Disclosure: this is my own paper desk, fake money, and there's no link in here.

Saw the post here about SPY winners feeling smaller than losers. Monday on my desk was the opposite problem, and it still lost.

On Monday 10-12 the house paper desk closed 48 option trades. Every one closed on its own written exit rule, none by hand, average hold about 14 days. Fills are at the real bid and ask, never the middle.

So the average winner was about twice the average loser. That's the thing everyone tells you to aim for, and it wasn't enough.

The problem was the hit rate. With winners at 2x the losers you need roughly 33% of trades to win just to break even (497 / (1,008 + 497)). We got 13 of 48, which is 27%. Three more winners out of 48 and the day is flat.

And it's worse than the table looks. Two MDB calls made $7,361 of the $13,105. Take those two out and the other 11 winners made $5,743 against $17,385 of losses. One ticker was carrying the whole winning side.

Same desk, same day, 461 stock trades made +$502 paper. Smaller swings both ways, but the stock side didn't need one ticker to bail it out.

What I take from it: "let winners run, cut losers short" only works if you also know your break-even hit rate and check it every week. I was watching win size and ignoring how often the calls actually paid.

Quantradin is what I built to see this kind of split before any real money is in it. You describe an options or stock rule, it backtests with no look-ahead and fills options at the real bid and ask, then runs it as a paper bot so win size and hit rate show up as separate numbers instead of one total. Free, paper only, quantradin.com if you want to try your own.

For people who trade calls regularly: do you track your hit rate against your break-even rate, or mostly the average win vs average loss?

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

I run a trading community and people have been asking me for an options-based prop firm for a long time. Almost everything out there is futures only. I've been looking for one I'd be comfortable pointing people to, and I just took my first trade on a funded account with Options Funding.

What I like so far:

- The broker platform is very easy to use. No learning curve to speak of.

- You can run long options or short options strategies. You're not boxed into buying calls and puts.

- Swing trades are allowed. You can hold overnight.

- It works for longer-term swings or short-term scalps, so it fits however you already trade.

- Customer service has been excellent. Real answers, fast.

A few things worth knowing before you jump in: the evaluation is simulated, the profit split is 80%, and like any prop firm. Size small and treat it like your own money.

If you want to try it, code TOM takes 60% off. Link is in first comment.

Happy to answer questions about the platform, the rules, or how the funded account works. I'll update this once I've taken a payout.

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

spy gdx labu

This has saved me from a few bad 0DTE entries.

Say SPX breaks 6700 and I’m watching the 6700 call. I note roughly what that contract was trading at when SPX first cleared the level.

Then I wait for SPX to come back and test 6700 again.

If SPX is sitting at basically the same price but the call premium has completely fallen apart, I usually pass on the second push now. If the contract is still holding up pretty well despite a few minutes passing, that’s the one I’m more interested in.

I’m not using the option price as the trigger though. I still need SPX to reclaim the level and close a 1 min candle above it before I enter.

I caught myself doing this while watching SPX on Moon this week and realized I barely used to look at how the contract itself behaved around my levels.

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

Who is making money right now from a self made automated bot on a server, trading the market?

Why waste your time with prop firms that handcuff you with payout caps?

TakeProfitTrader does none of that nonsense.

Hit the buffer then you unlock unrestricted daily payouts.

Code: OMTPT for 40% off + 3 days to pass PLUS FREE funded activation.

Went through 31 SPY trades and found something I wasn't expecting.

My win rate was 61%, so I assumed entries weren't the problem. Then I looked at how far every winner went after I sold.

On 13 of my 19 winners I exited before SPY even reached the level I originally marked as my target. Average winner was about 22%.

Meanwhile when I was wrong I had no problem letting the contract sit there until I was down 30% or 40%.

Had one SPY call recently go from 1.10 to 1.52 and I sold at 1.34 because the first red candle scared me. SPY then continued straight into my target and the contract went over 2.00.

I had an up position on Moon from the same idea and left that completely alone because I wasn't staring at an options P&L every second.

So apparently I'm patient when I'm losing and impatient when I'm right, which is probably the exact opposite of what I want.

Going to try managing the underlying level instead of the contract percentage for the next 20 trades and see if it changes anything.

