r/options • • 15d ago

Options Questions Safe Haven periodic megathread | October 1 2026

14 Upvotes

We call this the weekly Safe Haven thread, but it might stay up for more than a week.

For the options questions you wanted to ask, but were afraid to.
There are no stupid questions.   Fire away.
This project succeeds via thoughtful sharing of knowledge.
You, too, are invited to respond to these questions.
This is a weekly rotation with past threads linked below.


BEFORE POSTING, PLEASE REVIEW THE BELOW LIST OF FREQUENT ANSWERS. .

..


As a general rule: "NEVER" EXERCISE YOUR LONG CALL!
A common beginner's mistake stems from the belief that exercising is the only way to realize a gain on a long call. It is not. Sell to close is the best way to realize a gain, almost always.
Exercising throws away extrinsic value that selling retrieves.
Simply sell your (long) options, to close the position, to harvest value, for a gain or loss.
Your break-even is the cost of your option when you are selling.
If exercising (a call), your breakeven is the strike price plus the debit cost to enter the position.
Further reading:
Monday School: Exercise and Expiration are not what you think they are.

As another general rule, don't hold option trades through expiration.

Expiration introduces complex risks that can catch you by surprise. Here is just one horror story of an expiration surprise that could have been avoided if the trade had been closed before expiration.


Key informational links
• Options FAQ / Wiki: Frequent Answers to Questions
• Options Toolbox Links / Wiki
• Options Glossary
• List of Recommended Options Books
• Introduction to Options (The Options Playbook)
• The complete r/options side-bar informational links (made visible for mobile app users.)
• Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (Options Clearing Corporation)
• Binary options and Fraud (Securities Exchange Commission)
.


Getting started in options
• Calls and puts, long and short, an introduction (Redtexture)
• Options Trading Introduction for Beginners (Investing Fuse)
• Options Basics (begals)
• Exercise & Assignment - A Guide (ScottishTrader)
• Why Options Are Rarely Exercised - Chris Butler - Project Option (18 minutes)
• LEAPS calls explained - Chris Butler - Project Option (13 minute video)
• I just made (or lost) $___. Should I close the trade? (Redtexture)
• Disclose option position details, for a useful response
• OptionAlpha Trading and Options Handbook
• Options Trading Concepts -- Mike & His White Board (TastyTrade)(about 120 10-minute episodes)
• Am I a Pattern Day Trader? Know the Day-Trading Margin Requirements (FINRA)
• How To Avoid Becoming a Pattern Day Trader (Founders Guide)


Introductory Trading Commentary
   • Monday School Introductory trade planning advice (PapaCharlie9)
  Strike Price
   • Options Basics: How to Pick the Right Strike Price (Elvis Picardo - Investopedia)
   • High Probability Options Trading Defined (Kirk DuPlessis, Option Alpha)
  Breakeven
   • Your break-even (at expiration) isn't as important as you think it is (PapaCharlie9)
  Expiration
   • Options Expiration & Assignment (Option Alpha)
   • Expiration times and dates (Investopedia)
  Greeks
   • Options Pricing & The Greeks (Option Alpha) (30 minutes)
   • Options Greeks (captut)
  Trading and Strategy
   • Fishing for a price: price discovery and orders
   • Common mistakes and useful advice for new options traders (wiki)
   • Common Intra-Day Stock Market Patterns - (Cory Mitchell - The Balance)
   • The three best options strategies for earnings reports (Option Alpha)


Managing Trades
• Managing long calls - a summary (Redtexture)
• The diagonal call calendar spread, misnamed as the "poor man's covered call" (Redtexture)
• Selected Option Positions and Trade Management (Wiki)

Why did my options lose value when the stock price moved favorably?
• Options extrinsic and intrinsic value, an introduction (Redtexture)

Trade planning, risk reduction, trade size, probability and luck
• Exit-first trade planning, and a risk-reduction checklist (Redtexture)
• Monday School: A trade plan is more important than you think it is (PapaCharlie9)
• Applying Expected Value Concepts to Option Investing (Option Alpha)
• Risk Management, or How to Not Lose Your House (boii0708) (March 6 2021)
• Trade Checklists and Guides (Option Alpha)
• Planning for trades to fail. (John Carter) (at 90 seconds)
• Poker Wisdom for Option Traders: The Evils of Results-Oriented Thinking (PapaCharlie9)

