Hey Traders,
In 2003 I left New York and the American Stock Exchange for a trading firm in Chicago. They put me in a group trading SPX against DJX relative volatility, betting on which index's options were priced too rich against the other. That's where I met Scott Kaplan.
Everybody called him the Gator. When a trade got hot he'd thrash around the pit like an alligator rolling its prey underwater. He ran our group like a pit bull, and away from the floor he was the nicest human being I've ever met.
The Gator Had One Question
After the close he'd walk me through his entire day. Every trade, what he did, why he did it. Before the open he'd walk me through the plan, patiently.
Then I'd put on a bad trade and he'd snap. Same line every time: "where's the edge in that!" Translation: tell me how this trade makes money.
I'll be honest. Coming out of New York I was fine. Not great, fine.
One year with Scott and I went back out on my own as a market maker (quoting both sides of an option and living off the spread), and I wasn't the same trader. I could tell a good trade from a bad one before I put it on. I knew how to sit on the right side of the order flow instead of underneath it.
I Never Stopped Collecting Teachers
Once I got good I thought about what Scott did for me and decided somebody else should have it. I stayed late running mock trading with the new kids. I taught options to the interns, then to rooms full of retail and institutional traders.
The lessons kept coming anyway. A different Mark taught me how to carry stress. Dominick taught me arbitrage and how the VIX actually worked, and Greg taught me how to stop getting run over by the fastest electronic market makers on the screen.
Jim Bittman taught me how to teach retail traders. Jim ran program development at the CBOE's Options Institute and wrote Trading Index Options. Russell Rhoads handled the institutional side and the rest of my VIX education, and he wrote Trading VIX Derivatives, still the textbook in that space.
Every turn in my career, a guide showed up. Three reasons why:
- I stay open to being taught.
- I ask questions.
- I work to help the people helping me.
The Pit I Learned In Is Gone
Even at the company I founded, I'm the student half the time. My editor makes my writing better and Hannah makes what we ship to members better.
The other traders hand me ideas I hadn't considered. That matters more now than it did in 2003, because the pit I learned in doesn't exist and the products I trade today hadn't been listed yet.
Take charting. I spent years calling it voodoo. Then Licia Leslie taught me moving averages, support and resistance, candlesticks and pitchforks, and I use them every session.
Now you can sit where I sat.
Licia is running a six-week Mastermind on 1DTE options, contracts with one day left before they expire, bought in the afternoon and closed the next morning. It starts Monday, August 17, and covers her charting work, how she picks the contract, and how she gets out. She's added a bonus session on single stock futures September 30.
She teaches it live twice a week. When it's over she isn't doing it again.
Sign-ups close August 17th.
Tap this link to see the full six weeks.
Your only option,
Mark Sebastian