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Editor’s Note: Seasonality trends and historical data can help guide your investments, especially in the long term – but there’s more to the market than its past performance. You can’t ignore what’s happening in front of you in the short term, even if the data says otherwise.
Few people know this as well as my colleague Jonathan Rose. He’s the lead analyst at our corporate partner Masters in Trading. After spending 25 years learning his craft on the Chicago trading floors and inside private investment firms, Jonathan now offers up live trading ideas, market commentary, and trading education each morning. And he’s been working on something perhaps even more special over the past few months.
Jonathan has been studying the day-to-day movements of the market – and he’s ready to debut a new tool to help his growing community of traders capitalize on short-term opportunities.
On Tuesday, November 26th at 11 a.m. Eastern, he’ll be going LIVE to share his findings and teach you all about his new options-trading strategy (sign up here). You won’t want to miss it – and because this is live, you might not have a second chance to watch.
It’s completely free to attend. And you can sign up here to reserve your spot now.
Now, let me turn things over to Jonathan, who will tell you a little more about himself and the trading patterns he has discovered…
The biggest money-making opportunities in the stock market often happen when investors’ backs are turned. In fact, they come so fast – and are so under-the-radar – that they’re usually gone before everyday folks even know they exist.
I should know… When I worked on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), it was my job to help institutional investors execute the kind of market-making options plays that drive generational wealth for only a select few.
And back then, I helped those same investors capitalize on a singular market phenomenon that sparked a whole earnings spree on the Street.
Back in March 2020 – right as the COVID-19 pandemic kicked into high gear and sparked a market wide panic – the smart money was placing all of its bets on volatility.
In a single day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2,997 points. In a testament to just how unpredictable the markets were, that same index managed to gain over 2,000 points just a few days later.
I was on the floor right in the middle of it all. It was pure insanity… And for institutional traders, it was extremely lucrative.
Among the CBOE Global Markets’ four options exchanges, nearly 12 million contracts traded hands per day as the markets seesawed throughout March.
The smart money absolutely had the market cornered on quick options plays that yielded double- and triple-digit gainers in less than 72 hours… and often in just under 24 – all without holding trades for days or weeks.
Today, these quick options trades make up nearly half of the daily volume of S&P 500 index options. That’s up from 17% in 2020 – back when the trend was still one of the market’s best-kept secrets.
Short-volatility trades like these can help us capture gains that are rarely possible with regular stocks…
And while the smart money has maintained a stranglehold on this powerful tool for years… I’m here to tell you that you too can harness extremely short-term options to trade just like institutional investors – all while limiting your exposure to risk and maximizing your potential for gains.
The Power of Short-Volatility Trading
Committing your capital in the morning and taking a massive gain before the end of the day… That’s the promise of what elite traders refer to as 0DTE options.
In simple terms, an 0DTE trade – which stands for zero days to expiration –means thatif you buy an option today, it expires by the end of the trading session, making it perfect for profiting from intraday price movements.
Additionally, there are options that expire within one to three days – known as 1DTE, 2DTE, or 3DTE options – giving you a slightly longer window to execute your trades while lowering your exposure to risk.
By hedging your short-term risk and piling into trades at the right time, you can find some of the most powerful opportunities for gains in the stock market.
Consider this…
When the Nasdaq popped 2% back on Sept. 19, you could have made 344%, 1,402%, or even 1,788% and more with this kind of trade. With those kinds of gains, you could have turned a $500 stake into $2,220, $7,510 or $9,440 – all in just a few hours.
Extremely short-term options trades provide us the tools to maximize our potential gains like no single stock play can.
And as I mentioned, these powerful tools have been hiding in plain sight for years. So right now, I’m sure there’s one question you’re asking yourself…
How do I discover these short-term options plays in the first place?
Where the Smart Money Treads
To harness the power of short-volatility trading, we have to think like institutional investors do – and that means using the same tools at their disposal.
The reality is, the smart money relies on a whole series of indicators that help predict the weather in the stock market, so to speak… And they’re the sorts of tools that I regularly track to bring powerful recommendations to my own readers.
For options traders, looking for unusual moves in the market is essential. So we keep an eye on the major volatility indicators out there, especially the 1-day (VIX1D) and 9-day (VIX9D) indices… The VIN and VIF provide a broader view of how volatility might shift in the longer term as well.
We subscribe to a simple rule here…
If short-term volatility is rising while longer-term volatility remains low, this usually signifies a short-lived but significant spike in volatility. That’s typically what we need to see to execute the perfect short-term trade.
Of course, it’s not enough to just study a few indices and charts. In extremely short-term volatility options trading, education always mitigates risk.
Everything I’ve told you about single- and multi-day options trading will provide the foundation for you to start dipping your toes into the possibilities of short-volatility setups.
But I want us all to dig a little deeper… To truly understand how powerful these options plays are, we need to understand how to trade volatility rather than direction. That means developing a mindset for consistently spotting where the best opportunities for these trades exist in the markets.
And I want to help anyone reading this article do exactly that…
That’s why I’ve put together a special presentation that will help you identify the best opportunities for quick options plays on the market.
Using the system I’ve developed, you’ll not only discover the key to quick, consistent gains trading options… You’ll also understand how trading pros protect their portfolios from market uncertainty by adding upside and downside coverage that allows them to stay nimble whatever the markets throw at them.
With this presentation, you’ll get a clearer picture of how volatility shapes the options market, and you’ll gain the depth of understanding necessary to execute creative trades based on all the market criteria I’ve outlined above.
This is a rare opportunity to learn about a whole approach to options that is driving millions of dollars in trading volume as I write to you. There’s no reason you should miss out on this market phenomenon.
I’m hosting a special edition of my Masters in Trading Live on Nov. 26 to go over all of this in more detail… And I want to make sure anyone who’s interested has a chance to gain the knowledge to beat the smart money at its own game.
So, click here to reserve your spot.
Remember, the creative trader wins.
Jonathan Rose
Founder, Masters in Trading
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