Minimizing Bid-Ask Spreads (high-volume options are best)
• Price discovery for wide bid-ask spreads (Redtexture)
• List of option activity by underlying (Market Chameleon)

Closing out a trade
• Most options positions are closed before expiration (Options Playbook)
• Risk to reward ratios change: a reason for early exit (Redtexture)
• Guide: When to Exit Various Positions
• Close positions before expiration: TSLA decline after market close (PapaCharlie9) (September 11, 2020)
• 5 Tips For Exiting Trades (OptionStalker)
• Why stop loss option orders are a bad idea


Options exchange operations and processes
• Options Adjustments for Mergers, Stock Splits and Special dividends; Options Expiration creation; Strike Price creation; Trading Halts and Market Closings; Options Listing requirements; Collateral Rules; List of Options Exchanges; Market Makers
• Options that trade until 4:15 PM (US Eastern) / 3:15 PM (US Central) -- (Tastyworks)


Brokers
• USA Options Brokers (wiki)
• An incomplete list of international brokers trading USA (and European) options


Miscellaneous: Volatility, Options Option Chains & Data, Economic Calendars, Futures Options
• Graph of the VIX: S&P 500 volatility index (StockCharts)
• Graph of VIX Term Structure (CBOE)
• A selected list of option chain & option data websites
• Options on Futures (CME Group)
• Selected calendars of economic reports and events


Previous weeks' Option Questions Safe Haven threads.

Complete archive: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026


r/options • • Jul 16 '25

READ THIS: You can help reduce spam on our sub!

60 Upvotes

All financial subs are experiencing higher than normal spam traffic. Thanks to the help of many of you, we've put filters in place that catch most of the spam before it can get to the front page, but the spammers are constantly finding ways to work around our filters, so it's a never ending battle of whack-a-mole.

This post is just a quick call to action, summarizing what you should do if you suspect a scammer's spam post:

  • Do NOT engage on the post by commenting, like "gtfo scammer" or "why aren't mods doing anything about this?" You're just bumping up the engagement stats on the scammer's post and announcing to them that they succeeded in getting past our filters.
  • Instead, report the post and block the user. The user is almost always a stolen zombie account, so DMing threats to them is pointless and against Reddit's policies anyway.
  • Finally, the most important action you can take is to copy paste the content of the post text as a reply to this thread. We need more samples to improve our filters and since the spammers delete the post before we can capture samples, they elude us.
  • EDIT: When you copy/paste the sample, please isolate any u/name mentions by separating the u / with spaces, so u / name would work. This is to avoid your copy/paste sending a notification to that user. Also, if there is an embedded link in the text, copy out the URL of the link as well. So if the post ends with something like, "Anyway, here's the [link] that changed everything," please also copy/paste the link URL, for example, http://scams.are.us/spambotdelux
  • EDIT (4/21/26): Spambot has a new strategy. The the u/name mentions that are critical to the bot collecting leads has been moved into a comment by a Redditor with a different name than the sockpuppet author that posted the spam. Make sure you record the comment in a copy paste here as well.

Both your mod team and Reddit Admins are working hard to stem the tide of this spam, but we still need your help.

For more details about why these new spammers are so difficult to catch, or the specific varieties of spam we are seeing and with more things you can do, this is the link to the original post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1iyroe9/another_spambot_is_targeting_us_similar_to_the/

Based on comments we've seen, it appears that less than 1% of the entire community have read that original post. It only has 20k views for all-time, while our sub as a whole averages millions of views per month. So this shorter and more call-to-action post replaces it with a more demanding title that hopefully will get more people to read it. We'll see.


r/options • • 10h ago

Anyone else scalp QQQ/SPX options with 20–90 second holds? Analyzing my results after a +20% month.

