The Case for Options Trading written by Kal Zurn So why should I spend the time to learn to trade options?  I mean, it seems like a long and complicated hill to climb.  The  answer  is simple:  once you learn to trade, you will have a skill you can use for the rest of your life to generate an income stream.  But the main  reason  you should do it is simpler:  Control. And Control really means FREEDOM.  Everybody works for somebody, or if you are the boss then everybody works for you.  Which means  your income always  relies  on other people .  Furthermore, you can get fired or your business can struggle or even go under at any time.  I think COVID proved that nothing in life is guaranteed.  So wouldn’t it be comforting to be the sole employee  and  boss of your own company?  Where you make money on your own.  Where you rely solely on yourself and NOBODY else.  How great would th...

In the intricate world of investing, where the market behaves like an unpredictable chessboard, one often encounters a formidable force known as FOMO—the Fear of Missing Out.  Unlike a seasoned chess grandmaster, this force is intangible but exerts a powerful influence on investors. While the notion of "there is no alternative" (TINA) to stocks has its allure, it's essential to recognize the potential risks that come with blindly following the crowd. In the year 2023, faith-based investors who succumbed to the FOMO mentality have witnessed substantial gains in their portfolios . This paradoxical success story underscores the notion that, at times, simplicity and decisiveness can outshine elaborate analyses. Despite looming risks such as the specter of higher interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and the precarious dominance of certain technology stocks, the S&P 500 index has surged by approximately 25% during the year. The apparent disconnect between risks and market...

The market has been tanking pretty hardcore over the last few months, and especially in the last week.  Because of that, volatility around all the Index ETFs is running high.  When market volatility is running high, I prefer to stay away from individual stocks and stay in the ETFs, which are generally much less volatile (price-wise) over just individual stocks. Why? Because the SPY ETF is 500 stocks rolled into one ETF.  Obviously, 500 stocks as a whole are usually going to move a lot less than any individual stock might move. So, we'll go the the index with the highest volatility right now, which is SPY, and throw on an Iron Condor.   Happy trading! Kal :) Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commo...

As you are hopefully aware the market has been taking a bit of a beating as of late and volatility has spiked in all the indices.  But nothing has taken more of a beating this year than Bonds .  Bond volatility is thru the roof, and (as a contrarian), I'm hoping we are near the bottom. Instead of doing just a normal Short Put Vertical, today we are going to learn about a new trade: The Unbalanced Iron Condor.  As you will learn in the video, the reason we would do a trade like this is because we have an extremely strong assumption (in this case that the Bonds will turn around from here). But also, if the Bonds bounce back too far and too fast, we don't want to lose on the upside of an Iron Condor (meaning the Call side).  So in order to give ourselves the potential to make more money, we are going to make a riskier trade (meaning a Lower POP), but a higher potential reward if we are right on the Bonds bouncing.  Watch and learn, Kal :) Trading Risk Disclaimer ...

The market finally had some movement over the last few weeks and volatility has spiked a bit in the indices. Since I always like to have trades on in indexes, this seems like another good time to throw something on.  We'll go the the index with the highest volatility right now, which is IWM, and throw on a Skewed Iron Condor. A Skewed Iron Condor just means we are moving one side (either the Put Side or the Call side) of the Iron Condor closer to the stock price than the other side.  Why would we do that? We do that if our assumption is that we believe there is a higher chance of the stock price moving in a certain direction. In this case, my assumption is that IWM is closer to its bottom than its top over the next 46 days. With that assumption, I believe there is a better chance it will end higher over the next 46 days than lower.  How do I turn that into a Skewed Iron Condor? Since I believe the stock has a higher chance of moving up rather than down, I will move ...

The market has been taking a bit of a dive recently and volatility is starting to increase (which we like as volatility based traders!) But here is a stock with super high volatility (for no apparent reason that I'm aware of) and near its annual lows.  As a trader, that is all I care about. So as a contrarian, I'll bet the stock drifts upwards over the next month and we'll look to close this trade prior to Earnings on 9/11.  Hopefully, by that point we will have ourselves a winner :)  Watch  the video  to get the details. Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entir...

The market appears to be a little stagnant right now and that could be because we are in earnings season. Everyone is waiting around to see how all the companies are actually doing. Whatever the reason, it seems like a good time to learn how to trade earnings and stay in the game while the opportunities are limited everywhere else.  We will start with GOOGL earnings Tuesday afternoon.  Watch  the video  to get the details. Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guarant...

The market has been range bound for the last few weeks with volatility on the decline, and earnings all over the place.  So where to go to look for a trade? Nike has already had Earnings and is near a low of the year, so seems like a good option.  As a contrarian that can mean only one thing to me: I have to make a trade with the assumption it will go up from here over the next 45ish days. We will do that by making a Long Call Vertical trade to bet that it starts to head up over the next couple months. For more on my trading and how to join me in real time, see below. Watch  the video  to get the details. Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substant...

Hi Traders,  The market has been on a tear up for the last few weeks and volatility is taking a beating. So what's a trader to do? While we prefer higher volatility, when the whole market has no volatility we can still be aggressive if we like. So, as a contrarian, I am still going to Sell something. Specifically in Shopify, which has been near its highs for the last few weeks. We will do that by making a Short Call Vertical trade to bet that it starts to wane over the next weeks. Watch  the video  to get the details. Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment...

