Options Traders Face Market Volatility & Rigging

“Hello, I am asking anyone who trades 0-1 DTE (long) how you mainly identify a trend day, and what You watch for as an exit. Right now for trend days the main thing I look for is escalating volume and full candles, but that doesn't always tell the whole story. Regarding exits I aim for a target ROI but that severely limits my upside. I don't use a ton of indicators, mainly VWAP and 9 EMA, but am open to suggestions if it will help me in this matter. Thanks for any input! submitted b”

“Recent days I noticed more Calls in the market. Twice as many calls than puts in P/C volume among semiconductors and AI names. I downloaded 1 year data, asked ChatGPT to run some test. There were 24 events in last year when P/C Volume is calls-heavy among semis (P/C volume ≤ 0.50). Once OI begin to decline, the stocks pullback over next several days. This effect is strongest 5 days horizon with p-value = 0.00044 The theory is that: Too Many Calls Positioning + Calls Begin Decay or Closed out = S”

“I bought SPY 761 0 dte at .58 at 3:53 today expecting a surge into close, but not enough to buy 762. I was right and I watched them go to nearly .9 but when I hit sell I realized Etrade had liquidated them at .55. I was insanely pissed but then I realized that it happened because I bought ITM and my account with them is a small play account. In the future, if I would have traded 2 SPX instead would that have avoided the issue entirely? submitted by /u/frogger1988 [link] [commen”

“Has anyone ever had a put spread go against them, sold the long side for a profit ending up with a cash-secured put? In effect, turning the trade into a wheel? submitted by /u/McGeno19 [link] [comments]”

“Been playing options on spy for the last couple years I’ve gotten decent in up about 80k for the year and I’ve been playing like a scared lil kid everytime I’m up 400-1000 I pull out. But yesterday was something else spy crashes 766 to 760 I bought puts round 764 at a 759 strike price was up maybe 600 then it goes up 30 cents wipes me clean tf out. I hold cause you know f it I’m already down might as well spy tanks again I’m still in the negative!!!! Never had this happen I buy calls 1 dollar ab”

“I'm still a beginner options trader and just got a big un-realized win on GPRO. Locked in a 120 day call option on GOPRO with a strike price of $1 a couple days ago. I'm up around 138% after the stock pulled back yesterday but was thinking about selling covered calls off my 4 contracts with a strike price of $3-$4 with a short expiry instead of selling. Really wanted to lock in profits when I was up 200% but would rather go the covered calls route far OTM and hope the stock stays above $”

“If so, how far out do you usually go on the options for expiration? How far out of the money do you like to buy puts? How do you handle big moves up without getting your shares called away? Do you roll the calls? And on big drops, how do you cash out the puts — sell them, roll them down, or use the gains to buy more stock? I am mostly interested in indexes. Curious how this has worked in real life. submitted by /u/Bigglesworth596 [link] [comments]”

“Sold an IWM 285/280 put credit spread with about 40 DTE for $1.18 when IWM was around 294. I was doing it on Moon and it dipped pretty hard after I opened it and the spread went to around $2.10, but I left it alone because my original thesis hadn't really changed. Then IWM bounced back above 295 and somehow the spread was still around $0.90. I closed it for a small profit but it felt weird being basically right on direction and making almost nothing. Would you guys have taken the small win t”

“I just read that historically the Fed chairman speech at Jackson Hole rarely has a big impact on the market. Also said that options markets aren’t pricing in any “fireworks”. With 0DTE contracts now accounting for about 55-65% of options in SPX, I’m wondering how much weight should be given to that last statement. If 60% of the contracts have not yet been placed, then we only get a “minority view” from the options world prior to the day of the event. Also, I need a clarification. I believe 60% o”

“I’ve been testing an SPX 0DTE morning-trend strategy and would appreciate some critical feedback. At 10:30 ET, it compares SPX with its first price after 8:30. If SPX is higher, it sells a put credit spread; if lower, it sells a call credit spread. The short strike is placed roughly 1.25 times the current ATM straddle premium away from spot, with a 50-point protective wing. It trades two spreads when the ATM straddle is 1% or less of SPX, and one spread when it’s above 1%. There’s no profit targ”

“I’ve been testing an SPX 0DTE morning-trend strategy and would appreciate some critical feedback. At 10:30 ET, it compares SPX with its first price after 8:30. If SPX is higher, it sells a put credit spread; if lower, it sells a call credit spread. The short strike is placed roughly 1.25 times the current ATM straddle premium away from spot, with a 50-point protective wing. It trades two spreads when the ATM straddle is 1% or less of SPX, and one spread when it’s above 1%. There’s no profit targ”

“A lot of 0DTE traders spend most of the day trying to guess whether SPX is going up or down. I don’t really trade that way anymore. What I care about more is: where is price unlikely to go today? That’s where GEX helps me. If I see a strong gamma resistance level above price and SPX keeps rejecting it, I may sell a Bear Call Spread above that area. Same thing on the downside. If there’s strong support and price keeps holding it, I may look for a Bull Put Spread below it. I don’t need to predict”