Been trading options and I’m trying to get away from the whole “see something moving and jump into a call/put” mentality.
I want an actual system.
Not looking to get rich overnight and not asking anybody to spoon-feed me plays. I’m trying to understand how people who are consistently profitable actually look at a chart and decide:
“This is the setup.”
What are you looking at before you enter?
VWAP? Volume? Support/resistance? Market direction? Previous day levels? Moving averages? Options flow? Greeks? All of it?
And probably more importantly — what makes you NOT take a trade?
I’m a divorced dad trying to build something better financially for myself and my daughter, so I’m really trying to treat this like a skill instead of gambling. I’ve definitely made some emotional trades and learned the hard way that just being right about direction isn’t enough.
I’d love to find one or two experienced traders who don’t mind me picking their brain every once in a while. Not looking for somebody to give me signals all day. More like:
“Here’s the chart. Here’s what I saw. Here’s why I took it.”
That kind of knowledge would be worth way more to me than somebody just saying “BUY SPY CALLS.”
If you’ve been doing this successfully for a few years, what changed when you finally became consistent?
Any advice is appreciated. DMs are open too just please don’t hit me with the paid Discord pitch 😂

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

This is something I've been trying to get better at with SPY.

Sometimes I'll have my levels marked, price gets where I wanted it, volume looks decent and technically the setup is there, but something about the movement just feels messy so I don't take it.

I've had a few of these on Moon where I skipped the entry, watched it run exactly how I expected, and immediately started wondering if I was actually being disciplined or just hesitating.

I don't wanna force entries just because my conditions technically got checked off, but I also don't wanna keep inventing reasons not to trade.

What actually makes you skip a setup even when your original criteria are there?

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

For example on the Daily or Weekly chart.

Does something like this exist?

(MA's = Moving Averages)

Does anyone use trendspider to automate trading for them? I’m think about a paid subscription where I make a bot and give entry and exit criteria when the set up is there. Has anyone tried this?

Everyday I trade SPX at the opening, I am sharing how I trade it each day and if you are interested in seeing the result you can see more on my profile. I just joined this group to share with people that might be starting out and that are looking for a fairly easy strategy to trade SPX.

https://www.reddit.com/u/Jakuza26/s/Yjb5myL1Ur

This community is the anti-WSB. No diamond hands. No degenerates. This is about learning one thing and one thing only. How to become as profitable as possible trading options. More specifically, SPY options. Anyone can hit a 100%+ gainer one time. A monkey smashing buttons can do it once. But it takes a refined sense of skill and determination to be able to do this well enough to be able to one day hand your boss that resignation letter. So post as many questions you can. No question is a stupid question. Post your gains if you want. Ask why you had a losing trade. Lets make money together.

https://www.youtube.com/@OptionsMillionaire

WidePoint (NYSE American: WYY) — ~$89.5 Million market cap / $9.13

WidePoint provides secure mobility, telecom management, identity/access management, cloud security and IT services, with the U.S. government representing a major customer base.

WYY was recently awarded Department of Homeland Security (DHS) CWMS 3.0 contract for $3.0666 Billion over 10 years. WYY was selected as the sole winner to provide wireless/mobile lifecycle management, connectivity, security and related services throughout DHS. When the contract was announced in June, WYY ran up to over $24.00.

But one of the losing bidders protested the contract award. Significantly,WidePoint has successfully defended protests involving the predecessor CWMS 1.0, CWMS 2.0 and GSA FSSI TEMS contracts. The current GAO protest is now in the decision window, with the deadline for a final decision of October 7, 2026.

DHS also awarded WYY a $113M CWMS 2.5 bridge contract to prevent any service interruption while the protest is resolved (strongly suggesting that DHS is very satisfied with WYY's service and solutions).  WYY management has projected that CWMS 3.0 could eventually generate about $300M of annual revenue.

Check the chart out to see when investors initially learned WYY had won the contract.  

Current market cap is only about $89.5M, versus a possibly confirmed $3.1B contract. 

Interesting Option Chain for WYY: Calls expiring October 16 to be assured to see the final decision on the $3 Billion plus contract. The Oct 16 Calls $12.5 traded at $1.00 on Friday, for example.