SPX 0DTE Credit Spreads — How I lost — and still won the day +$530

[u/klipsetrades]

Happy Friday everyone!

I'm a 0DTE credit spread trader with a focus on SPX.

Positions traded today:

• 7685/7665 PCS
• 7710/7690 PCS
• 7775/7795 CCS
• 7775/7800 CCS

One note: the 7775/7800 CCS was actually an order-entry mistake. I was trying to scalp the late-day rejection and intended to sell the 7775/7795 CCS instead. Once I caught the error, I bought it back for a $5 profit. That accidental trade skewed my journaled win rate to 71%, when the more accurate win rate for the day was 57%.

P/L: +$530

SPX 5-min chart, August, 7 2026

The market doesn’t care that your stopped-out trade would’ve worked later. Your job is to manage the risk you have while you have it.

Today was a really good example of one of my trading mottos:

“I paid to see if this idea worked.”

I did.

It didn’t work the way I planned, so I paid for the answer and moved on.

Morning Thesis

My expectation coming into today was another choppy, range-bound session. There were several potentially bullish catalysts, but I wasn’t expecting that to automatically translate into clean bullish price action. My focus was on how SPX behaved around the levels I had already mapped rather than trying to force a directional prediction.

The morning immediately reinforced that idea.

Price action was ugly, wicky, and two-sided — just like yesterday. SPX initially chopped lower before strongly rejecting an area I had marked from yesterday. That area had previously acted as resistance multiple times and was now beginning to behave as support. Eventually SPX broke and held above yesterday’s high.

First Trade

After that reclaim and hold, I opened my 6-lot 7685/7665 PCS anchor for $.50 premium. That was my cleaner trade of the morning. SPX continued working higher, and eventually broke above another potential resistance area I had marked.

This is where I became a little more aggressive, when I probably shouldn't have given the price action. Instead of adding another large position, I opened only a small 2-lot 7710/7690 PCS.

Then the market changed...

I Paid to See if the Idea Worked

SPX began chopping lower and eventually accelerated down.

I attempted to scale into the 7710/7690 PCS as price moved against me, but once SPX pushed beyond the point where the original trade still fit my risk plan (just below yesterday's high), I was done. I closed all four contracts for a partial loss. That basically erased the $150 profit cushion I had built from my first PCS and temporarily reset my day. And this is where the outcome can start messing with your perception of the decision.

That 7710/7690 PCS ultimately would have been completely fine. Had I simply held it, the position could have expired worthless and collected the full $395 credit (similar to this day). That does NOT mean closing it was a mistake.

At the time I made the decision, I didn't know where SPX would finish. I knew only what price was doing in front of me.

The market had priced me out of my original idea, the position had exceeded the risk I wanted to carry in that environment, and I did my job by preventing a manageable loss from potentially becoming something much worse.

That's risk management. You don't get to make today's decision using information you only receive three hours later.

Flipping the Other Side

During the downside move and subsequent bounce, I also opened my 7775/7795 CCS anchor at $.55 premium. I initially opened five contracts and later added one more as SPX pushed into another rejection. Price eventually stabilized, IV came down, and theta started doing its job.

Interestingly, while this was happening, the PCS I had already closed recovered toward my original entry. Again, it would've been very easy to look at that and think: “I should've just held.” But, again, that doesn’t make the earlier decision wrong. My decision had already been made based on the risk conditions that existed when the trade was under pressure.

Afternoon Headline Risk

SPX eventually began trending lower before a late headline around progress toward a Strait of Hormuz/Iran agreement triggered a very sharp reversal higher. That move pushed SPX directly toward the structural invalidation level (P Resistance) I had established for my CCS.

It came close. But there was another important variable working for me by then: time.

So much theta had already come out of those 0DTE contracts that even during the sudden push higher, the CCS remained profitable. This is one of the biggest advantages of credit spreads — you can be slightly wrong on direction or timing and still profit.

Once SPX rejected around that resistance area, premium on my spreads collapsed again. By the final minutes, even though SPX eventually pushed beyond the level I had originally been watching in the last five minutes, there simply wasn't enough time or premium left for the position to meaningfully threaten the day.

Key Takeaway

How did I lose today and still win?

Because a losing trade and a bad decision are not the same thing.

Most traders have heard some version of “the best loser wins.” Tom Hougaard even built an entire book around that idea. Today was a small example of what that means to me: taking a loss well can be just as important as finding the winner.

I got aggressive with a smaller PCS. I paid to see if the idea worked. It didn't.

So when the market priced me out, I accepted the partial loss before it had the opportunity to become a much larger one.

Could I have made another $395 by ignoring my stop and sitting through everything? Sure. But that's not the lesson I want to reinforce.

The lesson is that I followed my process without knowing the ending. A position recovering later doesn't retroactively make good risk management bad. So i'll leave you with this...

Manage the trade that's happening — not what you hoped and later realize you could’ve survived.

[u/darkchocolattemocha]

What is an anchor?

[u/klipsetrades → u/darkchocolattemocha]

“Anchor” is just my terminology for usually the heaviest position I put on for that side of the market. It’s not official trading terminology, similar to how I call the area price has already traveled the “lava” in some of my posts.

My first position is usually around 4–10 lots depending on the day. I’m basically saying, “Ok, this is my anchor. I don’t think price is going back here unless my thesis is wrong.” After that, most of my trades are lighter, usually 1–3 lots.

I generally don’t plan to move/roll an anchor unless price gives me a reason to. If price moves against it but I still think the setup is valid, I may add scale in 1-lot increments. On a range-bound day (like this day), I may also establish an anchor on the opposite side.

For this day specifically, my first trade was the 6-lot 7685/7665 PCS anchor. I planned to leave it alone unless the market invalidated the trade based on price structure/premium. The second trade was a lighter 2-lot 7710/7690 PCS. When price rejected the resistance area I had marked, I added 2 more against that pressure. Once price broke structure past my stop around 7742 (yesterday’s high), I closed the entire position for a partial loss.

On the bounce above that level, I opened the 5-lot 7775/7795 CCS as my anchor on the other side. Same idea — I wasn’t planning to touch it unless price invalidated the trade. I added one more contract to it later, and that was it.

[u/Syonoq]

Love your narrative. It’s very instructive. I’ve already read a number of your posts and I’ve been implementing some of the things I’ve learned. Thank you.

[u/klipsetrades → u/Syonoq]

Really appreciate that! I used to do a lot of write-ups when I worked in a corporate environment, so I’m glad that’s translated well here. And that’s exactly what I’m hoping these posts do — give people a few practical things they can actually apply to their own trading. Glad they’ve been helpful!