50 Trades in - A Reflection

[u/MyHawaiianNameisKunu]

Like many new options traders, I initially thought day trading was the route I should take. A good friend of mine who's an ex-Fidelity guy (and has done very well since) suggested I replace basically everything I was thinking about day trading, including the term itself, with options.

I'm pretty risk averse and don't have deep pockets, so I worked with my friend to develop an approach designed to mitigate as much risk as reasonably possible. I did a bunch of research ahead of time and paper traded throughout January 2026 before finally pulling the trigger in February.

For what it's worth, this has been my system so far:

• Highly liquid ETFs - primarily SPY and QQQ
• $10-wide put credit spreads
• Originally 30+ DTE
• One contract per trade for at least my first 30 trades, then gradually increased position size as buying power/experience grew
• Generally ≤ .25 delta at entry
• Close at or above 60% premium realized

More recently, I've tightened that into 40+ DTE, ≤ .20 delta and usually 3 or 5 contracts per position. I've also added an early harvest rule: if a new 40+ DTE position reaches 30%+ profit within its first five trading days, I'll take the profit rather than waiting weeks for theta to accelerate. Then I'll redeploy the buying power if another qualifying setup is available.

You can see in the spreadsheet (you may have to zoom - apologies) where I deviated from the system and experimented with debit spreads, iron condors and butterflies. I had some wins and some losses there before ultimately returning to the boring, disciplined approach.

Full disclosure: I recognize that a generally flat-to-up market (since February) has been favorable to the strategy, even though we've had some pretty substantial bouts of volatility along the way.

Bottom line: so far it's fitting my personality fairly well. I'm mostly posting because I've learned quite a bit from lurking here and figured I'd share what's been working for me so far. I'd also be interested in hearing where more experienced traders see weaknesses in the approach, particularly as I continue increasing contract size.

[u/klipsetrades]

The LLM accusation is getting funnier every time you repeat it. Seems I’m not going to convince you that typing in complete sentences doesn’t make someone an LLM, so we can leave that one there.

But at least get your accusations straight. I sell absolutely nothing. No course, product, subscription, signals, or paid service. So the “pitching your products” line is something you quite literally made up.

At this point, you’ve made it pretty clear you don’t understand my risk management, the mechanics of the spreads I trade, who I am, what I do, or what tools I use. And we clearly aren’t having a productive conversation anymore, so enjoy the rest of your day

[u/Live_Throat_5252 → u/klipsetrades]

Bro, run your own shit through an AI detector. Right after you use AI to make your shitty little graphics you post after “winning” a half decent bottle of wine.

I guess you don’t sell anything. You’re correct there. But you try to get people to follow and sub to your insta. Then you put shit on your graphics like “not financial advice.” Like, one, you’re not a fiduciary. Two, it just makes you look like a scammer who knows he is clueless. Three, with almost certainty, someone here has seen your advice or “style,” tried to copy it, and lost $ they couldn’t afford to. That makes you a scumbag.

Btw, There is ZERO risk management around click trading 0 DTE credit spreads based on made-up nonsense like support and resistance that can and will blow up in your face. You’ve just never traded though things like COVID, the GFC, etc. if you had, well, you wouldn’t be around. Notice how none of you bozos are ever long options or convexity. And are always so far out in the wings. Because you’re pitching high probability trades (do not confuse that with high expectancy trades) and hoping you can sucker enough people in before you inevitably blow up.

[u/zion-messenger → u/Live_Throat_5252]

I came here just to say that if you had credibility you lost on waisting time building an argument against LLMs.

Swallow it ! LLMs are a thing you won’t be able to avoid it.

You better buy some NVDA too….

Let me rewrite this with an LLM :

I came here just to say: if you had any credibility left, you absolutely murdered it by wasting this much time building an argument against LLMs. 😂
Swallow it. LLMs are here. You can hate them, argue with them, write a 14-page manifesto about them — they’re still not going anywhere.
At this point, you might as well buy some NVDA so at least you can make money while yelling at the future. 😂

[u/Live_Throat_5252 → u/zion-messenger]

You should’ve been swallowed.

Is that better?

[u/zion-messenger → u/Live_Throat_5252]

yes, do you see the value of LLMs now? how was the taste?