Transcription
Week one of the $300 to $30,000 options trading challenge is officially done. And the account closed the week up $245. On the surface, that looks great. But, the series is not about posting green screenshots. The real question is did the plan from the last episode actually hold up? Today, I'm breaking down every part of week one, the results, the trades, what worked, what failed, and what I'm changing before week two.
In the last episode, I explained the most important part of this challenge. I did not start by randomly putting real money into trades. The order was planned first, testing second, and then small live executions. So, the main strategy going into week one was the one DTE QQQ iron condor. That means I was trading defined risk credit spreads on QQQ that expire the next trading day. I was mainly looking at short strikes roughly $9 to $10 away from the current QQQ price. And I had a couple XSP iron butterflies with really low risk that I was trying to just give a little boost to my account. But, that is not the main plan. The main strategy was the QQQ one DTE iron condor. So, let's see what happened in week one.
Here's the week one scorecard. Closed P&L was a positive 245. Average P&L per day was $61. I took 11 total positions, seven were winners, four were losers, and that gives me a win rate of 63.6. The profit factor was 4.27, and the average P&L per trade was $22. Average winning trade was 46, and the average losing was -19. The average risk 99, and the average DTE was less than one day, 0.8. So, these are pretty strong numbers for the first week. But, one good week does not prove a strategy works. One good week is data. So, now let's separate the results by strategy because this is where the real lesson is.
Obviously, QQQ iron condors carried the week. I took seven QQQ iron condors, six of them were winners, and one was a loser. Together, those QQQ iron condors generated $252. I also had one SPY short put spread that made $32. And then I tested these three XSP iron butterflies, and they made nothing. Those losses were small, but together they lost $39. So, the headline is not just I made $245. The headline is the primary strategy worked this week.
Now, let's go ahead and look at each day. Let's start on May 19th. We had a clean start. I had one position, a QQQ iron condor, and it closed for $27, and the return on risk was 37.5%.
Now, going to May 20th, that was the busiest day of the week. There were five positions, a QQQ iron condor closed for $7, an XSP iron butterfly expired for seven, a SPY short put spread closed for $32, and then the QQQ iron condor closed for a $36 loss. Then finally, there was another QQQ iron condor that closed for $37. So, this day was a perfect example of why I need to track each strategy separately. If I look only at the total P&L, I can miss real information. The QQQ iron condors were mixed, but still net positive. The XSP totally lost, and then the SPY spread helped out. But, I do not want to confuse a mixed day with a clean system.
Now, I'll be honest, with the SPY, I did do a zero DTE, which pinged me for one day trading day, because I knew I was going to be a net loss, so I went ahead and did that. I would not advise it. That's not part of my plan. So, even though I won, I'm not going to count that as a win.
Now, May 21st had two positions. The XSP iron butterfly expired for an $18 loss again, but the QQQ iron condor closed for $108. That iron condor was the biggest winner of the week, but we have to be careful because that big winner can make us feel good and make us feel like our strategy is working, but it's not proof. It's just something to study and put into our database. We cannot just go ahead and oversize positions, right? We have to be consistent.
So, now let's go ahead and go to May 22nd. May 22nd had three positions, a QQQ iron Condor closed for $69. XSP iron butterfly once again lost for $14. And then another iron Condor QQQ closed for $40.
So, by the end of the week, the pattern was clear. The QQQ iron Condors were carrying the account. That XSP butterfly, I think I'm not going to do any more of that because I don't want to just gamble and risk, even if it's a low risk, in order to try and get big because just in this first week nothing hit. And since that's not part of my plan, I want to stick to my plan.
Because here's what worked. Number one, the QQQ one DTE iron Condor. That was my primary strategy from the plan, and this week it performed very well. What else performed well? Well, number two, defined risk. Every trade had risk defined before entry, which is important because I'm not trying to turn this into emotional gambling. And then number three, short holding periods. The average DTE was .8 days, and the average days in the trade was .7 days. That fits my plan.
So, the good news is the main plan had a strong first week, but now we need to talk about what didn't work. Now, that XSP iron butterflies obviously did not work. There were three of them. One lost for seven, one for 18, and one for 14. That's a negative $39. The good news is those losses were small, and that's the point of that little bucket, but they didn't earn a spot in the plan, and I I I'm going to pass on those.
The second thing that needs work is risk. The dashboard shows the average risk was around $99 for a $300 starting account. That is high. So, even though week one was profitable, I cannot let the green week make me careless. If one trade can put a major dent in my account, then the plan needs tighter risk rules before I scale anything. Now, I will say with the small account, I am going to put a little bit more in risk than I would suggest is normal because I am trying to grow this account quickly. And I'm also trying to show you different ways of how to trade and what not to do. And when we oversize positions, that can really be the downfall to our account and end up blowing up our account.
So, the question now is did I follow the plan? Well, mostly, yes. That main focus was the QQQ 1 DTE iron condor. I kept those XSP iron butterflies small and I used defined risk trades. I also track the results by strategy, but there are two things I need to clean up. First, I need better separation between this core strategy and those experiments. I don't think I'm going to do those iron butterflies anymore, at least in the interim, until I become more consistent with my main plan. And then maybe I can add something else to my portfolio later on. And then second, I need to reduce or better justify my risk per trade.
Now again, I'm going to say that with the small account, me personally, because I am trying to make this account bigger faster, I am putting more risk than I would suggest. This is not trading advice. This is me showing you a plan and how to utilize a plan. This is why the framework matters. I'm going to use live data back to review and then into testing and optimization.
So, based on week one, here's my updated plan going into week two. Once again, the QQQ 1 DTE The condor is my primary strategy and I'm probably won't do anything else. If I do every strategy needs to get tracked separately. The risk per trade I have to keep an eye on and I'm also going to keep back testing before I scale. One good week is data, it's not proof. The most important update is this. I am not promoting a strategy just because it had a green week. I want to see if it holds up across more trades, more conditions and more review. The goal is repeatability not one lucky stretch and that leads perfectly into next week.
Since QQQ iron condors carried week one, the next step is to compare that live performance against the back test. I already have a QQQ next day iron condor back test. I'm using it as a filter because a green back test does not mean a strategy is proven. It means it's worthy of testing.
So week one is complete. The account closed at a positive $245. The QQQ iron condors carried the week and the biggest lesson is simple. Profit is good but repeatability is better. Subscribe to follow the $300 to $30,000 as we continue to take the guesswork out of options trading. I'll see you in the next episode.