How Much Are You Risking On Each of Your Bets?

Discussion in 'Options' started by thefairarbiter, Oct 15, 2020.

How much of your capital, in relative terms, do you risk on options at any given time?

  1. <2%

  2. 2-4%

  3. 4-6%

  4. 6-8%

  5. 8-10%

  6. >10%

Results are only viewable after voting.
  1. Bekim

    Bekim

    I take 5-10% position sizes, I take some nasty drawdowns sometimes but I have been consistently profitable the last 4 years and I have traded through some tough times. I believe part of being a good trader is learning to trade with size once you become consistently profitable
     
    #11     Oct 16, 2020
  2. never2old

    never2old

    zero issue with 100% capital on a DITM naked option for ~2% return per trade that would yield average 12% across 12 mths doing a combination of several trades

    TQQQ last at $145, a 30 day trade might be the Nov 20 expiry $85 strike naked put trade at $1.70

    minimum 100 contacts trade 100% fully costed/covered

    play time decay
     
    #12     Oct 16, 2020
  3. easymon1

    easymon1

    For futures day trades, enough increments lie below 2% to separate out .5, 1 and 2%. There can be a lot going on right there alone.
    Stop Gap used to size a trader's position generates consistency and keeps a trader in the game when serial losses make a visit to a screen near you. da bastads.

    Stevo goes into the majic of 1% here...cued and ready to roll
     
    #13     Oct 17, 2020
  4. easymon1

    easymon1

    5-10% of what, your working capital? or your risk capital.
     
    #14     Oct 17, 2020
  5. zghorner

    zghorner

    for some of us...those are the same thing haha.
     
    #15     Oct 17, 2020
  6. easymon1

    easymon1

    do you ever use stops?
     
    #16     Oct 17, 2020
  7. zghorner

    zghorner

    yes.

    and my commit was basically my way of saying that some of us have so little capital it is hard to distinguish working from risk
     
    #17     Oct 18, 2020
  8. easymon1

    easymon1

    Ok, got it, lol. For a newby who rolls across this thread sometime they could look at Risk Capital Per Trade as the value between the Stop Value and the Trade Entry Value or "the Stop Gap Value". Entry long at 100 with a Stop at 95? Then Stop Gap Value = 5, or the Value at Risk.

    If a trader wanted to Risk 1.5% of Account Value to each trade then they could calculate that to dial it in and know that they are consistently applying Value according to Plan. The idea being to Grow Account Value regardless of starting size.
    From options traders, it would be interesting to learn how that gets done. I didn't notice this was an options thread until too late, my bad.
    You options guys can have that defined risk thing going for you which is a major benefit vs skipped over stops etc that occured in that youtube vid up there 5% of his trades, called uncontrollable loss = more than stop was triggered at, eg stock gapped past stop before executed. Good Morning.

    From an ET Sponsor's Website comes this...
    "Is My Position Size Calculated Properly?"
    https://elitetrader.com/et/threads/...solid-trading-plan.340340/page-4#post-5054656
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2020
    #18     Oct 18, 2020
  9. %%
    That's sounding real close to IBD math;
    risk 7or 8% for $24 or 24% per position. That can work well for ETFs also;
    different for shorts/invrese ETFs
    Most+ many mutual funds risk 95%-99%= could work well if one get paid on AUM/LOL.
    Maybe why only 20% beat SPY benchmark, over 10 years.
     
    #19     Oct 20, 2020
    xavierchisolm likes this.
  10. easymon1

    easymon1

    Just so's it's clear, risk 7or 8% of what?
     
    #20     Oct 20, 2020
    murray t turtle likes this.