Common questions, a plain-English glossary, and how to reach us.
Email support@opusoptionstrading.com. We read everything.
For anything account-related, send it from the address you signed up with so we can find you.
No. Every trade is simulated against real market prices. You cannot deposit, withdraw, or lose real money, and nothing here is investment advice. The point is to practise the process and keep the lessons.
Live market data from our data provider. Option quotes on our current plan are delayed rather than real-time, and some contracts trade so rarely that the last price is hours or days old. We label a stale print rather than passing it off as a live quote.
We could not get a quote for that contract, so there is no honest mark to compare against your entry. Rather than show $0.00 — which would look like the position simply had not moved — we say the P&L is unknown. Its automatic exit bracket is paused while that is true, because we will not close a position at a price nobody quoted.
The strike is not actually listed on that expiration. Option chains do not offer every price — a stock trading near $127 may list $127 and $128 but never $127.50. An unlisted contract has no market, so it could never be priced or closed, and we refuse to open one.
It is the house rule: take profit at three quarters of the premium, stop out at half. The platform closes the position automatically when either level trades. You can switch it off on the trade ticket, but then watching the position is on you.
It adds a second option at a farther strike. Against a short position that caps your worst case at a known number instead of leaving it open-ended; against a long one it lowers the cost in exchange for capping the upside.
Where option prices sit relative to how much the stock has actually been moving over the past year. High means options are pricing more movement than the stock has delivered, which favours selling premium; low favours buying it.
In the app, open Settings then Delete my account. On the web, go to Settings then Account. It removes your profile, paper account, positions and journal. You have 30 days to undo it from the email we send; after that it cannot be recovered.
Email support@opusoptionstrading.com. Telling us what you expected to happen and what happened instead gets it fixed fastest.
How much the option's price changes when the stock moves $1. A 0.50 delta call gains $0.50 if the stock rises $1. Also approximates the chance of finishing in-the-money.
How fast delta changes as the stock moves. High gamma means your directional exposure shifts rapidly — common in near-expiration ATM options.
How much the option price changes when interest rates move 1%. Usually small for short-dated options but matters for LEAPS.
How much value the option loses per day from time passing (time decay). Long option holders lose theta; option sellers collect it.
How much the option's price changes when implied volatility moves 1%. Long options have positive vega; short options have negative vega.
An option whose strike is closest to the current stock price. Highest gamma and time decay; most actively traded.
Difference between the highest price someone will pay (bid) and the lowest price someone will sell at (ask). Tighter spreads = better liquidity.
The stock price at expiration where the trade neither makes nor loses money, before fees. Past it in your favour you profit; past it the other way you lose.
Also called time value. The portion of an option's price that isn't intrinsic value. Decays to zero by expiration.
How much the stock has actually moved over a recent period (e.g., 20 or 30 days), annualized. Compare to IV to see if options are over- or underpriced.
The market's expectation of how much the stock will move, expressed as an annualized percentage. High IV = expensive options; low IV = cheap options.
An option with intrinsic value. A call is ITM if the stock is above the strike; a put is ITM if the stock is below the strike.
How much the option is in-the-money. For a call: max(0, stock - strike). For a put: max(0, strike - stock). The remainder is extrinsic (time value).
Cash you receive up front when you open the trade. It's yours to keep if the options expire worthless, and it caps how much you can make.
Cash you pay up front to open the trade. For bought options it is also the most you can lose.
An option with no intrinsic value, only time value. Cheaper than ITM options but lower probability of profit.
The average loss on trades that closed in the red. A small average loser is usually the sign of cutting losing trades early rather than hoping they come back.
The average profit on trades that closed in the green. Compare it with the average loser: if losses run bigger than wins, you need a high win rate just to break even.
The calendar month with the largest total realised profit. One strong month can flatter a record, so look at how consistent the other months are.
A measure of how accurate your probability forecasts are — lower is better.
The model's probability of profit checked against real platform outcomes — "Model 68% · OpusOT reality 61%."
