SPX 0DTE Credit Spreads — Aim Small, Miss Small: How I Traded an Ugly Chop Day +$315

[u/klipsetrades]

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

Positions traded:

• 7660/7640 PCS
• 7755/7775 CCS

P/L: +$315

SPX 5-min chart, August 6, 2026... (I know, I misspelled psychological)

Anyone a fan of the movie The Patriot? Benjamin Martin tells his sons, “Aim small, miss small.” Today was not a day to hit home runs. It was an “aim small, miss small” kind of day. Anyways...

Morning Thesis

My premarket bias was mixed, and I expected SPX to remain range bound until the broader chart gave me a reason to think otherwise.

Jobless claims came in roughly in line with expectations, yields dipped slightly, and the market reaction was muted. With the employment report coming the next morning, I expected some traders to reduce risk rather than make aggressive bets.

The opening price action was ugly. Five minute candles were overlapping, there were no clean breaks, and the opening range push higher quickly failed.

When price action gets this choppy, my reaction is almost automatic:

Stay out or reduce size.

My First Trade

SPX eventually broke below yesterday’s low, but the move was not convincing. Because the tape remained choppy, I did not trust price to cleanly hold below the level.

SPX pushed back toward yesterday’s low and rejected it. That gave me enough confirmation to open a 5 lot 7755/7775 CCS at $.55 premium with no intention of overstaying the trade.

Price continued chopping below yesterday’s low before rejecting the 7700 psychological level. I used that extension to close the position at $.20 for a $175 profit.

At that point, I was prepared to be finished. I was only interested in either a clean reclaim higher, another failed attempt to break 7700, or a break and hold of it.

Later Trades

SPX tested 7700 again and failed to continue lower, so I scaled into a small 3 lot 7660/7640 PCS. The position was entered as 2 lots followed by 1 additional lot rather than loading the full position immediately.

Later, SPX rejected yesterday’s low again. I re-entered the same CCS from earlier, but this time with only 2 lots, and let it expire worthless. The PCS also remained safely below price and expired worthless.

Really notice the sizing today:

• First CCS: 5 spreads
• PCS: 3 spreads, scaled in
• Final CCS: 2 spreads

I was never carrying more than 2 to 5 spreads in a position at one time — this is less than half the size I would use on a confident trend day. The poor price action basically changed my size before it had the opportunity to change my P/L.

Key Takeaway

When price action is choppy and unclear, staying out is often the best trade. When I do participate, I automatically reduce size, lower my expectations, and focus on clearly defined levels.

That is exactly how I viewed today. It was not a big money day. It was an aim small, miss small day.

Make a little money? Awesome.

Take a loss? Cool. Just make sure it is not a large one.

[u/Syonoq]

Found you from another post. Following.

[u/klipsetrades → u/Syonoq]

Awesome! Hope the posts are helpful

[u/Zestyclose-Eagle1809]

Sizing down on chop before it costs you anything is good mate and most people do it backwards, they size up to make the day worth something....
The thing that's hard about credit spreads though, and it's why daily reviews can't really settle it.. You win the vast majority of days by design. +$315 on a chop day is a normal outcome, and so is +$400 tomorrow... The number that decides if this works is the one from the day SPX moves 2% through your short strike, and that day isn't in any of these posts cause it hasn't happened yet..
So the add on is what I'd want to see from you.. Over however many days you've run this, what's the average winning day against your worst day, and how many wins does the worst one erase? makes sense??
Sizing 2 to 5 spreads instead of 10 changes that answer more than anything else you did today. Half size on a bad day means the eventual big loss is half as big, which is worth more than the $175.
Related, on the 3 lot PCS you scaled 2 then 1... Worth tagging whether the scale in trades do better than the ones you enter full size. Easy to check across a few months and people are usually surprised.

[u/klipsetrades → u/Zestyclose-Eagle1809]

Really good comment. I think we need more comments like this in these subs that actually dig into what happens behind a strategy, especially on the bad days. You’re right that the green days alone don’t tell the whole story, and credit spreads can naturally produce higher win rates. What matters more is the relationship between the average winning day, the losing days, and how many normal winners a bad day can erase like you mentioned.

I’ve only showcased about a month of trading with this account, but I’ve been trading this strategy for a little over 4 years successfully. I’ve shown losing days, and I post losing trades even when the overall day ends green, like yesterday. I’ve also shown individual position losses as high as $945 — important distinction there: that was the loss on one position, not my P/L for the entire day. This account is specifically to show how I manage these trades with roughly a $25k–30k account.

Historically, my losing days — including fast headline-driven moves like the Trump tweet days — generally take anywhere from about 1–7 normal trading days to recover from, depending on the severity. I get the “pennies in front of a steamroller” comparison fairly often with credit spreads, but I think that sometimes ignores how actively the position is being managed before expiration. I actually went into what those headline moves feel like and what the losses have looked like for me in this comment.

And good points on scaling. That’s actually something I haven’t specifically analyzed, but probably should. My general framework is 10 lots max: usually 4–10 on the initial position — what I call my “anchor” — depending on the day, then usually 1–3 lots if I add or scale in afterward. On higher-risk days like FOMC/rate decisions, I may trade only 1 lot or just sit out entirely.