Hi Traders,  The market has been extremely calm recently and volatility is getting crushed. And since it is also going into Earnings season, the choices for trading vehicles is very limited. So let's jump into the most volatile index ETF right now which is IWM and make ourselves a trade! :) Watch  the video  to get the details. Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. This is not an offer to buy or sell stocks, forex, futures, options, commodity interests or any...

Hi Traders,  The market has been extremely calm recently and volatility is getting crushed. And since it is also going into Earnings season, the choices for trading vehicles is very limited. So let's jump into the most volatile thing right now which is Gold. The Gold index ETF is GLD so let's make ourselves a trade! :) Watch  the video  to get the details Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. This is not an offer to buy or sell stocks, forex, futures, options...

Hi Traders,  The market has been extremely calm recently and volatility is getting crushed. And since it is also going into Earnings season, the choices for trading vehicles is very limited. So let's jump into the most volatile index ETF right now, which is QQQ, and make ourselves a trade! :) Watch  the video  to get the details Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. This is not an offer to buy or sell stocks, forex, futures, options, commodity interests or an...

Hi Traders,  The market has been on a tear the last couple weeks. I guess everything is good in the world again. What Bank crisis? Since the market volatility is waning, let's look around for a place where it is rising. Commodities! Unlike the normal market and most stocks, volatility tends to RISE in commodities when the prices increase. For the rest of the market, it's usually the opposite. Volatility rises when the stock price decreases. Oil has been on a tear recently and volatility is increasing, so into oil we go with USO, an oil ETF. Watch the video  to get the details Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading opera...

Hi Traders,  The market has taken quite a beating over the last couple of weeks, but that is good for us. Why? Because that means Volatility is spiking and we LOVE Volatility. So let's jump into the most volatile index ETF right now, which is IWM, and make ourselves a trade! :) Watch the video  to get the details Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer   All the information shared in this video is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades.com are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, commodities, options and forex, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. This is not an offer to buy or sell stocks, forex, futures, options, commodity interests or any other trading securit...

    Hey All, I like to start every year by putting Iron Condors on in all the major indices as I've mentioned before. Since we've done SPY (S&P 500) already, it's time to move onto the rest of "BOGES." So into Bonds we go with TLT. Watch  the video  to get the trade details. Enjoy! Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer All the information shared is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades, LLC are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, cryptos, commodities, options, forex and other trading securities, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. SharperTrades, LLC is not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or state regulatory agency. This i...

    Happy New Year everyone, wishing you all a healthy, happy and profitable 2023!  I like to start every year by putting Iron Condors on in all the major indices. Since QQQ (NASDAQ) is the most volatile right now, we'll start with that one. :) Watch  the video  to get the trade details and learn. Hope you enjoy it! Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer All the information shared is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades, LLC are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, cryptos, commodities, options, forex and other trading securities, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. SharperTrades, LLC is not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or ...

   MARA is past earnings but it has been on a slide for the past few weeks so volatility is still high.  As contrarians, we will make a trade with the assumption that over the next few weeks it will tend to bounce.  We do that by selling a put vertical in MARA.  Watch  this video  to get the trade details and learn. Hope you enjoy it! Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer All the information shared is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades, LLC are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, cryptos, commodities, options, forex and other trading securities, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. SharperTrades, LLC is not registered as an investment ...

  This week we are doing something a little different.  We are starting with an assumption that we believe Silver (SLV) will continue upwards in the short term.  While usually we would look to trade around the 45 day window and let duration beat direction, we are making a different assumption this time.  We are betting on a short term continuation of silver to the upside.  So we will shorten our timeframe to the closest expiration cycle above 30 days and look to manage this trade more aggressively, if it shows a profit in the next couple of weeks.  Watch this video to get the trade details and learn. Hope you enjoy it! Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer All the information shared is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades, LLC are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, cryptos, commodities, options, forex and other tr...

Well, bonds have been quite the talk of the town over the last week as they have been in a pretty heavy downward spiral.  But with the huge drop comes a rise in volatility and we LOVE volatility. Since this Bond market has gone down so far so fast, as contrarians, we are going to skew this Iron Condor slightly upward (meaning the Put side is closer to the stock price than the Call side). Meaning, we are betting that it will stay in a range but we will leave more room to the upside because we feel it is closer to reaching its lows than possibly bouncing back to some highs. Watch this video to get the trade details. Hope you enjoy it! Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer All the information shared is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades, LLC are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, cryptos, commodities, options, forex and other t...

This week after a huge market down day and a spike in volatility, we are heading into the most volatile Index ETF, QQQ, for an Iron Condor . Watch this video to get the trade details. Hope you enjoy it! Kal Trading Risk Disclaimer All the information shared is provided for educational purposes only. Any trades placed upon reliance of SharperTrades, LLC are taken at your own risk for your own account. Past performance is no guarantee. While there is great potential for reward trading stocks, cryptos, commodities, options, forex and other trading securities, there is also substantial risk of loss. All trading operations involve high risks of losing your entire investment. You must therefore decide your own suitability to trade. Trading results can never be guaranteed. SharperTrades, LLC is not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or state regulatory agency. This is not an offer to buy or sell stocks, cryptos, forex, futures, options, commodity interests or any ...