The honest uncertainty band around a win rate — 58% over 12 trades might really be anywhere from ~44% to ~71%.
A 0–100 recommendation score where every point is auditable. Tiers: 90+ Exceptional · 80s High confidence · 70s Good · 60s Speculative · below 60 Pass.
Calendar days remaining until the option expires. Short DTE = high theta decay risk; long DTE = lower decay but more capital tied up.
What an average trade is worth: win rate × average winner, minus loss rate × average loser. Positive expectancy is the point of a strategy; win rate alone is not.
The 1-sigma price range the market expects, based on IV and time. Roughly: stock × IV × √(days/365). Stock has ~68% chance of staying within this range.
Percentage of trading days in the past year where IV was lower than today. 80%+ = IV is historically rich.
Where current IV sits in its 1-year range, scaled 0-100. Above 50 = elevated, sell premium. Below 30 = cheap, buy options.
Position sizing computed from your statistical edge, applied conservatively — small while evidence is thin, growing as it accumulates.
The strike where the most option premium would expire worthless. Stocks tend to gravitate toward this price near expiration as market makers hedge.
Total number of contracts currently held by traders (not yet closed or expired). Higher OI = more liquid contract.
The model-implied chance a trade finishes profitable at expiration, computed from live prices and implied volatility with the premium (breakeven) accounted for. Higher probability usually means smaller potential profit.
A grade for the decision — entry timing, position size, the volatility environment, and the exit — kept separate from whether the trade made money. A profitable trade can earn a poor grade.
Total dollars won divided by total dollars lost across closed trades. Above 1.0 means your winners outweigh your losers; 2.0 means you made $2 for every $1 you lost.
The profit at the target divided by the most the trade can lose. 50% means risking $2 to make $1. High return on risk usually comes with a lower chance of profit.
Return divided by how bumpy that return was. Higher means smoother; above 1 is generally good. It treats big gains and big losses as equally 'volatile', which flatters strategies that sell options until the day they don't.
Number of contracts traded today. High volume confirms liquidity and active interest in that strike.
The share of closed trades that made money. On its own it says little: a 35% win rate can be very profitable if the winners are much bigger than the losers, and a 90% win rate can lose money if one loss wipes out many small wins.
Sell a put while holding enough cash to buy the stock at the strike. Gets paid premium upfront. If assigned, you own the stock at a discount.
Sell a call against shares you already own. Collects premium but caps your upside if the stock rallies past the strike.
Sell a closer-to-money option and buy a further-out one of the same type for a net credit. Defined risk, time-decay friendly, high-probability income strategy.
Buy a closer-to-money option and sell a further-out one of the same type for a net debit. Cheaper than a long option, but max profit is capped.
A non-directional, range-bound strategy. Sell 1 call spread above and 1 put spread below the stock. Profits if the stock stays between the short strikes.
Long-term Equity AnticiPation Securities — options expiring more than 1 year out. Behave more like stock than short-dated options.
Buy (or sell) a call AND a put at the same strike. Long straddle profits from a big move in either direction; short straddle profits from a flat market.
Like a straddle but with the call and put at different strikes (call above, put below). Cheaper than a straddle but needs a bigger move to profit.
Sell cash-secured puts on a stock you'd like to own. If assigned, sell covered calls against the shares until called away. Repeat.
When you sold an option, the buyer exercises it and forces you to fulfill the contract — buy or sell shares at the strike. Common with ITM short options near expiration.
The largest drop from a peak in account value to the lowest point that followed. It measures the worst stretch you would have had to sit through.
The most this trade can lose if it's held to expiration and everything goes against you. Size positions by this number, not by how much you might make.
The most this trade can make at expiration. For trades that collect a credit, it's the credit itself; for bought calls it's unlimited in theory.
When heavy call buying forces market makers to buy more stock to hedge their short calls, fueling a self-reinforcing rally.
The sudden drop in implied volatility after a known event (like earnings) is resolved. Long options can lose value even if the stock moves your way.
Guided lessons walk through the same ideas in order.
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