 2024 offer from Tradier: Steady Options customers receive a special Index Option pricing of only $.10 per contract when you sign up for the Tradier Pro plan.** Customers must be subscribed to Steady Options in order to take part in this promotion. Limited to one account per household. *Single Listed Index Options are subject to a $0.10/contract commission in addition to any other charges for exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. See Fee Schedule for more details. Tradier Brokerage Inc. charges for exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. Other fees and applicable minimums may apply see Fee Schedule for more details. The bottom line is that Single Listed Index Options (VIX etc) will have a special pricing of around 0.50-0.55 per contract all in. Click here to sign up: https://join.tradier.com/steadyoptionsvix Here is a webinar recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/wxTDW8q7hd9gqMcs5myllpJbDNvq6fyjoq4MXWCr3ZiFhPdD9cxNDDt178qwDDnr.PJAKsGL-lhp7nT43 Passcode: $j3&uV&! Also, members can reach Lex at lex@tradier.com and/or to schedule a private, online tour with Lex: https://calendly.com/tradehawk

No, I just rent a server which I access via Remote Desktop. There's a lot of vendors out there, like Hetzner, OVHcloud, Contabo,... I use thinkorswim for my live data. Tradier does not provide live quotes for index options like VIX or SPX, nor did I find a way to pay for those to get them. This messes up the option pricing model, because you DO get an underlying quote, it's just that it's 15 minutes delayed. Not a problem with ETFs like TLT or TMF. You can switch the live feed to Tradier only when transmitting the order, then switch back to thinkorswim for monitoring.