15 Upvotes

So I've been back to day trading after taking 5 years off and did some aggregation of my results after about a month. My strategy so far has been basically take a quick win , never average up and never let runners run, just look for the next trade. While it's been successful overall (+20%) and overall generally not a ton of risk per trade, I struggled for sure with averaging down sometimes (multiple times) and then holding on for the trade to turn. The statistics on my under 1 minute trades was quite eye opening.

I guess what I'm asking is -- does anyone else use this type of strategy?

I'm aware of my leaks and now and I'm not going to change up too much yet until I have more profit but definitely just need to learn to kill trades if they aren't working faster.

Weirdly a lot of my bread and butter are off hour SPX scalps because it tends to bounce around a lot and I just buy 2-3 contracts and sell for a 0.20 or 0.30 profit and repeat.

Also looking for like minded folks to talk this strategy if there is a discord of like minded folks.

Thanks!

**Long-option trades by holding time — through October 16, 2026**

P/L includes estimated fees.

**No averaging down**

| Holding time | Trades | Win rate | Total P/L | Average P/L | Median P/L |
|:--|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| Under 1 min | 332 | 96.4% | +$54,664.72 | +$164.65 | +$84.12 |
| 1–3 min | 194 | 76.3% | +$15,070.02 | +$77.68 | +$54.12 |
| 3–5 min | 57 | 61.4% | +$2,973.74 | +$52.17 | +$24.12 |
| 5–15 min | 33 | 39.4% | -$8,403.51 | -$254.65 | -$62.55 |
| 15–60 min | 2 | 100.0% | +$809.08 | +$404.54 | +$404.54 |
| **Overall** | **618** | **83.8%** | **+$65,114.05** | **+$105.36** | **+$73.75** |

Median holding time: **54 seconds**.

**Averaging down**

Averaging down means another opening order below the average cost of the remaining position. Partial fills of the same order count as one entry.

| Holding time | Trades | Win rate | Total P/L | Average P/L | Median P/L |
|:--|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| Under 1 min | 1 | 100.0% | +$46.08 | +$46.08 | +$46.08 |
| 1–3 min | 33 | 78.8% | +$476.99 | +$14.45 | +$69.76 |
| 3–5 min | 24 | 66.7% | -$1,690.50 | -$70.44 | +$113.59 |
| 5–15 min | 37 | 32.4% | -$31,083.97 | -$840.11 | -$527.84 |
| 15–60 min | 7 | 28.6% | -$10,971.72 | -$1,567.39 | -$632.51 |
| **Overall** | **102** | **55.9%** | **-$43,223.12** | **-$423.76** | **+$33.24** |

Median holding time: **4.53 minutes**.

r/options • • 12h ago

Questions about managing assignment exposure compared to max-loss risk

3 Upvotes

Do you set a separate limit for potential assignment exposure on defined-risk options trades, in addition to your max-loss limit? If so, how do you measure it?

For example, suppose I have a $100,000 account and limit each trade’s defined max loss to 1% ($1,000). I sell one Amazon Nov. 20, 2026 $230/$225 put credit spread for a potential $100 max profit and potential $400 max loss.

The spread is within my max-loss rule. If the short $230 put is assigned, I could be required to buy 100 shares for $23,000, even though the spread’s defined max loss is much smaller.

How would you, or do you, set a guardrail for potential assignment exposure, especially across multiple positions? For example, if 10 positions had a combined defined max loss of $10,000 but a gross assignment value of $150,000, how would you limit that exposure? Would you cap that assignment exposure at a percentage of your account (e.g. 30%), and limit the number or size of positions accordingly?

Thank you!


r/options • • 15h ago

Anybody trading MRNA? Sold today 270 call in Nov for 11.7

6 Upvotes

This is relatively aggressive and on large side position for my account. I still like it how the stock had a nice run, it's part of nasdaq and the index being mean reverted, and it has annualized return on capital (estimated) that I call ridiculous territory.

Everything else checks out as well, IV rank and IV are high, realized is lagging. Delta could be smaller but okey whatever agent picked with all the data it had. Liquidity is average, but still filled pretty fast.

I think it has the most expensive options right now, even more expensive than AI stocks.

