Journey to a Million with Options Trading

There are many ways to make money… but personally, many of them don’t work for me. I lack the creativity, I lack the skills and I lack the ‘drive’ required to make any breakthrough. So, I’ve been grinding my days out as an accountant.

Being the accountant that I am/was, I calculated that it would take me well over thirty years to save a million dollars (the price of a decent house in Australia). And it did not sit well with me…
So during this period, I’d fantasise over business ideas and dabbled in stocks. I even paid just over a grand for a one year ‘stock’ tipping subscription, which at that point had companies in the midst of the subprime mortgage crisis on its recommended buy list… you get the drift?

A couple of years ago, it got to a point where I realised how you could be right about holding long stock, but never getting paid. At that point in time, I recalled a ridiculously expensive course that my brother had paid for where I got to tag along – mind you, it was 10 percent informational and 90 percent spruik for an even costlier VIP course that they had. Unbelievable these people! Nonetheless, it got searching in the right direction and two years ago is when I stumbled on Tastytrades.

Game changer. Life changer. I lack creativity, I lack skills but I know simple math and very basic probability! Perfect. Tastytrades had sold the concept of trading options to me.

What is an option?
• Right to buy or sell
• an underlying (futures, stocks, index)
• at a particular price
• by a certain date
Why are options better than buying stocks?
• Possible to make money, regardless of direction
• Probability of profit given at point of entry
• Max Profit/Loss may be provided at order entry
How do you make money?
• Theta decay – think about selling an insurance policy, as time elapses, the insurance policy is worth less.
• Volatility collapse – think about an insurance policy covering a Car in NY that was suddenly relocated to LA. LA is a lot safer right (let’s assume it is for this example), so the policy would be worth less.
• Hedge out directional risk (optional). So movements in the underlying do little to affect your portfolio.
Zero Sum Game?
• You would think that if you were getting paid at fair price to take on a risk of 32%, that you would succeed 68% of the time… truth of the matter is, that you are actually getting closer to 80% probability of profit – if this was poker, you would ship all day! I don’t see why you shouldn’t with options.

Anyway, I honestly think that tastrytrade and dough is a ridiculously good resource. And, it’s free. Year to date, I’m making modest gains in my portfolio – and yes I understand it is not like poker where you can double, triple or quadruple your bankroll in a few weeks - but it is dam well better than the bank or any money managers out there who rely on a 'bull market'. And I feel that I’ve shortened the journey to one million to less than ten years.

I’d be keen and happy to discuss strategies/concepts etc. I’m also trying to increase my domain skills in Futures trading, but am finding it to be another steep but interesting learning curve. I hope that this has helped someone, good luck.

188 posts, weird

Nice article

I still don't know how to get started. Does it matter how much you have to invest?

Is this only for Canada/US? It asks for social security number when you try to open a brokerage.

dont you see this is a shady ad?

On September 21 2015 18:03 dogmeat wrote: dont you see this is a shady ad?

yeah this lol

To be eligible, I think there is a minimum deposit of $3,000 into a trading account. Different platforms have different requirements.
Also, some countries will be eligible for signup to thinkorswim and some are not - personally I'm not eligible, but I can access U.S markets through alternative platforms.

Try watching a few beginner segments first, to understand how it works - like 'Where do I start'/'Back to Cool' etc and open up a papertrading account at the same time
to try mimic them. They also trade live, so watch one of their live shows and try mimic them on papertrade (if you are non u.s citizen, throw in fake details to get access).

But basic strategies are debit/credit call/put spreads and naked put and covered call. Those are good starting points. I might use this thread to explain/cover each strategy
with some examples.

No shady ad here, it comes from wham blog that ask him to start a thread.

Hey guys you are free not to listen to him, feel free to look up different brokers and what not - the internet is a great tool. Also dogmeat you can make the switch , just try learning basics and watching youtube videos. I am trying to let everyone know your skills in bw/poker can be translatable to trading, they do it South Korea for ex pro gamers - I read it years ago and companies did prefer BW/Poker pro gamers over others.

Also please hhse is trying to help, theres no catch brehs. Be thankful he set up his thread, this knowledge is painful and expensive trust me. Read up guys and lets get this thread rolling

Just read the first post and start the journey guys. As a collective the speed at which everyone learns will be exponentially faster, just like with how we learned how to play solid poker before. Other people will have to rely on themselves only which is really tougher and takes a lot longer. Good luck!!!

Game changer. Life changer. I lack creativity, I lack skills but I know simple math and very basic probability! Perfect. Tastytrades had sold the concept of trading options to me.

I was slightly intrigued until i read that

hey kevin. listen to him. I know you can do it, keep at it, sure it's definitely less fun I know, but build that knowledge now while youre still quite young and trust me you will be profitable there. I am a terrible trader but the way this year turned out since trading on and off losing money I robustoed everything and from all the losses I know i wont be making the same mistakes. the markets now in my country are terrible as well. Its a marathon bro and we poker players know this more than most people who actually make money doing this.

Just dont click links or go to brokers anybody recommends. Do your own due diligence guys. I know LPers are very cynical of everything and I am no different. Save money now from your poker winnings until such time you are ready to actually go into it when you feel you are ready.

Isn't option trading the hardest market and the one with biggest swings having only the top guys actually profit ( and they profit big )

Also what amount of money would be decent to start out with ? Like having a 10k bankroll seems small for such activity considering I doubt you can win more than 10-15% on top without taking huge risks - which would be laughable as 10k br in poker would mean you crush 100nl probably reg 200 and bumhunt 400 relatively speaking which would turn into much bigger profits than 1.5k

On September 21 2015 23:09 whamm! wrote: hey kevin. listen to him. I know you can do it, keep at it, sure it's definitely less fun I know, but build that knowledge now while youre still quite young and trust me you will be profitable there. I am a terrible trader but the way this year turned out since trading on and off losing money I robustoed everything and from all the losses I know i wont be making the same mistakes. the markets now in my country are terrible as well. Its a marathon bro and we poker players know this more than most people who actually make money doing this.

Alright ill def give it a look now. Thanks

On September 21 2015 22:21 FullBRing wrote: No shady ad here, it comes from wham blog that ask him to start a thread.

i highly recommend anyone actually considering trading options or god forbid signing up through that site to give this thread a read: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30/...stions-about-options-trading-1429576/ (even if you're not and just happen to be passively interested in the stock market, it's an interesting thread)

Strasser's comments on that tastytrade site (which was also brought up in this 2+2 thread) are also relevant: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sho...42711122&postcount=60

a lot of you probably know who he is, but for those who don't: he was a successful poker player who went on to become derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley, and has recently co-founded his own hedge fund. he posts a lot in the thread, and there are other experienced traders who comment there as well.

The wording he uses is so scammy.: "I have no skills, no knowledge and Im a dumb housewife but I made 25,000 last month! click here!"

Just an observation not a judgement at all.


I remember back in 2007 when I was reading Rekrul posts about making thousands In online poker I thought it was some sort of scam lol