SteadyVol is designed to be an easy to follow monthly trade that targets 50%-60% in annual compounded returns, while being fully hedged against any catastrophic loss. The model portfolio will be based upon $10,000 and will usually be approximately 80% invested. Members can easily scale this investment amount, as there are absolutely no liquidity concerns on VIX near term monthly options. When creating this trade, we wanted to derive a trade based upon VIX futures that was not dependent upon contango for its gains. While contango is still helpful by increasing the rate at which gains accrue, all of the profit can be derived through positive Theta. In addition, we wanted to create a trade that was extremely Vega positive to take advantage of increased IV during a VIX spike, but not give up any profit potential during an IV decline/vol crush. Finally, we wanted to create a trade with a very favorable win/loss rate and a max drawdown on account of less than 20%. We believe we have accomplished this using ITM debit and credit spreads on front and back month VIX futures hedged by a ratio of long calls. The trading strategy is technically straight forward utilizing a deep ITM debit spread on the VIX, hedged by a lower ratio of credit spreads and long calls to profit from positive Theta and negative Delta while also providing very strong hedging against a VIX spike. However, trade management is of the utmost importance during volatile periods. Importantly, option models are very often not accurate as they follow the spot vix while the options we trade follow the future of the option expiration month. Here is an excellent resource to follow the VIX futures curve that the options we trade are derived from: http://vixcentral.com/ Here is a response I (SBatch) gave to a subscriber recently further explaining the details of the trade: An analogy may be best used here. Chess, while an extremely complicated and sophisticated game, has a very basic rulebook. However, once the game begins, it is the strategy of how to use the rules that make the best chess players. The way they become the best chess players is not by reading the rulebook, but while playing more and more chess. This strategy is similar in the more you follow it, the more clear it will become to you. Trading strategies must be able to evolve in order to be used in all market environments. We are following basic rules as in chess, but proactively making the best trades based upon market dynamics. All of these trades are made around the initial rules, but are made using best judgement at that time. For example, in more volatile days, I may choose to close/open half a position instead of a full. I held the call from the previous trade to reduce our hedge cost. All of the details are explained at the time the trades are made and usually identified in advance. We are trying to be the best chess players with a small set of defined rules playing against an exceptional player in Mr. Market. The more experience everyone has with the strategy, the more they will understand it. I resist posting option graphs for this trade because, as has been made very clear, they are not useful unless it is at expiration, which is in turn accurate. For those not understanding why a trade has been made, should first ask any questions, but also may find value in modeling the trade, but only looking at the expiration values. For example, below is our trade using the free calculator https://www.optionsprofitcalculator.com/. The trade rationale is always very detailed and given in advance. Trade timing is not typically important. However, these details and others are best understood during a trade as they evolve. The end goal is always the same - earn as much as possible in positive Theta/negative Delta in the lowest risk combination of debit and credit spreads that are also hedged against catastrophic loss in a Black Swan event. I have been trading this strategy since June of 2022 and the largest drawdown on account has been less than 20%, and the trade has averaged 6% per month over that time. The VIX has been extremely volatile during that period: When trading the VIX it is important to consider exactly what the VIX represents. For those that do not know, the spot VIX indicates what traders believe the maximum move the market will make in the next 12 months will be. This is extremely useful information. Using 2022 as an example, we know we are down about 20% from the peak at the beginning of the year. When the VIX spikes above 30% currently, traders are pricing in a peak to trough drop of 50%. This is a very large decrease when considered against the average 38% decline of a bear market. Furthermore, if the VIX persists above 30, it is extremely likely that the market is experiencing further selling, driving the peak to trough estimate even higher. For example, if we drop 30% from the peak and we have a VIX at 35, a peak to trough decline of 65% is now being priced in, and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for the VIX to drop precipitously. Unless we are in a 2008 style environment, where a total market wipeout was a possibility, the VIX will always drop once the peak to trough estimate becomes too much. Let's look at the spot VIX for the past 12 months again: As can be seen the VIX spends very little time above 30. However, we must still be prepared for the unexpected as the last 5 years have taught us: Even here, the VIX spends very little time above 30, but an outsized move could destroy a trade that is unhedged. Therefore, we can count on the VIX spending the majority of its time below 30, but must always have protection in place to keep the max drawdown under the 20% target in the event of an ill-timed moderate to extreme vol spike. The SteadyVol Overview thread possesses a wealth of information on previous trades allowing new subscribers to get up to speed very quickly. It is recommended that this strategy be traded with Firstrade. Firstrade has zero commissions and use a true pass-thru of Index option exchange fees. Annual commissions are estimated to only be 3%-4% of total account capital per year. Also, there is no charge for their online trading software, which is quite efficient and more than ample for this trade. It's worth to mention that Tradier also has very low commissions for VIX options, and even when trading with more "traditional" brokers, commissions would still account for less than 1% per month. We encourage all members to check out Firstrade or or at least a broker with competitive commissions. In the current competitive environment, there is no reason to pay more than $0.50/contract. February 2024 offer from Tradier: Steady Options customers receive a special Index Option pricing of only $.10 per contract when you sign up for the Tradier Pro plan.** Customers must be subscribed to Steady Options in order to take part in this promotion. Limited to one account per household. *Single Listed Index Options are subject to a $0.10/contract commission in addition to any other charges for exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. See Fee Schedule for more details. Tradier Brokerage Inc. charges for exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. Other fees and applicable minimums may apply see Fee Schedule for more details. The bottom line is that Single Listed Index Options (VIX etc) will have a special pricing of around 0.50-0.55 per contract all in. Service highlights: Model portfolio: $10,000 Underlying: VIX options Average holding period: 3-4 weeks Tailored for medium term traders 2-3 trades per month, plus adjustments Less than ~1%/month commission impact (unless trading with Firstrade or Tradier) Fully scalable

Tradier recent pricing change is a game changer for those who cannot trade with FirstTrade. No more excuses.

February 2024 offer from Tradier: Steady Options customers receive a special Index Option pricing of only $.10 per contract when you sign up for the Tradier Pro plan.** Customers must be subscribed to Steady Options in order to take part in this promotion. Limited to one account per household. *Single Listed Index Options are subject to a $0.10/contract commission in addition to any other charges for exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. See Fee Schedule for more details. Tradier Brokerage Inc. charges for exchange, OCC, and regulatory fees. Other fees and applicable minimums may apply see Fee Schedule for more details. The bottom line is that Single Listed Index Options (VIX etc) will have a special pricing of around 0.50-0.55 per contract all in.

E*Trade standard pricing is .50-.65 per contract depending upon volume. I believe they also pass thru the reg fees.

Total costs for trading VIX options at IB: $0.65 IB commission $0.02685 regulatory fees $0.02 OCC clearing fees $0.45 CBOE fee for VIX options -------- $1.14685 total cost per contract + $0.000008 * aggregate value SEC transaction fee + $0.00279 x qty sold FINRA trading activity fee I split my SteadyVol portfolio between IB and Tradier from November 2022 through August 2023 and my average commission per contract on all IB trades was $1.16xx https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/pricing/commissions-options.php?re=amer https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/CBOEoptfee.php

Don’t know how many times the point that SO isn’t an alert service has to be repeated. Yet I enter official trades at or better than official frequently, sometimes days after the official, and yes sometimes better pricing continues to get ‘better’, I know when to cut losses. Very often I will enter my own variant, sometimes works out better, sometimes not. For me the crux is that I’ve learnt more about how to trade independently without blowing the account here than anywhere else, with strategies that are intrinsically safe especially in difficult markets when my long positions suffer.. Most of us mere mortals have to start small, I appreciate that SO continues to use 1k trades as the starting trade size, doesn’t stop anyone from scaling. But it’s especially what I’ve learnt here that makes the service so valuable to me. SO is the most transparent service out there, hands down and it’s perpetually innovating strategies too. really I couldn’t ask for more. I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays, here’s to a new year with more understanding and less conflict. @t'pee

Hello, I am new to the service and trying to understand the full impact of the commissions. I have $0.35 per contract pricing with my broker. How many contracts were traded in October to produce the $234 gain? Thank you!

Of course there are plenty of managed funds, but your question was about SO, not just general funds. The link shows a list of trades where you could get a better pricing after the trade was entered, sometimes hours or the next day, which makes the timezone less critical. And the simple truth is that even if you executed only 30% of our trades, you would still do better than 99% of all traders and fund managers.. We teach people how to trade and become more independent on a continuous basis. But you need to be willing to learn. If you quit after few days/weeks, obviously you cannot learn. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink

Thanks Kim, I reached out to Lorintine Capital though they only work with accounts with $100k minimum. If anyone has an option though dont want to share publicly, just pm me. And there is plently of managed funds, not sure what the apprehention not just using a service if its through a licenced adivisor as there is many in the US? Maybe people in the Australia/Asia timezone can let me know how they go or what needs to be done to get the fills? With regards to "better pricing" you just added the search operator "better pricing" to the forum not a link to how people who cant trade in US market hours how this needs to be modified. Its great your an educational resource! Maybe you can give all of us in the non US timezones specific information on how to deal with this? Thanks

We have members from 45 countries, including Australia, Singapore, Japan, New Zeeland and more. They manage to trade and make good gains even from different time zones. But they treat SO as an educational resource and trading ideas generator, not an alert service. In most cases it is possible to get similar or better prices with some patience hours after the trade was posted or even the next day. Here is a list of topics where better pricing was available for entry, exit or both. What you are asking for is auto trading. We mentioned many times the risks of auto trading and why we won't do it, I recommend reading All You Need To Know About Auto-Trading But some people like to learn the hard way.. Maybe sticking around for more than just a few days would help to understand what SO is and what it isn't..

This trading system is generally very forgiving of timing. If vol isn’t moving much, the pricing of the position (especially if it is brand new) is not likely to move much either. Even if vol does move, you can watch it for when it comes back into the area where the trade was placed and you can probably get in for a similar price. This contrasts with Steady Options where a quick trigger finger or proactive standing orders are often needed to get into advantageous trades. Those are not necessary here. Skipping a trade is really only called for when there is not enough profit potential left in the trade when you are trying to get in.

As many of you know, we offer a 33% discount to members who sign for 2 years term via wire transfer or check. The price for 2 years SteadyOptions subscription is only $1,995, and no PayPal subscription is required. Contact me if you are interested and I will provide you wire transfer details or mailing address to send the check. Due to the weakness of the Canadian dollar, we are pleased to offer an additional discount to members who pay directly in Canadian dollars. The price will be based on 1 USD = 1.35 CAD, or $2,693 Canadian Dollars. This represents an additional 7-10% discount based on the current exchange rate. The funds can be transferred from Canadian financial institutions via Interac e-transfer, or from other banks via wire transfer or check. The transfer or the check has to be in Canadian dollars. Why this is a good deal? Members who are happy with the service and willing to commit for the long term, can save significant amount of money. The USD/CAD rate has been fluctuating in $1.40-1.45 range in the recent weeks. If you pay $125/month, you will be paying $3,000 USD in 2 years. If you are Canadian, the banks will charge you another ~3% on top of the official exchange rate, which will bring your cost in Canadian dollars to almost $4,500 CAD. Therefore, $2,693 represents around 40% savings compared to the monthly subscription. if you are Canadian or can make a transfer in Canadian dollars, you might consider this offer.