“Is anyone trading volatility around earnings events? e.g. selling short straddles if you think volatility is too high. If so, do you have any advice or playbook worth sharing? Which analysis tools do you all use? Thanks! submitted by /u/earningpulse [link] [comments]”

“I mostly used to trade spreads, DTE 45, delta 20-30 (closer to mid) for the short put or short call on tech stocks and a few non-tech stocks. With that many days and low delta the bid-ask is very wide for a single leg which compounds when entering it as a spread. TOS were still part of TD the last time I used them for options and they were exceptional with fills. As I didn't have time to trade options for the last 3 years while I was selling my businesses I took advantage of a massive uncapp”

“I was surprised to see it suddenly showing today in the option chain in Fidelity and Robinhood. Anybody heard about this? I looked everywhere (even ChatGPT etc) but can't see any news about it. submitted by /u/tced112 [link] [comments]”

“Do you close it to lock in profit? Or let it run to at least 50% before closing to take profit? submitted by /u/PuzzleBeader [link] [comments]”

“I spent 30+ days mainly trading 0dte spx options under fixed drawdown and consistency rules. The biggest lesson was that being right in direction is not enough. With 0dte spx options, a trade can be correct in idea but still badly managed. Poor entry, oversized contracts, holding too long, or trying to recover one loss can damage the account faster than the actual market move. What helped me: Opening Range Breakout for early direction VWAP for confirmation 7, 21, 50, and 200 EMA for momentum and”

“I have been reviewing a small set of publicly available intraday trading-loss clips using a five-step framework: Notice → Understand → Calculate → Decide → Execute One recurring pattern was that traders often noticed the adverse move and could see the P&L, but still failed at the decision stage through hope, rule overrides, freezing, or increasing size after a loss. For traders who actively trade 0DTE SPX, SPY, or QQQ options: Which part of trade management is hardest for you during a fast a”

“I’ve been selling CSP/CC and naked puts for little over a year now, mostly monthly and weekly expirations. I keep seeing people talk about how the 3rd Friday (standard monthly expiration) or the last trading day of the month tends to carry more premium / see more volume than a random weekly expiration, but I’ve never had it explained in a way that actually clicked for me. Is it really true that monthly expiration (3rd Friday) have inflated premium compared to weekly’s on the same underlying? If”

“Most retail have no idea that most brokers allow you to do a cashless exercise of your otm calls and puts if they fall below (put) or above (call) your strike after hours. You must call and request this, and depending on the broker there may be a fee. But if your call or put moves way past your strike after hours, call your broker and have them exercise and sell your option on your behalf, no money needed. You get to collect whatever the bid, spread? is when it's exercised. If I had known th”

“i was doing some homework for something else and wanted to drop a few things here that may be useful to newer traders. a lot of times, someone may sell a straddle or strangle (or iron condor / fly) thinking they're trading vol risk premia or vol in general. in a way they definitely are but it's really noisy. the graphs below show the impact of delta hedging frequency on returns, and path. main thing to note here is how your maximum delta changes (which indicates your directional tilt) as”

“Thank you 🙏 Yes, selling calls will at best get my stocks called away or expires with no transaction other than collecting the premium.”

“Yesterday on July 29 I bought a 1DTE Call SPXW expiry today 7/30 7430 Strike. I bought it for $5.50. SPX was trading near 7330 when I bought it. It was right at the end of the day and it did not go much lower. I know that there is THETA decay on these options but was not expecting the THETA hit to be so much. In fact I was expecting to be way up. I woke up today and SPX was up almost 50 or 60 pts or .75%. I sold it at the open But somehow I still managed to lose money. The Call Option I bought w”

“On Monday I sold my first put. Nvda 21 aug 26 $195. At time of trade the stock was at $208 and today closed at $190. I knew of the risks but I did not expect to be ITM this soon lol. Sold it for $4.35 and now it would cost me $10.25 to buy it back. I see the stock going back up so going to hold on for now. submitted by /u/apollolead [link] [comments]”

“So minor mistake hehe. Been trading options several years and never got into this situation. I forgot to lapse 25x QQQ calls at 661 when they were OTM, bought them at final 20 min for like 5$ a piece and tried to pull fast one and sell them for 2-5x in last minutes. Then did some overnight trading with stocks and missed the instruction DL 5:30 ET. They were OTM by 5:30 ET at lapse instructions, now they're ITM by +5.5. Am I getting exercised by 1 AM et if they're OTM and am I getting lik”

“Yes, everyone expects "no change", and yes, that's probably what we're going to get. But the market typically expresses disappointment (or whatever) when the decision is announced, even if it's what everyone expects. Unless you're a gambler, wait for things to settle down after the announcement. submitted by /u/SDirickson [link] [comments]”

“Wanted to share a post-market look at how 0DTE option premiums behaved during the last 15 minutes of yesterday's SPX session (July 28). Even though SPX held up as a green trend day (finishing up around +15.6 points), the EOD price action was a brutal trap for late 0DTE momentum buyers. Around 3:48–3:49 PM EDT, SPX printed back-to-back green 1-minute candles pushing back toward the session highs near the 7440–7450 zone. On a chart, it looked like a classic late-day melt-up where ATM calls usu”

