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The last time I wrote on taking this home study course was just before mid-March.  Life is always hard to balance and find time for family, home maintenance, work, and learning new things.  But as long as you keep moving forward, you eventually will move down the path to the finish line of whatever endeavour you are on…

A month later I am still pumped and excited about learning the business of being a “credit spread out of the money option trader.”  The Trading Pro System, a series of online videos that take the student through detailed steps on how to trade options, is quite extensive.  I’ve completed watching Modules 1 through 10 and have written lots of notes to myself for each video.  Some of the videos are only 5-7 minutes long, while others are over an hour and a half.  I’m so glad I wrote notes, because David Vallieres, the Trading Pro System Creator and Instructor loads some much information in each video that I would forget too much of it without my notes.  I’ve also had to review a few of the videos at least once, sometimes parts of them about three times to get a good grasp of the concepts of trading spreads and what to look for in each position before actually pushing that “Confirm & Send” button.

I opened a trading account on the suggested opting trading platform, thinkorswim.  I started paper trading, as he suggested, before actually kicking in my real money.  I currently have put on 4 positions in May 2009 options (ie. IWM, EEM, SPY, & DIA) and have been practicing daily on analyzing the charts for each one and just trying to get comfortable with the thinkorswim platform.   I put some on around 48 days (he suggests between 35 and 40 days), and I put some on at 40 days and 35 days to expiration.  It’s pretty exciting, I’m runny a very TINY profit right now, but with patience and time, and waiting for those expiration dates of these options to get closer, I will see the profits grow.

This home study course is definitely not for those who want to rush through an educational course with a cursory review of what is being taught.  I felt I really had to shut the phone off, wait for all the kids to be asleep, and basically remove all interruptions, so that I could concentrate on the videos.  At times, David is so comfortable moving around the platform, that if you aren’t familiar with it, you lose track of something he is showing you.  The learning curve is big for me here.  I think I’ve already spent AT LEAST 150 hours (that’s over 6 solid 24 hours of learning spread over a month) watching videos, playing around with the platform, researching credit spread option trading through other internet sources, understanding iron condors, double calendar spreads, vertical spreads.  If you like playing with numbers and analyzing them, this is the perfect business for you.  I think once I get over the learning curve, this will be the evergreen business I believe it will be.  I’m in it for the long haul.

I first watched the videos non stop and wrote notes.  Then after I opened my paper trading account, I found it best to mirror his trading videos with doing it in my paper account at the same time.  Even though his video shows him doing this a year ago.  I’ve taken the very same indexes he uses in the videos and tried to emulate them a year later, using the current strike prices and bid and ask ranges of today.  I stop and pause the videos often, play around with the concepts I just learned and do them in my account, then I go back to his video.

Quickly perusing my notes has also helped me remember some important points and knowing which video to reopen and review.

I’ll let you know how the paper trading has gone by May 16th.  I’m trading with confidence!