2018 marks our seventh year as a public service. It was an excellent and exciting year. We closed 124 winners out of 161 trades. Our model portfolio produced 129.5% compounded gain on the whole account based on 10% allocation per trade.
Performance Dissected
Check out the Performance page to see the full results. Please note that those results are based on real fills, not hypothetical performance, and exclude commissions, so your actual results will be lower. Commissions reduce the monthly returns by approximately 1-2% per month, depending on the broker and number of trades.
As with every trading system which uses multi leg trades, commissions will have a significant impact on performance, so it is very important to use a cheap broker. We have extensive discussions about brokers and commissions on the Forum (like this one) and help members to select the best broker. Please refer to How We Calculate Returns? for more details.
2018 was a very different year from the previous years. Despite the increase in volatility, 77% of all SO trades were winners with an average gain of 7.07%
Our strategies
SteadyOptions uses a mix of non-directional strategies: earnings plays, Straddles , Iron Condors , Calendar Spreads , Butterflies etc. We constantly adding new strategies to our arsenal, based on different market conditions.
SO model portfolio is not designed for speculative trades although we might do some in the speculative forum. SO is not a get-rich-quick-without-efforts kind of newsletter. I'm a big fan of the "slow and steady" approach. I aim for many singles instead of few homeruns. My first goal is capital preservation instead of doubling your account. Think about the risk first. If you take care of the risk, the profits will come.
Looking at specific strategies, reverse iron condors were our best performing strategy, producing 31.0% average return with 100% winning ratio. We started using the RIC and BWB strategies later in the year during times when VIX was high (20+). We will continue trading what works the best and adapt to the market conditions.
What's New?
- We continue expanding the scope of our trades beyond the earnings trades, Iron Condors and calendars. We are now trading SPY, TLT, VIX, VXX, XLV and other ETFs to diversify the portfolio. When Implied Volatility spiked, we added RIC and BWB strategies to our arsenal. We will continue refining those strategies to get even better results. This gives members a lot of choice and flexibility.
- We launched a Creating Alpha service that trades exclusively VIX based products and TLT. It includes two separate model portfolios at very low introductory price.
- Our long time mentor @Yowster started contributing trades to our official model portfolio. This allowed us to expand the quantity and the quality of our trades, sometimes providing a slightly different angle and perspective. Our members now get official trades from two traders for the price of one! This means more selection and more diversity.
- We have implemented more improvements to the straddle strategy that reduces risk and enhances returns. As a result, the strategy produced highest average gain percentage and highest percentage of winning trades since inception.
- We started using the CMLviz Trade Machine to find and backtest some of our trades. This is an excellent tool that already produced few nice winners for us.
What makes SO different?
First, we use a total portfolio approachThis approach reflects the growth of the entire account, not just what was at risk
Second, our performance is based on real fills. Each trade alert comes with screenshot of my broker fills. Many services base their performance on the "maximum profit potential" which is very misleading. Nobody can sell at the top and do it consistently. We put our money where our mouth is.
Our performance reporting is completely transparent. All trades are listed on the performance page, with the exact entry/exit dates and P/L percentage.
It is not a coincidence that SteadyOptions is ranked #1 out of 704 Newsletters on Investimonials
We place a lot of emphasis on options education. There is a dedicated forum where every trade is discussed before the trade is placed. We discuss different strategies and potential trades. Unlike most other services that just send the trade alerts, our members understand the rationale behind the trades and not just blindly follow the alerts. SO actually helps members to become better traders.
Other services
In addition to SteadyOptions, we offer the following services:
- Anchor Trades - Stocks/ETFs hedged with options for conservative long term investors.
- Steady Condors - Hedged monthly income trades managed by the Greeks.
- Creating Alpha - Volatility products like VXX and UVXY plus TLT portfolio.
- LC Diversified Portfolio - broadly diversified, absolute return, multi-strategy portfolio.
We now offer a 4 products bundle (SteadyOptions, Steady Condors, Anchor Trades and Creative Alpha) for $745 per quarter or $2,495 per year. This represents up to 50% discount
Subscribing to all 4 services provides excellent diversification since those services have low correlation, and you also get the ONE software for free for 12 months with the yearly bundle.
The LCD is our most diversified and scalable portfolio, I highly recommend that members check it out. It is offered as an added bonus of all subscription plans. We also offer Managed Accounts for Anchor Trades and LCD.
