No not primarily 1-3-2's. I still have to work on scoping best opportunities for that type of play. But I do use them. I have a good mix of strategies and use whats appropriate given the circumstances. Dest's influence is probably about 25% of my trading. Discretionary Vol and directional bets. Calendars, Regular butterflies, the occasional 132/231, straight long term puts/calls, buying underpriced vol options and selling overpriced vol options.
Thanks Dest for the vol comment in my journal. Great example of the effect of changing volatility on a open position. Next steps for me are anticipation and positioning.
Man, point me in the right direction to learn more details about the strategies you are using. Are you self-taught or do you have a background in finance? I am in the beginning of my learning. I use all of the trades you mention about but without any real form of consistency. I've been trading for a year now and have been struggling. Pretty close to giving up to be honest. I've taken the education at Option Alpha and gone through ThinkOrSwim's education as well as watching a lot of videos on TastyWorks. I can't help but think I'm missing a massive piece of the puzzle.
Man let me tell you about my journey.Ive been at this a good 10 years. I started stock/option trading at 17/18. Im the type where when i get into something i want to know everything about it. I read all the reccomended books, natenberg, euan sinclair, talebs dynamic hedging, hull, any volatility books I could get my hands on. ( i could list them here if you're interested, some are more basic, others more advanced). I have pdfs, or hard copies of all of these. That eventually led me here to ET, where though there is tons of garbage i picked through the trash to find the good stuff. Ive read all of dest, riskarb, atticus, convexx, post history and journals. a couple others too. I have notepad files of posts here that ive kept that are gems. Ive paper traded on and off to test out discretionary methods and new strategies. I wouldnt reccomended trying to trade undercapitalized. Id say 10,000 is about the absolute minimum, 25k is better. All in all, i have thousands of hours of learning ive spent in this. I am completing a finance degree but I wouldnt really say that helps with the trading. My school has a student fund but its just stock. Ive learned more on my own and from following the people that I believe do have the knowledge i want to acquire. Dest has dropped some gems on here off handidly that have changed my game. Euan Sinclair is another guy i follow closely that drops good stuff too. If you have specific questions that you cant find answers to, because option trading is a very specialized thing, reach out to those who do have the knowledge and see if they might give you a hand. No ones gonna hold your hand because this is a very self focused field and someone else making money the same way you do might take away their lunch, but it never hurts to try. I am thankful for everyone whos helped me on my journey because talking to someone who is actually doing it is a world of difference than reading it in a book. Most of all it is an constant journey of continually learning and adapting. Ive never paid for any "education" and let me tell you, optionalpha and tasty trade isnt gonna teach you anything you need to know to make money. There are thousands of people following their advice and getting no where. You gotta look outside the box, and to what the "pros" are doing. if you have any questions you can pm, hopefully i can be of some assistance to pointing you in the right direction
And you could use all the same strategies that someone is using, but if you dont know how to use them, why to use them, or the enviroment to use them, it really dosent help. options are priced very efficiently, so if you dont have an "edge" its a losing game for you as a retail trader. Heres a start from "option trading" by euan sinclair.
I'm covering my NFLX short tomorrow. I had flies and a diagonal and transitioned into short shares. It was 32% of my pro-account PNL for the quarter: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/from-60k-to-600k.333488/page-14#post-4883814