Anybody else trading MRNA? Any advise what to expect or how to handle it beyond standard thresholds?


r/options • • 1d ago

Options Extended Hours - October 19th

15 Upvotes

TradeStation and MooMoo have announced options extended hours will be available on their platforms starting Monday, October 19th.

ETF’s: SPY, QQQ, IWM, GLD, XLF

Equities: NVDA, TSLA, AAPL, MU, INTC, META, AMZN, AMD, MSFT, GOOGL, PLTR, ORCL, AVGO, NFLX, HOOD, GOOG, SNDK, BAC, MRVL, BABA, TSM, NOK, F, PFE

PreMarket: 7:30-9:25am ET

AfterHours: 4:00-4:15pm ET

Anyone receive emails from other brokers announcing they will be offering extended hours for options?


r/options • • 14h ago

Help understand calls on 2-3x leverage stocks

3 Upvotes

As the title says, I’m looking for info on trading options on tickers such as RKLX or IONX. Rocketlab 2x and IonQ 2x. It seems like there is crazy reward for minimal risk but I must be missing something?

Has anyone done trades with leveraged stocks or etfs and had success? or even horror stories?

Thank you


r/options • • 19h ago

Looking for a Reliable, Profitable Options Swing Trading Group — Any Recommendations

0 Upvotes

I've been trading stocks and options for a while and understand technical analysis and trade setups. However, my biggest challenge has been timing and keeping up with macroeconomic events, sector rotations, and other market-moving news.

With a busy career and family, I'm looking for an experienced, research-driven trading group that does the heavy lifting and provides high-conviction options swing trade alerts.

Ideally, I'm looking for:

Holding periods of 1 week to several months, including LEAPS.

Clear entry, exit, and trade management alerts.

Traders who consider macroeconomic conditions, sector trends, and technicals before making calls.

A documented track record of profitability, including losing trades.

I'm happy to pay for a quality service. I prefer fewer, well-researched trades over frequent speculative alerts.

Which groups have you personally used and been consistently profitable with? I'd especially appreciate feedback from members with at least 3–6 months of experience.

Not looking for promotions or affiliate links, just genuine recommendations. Thanks!


r/options • • 1d ago

SOXX Split

13 Upvotes

SOXX will have forward stock split on 03 November 2026, which will be effective on the 4th. The split stock will be active on 05 November 2026. Current after hours price = $510.57

What are some of the available opportunities / strategies we can utilize during this event?

Ref:https://www.ishares.com/us/products/239705/ishares-phlx-semiconductor-etf


r/options • • 20h ago

High win rate but the account isn't growing? Win rate vs avg win/loss from tastytrade

1 Upvotes

If you sell premium you probably know your win rate. 80%, 90%, whatever it is. But a lot of people with a high win rate look at their account and it just isn't growing. A few big losers wipe out a pile of small winners, and the win rate never shows it.

Win rate on its own can't tell you whether you're making money. You need it next to your average win and average loss. If your average loss is twice your average win, you need to win about 67% of the time just to break even, before fees. At three times, it's 75%. So a 75% win rate can be completely flat.

Tastytrade doesn't show win rate or average win/loss anywhere. All three are answerable, but you can't just ask Claude or ChatGPT to figure it out. I learned that the hard way. Splits and other corporate actions throw off the cost basis, rolls are hard to align, and expirations and assignments come through as separate entries. Get any of those wrong and the numbers you get back look better or worse than they really are. Getting that right is most of why OptionsInsights took as long as it did to build.

Has anyone else checked their win rate against their break-even? How far apart were they?


r/options • • 21h ago

Do you write your exit before you open a spread, or manage it as it goes?

1 Upvotes

I used to open credit spreads and figure out the exit later. Too often that meant holding a loser into expiry hoping it came back. Now I jot the take profit and max loss down before I click. Some days I still override it. Do you set the exit up front or manage by feel?


r/options • • 22h ago

OCC's weeklies list: date columns?

