I Lost Nearly My Whole Account In One Day | Retirement

I Lost Nearly My Whole Account In One Day

by MorrisPuma

Today, I had an interesting conversation with an option trader who is still searching for the magic formula to making consistent returns with option trading. He said many things which were so familiar to me.

The topic that really hit home for me was when he mentioned "Non-directional option investing doesn't mean we should generate return on investment in each and every direction. It means that we generate a profit if the asset doesn't move in any direction. In a few words, it's actually a directional strategy, sideways." This is absolutely the truth, and most investing programs say that it's easy to manufacture a profit with options simply because we can generate money for each and every direction. This is true in some viewpoints and false in others.

Those investing with Condors understand what I am saying, especially if you are investing in the Iron Condors which most programs and written materials preach. If you are investing with this option strategy during 2008 and 2009, you most likely aren't doing much good. The reason for this is that the Iron Condor is just as directional as other option positions only that its direction is called "Sideways." For most traders, it's just as difficult to forecast a neutral move as it is to predict an upward move or downward one.

Over the last few months I have had many phone calls from option traders losing most of their trading capital with Condors and Credit spreads. They all have said one thing in common: "I was making great returns at first, and then one day, I lost most of my money." I've heard this tale many a time.

This is the reason why I don't push the popular Iron Condors, Bear Calls or Bull Puts. If you are a couple days from expiration, and the RUT is really near the sold strike, then at that moment you are in a very risky position. I'll remind you that this is the same risky method that many other investors are using to manage this option spread. Shortly all of your friends will be hearing the same story, but you won't be sharing this news with your wife! You smile at the moment, but you won't be if it happens to your trading portfolio. Another sad thing about this investng style is that the fear level is so astronomical that it really hurts your personal life. It makes it tough to sleep or even just relax each day.

Well, San Jose Options Mentoring has really changed the Condor and Credit Spreads that the usual investor is attempting to trade today. While others come into expiration sweating it out, worrying about the market moving past their short strike, we are relaxed, sleeping at night, and trading options in a much safer environment.

Besides teaching a safer way to trade Condors, we've also developed techniques to lock-in our profits on them. Most option traders exit their trades when they make a profit, but we can lock-in our profits and stay in the trade.

There's yet another technique we've developed that I'd like to mention before we go. Every trader has some trades that don't work out right? Well we obviously do too, but in our case, we usually end up with a Bonus Trade which gives us a chance to make back our loss with very little or no risk at all. It's these little details to trading that make all the difference at the end of the year.

So winner or loser, we have developed a pretty nice way to trade Iron Condors as well as many other strategies.

DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice.

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