Summary
2018 was another remarkable year. Our members enjoyed triple digit gains while US stocks posted its worst year in a decade
I see the community as the best part of our service. I believe we have the best and most engaged options trading community in the world. We now have members from over 50 counties. Our members posted over 110,000 posts in the last 7 years. Those facts show you the tremendous added value of our trading community.
I want to thank each of you who’ve joined us and supported us. We continue to strive to be the best community of options traders and continuously improve and enhance our services.
Let me finish with my favorite quote from Michael Covel:
"Profits come in bunches. The trick when going sideways between home runs is not to lose too much in between."
If you are not a member and interested to join, you can click here to join our winning team. When you join SteadyOptions, we will share with you all we know about options. We will never try to sell you any additional "proprietary systems", training, webinars etc. All our "secrets" are included in your monthly fee.
Happy Trading from SO team!
What Is SteadyOptions?
Full Trading Plan
Complete Portfolio Approach
Diversified Options Strategies
Exclusive Community Forum
Steady And Consistent Gains
High Quality Education
Risk Management, Portfolio Size
Performance based on real fills
Non-directional Options Strategies
10-15 trade Ideas Per Month
Targets 5-7% Monthly Net Return
Recent Articles
Articles
Pricing Models and Volatility Problems
Most traders are aware of the volatility-related problem with the best-known option pricing model, Black-Scholes. The assumption under this model is that volatility remains constant over the entire remaining life of the option.
By Michael C. Thomsett, August 16
- Added byMichael C. Thomsett
- August 16
Option Arbitrage Risks
Options traders dealing in arbitrage might not appreciate the forms of risk they face. The typical arbitrage position is found in synthetic long or short stock. In these positions, the combined options act exactly like the underlying. This creates the arbitrage.
By Michael C. Thomsett, August 7
- Added byMichael C. Thomsett
- August 7
Why Haven't You Started Investing Yet?
You are probably aware that investment opportunities are great for building wealth. Whether you opt for stocks and shares, precious metals, forex trading, or something else besides, you could afford yourself financial freedom. But if you haven't dipped your toes into the world of investing yet, we have to ask ourselves why.
By Kim, August 7
- Added byKim
- August 7
Historical Drawdowns for Global Equity Portfolios
Globally diversified equity portfolios typically hold thousands of stocks across dozens of countries. This degree of diversification minimizes the risk of a single company, country, or sector. Because of this diversification, investors should be cautious about confusing temporary declines with permanent loss of capital like with single stocks.
By Jesse, August 6
- Added byJesse
- August 6
Types of Volatility
Are most options traders aware of five different types of volatility? Probably not. Most only deal with two types, historical and implied. All five types (historical, implied, future, forecast and seasonal), deserve some explanation and study.
By Michael C. Thomsett, August 1
- Added byMichael C. Thomsett
- August 1
The Performance Gap Between Large Growth and Small Value Stocks
Academic research suggests there are differences in expected returns among stocks over the long-term. Small companies with low fundamental valuations (Small Cap Value) have higher expected returns than big companies with high valuations (Large Cap Growth).
By Jesse, July 21
- Added byJesse
- July 21
How New Traders Can Use Trade Psychology To Succeed
People have been trying to figure out just what makes humans tick for hundreds of years. In some respects, we’ve come a long way, in others, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Like it or not, many industries take advantage of this knowledge to influence our behaviour and buying patterns.
- Added byKim
- July 21
A Reliable Reversal Signal
Options traders struggle constantly with the quest for reliable
By Michael C. Thomsett, July 20
- Added byMichael C. Thomsett
- July 20
Premium at Risk
Should options traders consider “premium at risk” when entering strategies? Most traders focus on calculated maximum profit or loss and breakeven price levels. But inefficiencies in option behavior, especially when close to expiration, make these basic calculations limited in value, and at times misleading.
By Michael C. Thomsett, July 13
- Added byMichael C. Thomsett
- July 13
Diversified Leveraged Anchor Performance
In our continued efforts to improve the Anchor strategy, in April of this year we began tracking a Diversified Leveraged Anchor strategy, under the theory that, over time, a diversified portfolio performs better than an undiversified portfolio in numerous metrics. Not only does overall performance tend to increase, but volatility and drawdowns tend to decrease: