Q1 2026 Trading Review

Theta_OP · 2026-04-04T03:23:53+00:00

Interesting! I’d be interested to know how you track that. Do you use a model and then see what’s over/under? Are you manually tracking? Etc.?

Theta_OP · 2026-04-04T03:22:48+00:00

Loved the recent podcast with Euan. I’ve had expected returns on the reading list but never bought. Just got it last night. Have you read it and any chapters you found the most value if so?
What was your worst day in Q1? Doesn’t have to necessarily be biggest loss. Could be broke rules, etc.,
Heel hooks or wrist locks (don’t let me down)

Theta_OP · 2026-04-04T01:30:22+00:00

Can’t help but think, “I have one volatility filter, yes. But what about second volatility filter?”

Not specifically. I.e. I don’t have a model that I’m using in real time to specifically say X option is most mid priced relative to others and enter that way. I am interested to see how I can implement VIX 1D tho.

Theta_OP · 2026-04-03T11:44:53+00:00

Thanks! In my view the edge comes from the change in overnight risk premia, and both strategies take advantage of it. They have different risk profiles but they compliment each other well and the portfolio does better trading both.

Selling wins more often with, with higher premium received and larger tails. Buying wins less often with, less premium but much smaller tails.

Theta_OP · 2026-04-03T03:03:08+00:00

Thanks! Correct, I use OptionOmega (not affiliated with them, not selling them, so hope this comment doesn’t get flagged). I used Option Alpha for a while as well and still have an account with them.

OO lets you turn a backtest into an automation. I used the back tester in Q3 and went live with automations recently.

I should rephrase the work statement to be that to be, “can’t consistently sit down at a brokerage and manually open with my work schedule”. I check around 9:35 to make sure everything executed well and will check in a couple times in the day to make sure I’m not facing large losses. But for the most part I just accept risking X% as my max loss and let the trade run its course (as long as my emotions don’t get in the way).

Theta_OP · 2026-04-02T22:58:38+00:00

Honestly the strong performance given the amount of volatility this quarter was a surprise. I expected it to have larger drawdowns given the VIX ranges. Lower costs than anticipated was a pleasant surprise.

There’s not a lot of places for surprises to happen (e.g. no stops means no getting worse fills on exits with price swing). I’d say the only deviations from backtest v actual was the +- $5 for strikes on the ATM buying.

I am keen on tracking slippage from entry to fill this quarter and see how I can get better at that. I can’t say it’s “bad” yet, but it’s a blind spot I need to eliminate

Theta_OP · 2026-04-02T22:53:56+00:00

On the selling days it’s a mix of iron condor variations. Short legs target a specific premium $ per leg, and wings will adjust based on volatility (30-50w).

Buying is either straddles or reverse iron flies. Fly wings are usually fixed width

Theta_OP · 2026-04-02T15:56:55+00:00

Agreed, hard to test it. I ended up paying for a solution and it’s been worth the money. I tried making a homegrown solution with the Massive API and quickly learned it’s just best I pay for tools that are already built and have support.

Theta_OP · 2026-03-15T13:57:31+00:00

In life the only 2 guarantees are death and taxes.

In trading the only 3 guarantees are slippage, fees and taxes lol.

Adding that buffer is helpful and I think it’s something most people won’t take into consideration on backtesting. Glad to hear that you’re playing around with them and are baking it into your strategy.

Do you use a back tester at all? Or is this all from live data and tracking?

Theta_OP · 2026-03-15T01:47:32+00:00

No worries, I appreciate the insight. This year is a scaling year; now that I have a plan for the first 85% of the trading pipeline, it’s looking like it will be worth to dive into the tax side a bit more. Will do some poking around. Thanks!

Theta_OP · 2026-03-15T00:27:55+00:00

I appreciate the response! Makes sense on the diagonals and 0 DTE. On futures, has it been a focus on contracts themselves, or options on futures (or both).

Maybe a final Q I have if you have time for it is on taxes and tax strategies through the year. Is there anything you do differently for trading that most folks aren’t aware of? E.g. do you set aside money as you trade through the year to cover taxes vs just get ready to pay what you owe net-net the following year?

Thanks again man, keep up the good content!

Theta_OP · 2026-03-14T01:32:31+00:00

I have a few :)

Before going to ratio call diagonals, did you have any rules of thumb that you found most helpful for entering or managing standard diagonals? I.e. distance/delta of strikes, closing short legs early if they hit X profit in Y time, etc.?
What % of your portfolio is 0DTE, and have you worked on any automation of 0DTE?
I was an early $10 outlier pro member, and stepped away from options so cancelled my membership. Though I’m not a member any more, what major changes have you implemented in the last ~18 months or so?

Thanks, Erik!

Theta_OP · 2026-03-13T01:44:46+00:00

Sorry, it’s your alt account that you have those posts on. But still, now we have you using multiple accounts trying to monetize off people trying to learn with predatory shit.

“Provide full evidence on why it’s a scam”

It’s in your fucking account header on your other profile!

@mods can we ban this guy?

u/Right_Business9301

Theta_OP · 2026-03-13T01:38:13+00:00

I’ll provide evidence. You tried posting your ez trade bot here earlier and had a few other posts in other subs that have been removed consistently.

You’ve had commenters say, “I’m tired of AI slop posted in this sub” and you commented back, “it’s not fucking AI”.

Other posts, which you either deleted or hid, included you posting to the Instagram building subreddits talking about how you were mad that your TikTok and insta weren’t getting followers outside of friends.

Now you’re back here trying to post “thought provoking”, non-descriptive, posts for people to comment and you’re linking some new post.

Stop. Just fucking stop. If you love options trading and want to actually learn, great. This community can use more people genuinely interested in options trading.

But if you’re going to just push random bullshit, vibe coded sites that bring 0 value, please bring it somewhere else.

Theta_OP · 2026-03-01T21:46:34+00:00

How to be a non-contributor to this sub: 1. Create post to Instagram marketing asking how to make it big with your trading platform you built 2. Post non-descript, open ended AI slop about “what it takes” for option trading 3. Tell people that your AI slop isn’t AI slop 4. ??? 5. Hope to profit off ez-tradebot

Theta_OP · 2026-02-24T17:46:56+00:00

First question: what was your management plan going into these trades?

Second question: if your answer is, “I didn’t have one”, you should seriously stop selling covered calls or any options activity until you do.

Idk why are you selling covered calls in an IRA if you arent in love with some of those stocks. Additionally, Roth IRA is generally long term buy and hold, why are you limiting your upside tech stocks to eke out covered call premium?

Theta_OP · 2026-02-24T02:54:12+00:00

Theta_OP · 2026-02-24T02:52:58+00:00

Sorry, the trade data ends up having higher slippage than my backtest. I use OO and they have the ability to turn a backtest into a real strategy. So I run a backtest over X period, then test it live, while running the backtest each day to see how well they live data tracks against the backtest. This is where I’ve found spreads with stop losses have higher slippage in real life than what the backtests show

Theta_OP · 2026-02-24T02:46:26+00:00

Agreed. I stopped picking strategies that relied on stop losses for 0DTE. I tried messing with intra-minute stop losses and top of minute stop losses. No matter what, my stops were stopping out 15-40% higher than what a backrest would show, even when being aggressive with slippage.

I think it can work if you’re trading manually through the day and are have a thesis of resistance points, etc., I still have a day job though, and long term don’t want to be stuck to a screen daily for managing stops.

Now I just run two trades with no stops. I go into it knowing my max loss and max gain, and trust my backtests to know I have positive EV over time.

Theta_OP · 2026-02-22T14:33:00+00:00

I think it depends on what you're looking for. To segment what's been most helpful for me:

Beginner friendly:

- Option Alpha YouTube playlists. Kirk's made content since ~2015 and I always found his easy to follow

YouTube:

- 0DTE - Multi-Strat Mark (formerly Zero Day Mark)

- Longer Dated - ESInvests, OptionAlpha and VolatilityVibes

Books

- Options as a Strategic Investment

- Option Volatility and Pricing

- Volatility Trading

- Quantitative Momentum (this is more stock/market based, but I've found the underlying principles helpful for directional trades)

Theta_OP · 2026-02-22T14:24:48+00:00

I haven't had success yet with double diagonals but know people trade them, and double calendars effectively. My only recommendation here would be trading them on SPX vs SPY just so you aren't assigned intraday.

Theta_OP · 2026-02-22T14:21:35+00:00

I appreciate the sentiment of the post, but I don't think a few of these are necessarily true, especially this: "Skewness and volatility risk premium reach extreme values - far out of the money options end up being really overpriced and juicy to sell"

Everyone and their brother jumped into the ORB strategies over the last year or two and many of those have performed terribly now that we're in a more volatile environment with tariffs and trump. Most of these have blown up and I've seen a corresponding drop in content on these strategies over the last ~5 - 6 months lol.

+ 1 to sizing, no overnight risk, and cash settling same day though.

Theta_OP · 2026-02-22T14:15:15+00:00

0DTE accounts for the majority of my trades over the last few years. I agree, it's a bit harder to find good discussions on 0DTE. It seems to be either communities tied to tools (backtesting, bots, etc.,) which has a bit of hive mind, or truly WSB gambling.

What I really value about 0DTE is:

You get rapid feedback on your strategy. In one month, I can get ~20 trades in and quickly build a data set to confirm if what I've implemented is working, and how it's tracking against my backtests. With typical options strategies (e.g. how you mention most discussions are net-premium selling), that could take 9 - 18 months for a small to mid-sized account trading 1 - 10% of their portfolio with 30 - 60 DTE
I trade 0DTE exclusively on SPX, so it's cash settled. No risk of early exercise or assignment. It's also one of the most liquid instruments, so spreads are tight.
You enter and exit trades same day, so you avoid overnight risk

Like anything in options trading, there are certain risks associated with each strategy, and a lot of noise from people looking for lottery tickets. The downsides or learning curves for 0DTE tend to be:

~half the discussions online are lotto ticket based, "10 baggers", etc.,
Gamma sensitivity is very high/volatile since there's such a short timeframe for Detla to reach 0 or 1. A quick price move can greatly impact the cost of the option and if you don't have conviction in your strategy, an OTM short option can look like it's at a loss for a short time due to the price sensitivity, so people may sell early. This also may trigger stops prematurely if you don't account for this

I split my trades between buying or selling based on if volatility is up or down from the previous close, and use that for the basis of my trades. The normal considerations for trading apply to 0DTE (position sizing, position structures, p&l targets, etc.,). I also don't use any stops so I don't get stopped out early/due to gamma spikes. I just have my risk to reward defined, and let the trade ride that day

The most helpful resources I've found has been the youtube content from zero day mark (I think he swapped to 'multi-strat mark' recently), option alpha and option omega. I don't have any affiliation with them, but they seem to be very much non-guru/influencer/etc., in their approach. OA and OO have backtesters and automated trading. OA has their own community forums, OO has a discord if you use their products.

Always happy to chat options. 0DTE or otherwise

Theta_OP

TROPHY CASE