In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses a monster loss that he took on $FI. Every time you have an open position in the market, there exists the chance that a monster unexpected move will occur. There are many steps that you can take to reduce this probability, but you can never make it zero. This… Read More »Not always sunshine & roses: A look at a monster loss in $FI

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 discuss some thoughts around today’s Middle Class. The Middle Class rose to prominence after WWII and has taken on various characteristics over the years since then. The traders take a look at what is being redefined today around the Middle Class and share their thoughts and perspectives. One… Read More »Today’s Middle Class: Is it disappearing or being redefined?

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 take a beginner’s look at price action. Price action is a deceptively simple component of technical analysis. It seems simple, but it takes a good bit of practice to become more fluent in it. It is about looking at a chart and being able to spot high-level trends… Read More »Price Action: An Intro to a foundational part of technical analysis.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 do a quick recap of their most recent trades. Viperxl007 has been building up his mechanics and took a shot at a lottery ticket. This did not really work out the way that he had hoped, but he was prepared and ready for the outcomes. Sprocket888 closes up… Read More »Double Update: sprocket888 and viperxl007 cover their most recent moves.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 runs a solo show. This is a brief and straightforward episode where sprocket888 takes a look back at his four most recent trades. Two of these have been fully concluded, and the other two have only been opened so far. All four of these are earnings trades where sprocket888 is… Read More »Update from sprocket888: Four most recent trades, and the accompanying logic.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. Viper has been working on developing and practicing a mechanical approach that takes a daily trade on the $SPY. It has obvious objective entry and exit rules. As of the recording of this episode, viperxl007 has logged 31 of these trades, and it is starting to… Read More »The Daily Chores: A detailed look into viperxl007’s daily $SPY trade

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at everyone’s favorite topic, taxes. When you are trading, nobody is looking out for you to make sure that you are paying the appropriate taxes. Neglecting this topic can lead to very steep tax bills and potentially hefty fines. Accounting for this is pretty straightforward. The only… Read More »Taxes: Failing to plan, is planning to fail.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses a recent situation in which he panicked. This panic put sprocket888 in a worse situation than if he had kept his emotions in check and executed the plan. Often, in videos, it can appear that trading is always robotic, but in reality, maintaining everything totally robotic all the time… Read More »I Panicked: Panic response will always make a bad situation worse.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 discuss the book “Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas”. In a fireside chat style, the traders discuss the premise of the book as well as the highlights that each got when reading the book. The book is fitting for all audiences. Both sprocket888 and viperxl007 agree that… Read More »Fireside Chat: Sometimes what is in your head can make a difference

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 provides a detailed examination of elevated volatility and its impact on options prices. Understanding the effect that elevated volatility has on options pricing is foundational to understanding the potential outcomes. In this episode, sprocket888 takes an objective look at two situations: one where the option chain has elevated volatility and… Read More »Elevated Volatility: Understand the impact before fully engaging.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. They each recap one area from last week’s trading. For sprocket888, he goes through how he determines the strategy to deploy for selling premium. This means selling just a Put or selling a Put and a Call. It is a visual inspection that he does to… Read More »Searching and Learning: Sprocket888 is searching and Viperxl007 is learning.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. Together they take a look back at the most recent trading week and each pick a topic to give a callout to. For sprocket888, he emphasizes that sticking to a proven strategy will ultimately lead to success, even if the journey is painful. Viperxl007 sees a… Read More »Trading callouts: A detailed look at two aspects of sprocket888 and viperxl007’s trading.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 performs a solo show. In this episode, sprocket888 details the typical time commitment he puts forward to his trading. In addition to the time he discusses the content of this time as well as the why and how it might be adapted to others. It is important to develop habits… Read More »Real Time Commitment: A detailed look at sprocket888’s time commitment.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. They take a quick retrospection on the recent weeks’ trading action and chime in on how things went down for them. Sprocket888 touches on a few of his in-flight earnings trades. Most of these trades are too early to determine whether they will win or lose.… Read More »Retrospection: A look into the recent trading of sprocket888 and viperxl007.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 performs a solo show. This show is kicking off the upcoming quarter earnings, and as such, it was time to do a refresher on the strategy and mechanics of the earnings strangle. This is the style of trade that is Sprocket888’s favorite trade to make around the earnings announcement. Not… Read More »Earnings Premium: A refresher on selling premium in a highly probable manner.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007, and they take a look at a new trade that viperxl007 is trying out. This trade is a one-week trade on the $SPY. The short-term (1 DTE) option is sold, and then the same strike is bought one week later. Viperxl007 discusses what he likes about… Read More »A Daily Dose: A daily calendar spread on the $SPY for income

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007, and they are taking a look at tokenization. There are two areas that they examine. The first is the GENIUS Act, currently going through Congress here in the US. This act sets a lot of the groundwork and rules around tokenizing items that are backed by… Read More »Tokenization: Your dollars and your stocks

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at a recent earnings trade on $FDX. Viperxl007 and Sprocket both took out a trade on the underlying; both were trading to short volatility, and both should have made a significant profit. However, only one came out as a winner in the trade. The reason may surprise… Read More »You got options: In your trades and your choice of brokers.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at two earnings trades and discusses whether you should close them or let them ride to expiration. As you can imagine, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this. The two trades in this episode are on $FDX and $NKE. In the case of $FDX, there were still… Read More »Post Earnings: Should you close or let it ride to expiration?

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 examine the concept of a market edge. This is something that you might have heard people speak about, and you might wonder what it is and whether it’s something an average retail trader can have. The short answer is ABSOLUTELY. In this episode, Sprocket and Viper discuss how… Read More »A Market Edge: What is this & Can the average retail trader have one?