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**Hey!**
**As the title suggests,** 2025 was my first entire calendar year with an account dedicated to options trading (the two futures positions shown are the only two times I traded futures in that account). I sometimes traded shares if they were international companies and/or because I was selling premium (covered calls).
**Here are my three non-negotiable rules for options:**
**1) Always give yourself the gift of time** \- You can see two of the last trades were losses and a lot of that had to do with because they were DTE this week or next week from entry, I haven't done that since, now it is always at **LEAST** 30 days out (*30-45DTE sweet spot*). Theta decay accelerates tremendously in the last 21 DTE so you typically want to be out around this time, or be very much in profits. ***You also don't want to force yourself to have to be right on direction AND right on timing*** (i.e going too short term requires a directional move to happen FAST) - trading directionally is hard enough as it is.
**2) Choose ITM/slightly ITM strike prices** \- This has a lot to do with the previous point on making trading harder for yourself (or neutralizing the variables in options trading, more on that later). Choosing way OTM strikes is now not only forcing you to be directional correct, and correct fast (if you're choosing short term OPEX) but *also* forcing you to require a BIG move , fast, in your direction. Now you need to be right on direction, it needs to happen very fast, and it needs to happen aggressively, it can't just slowly trade in your direction, because you've set for yourself a distant target and each day you are not there , the pricing models are shifting against you. **The other thing about this is that ITM options have higher deltas! The benefit here is twofold, higher % chance of success (expiring ITM) but also more directionally aligned dollar for dollar with the underlying move. So in a lot of cases these options will move nicer than the OTM options even if price is moving in your direction.**
**3)** **Cut losses aggressively** \- Do not let your options go to 0 - there is no need to do that. This is one of the main benefits of trading options, don't let it escape you. Get more math on your side, homie. You see you might pay a debit which is your max acceptable equity risk (0.5% of account, for example) which is great, but 99% of the time you will be able to escape with a much smaller loss than that, especially if you followed rules #1 and #2. If you have a technical entry, you have a defined stop loss level. If you're trading shares, you get stopped out for your full risk - and you might even gap down below this level (another huge benefit of the risk defined nature of options) - but with the calls or the spread, you might still have 50, 60 or 70% of the value left in the options. Cut the loss at the technical level no questions asked, greatly reduce the size of your losers.
**I have found that options provide tremendous benefits**, not just (responsible) leverage, but statistics that you can play to your advantage (POP%, delta, expected move, most options expire worthless, etc) this adds a statistical layer of defense or foundation upon which to fortify your system.
**In addition**, there are several different factors that move options prices. Price move of the underlying is only one of them, others being vega and theta. You either learn to **use** these (right strategy for the right time/market conditions) or **neutralize these. For example if you trade a call debit spread, as opposed to just long calls, you are neutralizing theta decay, as well as potential IV crush.** ***This to me is the main benefit of the spread***\*\*,\*\* not the cheaper pricing (because that has nothing to do with overall account risk) or even the lower breakeven price.
**A lot of these conclusions I have put into practice diligently this year 2026 and I am having a much, much better year.**
**The final mistake I made, and the fatal one,** which has nothing to do with options is falling in love with the fundamental narrative of the position. So the reason there are no trades in Nov/Dec is because I **bag held** MSTR spreads, BMNR spreads and Metaplanet shares (opened around Sept) that "*had to go up*" because I already entered down 60% from all time highs and BTC treasury's were the new banks, they said. The thesis was sound. It doesn't matter if the thesis is curing cancer with 100% efficacy , cut the risk at your defined technical levels (you can always get back in later). So this is the reason my losses were bigger than my winners. **Before I had to close these BTC Treasury company positions, I had average winner at $1600-1800 and average loser at $500-600 and was up almost 300% on the year.**
Thanks for reading, happy to answer any questions, and happy to hear any feedback or recommendations if I am missing anything.