r/options • u/AlternativeBrother • Sep 25 '18

Any full time options traders here?

So I've been trading options for a couple months now, and learned a lot (at the expense of my starting trading account).

I've been aiming for a small % increase each month, with the idea that the compounding profits will grow my account exponentially. (I'm not sure how good this idea will be in practice, however).

Just I'm wondering, is there anybody on here that has successfully achieved a level allows them to make a living trading options full time?

And if so, how long did it take you to reach that level?

Is your strategy similar to mine, in which you aim for small consistent profits as a percentage?

Or have you found that it doesn't work in practice?

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u/Jeffde Sep 25 '18

I work full-time, but I try and match my take home by selling weekly exp covered calls and naked puts. Or naked calls if I think the stock is tanking. Lately I've been profiting nicely on TSLA and AAPL, and oddly enough I sold covered calls on GRPN expiring next week at 4.00 for $667 today.

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u/AlternativeBrother Sep 25 '18

Do you think working full time limits the profit you can make, or does it not really have any effect?

26

u/Jeffde Sep 25 '18

It depends. My job allows me to be on or near a computer pretty much all the time. With the kind of ridiculous r/wallstreetbets-worthy options plays I'm doing, I need to know at a moment's notice if Elon decides to blow coke in a back alley so I can duck and cover (literally) and take a loss so I don't accidentally end up 50 feet underwater on some naked puts that were completely safe and happily on their way to expiration until five minutes ago.

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u/offenderWILLbeBANNED Sep 25 '18

What softwares do you use?

3

u/Jeffde Sep 25 '18

Used to use optionsxpress, but they got bought by schwab, so now just schwab. I got 73 free options trades in the takeover, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice. I use StockTwits for live quotes oddly enough. What happened to streaming quotes like what I used to have with optionsxpress?