BY ANDREW GIOVINAZZI

November 3, 2023

Yo Pit Crazies,

Were you ready for it? I sure was – two weeks ago. Note the circled spot below where I started to dump a whole trove of S&P 500 Trust ETF (Ticker: SPY) put spreads that I owned from early Oct in several products.  Then the market proceeded to dump the week before last. My grand Idea of managing my risk switching to VIX call spreads was … ahem … ill timed.

That was mostly in my Trading Desk and Weekly Profit Cycles positions. By the end of this past week my VIX puts started to pay to make things profitable again. I will end up owning my VIX call spreads for a small credit. My students say hindsight is 20/20 and I agree with them. I should be over it by next week.

That is why I use mostly non-correlated strategies because my timing can be off. By that, I mean non-correlated to what the market is doing. I just want something to be green, profitable, every day I have trades active in the market.

If all of this non-correlated stuff is confusing, I have samples of my trade logs from my Pro Sessions of over the last 8 weeks

Let’s see what that looks like.

Most of Advanced Option Trading is Understanding How to Close a Book of Trades

Advanced option trading is looking for something for nothing. Buying time for free or a credit and seeing how things work out. That’s how I manage day to day and the best path for me after doing this for 30 years. It’s not for everyone, but anyone who wants to can learn it.

Students can learn a technique or two.

Below are the exact trades from Pro sessions on Thursdays that I post into the Pro Chat room. Traders can do them or not and generally they ask in channel if they have a management question.

What you will notice, if you can tell, is that the risk reward payouts are more like 5 to 1 or better. The real dollar risk on the trades is very low.

These are advanced sessions so I look at any option trade under the sun with some edge that I understand.  Then I try to craft a good position around it.  Note that all trades are not direction oriented at the entry.

I am trading flies, iron condors, vol products, straight contracts, pairs but mostly vanilla trades anyone can put on. I made a little over $3100 for the cycle on just average closes with SPX Down 4% so solid non-correlated returns. Some good, some meh, but that’s trading. I am using capital, around $3000 on average for the cycle, I am not risking a lot of capital. Some trades are 1 lot size that are meant to scale to 10 to 20 contracts.

It’s time for me to post these trades and use the OP App to send them out, so I wanted to start a track record of sorts. This is my kickoff. My Pros will get the added bonus of the trades sent to them with management instead of just grabbing them from the chat room and managing themselves.

If you’re interested in joining us as an Option Pit Pro, call our Customer Care team at 1-800-872-3301.

Pro Trade List

Nov 02

2 SPY Dec15 424/414 put spread for 2.25

5 VXX Dec15 21 puts for 1.40 

Currently up $100

Oct 19

2 SPXW Oct27 4250/4150/4050 put flies Filled 14.55  closed  20.75  $6.20 per spread – +$1240

10 VIX Nov15 18 puts for 1.00  closed 1.50 – +$500

Oct 05

Bot 1 SPY Oct13 433 call for .1.35,  1 @ 1.55 – +$20.00

s 1/3/2 SPY Oct13 432/422/417 bf for 7.50 closed $7.52 – -$2.00

Sep 28

10 VXX Dec15 19 puts for 1.00,  5 for .55, 20 For .15  sold 20 @ .40  currently trading .60 +$125 stop at .50

5 SPY Dec 15 420/410 ps for 2.29 5 @$4.02 –  +$865

Sep 21

5 VIX Oct18 19 call for 1.08 1.23 – +$75

-5 SPY Oct20 420/415 ps @.75

-5 SPY Oct20 452/457 call @ .45 1.29 – -$45

Sep 7

2 VXX Dec15 18 puts for 1.14  @ .70 –  -$350

1 SPY Dec15 440/430 for 2.55  @ 3.91  5 X 1.36 – $680

To Your Trading Success,

AG