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Optimus Futures
There is a substantial risk of loss in futures trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
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Hi Calming. I've been selling options on crude oil now for 6 months. I'm still a rookie really, but am up about $11K on account deposits of about $25K, so I guess you could say my ROI is about 45% over the 6 month period. Through this website, I was put in touch with Cannon Trading and Mark O'Brien. He's been FANTASTIC to work with!! Very, very patient to be working with a rookie, very thorough in his recommendations. In the last series of trades, we got caught in a major move downward in oil prices and needed to take some corrective action. He was completely on top of this trade and even set price alarms through the evening so he could monitor prices and was prepared to take action the next day when we needed to. As a Canadian, it was extremely difficult to find a brokerage I could work with--Cannon Trading has exceeded my expectations at every step of the way!!
I pay $22 per round trip, but that can be for 1 contract or 10 contracts I believe. With selling options, it's more of a sell and hold strategy as somewhere between 80 and 85% of all options expire worthless. I'm typically selling an out of the money option at a strike that will not likely be threatened, and collect the premium from the sale of the option. If I'm 2 to 3 months out from the option expiry, then there's lots of time value, which tends to decay in the last 3 or 4 weeks prior to option expiry. It's much like hitting lots of singles, rather than trying to hit a home run. Working very well so far!
Does this seem a lot to you? NinjaTrader charges $2.5 per contract per leg. Per 10 contracts, it's cheaper but anything less than 4 contracts, that's overpaying.
Calming, I think it all depends on how you're trading. If I was day trading, and wanting to do it on my own, it would be more expensive, yes. However, I might still want the professional guidance, and Mark has been great at that. In a recent trade, he saved me easily $1000 in one day by taking action at the right time. Normally, however, with options selling, it's like 'watching paint dry', so there's no need to be watching a computer screen for 4 or 5 hours every day, and much less risk of major, sudden losses. The number of contracts that have to be executed is much lower, and as I mentioned in the last post, it's more of a sell and hold process. Between the smaller number of transactions required, and the value of getting some professional advice, the commission cost is actually the least of my concerns with the style of trading I'm doing. I'm not ever interested in being a day trader--roughly 80% of day traders end up existing the business, and most do this within a year. I'm in this for the long-term and I'd rather make a 35 or 40% ROI, but do it very reliably, than gamble on hitting it big occasionally, but losing a lot of the rest of the time. I also don't want the stress or have the time for watching price action daily, and making decisions every day. My 2 cents worth!