As a reader of Option Pit Research, you receive occasional updates from me (the Director of Product Development) on new strategies we are testing and their viability.

This is your first official update on the newest service we’re testing at Option Pit: Project M.N.S.

The quest for CRT approval continues. Out the gate, though, this one is looking extremely promising. So promising that we’re actually 200 members access to trade it with us as we refine the strategy.

Over the next 90 days, you’ll continue to receive progress reports on the viability of this service, including the Track Record, the ease of execution of the trades, and real member experiences. We are making YOU a part of the CRT Process, so you can see the same approval process all of our products go through.

Let’s start with some numbers.

Since we started tracking our first trade, here are our results:

+61% on Tesla from 2/6 → 2/9

+100% on Nvidia from 2/17→ 2/18

+51% on Apple from 2/19→ 2/20

+106% on Google from 2/20→ 2/23

+58% on Tesla from 2/24→ 2/26

Next trade drops today at 3:30pm ET

It All Started As a “Free Idea”

This story goes back to May 1, 2025.

That’s the day the Nasdaq announced that they were vetting the idea for 0DTE options on individual equities.

Then…

June 2025: Nasdaq filed with the SEC 

August 5, 2025: SIFMA submitted comments on the proposal

January 16, 2026: SEC approved the proposal

January 26, 2026: The Monday/Wednesday options officially launched for the 9 qualifying securities: TSLA, NVDA, AAPL, IBIT, AMZN, META, AVGO, GOOGL, MSFT.

Licia, Mark and I discussed this opportunity back in June when the idea first came up. We know how popular trading 0DTE has been, and we knew this would turn into an opportunity… we just weren’t sure when.

Fast forward to two weeks ago…

We took our first trade on these newly listed options.

Why We’re Using 1DTE to Trade 0DTE

We know a lot of traders don’t have $25,000 in their accounts. Without that amount, you are limited by the Pattern Day Trade rule, which states that an account under $25,000 can only make 3 “day trades” per 5 trading days.

If you violate this rule, you either have to bring your account balance up to $25,000, or you have to stay locked out of your account for 90 days.

WOOF – 

That was the first reason Licia and Mark started looking at 1DTE.

The second reason has to do with momentum.

It’s critically important with quick trades that you have momentum at your back. Licia has many ways of determining momentum (catch our free DTE week here for more specific instruction on this), but the key is this:

Momentum at 3:30pm ET the day before a 0DTE option expires is the most clear picture of momentum you ever get.

We find the momentum on the daily charts using the candles along with support and resistance levels. This is Licia’s specialty.

Remember… the close is always more important than the intraday action. 

We see a stock bust out or breakdown on the daily chart, there is almost always follow through into the next day.

This is exactly what we are capturing with very minimal hold time. Literally 30 minutes the day we buy and getting out on the move we are looking for the very next morning. NO NOISE!!

This is absolutely what’s most interesting to me so far about this strategy. It shows you how the traders here actually consider what’s best for YOU in these trades, and create an opportunity that MOST people can use. In this specific scenario, trading 1DTE is actually the best way for most people to capitalize on 0DTE.

This means that instead of buying an option today that expires today (0DTE), we buy an option today that expires tomorrow (1DTE).

In addition to:

#1 – Avoiding the PDT Rule

#2 – Clearest momentum picture is on an overnight move

We also:

#3 – Avoid the most decay

Options decay the longer you hold them. By getting in the night before and out the very next morning, we don’t give the trade time to decay. The worry when holding an option too long is… you can actually be RIGHT on the trade and still lose because of decay. We don’t want that.

#4 – Avoid AUTO EXERCISING of your option *** THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!!!!

The 0DTE options available on individual equities are NOT CASH SETTLED. That means that if you hold this option through the expiration (I buy an option that expires on Feb 26, and don’t sell it before 4pm ET on Feb 26th), you can risk AUTO EXERCISING of that option, which could mean one of two things:

1. Your option expires worthless (you lose what you put into the trade)
2. Your option to buy stock is AUTO-EXERCISED. This means if you bought 1 contract of Microsoft and it closes on Feb 26 at $401, your “right but not the obligation” to buy Microsoft at that price could be auto-exercised, and you’d be responsible for 100 shares of stock at that closing price of * $401 = $40,100 DOLLARS. Now, if your account didn’t have that amount of money in it, the brokerage house may force close the calls up to an hour before the close, so you’d just lose what you invested. But… THIS IS NOT A GOOD OPTION.
   
   

This is why you MUST SELL YOUR 0DTE EQUITY OPTION BEFORE IT EXPIRES. 

If you trade SPX with us, you know it’s cash settled. That you don’t have to sell. Your option either expires worthless, or your winnings are deposited directly into your account. There is no risk of assignment with a cash settled option.

Now…

Licia and Mark will ALWAYS send a closing alert before this happens for Project M.N.S. The important thing is tho = You have to actually do what the alert says!

The Reason We Started This Project

Last week, we spent four days live trading this opportunity with over 500+ people. If you missed last week, you can catch every replay here.

For many, it was extremely profitable: