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The Options Trading Madman…

The Options Trading Madman…

Posted On December 19, 2020 10:00 am
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My father was an options trading madman…

And not in a good way!

When I think about the way he traded, I often see the gunslinger in the old west standing in the middle of town getting ready to shoot it out with the bad guy.  

If he wins, great.  If he loses, he loses EVERYTHING!

I didn’t understand what he was doing when I was a kid.  However once I got older and started working at the CBOE, I realized just how much naked risk he had been taking for years. 

And honestly, when the realization hit me – I was stunned.  

Remember, by this time I had already lost $50,000 in a naked “sure thing” options trade…

so I was sensitive to risk. 

I will say this for Pops, he made a lot of money being a “gunslinger” back when Options trading was like the wild west.  

He was trading before there was a systematized way of pricing options contracts, so he would find options contracts people would overpay for – in his opinion – and sell them the contracts.  

As I said, he made a lot of money – so I guess he knew better than most of the people he was selling to.  

Still, the idea of having all of those naked positions makes me shiver 3 times.  

That’s why I manage Options360 to make solid returns while mitigating risk. 

We routinely get to enjoy large returns in very little time.  Still we often leave money on the table in exchange for safety.  

Because we manage our risk, our losses are limited and controlled.  

That’s why we are 44% up this year – winning and losing trades counted – and the S&P is only 13.7%.  

Manage your risk.  This isn’t the wild west anymore, and if you go all out you might find a big winner – but you can easily lose all those profits and more on a big loser. 

To Your Success,

Steve

PS.  You can still grab your trial membership to Options360 for just $19.  You should do that now as I can’t guarantee if the trial will be available next year.   Click here and start your trial right now. 

About author

Steve Smith

Steve Smith have been involved in all facets of the investment industry in a variety of roles ranging from speculator, educator, manager and advisor. This has taken him from the trading floors of Chicago to hedge funds on Wall Street to the world online. From 1987 to 1996, he served as a market maker at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) and Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). From 1997 to 2007, he was a Senior Columnist and Managing Editor for TheStreet.com, handling their Option Alert and Short Report newsletters. The Option Alert was awarded the MIN “best business newsletter” in 2006. From 2009 to 2013, Smith was a Senior Columnist and Managing Editor for Minyanville’s OptionSmith newsletter, as well as a Risk Manager Consultant for New Vernon Capital LLC. Smith acted as an advisor to build models and option strategies to reduce portfolio exposure and enhance returns for the four main funds. Since 2015, he has worked for Adam Mesh Trading Group. There, he has managed Options360 and Earning 360, been co-leader of Option Academy, and contributed to The Option Specialist website.