Best Day To Trade Stocks Options

Many traders still struggle to find a consistent way to day trade options.

In this article, we will reveal what is the best day to trade stocks options and show you how we applied this knowledge to generate 200% profit on the Kroger stock (Ticker:KR) this past week.

Alos, I will reveal How to avoid losing positions because of badly timed entries.

Read further to learn how to navigate your trading plan through the timelines.

Best Day to Trade Stocks Options: Stop Gambling in 2022

For both beginners and well-seasoned traders, figuring out the best day to trade stocks options is critical.

Because options tend to lose their intrinsic value each day, Patience is one of the most important trait for traders to avoid major drawdown.

Drawdown is when your position starts going in the opposite direction of gains.

All traders are accustomed to the fact that stocks tend to move significantly following their quarterly Earnings releases.

Patience Is a Virtue in Day Trading Options

You can make more money in percentage gains when you trade weekly options.

These can be very cheap as well because you are not paying for more time in the premium.

However, their decay can be very drastic if the stock does not move at all.

Below is a chart that depicts exactly this concept.

Best Day to Trade Stock Options - For weekly options, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are ideal days
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the Best Day to Trade Weekly Options

This knowledge can create in some traders the desires of: easy money, fear of missing out and instant gratification.

I have witnessed many times in Trading rooms, the following question minutes before the close: “Anybody playing XYZ stock ER ? “.

Before Earnings Trade Are Not Sustainable

This question is from traders looking for a quick win or so they think.

I do not know about you but for my many years in the markets, I still cannot predict accurately what the market reaction will be for any stock after their Earnings.

One can be lucky now and then but for the most part, traders who gamble (yet, this is the proper word) before the Earnings Release end up losing money in the long run.

Best Day to Day Trade Stocks Options: When You Can Thrive

Instead, we recommend waiting for the Earnings Release is out and the initial reaction of the market.

There are two main ways options traders lose money by gambling before Earnings:

  • Guessing the wrong direction of the Market reaction
  • Guessing the correct direction but (assuming you even have the correct strike) Implied Volatility reduces Significantly

We will delve on the second bullet point in length in our upcoming discussion on options chain.

For now, I can tell you that Market Makers ALWAYS increase the options (both calls and puts) volatility before Earnings.

This is done to reflect the expected movement from the pending uncertainty of the news.

Implied Volatility Impact on Options Price

Volatility is one of the variables embedded int he price of options. The higher the volatility the higher the price of options when all other variables are constant.

Once the news is released, the uncertainty is gone.

Consequently, Market Makers reduce the volatility in the options.

This means that even if the stock does not move at all, options are more expensive before the Earnings news than after.

How much more, you ask ?

Allow me to illustrate through the NFLX option chain chart below.

Netflix Option Chain Chain showing NFLX Implied Volatility after Earnings Release with almost 100 percent decrease in Best Day to Trade Stocks Options article
NFLX Option Chain

I am choosing the above chart because it was after I understood that about Earnings Release “gamble” that I was able to put a proper methodology in place and start generating consistent gains.

Lessons Learned

What are we learning from the chart:

  • You may have guessed the correct direction: NFLX gained over $7 dollars or 5.7% (Top small red rectangle)
  • You may have even picked the correct Strike: Let’s say Jan17 137 Calls (Each row represents a strike for the Jan17 Expiration)
  • Result: at the time this snapshot was captured, you were losing over 10.5% on those Jan17 137 Calls !!!
  • How is that possible ? Because The Implied Volatility (two vertical orange columns) has reduced 97.49 %

If there is just one thing to take away from this post, let is be that chart.

It is the very embodiment of what Market Makers do day in and day out on post Earnings Release.

Yet many traders continue to gamble on options before Earnings Release.

How To Day Trade Options After Earnings

If you can avoid FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) before Earnings Release, you can set yourself up for nice opportunities to make money after.

During Earnings seasons (there are 4 in a year ) as we shared in this article, you will even have to make of a selection of the best opportunities.

Can you Resist F.O.M.O?

For that, we developed an easy method to measure which stocks move the most.

Before we shared that, let’s establish that we typically will use weekly options for our trades.

Since weekly options expire on Fridays, if you enter a trade on Thursday, it will be cheaper than on Monday or Tuesday assuming no movement.

Here is a view of a simple research we use in order to select among different stocks reporting Earnings on the same day or week.

Example of Best Day to Trade Stocks Options with Analysis of Alcoa Stock Historical Performance Following Earnings release from January 2017 to October 2018
Trading Alcoa Options Post Earnings

In the above table, we learn before Earnings the tendencies about Alcoa stock 3 days after Earnings Release.

