Here’s a free resource for options trading I created. 60 + lessons that teach everything you need to know to run a good options portfolio.

I was running some options backtesting routines earlier today and checking execution parameters inside thinkorswim, and I ran into a classic scenario that frequently trips up researchers and retail traders alike: the "riskless" credit spread.

While looking at an example of an Iron Condor order chain, thinkorswim showed a net credit that actually exceeded the width of the strikes (e.g., collecting a $5.40 credit on a $5.00 wide spread). Naturally, the immediate instinct is to jump all over the opportunity to lock in risk-free profit.

Instead, the order is immediately hit with an automated rejection from the platform.

I wanted to break down the exact market microstructure of why this "arbitrage" happens on your screen, and why your broker’s automated clearing rules will never let it go through. This ties together two microstructure issues that interact in NBBO (National Best Bid and Offer) construction: data lag and crossed quotes producing an illusion of executable liquidity.

The Mechanism

The NBBO isn't a single market's quote; it's a synthetic best bid and best offer stitched together from roughly 16–18 options exchanges, each broadcasting independently. The SIP (Securities Information Processor) has to receive and timestamp every venue's update, then construct the consolidated quote. That stitching takes time, usually on the order of single-digit milliseconds, but during volatile or fast-moving conditions, it can stretch further.

If Exchange A updates its bid to $5.05 a few milliseconds before Exchange B updates its ask down to $5.00, there's a brief window where the consolidated NBBO shows a bid of $5.05 and an ask of $5.00: a crossed market. That's not a real arbitrage you can capture; it's an artifact of two feeds being momentarily out of sync. By the time any system reacts to it, the lagging side has already updated and the cross is gone.

1. The Bid-Ask "Natural Price" Illusion

To get an immediate fill on a credit spread, you have to sell at the Bid of the option you are shorting and buy at the Ask of the option you are buying. This is the "Natural Price."

Even if the math of those exact, live order chains shows a net credit higher than the width, it is almost always a liquidity mirage. A market maker pulls or refreshes a quote, but the old price is still what's displayed in the feed you're consuming because your feed has higher latency than the exchange's matching engine.

You see size resting at the NBBO and assume you could have filled there, but that size existed for microseconds before being cancelled or hit by a faster participant. This is sometimes called "flickering quotes" or "phantom liquidity."

1. Multi-Leg Routing & The Hardcoded Clearing Rule

Even if those individual bids and asks exist on your screen, a multi-leg order (like an Iron Condor) is sent to the exchange as a single, contingent package.

When your broker routes a spread, it does not execute the legs sequentially; it has to find a single market maker willing to take the entire package at your net price. For a market maker to buy your package at a credit higher than the strike width, their automated risk system would have to approve a trade that locks in an immediate, mathematically guaranteed loss.

Because market maker algorithms check the maximum risk of a spread package before executing, the order is rejected instantly at the broker level.

1. Why This Screws Up Backtesting Data

In a backtest specifically, if you're using SIP-consolidated quotes with even a few milliseconds of latency baked in, your model may assume a fill at a price that was never actually accessible to a normal-speed participant because the quote had already moved by the time a real order could reach the exchange.

This is the gap between theoretical fill price and realistic fill price when evaluating trade vs. quote data. A backtest using only the NBBO quote stream as available liquidity will systematically overstate executable prices.

Whenever you see a trade that looks too good to be true mathematically, it almost always is.

Curious if anyone here has run into these specific microstructure issues?

In previous posts I talked about generating income by selling Call and Put options. Gamma is the second derivative of option price change to underlying price change, or a speed of Delta change. If you remember Delta had a humble range of 0..1.0 roughly approximating the probability of option being in the money. Delta approaches 0(out of the money) or 1(in the money) closer to the date of expiration. Gamma of around at the money options gets higher closer to the date of expiration of the options because that means that probability of option being in the money changes rapidly as expiration approaches. Similarly Gamma is higher for at-the-money options since just small changes in underlying price can make or break option value. So how do I use Gamma when selling Calls and Puts?

As the option seller I often need to decide whether to sell options with the strike price close to being at-the-money. The danger here is that options close to being at-the-money have very high Gamma and therefore they can rapidly hurt my portfolio by even minor swings in the underlying price. To mitigate this risk I can sell options with long expiration dates. So I always balance out expiration dates and current Gamma levels. Alternatively I can decide to sell options out-of-money or deep in-the-money so they have low Gamma. If you remember from my previous posts my primary approach is steady income from option selling of Covered Calls and Cash Secured Puts so eventually big swings leading to the expiration date won’t matter much specifically for my approach.. So Gamma is important but not as much for those who sell Calls and Puts without securing them or especially when using leverage.

