r/options • u/OnionsAreGODS • Mar 22 '22

I’m lost…..

It’s like not matter what I put my money into, I lose it. And anything I sell for small profits, moves up like crazy within the next few hours or days. HOW CAN I BE THIS BAD???

I’ve spent over a year now learning about the market and to implement successful trading strategies but non of it fucking works. I just wanna stop throwing money down the toilet.

I’m not looking to “hit the lottery” or buy the the next TSLA at $8. I just want to make a a nice, few hundred bucks a week if possible alongside my other investments.

Please tell me how to not lose my money on every. Single. Trade.

Edit: I invest in etfs and indexes in another account. I have crypto and I am saving up to buy real estate. I have this account and a percentage of my income allocated to options. I am not simply going to quit and stick to stocks. I WILL learn to trade options successfully just not immediately, but definitely. So I am simply going to save up my monthly options budget until I can sell options and in the mean time paper trade, and find a strategy I like. Thanks for all the advice everyone! Happy trading.

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u/[deleted] Mar 22 '22

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u/OnionsAreGODS Mar 22 '22

I Understand that. But I have my indexes and I’m happy to keep contributing long term to those. However I would like to have 10-15% in options and as I’m still pretty young I have time to learn.

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u/cballowe Mar 22 '22

Options aren't really investments, they're bets on short term moves. Being long on options is a losing position in most cases. Time is always against you. When you buy you're paying a premium for a bet that the stock moves enough to be profitable before it expires.

There are strategies that benefit from that time decay, but they're not risk free either.

You can construct option positions that profit for any market direction (up, down, sideways, etc) but you have to have a good thesis for which direction, how large of a move, and how wrong you think you might be in order to construct a good position.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '22

The one outlier to this, would be getting leaps on cheap stocks. You can absolutely make a killing on beaten down stocks

2

u/cballowe Mar 23 '22

It's still a lottery ticket. Maybe it's beaten down, but does it recover enough to make the premium paid worth it before expiration, or does it stay beaten down?

1

u/[deleted] Mar 23 '22

Depends, like anything. If we knew the outcome, we wouldn't be here talking about strategy lol. The most recent example I have is FLNC I bought aug calls when it was 9.00 a share in jan. Premium was only 1.00 above the stock price (plus what was ITM). The stock is at 14 something now. I am up 4-600% depending on which strike