We use this for each stock reporting on a given day/week to select the stock(s) that have the highest historical move(s).

You can wonder: How do we know if a stock will move as much as it has moved in the past ?

We don’t !!

But, I can tell you that most of the volume in the market is generated by machines.

These machines are known as Algos.

If there is one thing I have seen algos do time after time, it is to repeat past moves.

Over my years in the Market, I can say historical analysis is over 67% accurate.

I have used it successfully and continue to include it as one of the methods of finding successful trades.

We already know that the best day is always the day after or the same day if the earnings release is before the market open.

Now, if that day is Thursday (day after or before market open), that makes those weekly options very cheap.

Thus, making Thursday and Friday our two best days to trade options.

We previously published the Friday Bulls research for all days outside of Earnings Release.

Now, we are adding that Post Earnings Release on Thursday and Friday as the best to trade stocks options.

This does not mean that other Post Earnings on other days do not provide opportunities.

We are simply stressing on the fact that due to the nature of weekly options, cheaper entries are available on Thursdays and Fridays.

KR Puts on Thursday Dec 5

Well, such was the case this past Thursday when Kroger (Ticker:KR) shared their earnings before Market Open on December 5, 2019.

The pre-market was a bit of a wild ride. Initially KR went down -2.6%.

Then just a few minutes before the open, it erased all previous losses to settle at the previous day close around $27.6.

The Setup of The Trade

After the open, the Dec13 26.5 Puts went from 19 cents low to 53 cents in less than 2 hours.

That is over 100% gains. As you can imagine, the Dec6 26.5 Puts must have generated a much bigger profit.

I do not have access to that at the time of this writing because they have already expired.

The move down of about one dollar is not something random. To me at least.

Remember our little historical table above and the question about how reliable it is ?

Well, I looked at it for KR on Thursday for KR is pre-market.

I put it a limit entry order for the Dec6 27.5 Puts. That order was not filled because my limit was too low.

I forgot about it before I was busy managing other positions.

Therefore, I missed an easy opportunity on Thursday to make some serious gains on those puts.

KR Calls on Dec 6 for 200% Profit

The other positions that kept me busy made good money but still I was a bit disappointed for not taking advantage of the historical study on Kroger post earnings moves.

I did not wait long to redeem myself.

Leveraging Earnings Quant Analysis

The same post earnings historical study (as the one I shared for Alcoa) reveals that the day after Earnings (Day +1 on that table), KR usually moves in the opposite direction of the day of the earnings.

I guarantee you I do not make this stuff up.

I have been astonished many times by the accuracy of historical analysis.

So just around the close on Thursday, I made sure I entered the Dec6 27 Calls as the closing was around $26.80.

I picked the $27 strike because the estimated move from historical was calling for a price up to $27.50 on Friday.

I wanted to be on the safe side to be in the money in that trade as soon as possible.

Since the Dec6 27 Calls were cheap enough (9 cents per contracts), I opted for those.

I captured below the fills on Thursday, December 5, 2019 and the sell orders execution the next day.

Trading Options on Kroger Stock: Buy and Sell Orders on KR Dec6 27 Calls from 9 cents Buy to 30 and 31 cents Sell on dec 6 2019
Successful Day Trade on KR Post Earnings

200% Profit on the KR Options Trade

So, we bought the Dec6 27 Calls for 9 cents and sold them using our scaled exit technique for 30 cents and 31 cents.

That represents 200% gains for this overnight swing trade.

Notice that our technique did not help up much here (just $3 more despite waiting one hour and 18 minutes later.

But what if I told that it would have if we waited much longer as the Dec6 27 calls were trading over 53 cents much later in the day.

We were content with our 200% and sold the second batch only because the position retreated a bit on Friday expiration,

we have learned to take our gains and run.

Live to Come back and Fight another day.

Other Examples Successful Day Trades

I have captured most of these Options Day trade on the many videos on my YouTube channel.

I encourage you to check them out today to learn more insights into this technique.

Day Trading OptionsYouTube Video
2000% Day Trading Roku https://youtu.be/z_8ijmGr8pA
250% on Roku in 40 Minuteshttps://youtu.be/MKQwltsrBdw
9700% Day Trading WBA Optionshttps://youtu.be/P2i_oJIJs3I
1000% Day Trading JD Calls Optionshttps://youtu.be/XnSBqcNsYWc
1000% Day Trading TGT Optionshttps://youtu.be/p37Q4B-JNpE
Best Day Trade from Successful Tradings Discord Room

Making 200% Day Trading Roku Stock Options

FINAL THOUGHTS ON BEST DAY TO TRADE OPTIONS

We learned that the best day to trade stock options is after Earnings when the market offers low risk opportunities on Thursday and Fridays especially for Post Earnings Release.

