Scan the Futures Opening Prices when I Wake Up
30 Seconds
At 8:35 after the market has opened and all the quotes have updated, I quickly scan through my open positions on my phone. The goal here is to see if anything has come in and is worth taking off this morning before the GTC order kicks in.
1 Minute
Lunch Time is Trading Duty. This is where I pull out my iPad, go to the
tastyworks.com web platform and do the following:
1. Pull up my pre-defined watchlist and sort by IV Rank
2. Start at the top of the list, if I have a position on in say FB, I’ll skip that and move on to the next highest IV Rank, as long as it’s highly liquid.
3. I filter the results to be only IV Rank of 35 or greater and I avoid anything that has earnings in the next 30-45 days.
4. I typically start by pricing an iron condor around the 20-25 deltas on both sides and see the amount of premium.
5. If I cannot find anything that is worth the time to trade and within my portfolio delta needs, I then sort from lowest to highest IV Rank.
6. Once I’ve gone through and evaluated my options, I’ll confirm and send the ones that are the lowest hanging fruit, basically the ones I think have the highest statistical chance of success.
I put my ipad away. At this point, that’s all we can do. Look for new trades, and send off the best ones to get filled.
5 Minutes
Check back in around an hour later to see what has or hasn’t been filled.
I’ll penny it down a couple times to see if it gets filled at a lower price.
1 Minute
At 2:30-2:45 (CST) I’ll go back and check my platform and see if there is anything still open If the orders haven’t been filled.
I typically try to see why. Maybe prices have changed, maybe the premium has declined since earlier.
Whatever the case may be, this is a judgement call time, sometimes I’ll just cancel the orders and sometimes I’ll nickel them down in one last chance to get filled.
1 Minute
Any new trades or closures I make sure to add to my trade journal right away
It is absolutely normal and a common occurrence that in step 3 above, I find absolutely nothing to do. That’s where having your own set of rules or guidelines will help you make the best trades that you are comfortable with making.
1 Minute
So that is exactly how I manage a stock and options portfolio with only 10 minutes a day, while working a full time corporate finance job from an iPad.
Now you see, you can be a 10 Minute Trader Too if you create your own plan like this!