Blockhead Traders Weekly

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined with viperxl007. sprocket888 first quickly recaps one of the biggest earning premium selling plays he has ever had. After that, sprocket888 talks through two recent earnings trades selling premium going into them. Viperxl007 then talks about his exploration of some new scalping approaches. In this, he looks at…  Read More » Never...

In this week’s episode, viperxl007 and sprocket888 examine the recent market whipsaw action. First, sprocket888 talks about a premium selling trade he had on /RTY. With the massive volatility, he found his position in the money. Going down to the wire, he ended up taking assignment at expiration. Then, just before the market opened the…  Read More » Stick to the plan: A lesso...

In this week’s episode, viperxl007 and sprocket888 take a look at the AI trade. Most recently, the market news hit a company out of China, DeepSeek, that reportedly could attain ChatGPT-like performance on a fraction of the power and cost. This news story sent shockwaves through the market as many traders began to question the…  Read More » A thesis tested: DeepSeek news send...

In this week’s episode, viperxl007 is back. Bitcoin has been in the mainstream media news a lot lately. The big topic concerns the US National Reserve of Bitcoin. viperxl007 and sprocket888 look deeper at this and ponder the question of ‘why?’. From there, they go through a thought exercise about the future of Bitcoin and…  Read More » Bitcoin front and center: A...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 reviews two recent trades that have been a significant breach to the upside. Both $SNOW and $COIN were premium selling trades that have taken off like a rocket to the upside, going as far as $100 in the money. This is a worst-case scenario when it comes to selling option…  Read More » When trades go bad: Keep on rollin’.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 reviews a surprise trading opportunity surfacing on the /RTY last week. Heading into the week, nothing emerged as a trade to take. sprocket888 was planning on just sitting back through the week to see what might open up in the coming weeks. However, at the tail end of the week,…  Read More » Suprise Opportunity: Volatility opened up on /RTY...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is getting ready for the first trades of 2025. As part of the preparations, there are secondary signals that he uses to help fine-tune his trade. In this episode, he talks about these secondary signals that he uses. They don’t mean anything to him by themselves, but when used with…  Read More » Secondary Signals: A way to fine-tune yo...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 looks deeply at option assignment. Option assignment is when the buyer chooses to exercise the option or when the option is in the money at expiration. Assignments do not happen often, but they do and will happen at some point. As with everything we discuss on this show, understanding is…  Read More » Come on baby, don’t fear assignme...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 look back at 2024. This is the time of year when the two traders highlight the most memorable and proud moments and the most significant learning moments. As the year passes, it is sometimes hard to see all the events from an aggregate perspective. Looking back at the…  Read More » Reflections: sprocket888 and viperxl007 look...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 goes over what is known as an Option Spread or an Option Vertical. This is a type of trade where both the gain and loss potential are fully defined and limited. In understanding this trade type, you can use the high probability strategy of selling out-of-the-money options while containing and…  Read More » Defining the risk: Selling options...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 discuss their plans for the balance of the trading year. They both will exercise patience as neither one feels overly optimistic about the general markets. There are, for sure, a lot of opportunities that could be floating around out there, but patience is the key. When they talk…  Read More » The final countdown: The traders...

Trader sprocket888 recently opened up a trade on the Russel index. The trade was selling a short strangle on the index. He was looking to capitalize on the pre-election volatility. However, The Russell has far exceeded the expected move to the upside post-elections. This has caused the trade to be in the red by a…  Read More » Managing a breach: Not all trades are perfect.

Trader sprocket888 looks back at a big earnings day in this week’s episode. In the week, four tickers fit the extended volatility setup leading into earnings. The twist on this was that all four announced on the same day. One before the bell and three after the bell. In this episode, sprocket888 talks about the…  Read More » Four earnings, one day: a recap of the trades and t...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007, who returns to the show after a long break. The two traders reflect on the events leading up to the election and what the landscape looks like post-election. For viperxl007, this was the first election cycle in which he actively traded. Both traders highlight how…  Read More » Post Election Reflection: Uncert...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 looks back at recent trades discussed on the show. There are six to look at. All six trades were discussed in a previous episode, and sprocket888 entered each. Most of them have run their course and have been closed out. Looking back, five of the six have been winners,…  Read More » Recent Rundown: $TEAM, $INTC, $F, $SNAP, $META, and...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 needs to pick up more portfolio theta. Portfolio theta is the time premium that decays on a given day. The strategy here is to keep the theta high while the delta low. What is delta? Delta is the amount of movement in the portfolio relative to the movement in…  Read More » Theta up, Delta down: Picking up some daily theta.

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 looks for possible earnings trades for the upcoming week. These are trades where volatility is extra extended, and he is looking for solid volatility contraction and the basis on which the expressed volatility was originally overstated. In this screening, he has landed on two trades, $SNAP and $META. The…  Read More » Earnings Trades...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 follows up on a trade he picked out last week for earnings on $DFS. He entered a trade for the earnings week and the subsequent monthly expiration. He walks through how the trade panned out in the two regular views: the table view and the flappy bird chart. The…  Read More » Ring the register: The conclusion of the $DFS trade.

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is ready to deploy some capital. To do this, Sprocket888 talks through the steps he takes to identify a trade worthy of his capital. The trading style here is premium selling, so the techniques and screening are tilted toward that aim. However, some aspects are also relevant to any…  Read More » Shadowing Sprocket888: How does Sprock...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 looks at his recent earnings trade on $MU. This trade needed management and adjustment, something that should always be prepared for. Sprocket888 talks through the trade set-up, the earnings announcement, and the subsequent trimming of the sails to adjust for the result. This episode highlights the importance of preparing…  Read More &#18...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. This week, we take a break from ‘trading’ and focus on retirement. This is a topic that too many people put off until later, only to find that later comes too late. We know there can be anxiety and uncertainty regarding all the different retirement…  Read More » Retirement: Even RedBananas need to...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. The Fed has cut interest rates by 0.5%, and the two traders are taking a look at the price action associated with this move. They also discuss if anything will influence their calculus or strategy now that the rate cut has been made. Viper then…  Read More » To roll or not to roll: A look at a real example wi...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. The two traders take a look at different trading tools. There is more to trading than simply buying and selling shares. Many financial products out there will allow you to express your thesis in various ways. Each of these tools has different aspects that may…  Read More » Kid, you got options: A look at diff...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. sprocket888 updates traders on his latest attempt at strangling the big green monster. He opened up a short strangle play on $NVDA earnings. Then, the two traders discuss their general thoughts on the market in light of the latest moves by the Oracle of Omaha.…  Read More » Market Ramblings: A view from the t...

In this week’s episode, trader sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. It has been over a month since Viper has been on the show, so in this episode, Sprocket gets updated on what Viper has been doing. Additionally, the two hosts look at ‘The Carry Trade’ meltdown. While the meltdown was paused because governments retreated from…  Read More » Interdependent Markets:...