I am just a regular paying customer but been using SO for a few years. The answers are the best of my knowledge/opinion. 1a) SO does not have a proprietary stock/options screener. This is a tough question. Just to set aside any misunderstanding, you should forget about any stock/option screener giving you a methodical manner to create permanent nuggets for trading. Major financial institutions pay billions of dollars for such algos and theirs also dont work all of the time. There are services that help you identify opportunities based on certain criteria. SO recommends CML Trade, One, and you get discounts (at least for One) if you are a member. CML is really a screener, One is more of a manner to look how trades went historically - screening services closer to looking at individual stocks are volatilityhq and chartaffair and both are recommended by SO. There are many other services you already found Barchart which isnt bad at all and Marketchameleon is also interesting and there are specialised sites like Biotech investor sites. Reality is that you can spend a lot of money on various sites and its all money you'd need to make back trading. Pricing tends to be quite similar with 50-100 bucks a month being quite normal - if you have a 10K portfolio which many small time investors have its hard to make this work. So for me, for example, whilst I quite liked CML Trade I couldnt find a way to make it worthwhile enough whereas I found One and either of the chart sites are essential to find trades. Similarly Marketchameleon and the Biotech sites are attractive but you just dont use them quite enough to justify the expense despite their obvious added value in what they can do. I am not a novice here but I can say your attitude is the right one for SO. So is the type of service which will give you a fish but the point is to teach you to fish. In fact always following the official trades can be hard as the market moves fast but what you learn as to the why, how and so forth is what makes it worthwhile. That and the community which is a really cool one that helps, supports, suggests trades themselves and criticises (in a positive sense and rarely acerbic) what you yourself suggest. There are a variety of preferred trades in SO but they do change with the market 'weather' as it were. Having been here for years I think I master the calendars, spreads, the straddles and understand the hedged straddles but could improve on my understanding there. I also subscribe to anchor and volatility ones - the former I follow the latter I learned a lot from even if I dont trade it myself. These volatility instruments were a mystery to me before I joined SO and seeing how they are traded here has given me both a better understanding of the market as well as the occasional use of them to hedge my own positions. It has been very beneficial even if I couldnt necessarily say I made back 100% plus of my fees from official trades. I did make much more from understanding how to trade better, develop ideas and generally read along with people here. The chatting with others here has been invaluable too. SO also evolves new types of trade, they are not necessarily always 100% successful but I always learned from them - strategies need to be understood for every market condition and these conditions change. On this point I really like SO in that it doesnt mechanically stick to the 'same old same old' . As long as you understand that you are not here to get the golden tip to make back your 1.5-2.5K membership but to learn HOW to earn back that membership and more you are in good hands. The fact people pay is also a little bit of a barrier to the chancers and boasters that populate other sites that overstate results or hide poor returns. I can attest that the times I made a short cut to explaining outcomes of my strategies I was quickly called out - on the other hand the fact that some trades are losers means that the reports on here are real. Noone always makes money trading, in fact you need a very small edge over being 50% right to be better than 98% of the market.

Hi, Are there any automated tools available to find the arbitrage opportunities from the series of Stock Options which do not satisfy the Put-Call Parity principle? Also, does anybody know of good course/textbook on options trading strategies which covers adjustments etc. I came across a good quant intensive Options course on udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/options-dynamics/?couponCode=B20122022 which I have enrolled and it teaches lot of math behind the option pricing. Now I am looking to level-up and looking for a course which can yield in-depth knowledge of more complex options trading strategies like iron-condor etc. Thanks -Srotra

Hello Community and @Christof+ 👋 First i'd like to thank you for pulling such an amazing product online for us to help our trading with SO. this is much appreciated and great! Now, I am sorry in advance for my newbie questions, I tried to find some answers on the Forum but I guess I will take a chance and ask them here as well. I am starting to use chartaffair.com especially the backtest module and I want to make sure I understand the data and heatmap correctly Below is an example of SNAP for the last 8 cycles of earnings. I just want to confirm i read the data correctly there looking at this specific example where I consider the straddle entry T-12 and exit T-5 for SNAP in the past 8 cycles: Does that mean we consider entering the straddle ATM (closest strike available to the underlying at that point in time) 12 days before earnings? What type of bars are you looking at to build the numbers are they hourly/daily or else type of data? I am puzzled to understand if by default we consider entering the trade at market opening or close, 12 days before earnings announcement. Are you using again daily or more granularity to get the Avg DD and Avg Max DD figures? Or are you looking at historical intraday option pricing to have a better estimate of what the DD can actually be during a day and the trading duration? Also, for the exit on T-5, do we consider the Close price on the day 5 days before earning? Meaning I should have exited the trade at the end of the trading hours on that day/at market closure? Finally, what would T-0 represent? is it the day before the earnings or the actually day of earnings (i bet the latter) but how this logic applies if for instance, the company reports before market open? Do we still consider T-0 the day where the earnings is announced regardless if ithe annoucement is BMO or AMC? I apologize in advance if you had to answer these questions and if there are some posts I can consult on this front I will gladly check them out. Again, thanks for this awesome service, the UI is neat and the plotly integration is just next level! I wish i could code something that cool! I use ib_insync as an aficionado developer and will check more of what I can do on the IB integration part to retrieve such data myself probably from a direct IB subscription. But I will keep using chartaffair.com as it is just awesome all the elements you've put together. Regards, Pascal

