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Dear Subscriber,
Thank you for becoming a subscriber to the InvestingWithOptions Premium Service. While I strongly believe that this service will make you a better options trader, things can be a little overwhelming at first. There is a lot of information that comes with being an IWO subscriber! This document will help you navigate the site and the information much more easily.
About the Site
The site is split into two parts: free and premium. The Premium section is divided into subsections which you can find in the "Premium Portal." Simply click the "Premium" button to get access to IWO Premium. Everything you need will be found in the Premium Portal.
Next, if you ever have trouble logging in to the site, simply click the "Forgot Password" link on the login page. From there an email will be sent to your inbox (check your spam folder if you don't see it). If that doesn't work, email me at [email protected] and I will manually reset your password.
Communication Channels
Chat Room
The chat room is the live component of our service. It's where I am setting up trades and taking questions during trading hours. The chat is managed separately from the IWO servers, so the user name and password are different. If you ever need to reset your password, go here.
There are many ways that I communicate with subscribers. If you have any questions at all, you can always email me-- but during trading hours I may not be quick to get back to you instead, consider using the chat room to ask any questions-- and remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question.
That's about it for the initial tutorial. If you have any further questions about the trading service, do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].
Premium Twitter Stream
The twitter stream has been deprecated, and is only used to relay posts to followers. You can go here to follow if you want alerts when new posts come available.
We use a Mailchimp mail service to send alerts to subscribers. Please make sure to have [email protected] whitelisted by your email service.
About the Service
The service can be split into 3 parts: the trades, the education, and the community.
The Trades
We run a model portfolio of $40,000. Each options expiration cycle, it resets back to 40k. So if we made money, we take it out of the account; if we lose money, we replenish the account. This way new subscribers will be able to get in on the ground floor each cycle. We use a base of 40k because position sizing is a critical aspect of risk management that must be incorporated into any trading strategy.
When portfolio trades are taken, a full post is put up explaining the trade setup, the rationale, and risk management parameters that we use to ensure the trade is successful. After the blog post is up, an alert is sent to the chat room, the twitter stream, and your email address. The speed in which you receive the trade alerts occur in that order-- so if you want up-to-the-minute alerts, make sure to hang around the chat room.
Trade Ideas vs. Official Trades
When a trade is put in a portfolio, these are explicitly called out and will be accounted for. Not all Trade Ideas are Official Trades. Sometimes I will call out trades in the chat room or I will mention setups in nightly videos. Unless you receive an alert email and a full blog post, the trade is not official. I do not put all trades into the portfolio as I want to limit overtrading, commissions, and directional risk. That is not to say that the Trade Ideas I don't make official are bad-- rather, you can trade these without me, as they often turn out to be extremely profitable.
Official trade ideas are put in the context of their overall portfolio, so as to limit directional risk and to preserve capital. Not all trades are suitable for smaller portfolios, so consider your risk carefully.
Nightly Videos
To prepare for the coming market session, I release a video detailing the past price action as well as potential setups for you to take. These videos are released every night on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The purpose of these videos is to gauge how the overall market is behaving in terms of structure, and to find profitable opportunities in the market. Many of the trade setups that go into our portfolio are in these videos, but they are not inclusive as opportunities may show up during the market session.
The Education
I believe that teaching proper option trading is one of the main foundations of my service. To support this, I ask that if you have any questions about option strategies or tactics, ask them in the chat room so that others may learn as well.
Happy Hour
Wednesday evenings are when IWO Happy Hour takes place. This is a live webinar that goes from 6PM - 7PM EST and is a large educational component of the service. We take this time to go over the market and setups, and then we delve deeply into a single option strategy or concept. These videos are recorded and are available later in the evening, so if you can't make it live, then you will be able to review at your convenience.
Happy Hour is now viewable directly on the site, and you can access the web player from the Premium Portal.
The Community
IWO has a lot of really smart and experienced traders that are members. Our chat room is a great place to share ideas and potential setups live, so make sure to stop by there intraday to see if there are shorter term trade setups available. I encourage you to post your own.
Commissions
To successfully trade options, you must have a good commission structure. The advertised rates are absurdly high. You must get $1.50/contract with no ticket charge or lower. Call your broker to negotiate and threaten to leave if they don't give you what you want-- tell them you're going to be trading size.
IBKR has 1/contract, LightSpeed has .50/contract, Thinkorswim ranges from .75-1.00 per. Use those as your baselines.