Historical analysis can help determine the size of the moves post earnings and thus help you as a trader to focus on the highest moving stocks.

That knowledge was successfully applied to generate 200% a day later despite missing the first move on the day of the earnings release.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as we did in writing it.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Looking for the best way to Day Trade SPY, STOP!

16 thoughts on “Best Day To Trade Stocks Options”

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience. Sometimes a gain may seem to be negligible, but 200% on a small trade is better than a loss, for sure. As you said, take the gains and run. In the crypto world, we will invest a lot into a coin of tiny value based on a hunch it will double soon. The money gained isn’t astonishing, but it is definitely satisfying. It’s nice to know we aren’t the only ones who are willing to make the most of an overall small gain monetarily, based on a percentage win. I hope that makes sense.

    Reply
  2. Your article made me realize how much research and strategy goes into day trading. It seems that the more information you can have at your disposal, the more accurate you can be in pinpointing which days are going to be best for trading certain stock options. Would you say this is a correct assumption to takeaway from your article? 

    Reply
  3. Hi dear!! thank you for this content,  I have in my status a Master degree in Finance analyses, and I can tell you trading in Stock is one of the amazing Businesses that can help you grow up your wealth. I know some friends who chose to follow this way and they are doing very well. You are very right because most people are confusing between investing in stocks and gambling as you said and they think they can get rich in one click, it’s not right I like your blog and I will be sharing it. 

    Reply
    • How are you doing Youness ?

      Thank you for sharing the article with your friends.

      We really appreciate it.

      Have a very productive day.

      Reply
  4. It is nice you share the tips on how to trade stock options. It is clearly that timing is very thing in your option trading.

    You give us another case study on live trading: you bought the the Dec6 27 Calls for 9 cents and sold them using your scaled exit technique for 30 cents and 31 cents. This is good 200% gains!

    It seems that you have many different techniques for different circumstances. In this case, you used scaled exit technique. How do you decide which techniques for your buys and sells?

    It is kind of you sharing valuable information with us, which has the potential to create financial freedom for us.

    Reply
    • Hello Anthony,

      I always use scaled exit on my winning trades. 

      The allows me to trade without any pressure after taking the initial profit.

      Then i can  let me winners run and generate bigger profits in case the position continues in my favor.

      Thank you for the sharing your view on this article.

      Reply
  5. Hi! Thank you for sharing your experience concerning the best days to trade. I have been carefully examining your graphics and it’s impressive how well things have come out on Thursday and Fridays, specially for Post Earnings Release, as you have also stated. Thanks for sharing your Excel files with us, I really appreciate it. Very useful post.

    Reply
    • Thank you Henry for the positive feedback on this article.

      Our goal is to provide the most useful information to you the readers.

      See you next time.

      Reply
  6. Man, this post is worth goal. I wouldn’t have arrived to that conclusion any time soon. So Thursdays and Fridays are the special days. It’s completely different when we’re guided by a veteran like you compared to when we try to give our own steps all by ourselves. I’ve bookmarked your site to continue learning.

    Reply
    • Howdy Abel,

      How are you doing today ?

      Glad to see that the article helped you learn something new.

      Looking forward to bringing you more insightful on stocks options like this one.

      Have a great evening Sir.

      Reply
  7. Hello Telex, thank you for your helpful article, I have been seeking for alternative forms of income. And stock trading has been one of my options but the risk has always held me back.
    The way you shed light into the two main ways traders lose money by gambling from earnings and also your introduction into the NFLX option chain chart gives me confidence that with more training I will make it.
    Once again thanks a million.

    Reply
    • Hello Parameter,

      I am glad you found this article valuable enough to give you the conviction to move forward with your trading career.

      Please make sure to share with your friends you might also benefit from this knowledge.

      Thank you very  much for taking the time to leave us your input. We greatly appreciate it.

      Reply
  8. Wait ! Best Time to Trade?

    Is this a new indicator? or a technical analysis? And if I’m not mistaken, the best day to trade is based on historical data and is 67% accurate.

    Speaking of this, what if I have missed the position? Is there a way to not miss the train?

    And another thing, is the best day to trade only specific to certain types of shares? Or valid for every stock that i pick?

    Reply
    • Hello Ronnytan,

      The best day to trade stocks options is derived from our analysis of the behavior of the options.

      Regarding the missing the train question, unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you will always enter your trades at the right moment.

      Our observation valid for ALL stocks that trade options (optionable) since the time decay principle is valid regardless of the stocks.

      Hope this helps you out my friend. See you next time. 

      Reply

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