1 Upvotes

The OCC's list of weekly options offers a downloadable spreadsheet that buckets the data in two columns: "Weekly Options Summary For 11/27/2026 Expiration" and "Weekly Options Summary For 11/13/2026 Expiration."

https://www.theocc.com/market-data/market-data-reports/series-and-trading-data/weekly-and-quarterly-options

Given that these are weeklies, I don't understand the reference to these two dates/columns, as they don't correspond with the next pending expiration. Can anyone shed light on this?

Also, how often do assets get delisted from this master, or added to it? Is it a regularly recurring event, or once a ticker offers weeklies it tends to continue to offer them?

Many thanks in advance for the guidance...


r/options • • 22h ago

Papakong88 0DTE - Exit Plan Modification (October 16, 2026)

0 Upvotes

In June, 2026 I changed my exit plan from a rollout to a buyback strategy. As a result of several buybacks, the income has been flat because each buyback cost several weeks of income. I changed the strategy back to a rollout on October 8. 
Details of the October 8 rollout is in https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1udyri5/comment/pexxs85/?context=3
I have two more rollouts on October 14, 2026.
Rollout #1:
Roll the 29760 PS out 1 day and down 335 points to 29425 for 3.81 debit. (Buying back would have cost $10.)
On the next day, the 29425 was rolled down 125 points to 29300 with same day expiration for 1.75 debit.
The 29300 expired.
Rollout #2:
Roll the 29725 PS out 1 day and down 375 points to 29350 for 1.81 debit. (Buying back would have cost $8.)
The 29350 expired.
The cost of the rollouts were reduced by selling some junks.


r/options • • 1d ago

Boxtrades.com spotty order book

3 Upvotes

Is there a way to contact someone running boxtrades.com? The order book seems to cut in and out and then vanish for a while, and then it disappears for seemingly all time periods. The 1- and 2- month periods seem to be more stable.

It seems like when there's a refresh, it fails to pull new data so it all gets wiped out. Something breaking with the syntheticfi connection perhaps?


r/options • • 1d ago

OPTION TRADING ON BINANCE

0 Upvotes

Please i would like to know if its possible to trade stock options on Binance


r/options • • 2d ago

MSFT options collar: Avoiding constructive sale designation and understanding if strategy is sound.

8 Upvotes

New to options trading. Considering a zero-cost collars on MSFT. Trying to avoid stepping into a landmine with taxes and other pitfalls. I have a heavy concentration of MSFT that I want to protect. Some has already gone into an exchange fund. But there's a lot left.

MSFT is at 533. 52 week span goes from 350 to 550.

First, am I reading this right with the available call and put prices

  • Dec 2027 450/730 collar
  • December 2028 collar at 470/800

Both would effectively be close to zero cost?

Are these collars wide enough to avoid getting an IRS designation of a constructive sale? Any other tax pitfalls beyond capital gains, NIIT, and WA state taxes for LTCG?

This just seems deceptively too easy. What else should I be considering or could wind up regretting?


r/options • • 2d ago

I rolled an options position incurring losses, is this a wash sale?

11 Upvotes

Earlier this year I incurred a gain of around mid 6 figures. I immediately used that money to reopen an options position. I am now down on this position, so I rolled the position to a high strike price but 1 year out. Is this considered a wash sale? I would ideally want to deduce the losses from my gains earlier this year. Thanks!


r/options • • 3d ago

CFD vs Option vs Futures

11 Upvotes

Im really curious why everyone seem to trade only options and not CFDs. It’s like CFD s have a bad rep for no reason so that made me thought maybe I am missing something. For me, cfds mean i can scale in and out without being forced to utilize a full contract. As cons i only see maybe the overnight fees (I sometimes hold trades for days/weeks even though I also do intraday trades)

So please make me understand why everyone seem to trade options or futures but not CFD s


r/options • • 3d ago

Ticker loyalty is killing your risk/reward

23 Upvotes

Every time someone asks how to start wheeling, the top comment is always some variation of 'just pick a stock you don't mind owning, and collect the premium.' Honestly, I feel like this advice is a complete trap. It just leads to people chasing inflated premiums on highly volatile meme garbage or overextended tech stocks right before they crater 30%. If you're only looking at the dollar amount of the premium, you're flying blind.

