Blockhead Traders Weekly

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses a recent situation in which he panicked. This panic put sprocket888 in a worse situation than if he had kept his emotions in check and executed the plan. Often, in videos, it can appear that trading is always robotic, but in reality, maintaining everything totally robotic all the time…  Read More » I Panicked: Panic response will...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 discuss the book “Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas”. In a fireside chat style, the traders discuss the premise of the book as well as the highlights that each got when reading the book. The book is fitting for all audiences. Both sprocket888 and viperxl007 agree that…  Read More » Fireside Chat: Sometimes what...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 provides a detailed examination of elevated volatility and its impact on options prices. Understanding the effect that elevated volatility has on options pricing is foundational to understanding the potential outcomes. In this episode, sprocket888 takes an objective look at two situations: one where the option chain has elevated volatility and… ...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. They each recap one area from last week’s trading. For sprocket888, he goes through how he determines the strategy to deploy for selling premium. This means selling just a Put or selling a Put and a Call. It is a visual inspection that he does to…  Read More » Searching and Learning: Sprocket888 is searching a...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. Together they take a look back at the most recent trading week and each pick a topic to give a callout to. For sprocket888, he emphasizes that sticking to a proven strategy will ultimately lead to success, even if the journey is painful. Viperxl007 sees a…  Read More » Trading callouts: A detailed look at two aspect...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 performs a solo show. In this episode, sprocket888 details the typical time commitment he puts forward to his trading. In addition to the time he discusses the content of this time as well as the why and how it might be adapted to others. It is important to develop habits…  Read More » Real Time Commitment: A detailed look at sprocket888&#8...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. They take a quick retrospection on the recent weeks’ trading action and chime in on how things went down for them. Sprocket888 touches on a few of his in-flight earnings trades. Most of these trades are too early to determine whether they will win or lose.…  Read More » Retrospection: A look into the recent tr...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 performs a solo show. This show is kicking off the upcoming quarter earnings, and as such, it was time to do a refresher on the strategy and mechanics of the earnings strangle. This is the style of trade that is Sprocket888’s favorite trade to make around the earnings announcement. Not…  Read More » Earnings Premium: A refresher on se...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007, and they take a look at a new trade that viperxl007 is trying out. This trade is a one-week trade on the $SPY. The short-term (1 DTE) option is sold, and then the same strike is bought one week later. Viperxl007 discusses what he likes about…  Read More » A Daily Dose: A daily calendar spread on the $SPY for income

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007, and they are taking a look at tokenization. There are two areas that they examine. The first is the GENIUS Act, currently going through Congress here in the US. This act sets a lot of the groundwork and rules around tokenizing items that are backed by…  Read More » Tokenization: Your dollars and your stocks

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at a recent earnings trade on $FDX. Viperxl007 and Sprocket both took out a trade on the underlying; both were trading to short volatility, and both should have made a significant profit. However, only one came out as a winner in the trade. The reason may surprise…  Read More » You got options: In your trades and your choice of...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at two earnings trades and discusses whether you should close them or let them ride to expiration. As you can imagine, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this. The two trades in this episode are on $FDX and $NKE. In the case of $FDX, there were still…  Read More » Post Earnings: Should you close or let it ride to expiratio...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 examine the concept of a market edge. This is something that you might have heard people speak about, and you might wonder what it is and whether it’s something an average retail trader can have. The short answer is ABSOLUTELY. In this episode, Sprocket and Viper discuss how…  Read More » A Market Edge: What is this &#3...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 accomplish two points. The first is to examine how a recent calendar spread earnings trade has performed for viperxl007. Then, using that same trade, they examine how two different brokers might impact the outcome of that trade. Viperxl007 placed the trade in Robinhood, and Sprocket888 placed the trade…  Read More » Broker Eq...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 check in on the experimental calendar spread strategy that viperxl007 is engaging in. There have been some interesting realizations so far that have been incorporated into the plan. These improvements have highlighted the benefits of journaling your trades and sticking to a plan. There have also been discoveries…  Read More »...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 examine an underrepresented superpower. Many factors can contribute to success in trading, but the list is very short when it comes to factors that universally can ‘save your bacon’. One such factor is to size the trading positions that you take properly. This is an aspect that is…  Read More » Proper Position Siz...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 take a look at some recent experiments that viperxl007 has been doing around earnings. Viperxl007 is working to build a strategy that he finds interesting and has been testing various permutations of this. In this episode, he recaps three approaches he recently took and reflects on what worked…  Read More » Earnings Experimen...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 take a look at the option assignment. This is something that will inevitably happen when you sell options. This event can be the source of unknown fear and confusion. However, option assignment does not have to be a scary thing. In this episode, sprocket888 uses a recent example…  Read More » Assignment: Can be more profitabl...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 continue to look closely at some earnings trades. They discuss each respective strategy and then discuss how it applies to one specific earnings trade. Sprocket888 played $UPST with a short strangle during the week of earnings. Viperxl007 played $PRCH with a Calendar spread. Each type has pros and…  Read More » High probabili...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 closely examine earnings and options pricing. The earnings event is a binary event that sprocket888 often trades. He typically sells options heading into earnings. viperxl007 has been trading long on options and has recently started to look at using a calendar spread to trade earnings with options. In…  Read More » Earnings:...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 look at the children’s fable about the ant and the grasshopper. Each one took a different approach in good times. The pros and cons surfaced later in the fable, where one was better suited to weather the storm than the other. From there, viperxl007 talks about his retirement…  Read More » Profits: Are you an Ant or A Gr...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 reflect on the most recent week of volatile trading. The trading week was full of violent swings up and down. The traders discuss how this makes them feel and what they do in this environment. Sprocket888 reflects on how this level of volatility is a lot like sailing…  Read More » The winningest move: Sometimes the winningest...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 take a look at the tariff meltdown. First, they remind us what a tariff is and why it impacts the stock market. Then, they spend time individually reflecting on the impact of the meltdown. The retrospection covers many of the core fundamentals they talk about all the time…  Read More » The Tariff Meltdown: A candid reflection...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 look at an option strategy called a Calander Spread. This combines two options at the same strike price in different months. Depending on whether you use Puts or Calls and if you sell or buy, you can express different ideas on the market. The benefit of this technique…  Read More » The Calendar Spread: A consideration for sma...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a detailed look at volatility. Volatility is at the core of his trading strategy. Looking for elevated volatility contributes to the probabilistic edge that sprocket888 goes for. He covers two angles in this episode. The first is a recent earnings trade on $DLTR, where the elevated volatility helped score…  Read More » Volatility Expl...