“Hi yall, I noticed a strange behavior on PYPL call options and I was wondering if someone can shed some lights on. PYPL is currently trading around $55.80ish. The call options for $55 expire 7/31 is @2.75 last time I checked. How is this even possible? I think the price is so inflated and it don’t make sense. The option that has about a week to go have so much extrinsic value and yet not much above the strike price. Can someone explain why this is acting up like this? Thanks gurus in advance! &#”

“Say its wednesday and I have a covered call sold that expires this week friday. Its currently solidly ITM and nearly no chance it doesn't get exercised. Im struggling to see the reason why not not to roll it out a week or two with the same strike for a net of more premium. It's going to be exercised anyways, so why not let it ride, gather more premium and have it be exercised in a couple weeks rather than this week? What am I missing here? submitted by /u/CompetitiveEmu7698 [”

“Hello sub, I’m trying to find a screener that actually shows option spreads that bought/sold for 0.01~0.05. I’m thinking of selling them right away (hours to days) at only 0.10-0.15, kind of a “scalp”. But I can’t find a screener that goes through last price of verticals (or don’t know how to is probably the real situation). I use Webull and ThinkOrSwim but I’m willing to pay for a service/screener that can help me locate these cheap option spreads. I like this idea because my account is small a”

“I see a lot of discussions on 0DTE on Reddit. I continue to defend: 0DTE options trading is not investing; it is pure guessing (will the asset will move up? move down, stay in a range? There is no edge on these very short-term options! Hence, you define a guess and enter a bet! Sorry to say it... Your broker knows it and is happy with it! With 0DTE, there's not enough time to adjust properly; you adjust only to repair if the market goes against). There's no edge. It is more like a coin f”

“Old trade, but still one of the clearest lessons I’ve had from trading 0DTE options. I’m sharing it because the chart and P&L explain the mistake better than I can. I had a bullish read on SPY and bought 737 calls at the 9/21 EMA. This was a 0DTE trade with an initial position of around 10 contracts. The setup looked all right going in and I kept my invalidation level at 733. SPY started dropping. Instead of exiting at 733, I told myself it would bounce from the 50 EMA. I added roughly 7 mor”

“I thought of it, bought a spy call, 207$ gain, @745.3. Someone bought 2 of my calls for 387 a contract, then it went straight dumping to 742. He probably lost hundreds of dollars, I know no one cares or probably sees it that way, but it’s a weird feeling that your win is some one else loss, and when you lose, that’s someone else wins submitted by /u/Senior_Sail4620 [link] [comments]”

“Hey guys, I was wanting to see what everyone’s opinion on trading 0 DTE options. How far from the current strike do you typically enter a position at? How long are you in these trades, less than an hour? 2-3 hours? etc? Finally, what are the typical limit you use? Ex. 20% P&L 30% 40%? Thanks for your feedback! submitted by /u/Informal_Hornet_4502 [link] [comments]”

“For people here who sell butterflies and/or condors (iron or otherwise), at what dte will you close or not open a new position due to too high of a gamma risk? I'd like to stick to monthly expiries for liquidity (as I don't really trade indices), but am trying to figure out at what dte to switch to the next month, trying to balance theta decay with gamma risk. My first impression for now is that 60+ dte is probably too high and 10 dte or less is probably too low. submitted by”

“I trade exclusively 0dte spreads and condors and I’ve noticed huge market behavior changes this month- Way less predictable, way less hard trend days, way more whipsaws and indecisive moves, more false breakouts and downtrends. Really uglier and more inconsistent price action across the board. Anyone else? submitted by /u/Soggy_Builder_84 [link] [comments]”

“So I have been trading options for about 5 years now and ran into an issue I’ve never had before. I had GME 22strike CC that expired Friday. At the close it was 21.76 but by 8pm it ran up to 22.16 putting my option in the money. If it crosses the strike after hours is it automatically exercised or does the buyer have to manually do it? Either way I’m not that worried about it but didn’t really want them to get called away. Worse case I sell a CSP and keep it moving. submitted by /u/f”

“I placed stops on each of the verticals to book a profit on each, I watched the market stop out everything and anything I had opened on BOTH sides, and though I only did 1 contract on each of them, it literally felt like I was controlling the market with how the market moved every time I placed ones. I did one every hour at the top of the hour. This market and in particular 0DTE are RIGGED submitted by /u/Soggy_Builder_84 [link] [comments]”

“And no I’m not talking about fed days or big news days. Some days I’ll open a 0dte iron condor and get my 50% profit within an hour, but other days despite paying similar premium for the same width, the decay just isn’t happening and stays stuck only for a big move later to wipe me out? It’s almost like the market God or “someone” knows something that I don’t and hence greatly slows down the theta decay some days and before you know it, that big move does happen and I’m wiped. Why is this?”