When my son Mark was playing baseball, I always taught him not to try to kill the ball. Go for singles. If it hits a gap you'll get a double, and every now and again you'll catch one clean and leg out a stand-up double or even a triple.
When he was 11, we were in a tournament in the Chicago area. He struck out in his first at bat. He got up again, this time with a couple of kids on base.
At some point in that at bat he took a nice cut and hit a line drive. It found the gap and started rolling.
Now, this field was a little different. It had no fence in the outfield (those exist in rec ball, baseball moms and dads), so the ball just kept rolling.
I was the first base coach. I yelled "RUN!"
Lo and behold, a hit that would have been a single, probably a double, turned into his first home run. He was a good hitter, not a home run hitter.
But because he swung it the right way (mostly) every time, his single turned into a multi-run home run. It happened several more times over his little league days.
He was the little league version, in my mind, of Mark Grace (most hits in the 1990s) not Adam Dunn (most strikeouts in the 2000s).
Here's the problem a lot of traders have, myself included in my early days: they go for home runs. They get a winner and they don't take their money. Or worse, they get a loser and they don't cut it.
I understand it. Have you ever had a trade you won on, closed, and then watched it keep going without you? It's frustrating.
I bought about 1,000 shares of Intel (INTC) for around $18 a share. I thought I was a genius when I sold the last of my shares near $52. Well, as you know, it's now well over $100 a share.
When this happens, I like to think about how good the win was, rather than the "potential" I left behind. But it still gets to me sometimes.
There's no easy fix when you're trading the stock. There is with options.
I started building longer-term spreads on INTC (a spread just pairs two options together to lower your cost and define your risk). By the time I was done, I probably made as much, or more, than I would have made owning the last of my stock and riding it to $110.
But here's what you need to know: selling that last piece at $52, up nearly 200 percent, was always going to be the right play. Apply that discipline to your trading. Make it mechanical.
Which got me thinking: could I build trades that mimic my son's home runs? Easy wins, with home run potential.
No riding a good double into a bad loss. A method that runs on rules, not feelings.
Singles That Turn Into Home Runs
That's where my 0DTE strategy comes in. 0DTE means zero days to expiration, options that open and expire the same day.
Once I place the trade, I can set it and forget it. If it goes my way (and it has about 80 percent of the time over the last 90 days) I lock in a single.
If the SPX (the S&P 500 index) hits my cash zone, the sweet spot where the trade pays the most, I get a double or even a home run. Best part: the average cost of the trade is about $130.
Tap to see the full strategy and join me.
Your only option,
Mark Sebastian