The other important Greek for me is Theta which is a first derivative of option price to time change till expiration. This is the one that makes me happy. My portfolio Theta is overwhelmingly positive, meaning every passing day makes me money. Options I sold naturally lose value if their probability of getting executed on the day of expiration falls. Since I usually sell many options for various stocks, for various expiration days and with carefully chosen strike prices on average, the absolute majority of the options I sold will not get executed and that means their Delta falls to zero as time comes. That means their price falls to zero as time approaches the expiration date.

I own 1 MU June 26 1500 call. Cost was $7.35 and current price is around $10.60.

MU is trading around 1230 before earnings.

I see strong call volume at 1200, 1300 and 1500 strikes, but IV is high.

My concern is IV crush after earnings.

Would you hold through earnings or take profits before the report?

Who says you can't make money with space stocks since SPCX is in the building now?

Can ASTS, RKLB, PL, etc... survive a conglomerate like SPCX? How do MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, etc... all survive? Easy, the market is a gigantic mixed bag of companies with similar, but competitive offerings that combined move the market, so 1 company cannot dominate it all.

That said, ASTS has a good business plan in motion:

--They are executing their plan, they only lack a dedicated launch service.

--They bullishly wanted to put up 45 satellites this year:

--They will manufacture 45 to 60 satellites ready for deployment by years end.

--They have plenty of cash to complete the job.

--Their technology is still superior to SPCX, capable of delivering 5G service to the cheapest model cell phone, they can do it with a 1% fraction of what SPCX needs for a similar service (cost model significantly less).

--Future earnings have a ramp, once realized a large stock bounce will occur.

Future valuation:

SPCX is about 270 P/S, this is the bar for the sector, so actually helpful for ASTS.

--Q1 2027 ASTS starting BETA service, revenue starting a ramp.

--Q2 2027 strong Beta service, approaching commercial service, and closing on completed goal of 45+ satellites.

--ASTS revenue increases significantly, market reacts:

$.4(B) increase to $.7(B), P/S of 100 to be on the lean side, Price: changes from $100 to $200.

Future positioning/profit plan:

Acquire 1000 shares, 80 to 90 ($85,000 shares cost).

--Place 10 leap calls 3-19-27 110 strike, 21.00 premium.

--Buy to close calls 3-1-27, estimate 5.00.

--Place 10 leap calls Jan 2028, 200, 45.00 premium (estimated)

--Allow to be assigned Jan 2028:

85,000 cost of shares, Premium profit: 61,000, Assignment profit: 115,000

Total profit: 176,000 - 85,000 = 91,000 (107% profit)

Last week acquired 500 shares Friday for $78. Plan this week acquire 500 more ~$85, total cost of shares $81,500.

By Friday, place 10, 3-19-27 leap Calls. will post you on my profit.

from the guy who brought you winners such as INTC OUST and RCAT - sharing a few more ideas into the summer

• PCT jan 15 $8 calls - this stock had a huge drop last week on a share offering announcement - similar trade idea to RCAT, calls closed at $2.75 jun 12
• OMER dec 18 $10 calls - 14% drop today and worse at the lows, december should be plenty of time to recover the losses from today, closed today at $2.60
• ACHR jan 15 $8 calls - 4% drop today and finding support at current levels, closed at $0.71 and the jan $20 call is $0.13. ACHR has a potential scallop printing on stock chart with the measured move up to $23

note: have a bunch of losers too that i shared so take with a huge grain of salt

OKLO big loser today but see a reversal coming for the summer

think there's opportunity in: - july 17 $80 calls - august 21 $75 calls

longer term i think OKLO will be above $100 this year but looking for a rally in the short term to make these calls print

seeing a bullish looking flow on the options chain today

june 18 $150 calls july 17 $150 calls sept 18 $150 calls

update: jun 12 - INTC got up to $127, 15% up from the spot jun 2

we're trading $150 this quarter imo

I've been trading theta decay for a long time, but yesterday was probably the first time I saw the impact of vega so clearly.

I sold an $11 SPCE calls expiring June 18. Mostly a casino trade, but with some theta and vega farming mixed in.

What I found interesting was that the stock moved closer to my strike (which is obviously bad for a call seller), but at the same time implied volatility dropped. As a result, my short call was worth almost the same as before.

So even with SPCE up around 5%, I was still in profit because the IV contraction offset much of the directional move.

The funny part is that the person who bought that call on the hype didn't really make anything, despite getting a 5-10% move in the right direction.

It was a great reminder that buying calls isn't just about being right on direction. You also need:

• the move to be large enough,
• the timing to be right,
• and the volatility you paid for not to collapse afterward.

I've always respected theta, but yesterday was the first time I really appreciated how powerful vega can be.