Hey guys, I have been trying to find the historical ask/bid price charts for different option trades(straddles,strangles,claenders etc) on TOS. Does TOS have such a chart or should I be looking at other software for this kind of bid/ask charts? Thx!

I launched an iOS mobile application that caters to the Steady Options members. Made a topic a while back for a beta. But now you can download it for free in the Appstore. (make a free account in the app) https://apps.apple.com/nl/app/spreadable/id1644952606?l=en It will remain free until the beginning of 2023, still haven’t decided on any pricing. It automatically groups most steady options strategies. If it doesn’t do it automatically you can manually group them. Swipe right to group, swipe left to close position. If you need more tutorials check the post about the beta. I encourage everyone with a Tradier account to try it. It has significantly improved my trading since I’m no long reliant on my laptop/desktop. In my opinion it delivers a better trading experience than most desktop software. @krisbee Since you use Tradier as well I would love to hear your opinion. Update for next month: - Updated option chain with option greeks - Updated charts - Performance history improvement (currently not showing correct data for spreads with short options)

Hi All, I have been a Steady Options member for around 6 years now, making a steady income by incorporating the SO strategies into my own trading. However, I don’t always have access to a computer, and that has created some difficulties with following trades. I think a lot of you can emphasize. For this reason, I decided to build my own mobile trading software on par with current desktop platforms. I partnered up with Tradier to develop an iOS app for their subscribers: Spreadable. It will be released in 2 weeks & listed on their website as one of the officially supported platforms. Supported devices include: iPhone, iPad, Mac (Apple Silicon), Apple Watch. Spreadable perfectly supports the type of trading we do here; I haven’t needed to touch the desktop software since starting to use it ˜3 months ago. Almost all of Steady Options strategies are automatically detected and can be traded as one spread from opening to closing. I’m now turning to the SO community to offer a free trial period and ask for your invaluable feedback regarding any usage problems or functionalities you’d like to see (more details are provided below). To use the app, send me a message with your email and I will provide you with an invitation link and your demo login credentials. You will need to download the Apple TestFlight app and then you’re all set. Some of the key features: - Automatic Authentication Refresh: I partnered with Tradier to incorporate their automatic refresh function. You will only need to login with your Tradier account when installing the Application for the first time or other major logout events. After that refreshes are done automatically. - Spread management: Building options with the interactive option chain is fast and intuitive. Spreads are automatically detected and once filled they are displayed in your portfolio as the spread you created. Alternatively: if you bought legs individually or want to create your own spreads you can easily do this in the portfolio page. - Quick ordering: Intuitive spread builder and one click spread closing in your portfolio. The order screen is one page where everything is optimized for your fingers, like Steve Jobs always wanted J. - Detailed performance overview: The portfolio page already shows all the details of your positions but by tapping it you can find other info such as the estimated earnings date, open orders and performance history graph. The grouped spreads have the exact same feature. - Earnings Alert: Displays estimated and confirmed upcoming company earnings. Still in beta but will get it more accurate with different sources. Coming soon: - Apple Silicon Mac (Coming in 2 weeks) - Apple Watch App: View all your positions, close your positions, update orders, cancel orders, check earnings and stock prices. (Coming in 3 weeks) - Notifications: Get notified when position profit/loss target is reached, order is filled, earnings is confirmed. (TBA) - Full Trade Performance History: View your performance per option strategy, equity and single legs. Video Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU3rftrbde8 Beta: free use until the official release The app is now fully functional, and I would love to get your feedback. You can use it for free until its official release. After login, you can use your Tradier account to start trading. If you encounter any bugs/crashes, layout issues with your particular iPhone size, or you’d like to see other features incorporated, leave a post in this topic or use the messaging function in the app. All functionality is also working on iPad but UI elements will be significantly improved in the full release. Pricing and Steady Options Discount I will be pricing the app at 39.95 USD a month. SO members receive a 25% discount, so only 29.95. The app is used in addition with Tradier services so you will need to be a Tradier customer first. Tradier offers 10$ a month unlimited option and stock trading with their web dashboard. If you want to use the Spreadable app you would therefore be paying 29.95$ + 10$ = 39.95$ for the use of this app with unlimited stock and options trading. Around 20$ less than the TradeHawk Package.