Lately, I’ve been trying to force myself to stop trading the same 3 to 5 familiar tickers over and over again. It’s so easy to get comfortable with a name like TSLA or PLTR and completely ignore the actual entry point or the macro trend. Selling a CSP when a stock is sitting at an all-time high has a totally different risk profile than selling it after a healthy pullback, even if the premium looks identical.

Before I even look at an option chain now, I’ve been running everything through a strict checklist: underlying size/liquidity baseline (to avoid awful bid-ask spreads), a technical trend check (stop catching falling knives), and making sure the IV rank is actually high relative to its own history so I'm not selling volatility when it's totally crushed.

Instead of blindly clicking a 0.30 delta, I've been calculating the actual downside cushion relative to major historical support levels to see if the premium is even worth the capital tied up.

Are you guys actively screening the broader market to find better risk/reward entry points, or do you mostly stick to a core list of familiar tickers and just wheel them repeatedly regardless of where the underlying is sitting?


r/options • • 2d ago

Trading Academy free workshop - worth 2 hours?

4 Upvotes

Edit: If you haven't been to one, please move on. I know it's mainly a sales pitch, but am curious if anyone got anything out of attending one. Not interested in opinions of what it probably is. Don't waste your and my time please.

An ad popped up in Facebook for a free Trading Academy workshop at a Marriott Courtyard 3 miles from my home. If anyone has attended one of these, please let me know if they are worth the two hours. I’ve been averaging approx 16% yearly including interest on my cash securing the options. I am primarily interested in some drawdown protection, but without denting my returns too badly. If I can’t make 12% or more, it isn’t worth my time. I would just buy and hold and hope. I’d be interested in the experience of any one who has bone and/or anyone who has worked with them.


r/options • • 3d ago

Strategy for LEAPs?

20 Upvotes

I have been getting shafted on leap calls because I’m not sure when to get out. I keep thinking to myself that I have a couple weeks/months left so I can still get back to even/take a smaller loss but a lot of times the stock never recovers in my time frame. What is yalls strategy in getting out of leaps? Do yall have a percentage drop that you stop it at?


r/options • • 3d ago

Trading longer dated spreads- a minimum trading strategy?

13 Upvotes

As I am only doing minimum 45 DTE, always avoiding earnings and only sticking to ~12 tickers I follow closely I find in the roughly 20 trading days per month I am maybe opening/closing positions on just 3 or 4 days. And as these are 45-55 DTE and with earnings happening every 3 months it just doesn't give me much to trade with that avoid earnings rule.

On securities that don't have earnings- pretty much all the SPX strategies perform equivalent (or worse) to buy and hold with more risk so I never touch that unless VIX spikes over 25 (aka incredibly rare these last couple of years). Leveraged ETFs have way too much variation relative to their IV% which also keeps me away from them.

I am curious what others that trade similarly do. I have learned discipline to not break these habits which has kept me at almost never having to close out due to a loss and within my desired percentage return per month.


r/options • • 3d ago

covered calls expiration

11 Upvotes

When you sell a covered call and it says it has a expired and voided because not exercised. Does that mean I can sell more or should I wait an extra day to be safe? It also says it's completed.


r/options • • 3d ago

Converting Iron Condors Into Iron Butterflies, Good Or Bad Idea?

11 Upvotes

I'm thinking of converting my iron condors into iron butterflies for a week before closing them.... essentially 2 weeks as iron condors... then 1 week as iron butterflies then close em all and select new underlying to play the next 3 week course again.

Is this something that others have tried and still do? Any comments appreciated. Thanks!


r/options • • 4d ago

Retroactive cancellation of trading transactions?

10 Upvotes

I opened an account at Charles Schwab two months ago. After that, I started making a lot of money. [I traded in the spread of options on a certain stock. Minute trading. In two weeks, I made $25,000 on the $2,000 I just invested. After that, they closed my account and blocked access to my account for a whole month plus. After that, they started retroactively canceling hundreds of my trades every day. Today, my account is only $6,000.

Is there anyone who has talked about this? Is there anything I can do about it? Who should I contact?