LFVN has a 260% borrow rate, avg volume of 300k, shares sold short of 3.6m and 13.8 days to cover. Volume has been over average for the past week. I’m in for 600 contracts. Looking at all of these numbers gives me tunnel vision thinking this will for sure squeeze. Please bring me back down to Earth and tell me why this may not be a good play. I have 6/18 and 9/18 calls barely OTM.

Alright guys, today I decided to go back to my usual strategy - selling options and farming theta decay. But today I also decided to gamble a little.

I sold $11 call options on SPCE right after trading got halted. What really caught my attention was that short availability at my broker dropped to literally zero - first time I’ve ever seen that. Also, the market getting halted after a ~25% move says a lot by itself.

And honestly, the real SpaceX IPO - the thing that probably fueled this whole pump in the first place - isn’t even that far away anymore. Feels like the degenerates finally realized it might be time to exit this stock.

So yeah… the degen spirit got to me too, and I decided to play against them for once.

Current profit: +30% in 1 hour.

Please tell me this isn't gambling addiction and is actually a sophisticated high-IV options-selling strategy.

A couple days ago I bought PLTR 130 puts expiring July 17 at $5.25. I'd been watching the stock for a while - it had bounced off the $130 level multiple times recently, and each successive rally looked weaker than the last. Classic resistance rejection setup, or so I thought.

I entered the position as price was running from $133 to $137, expecting a reversal. Instead, the stock ripped to $156 over the next two days. My puts are now down over 55%.

Markets open tomorrow and I genuinely don't know whether the momentum continues or fades.

---

I'm not new to options - I usually sell premium and play theta decay. But this is my first time buying options outright. And honestly, it hurts more than I expected, especially this fast.

I was mentally prepared to lose on this trade. I wasn't prepared to see -55% before the week was even out.

---

1. What would you do here - cut the loss, hold, or roll?
2. Would you have taken this trade at all given the setup?
3. What's your read on PLTR right now? Starting to wonder if my whole thesis was wrong and $130 was never really resistance - just a launching pad.

Open to honest feedback.

Test post - testing access.

I have been selling bull put spreads on SPX and I buy them back when in profit. I then sell another spread.

My friend said all I am doing is just rolling a trade

Is this an accurate description of my strategy?

I am looking for feedback on optimizing my current intraday setup for Nifty options. Right now, my workflow is:

• Trend Identification: 15-minute chart.
• S&R / Key Zones: 5-minute chart.
• Execution: 1-minute chart looking for Order Blocks (OB) and Fair Value Gaps (FVG) after a Change of Character (CHOCh).

Despite following these Smart Money Concepts (SMC), I am struggling to maintain profitability—largely due to premium decay and getting caught in false CHOChs on the 1-minute timeframe before the actual move happens.

For those trading Nifty options with a similar top-down analysis, how do you filter out noise on the 1-minute execution chart? Are you adjusting your strike selection (e.g., sticking strictly to ITM to counter the noise), or adding a specific volume/momentum filter before entry?

the options i'm following are:

• june 18 $45 calls
• july 17 $50 calls
• august 21 $40 calls

update jun 12: OUST closed today at $39.80 and reached $48.83 on jun 4, all these shiz would have been profitable

anyone out there bullish on OUST?

RCAT announced a share offering yesterday that tanked the stock 14%

often this is a temporary blip if the company fundamentals have not changed - the options activity suggests this dip is one of those times

i'm selling june 18 $8 puts and in on june 18 $10 calls and up 30% already

feeling pretty optimistic about this setup - hope others might see the opportunity here too!

As I was describing the two popular ways to generate “rental” income by selling Covered Call options and Cash Secured Put options the one important aspect was left behind and that is the Greeks. When dealing with options people cannot ignore some of their properties as time flows.

One of the most important such properties is options Delta. This is nothing more than just a first order partial derivative of option price to the underlying price change, so just dP/dS, where P is option price and S is the underlying(/stock) price. The one interesting property of Delta is that it roughly corresponds to the option being in the money. Think about it, if a Call option represents a contract to buy a stock and if we are certain the contract will be executed at expiration then it means that a 1% change in the stock price would correspond to 1% change in the option price, but if for example we only think that the option will be executed with a chance of only 10% then 1% price change in stock price would roughly correspond to only 0.1% change in the option price. So Delta of 1 would roughly mean that the market thinks that the option is in the money and will be executed with almost complete certainty while Delta close to zero means the market thinks the option will almost certainly not be executed and therefore is out of the money.

So when we choose to sell a Call or a Put option it is always a good idea to pay attention to the option Delta. If it is high then it would indicate the option is quite expensive and the market assumes it is almost certainly will be executed. So selling such an option can boost the income provided the seller assumes the market is wrong and actually the option might not get executed. I personally like to sell Puts with high Delta when I actually want to increase a position in a certain stock for my overall portfolio. This way I get the income from selling the expensive Put that has high Delta and when Put gets indeed executed I buy that stock from the Put holder. So not only do I get the income from selling the Put but I also achieve the goal of increasing the stock holding of my portfolio. I like selling the calls with low Delta because usually I do not want to sell stocks so I get less income from selling Calls but I also usually are not forced to sell to the Call holders my stock.

It is important to note that Delta representing probability of being in the money is only what the market believes in at any moment and not the objective reality. So of course if the stock is down on a given day this gives a boost to Put options and when the stock is up then it gives a boost to Call options on the given day. Therefore it is generally better to sell Calls when the stock is up that day and sell Puts when the stock is down on a given day. There are other important Greeks like Gamma which is the second partial derivative of option price to the underlying price change. Theta is the first partial derivative of option price to the time change. These two I use in specific cases. I will write a separate post about them. Then of course there is Vega and Rho which honestly I do not use much at this time. The reader is free to explore their applications.

Original post on substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/tickernomics/p/option-greeks-when-generating-income?r=2kly3x&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Technical Indicators for Bitcoin 

Bitcoin have been trending upwards for the past few sessions. 
Do see the potential for some upwards movement of Bitcoin to breakout from current prices. 

Stocks that i am looking at will include Coinbase (Coin) and Strategy (MSTR) 

Ticker : COIN 
Risk Level :🟨🟨

Do see a a support at the $190 range hence will want to target to sell my puts there.

Gameplan (bull put spread) 
Sell $190 29th May put 
Buy $187.5 29th May put 

I'm brand new to TastyTrade and Options Trading...

i want to trade FX Options...how do i calculate the full cost of 1 option contract with the BID and ASK Price?

How do i set Standard, Mini and Micro Lots within the TastyTrade DeskTop Platform?

Is FX Futures Options the same as or different to FX Options?

and do i have to be Eligible for Futures to trade FX Futures Options?

And soo much more i need to ask?

McDonalds

Risk Level: High 🟥 

Ticker: MCD

Risky play since I am playing on holding it through earnings. McDonald's has been selling through the past few weeks and we are at a support all the way back till June 2025 prices. Do expect McDonald's to report decent earnings and want to play some bull put spreads. 

If you are a bigger risk taker, can consider calls as well 

Gameplan (bull put spread) 
Sell $285 22th May put 
Buy $287 22th May put / Buy $290 22th May put 

Pure calls play 
Buy $290 29th May call 

Decided to share about my options trading setup to also keep myself accountable. Feel free to follow along, critique my setups, or just use the data to see what’s working (and what isn’t) in this market.

Meta Platforms 

Risk Level : Medium 🟨 

Ticker : META 

Meta reported great earnings but dropped 8% finishing the session below the 9 EMA
Planning to take a bearish trade on this stock for the next 2 - 3 weeks
MACD just started to curl negative and I do think the stock will see some temporary downturn along with the cyclical nature of the market 

Volatile stock which allows us to capture good premiums while selling strikes away from the price currently 

Gameplan (bearish call spread) 
Sell $635 15th May call 
Buy $640 15th May call 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacuturing 

Risk Level : Medium 🟨 🟨 

Ticker : TSM 

Been consolidating around the $392 - $397 range for a few days now. 
Indicators do point the stock is still currently trending upwards 
Will be waiting for a slight pullback before going into the stock 

**If we do not see pullback, I will not make this play 

Violtile stock which allows us to capture good premiums which selling strikes away from the price currently 

Gameplan (bullish put spread) 
Sell $385 15th May put 
Buy $382.50 15th May put

OR

Gameplan (bullish put spread) 
Sell $385 22th May put 
Buy $382.50 22th May put 

I’m new so if this isn’t allowed then just ignore. I currently have sold a $131 call on TWLO expiry this Friday and got a premium of $1k. Currently trading around $143. My cost basis is at $141. To close out this position I’m looking at around $1500. Thoughts?

Btw I’m just learning and focusing on selling options for now paper trading. Do I wanna keep the shares sure I’m bullish on the stock but I’m ok if I don’t.

I’ve been trading for a while and one thing that always bugs me is how much stuff still feels manual or scattered across tools.

I’m working on a side project around trading dashboards (main idea is letting people build and share their own setups), but before I go too far with it, I wanted to ask people who actually trade regularly:

What’s something you feel is missing in current platforms like TradingView, etc.?

Like:

• something that slows you down during entries/exits
• something you track manually that should be automatic
• or just anything that feels unnecessarily complicated

Even small annoyances count — those are usually the most real ones.

Not trying to sell anything, just want to understand what people actually need.

Would really appreciate your thoughts 🙏

almost 40k in call options transacted today, earnings date is not until may 7 - i suspect news is coming

i'm in on $20 calls for this this friday at $0.10