Hi Jesse, First of all, thank you for so detailed answer. I just pinged CBOE history market data department to share quotes (if any) for weekly options started from 2005. All that you explained makes sense to me, one question - what is the maximum drawdown you saw in your backtesting, and how far it was from the index (better/worse)? You mentioned that your folks are trying to optimize diagonal hedging: do you have any targets what exactly should be improved (total cost of hedging, max drawdown)? If Anchors really beat the market in the long run (15-20+ years) it means that options pricing is wrong and close legs cost more than it should. Do you think such inefficiencies may exist for a long time?

So as I've learned and as Kim has said before, you can't trust the mid price quoted for a spread in TWS. Rather, you need to look at the individual legs and add/subtract their mid prices yourself to get the true mid. But I'm curious, does anyone know what exactly TWS is doing to get the price they're quoting? There must be some reason why they're quoting a different number?

Hello! Sorry for the basic question. I have noticed that bidding on prices for spreads (eg, calendar spreads) are usually done through a combo order (rather than separately). How is this done to achieve the best premium for the front month (compared to bidding separate legs), particularly as profit heavily depends on this? Thanks!

Hi all, I just made my account after reading through some of the content on the website. So far I like what I see. I am a fairly independent thinker and don't take anything at face value, so I resonate with a lot that I have read on here so far. I used to be a professional poker player until I decided to switch careers when COVID hit. I had been burnt out on poker for a while and this was the perfect nudge to change directions. What I loved most about playing poker is dealing with probabilities. My favourite book to this day is Fooled by randomness (and the sequels), which I am sure most of you have read. I had been investing my poker winnings for the largest part of my career and I plan on maintaining that long term portfolio. As a part of my investing I decided to take a better look at options as I already knew they could improve my results. So I started writing puts on stocks I wanted to own anyways. That got me interested in options even more so I started watching youtube (admittedly, probably not the best source of knowledge) and bought a lot of books I could find on the topic. Some better than others (and some terrible). Here is a list of what I have read so far, maybe you all have some suggestios for further reading for me? - Options trading for beginners - Rich Bond (Terrible book, waste of money imo) - The 3 best option strategies for beginners - Freeman publications (Not as bad as the previous book but not very good either) - How to price and trade options - Al Sherbin (Mostly seems like a good book to me, with my very limited knowledge) - Option volatility and pricing - Sheldon Natenberg (not read yet) - Options as a strategic investment - Lawrence Mcmillan (not read yet) I am looking to learn a lot more about options and hopefully either supplement my income, or, in a best case scenario, make it my full time job. I loved the freedom as a poker player and I would love to regain it if possible. However, I would want to be sure that I could actually make it as a professional before dropping my job and income. So my first question is, how realistic is it to expect to be a profitable trader, making above market returns, putting in say 10-15 hours a week? Another question I had is: I see the steadyoptions course is currently closed for new members, how long is the waiting list and how long do new members usually have to wait before a spot opens for them? Also what limits the number of members? Thanks a lot in advance! Akroma PS: Feel free to ask me anything you want to know

@FrankTheTank, thank you for responding. Since you have not been experiencing this problem and since nobody else has responded that they have been having issues, I surmise that it is something unique to my ONE account. Anyway, here is a directional trade I made on TWTR back on 2/16/21. The first screen shot below shows the correct pricing for my entry & exit after I reloaded the correct pricing and number of contracts: Now, here is the incorrect pricing that showed up when I went back to re-examine the trade. What you are seeing is the copy I had made and showed to ONE support: The pricing was radically changed as was the QTY on the Buy. It has been happening on multiple trades, and I have no idea why. As you might imagine, it is a nuisance. Alan