Why This Trader Exits His 0DTE Iron Condors Early (And Accepts Smaller Profits)

[00:05] with more certainty than 40% to 50% a year with less certainty. Zero DTE break year with less certainty. Zero DTE break even iron condors, also called multiple interest iron condors, MEIC, is a very popular day trading strategy among

[00:21] options traders. My guest has his own version of this strategy and that's what we will dig into today. Welcome Anton Danilchuk. Hello John, thank you for

[00:33] you. Anton, let's get straight to it. Give us a very short summary of your way of trading the strategy and how it has worked for you. So, there is a proverb which says a bird

[00:48] So, there is a proverb which says a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Meaning that we value what we've currently secured we value what we've currently secured over potential yet uncertain gains. And

[01:00] over potential yet uncertain gains. And so, to exploit this human tendency to so, to exploit this human tendency to favor security over risk I'm just using this classical MEIC strategy with a twist. I exit early my profit gains

[01:16] if they are between 25% to 50% profit target, I just take them off and move target, I just take them off and move on. So, this basically allows me to on. So, this basically allows me to make more certain profits which could be

[01:29] higher in the future, but if they're secured then it's good and we move on. And I'm very curious to learn more about this MEIC or I call them zero DTE break even iron condors is my main trading

[01:45] strategy. So, I'm it's a lot to learn about to hear how your variation is working. But first, tell us a little bit about yourself, especially as an options about yourself, especially as an options trader. I am originally from Russia. I

[01:59] was an assistant professor at the same university for about a year over there. university for about a year over there. After that, I received an equivalent of what we call a PhD here in the US. Still in Russia. Then in the year 2000,

[02:15] my wife and I moved to the US. I was admitted and later obtained my Master of Business Administration here in the US and we've been living here

[02:28] on the West Coast in the Los Angeles area ever since, since 2006. area ever since, since 2006. I discovered options trading in uh 2020. It It wasn't smooth sailing at all

[02:41] 2020. It It wasn't smooth sailing at all until I intuitively came up with selling until I intuitively came up with selling zero DTE iron condors. I lost money at first, but later I found very useful videos online mostly from Tammy and from

[02:57] you, John. And ever since I've been doing AM MEICs. So, it's been about what, three three years now. All right. And I think before we go into how you trade this, I think we need to

[03:13] how you trade this, I think we need to establish what is zero DTE break even iron condor or MEIC. What is this strategy that we are starting from? So, as you were mentioning, uh our strategy the main strategy is

[03:29] uh our strategy the main strategy is MEIC, which basically says that you have multiple entries of iron condors throughout the day, mostly starting from so 8:00 a.m. Pacific time, 11:00

[03:43] so 8:00 a.m. Pacific time, 11:00 a.m. Eastern time until about 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. And MEIC makes money when basically implied volatility is higher than the actual volatility and it

[03:58] than the actual volatility and it exploits time decay since it's zero DTE. And what is special about this strategy? As you said, it is multiple iron condors little bit bit different ways. Some people automate this. Others like myself

[04:15] do it more discretionary, but it's multiple iron condors that you sell throughout the day. You set the stop loss on each side equal to the total premium that you have received for the iron condor. So this is actually pretty

[04:31] tight stop losses, which means that you don't necessarily have a very high win rate, but the wins are on average much more than the losses because if stop loss hits on one side, basically you are break even on the trade. It's only when

[04:47] you have stop losses hit on both sides that you really have a loss with this strategy. Is that a fair description of it? Yeah, it is a very good description that you're giving of the

[05:00] classical MAIC that both Jamie and yourself are exploiting, but right now I have changed a little bit and why did I change it? It's mostly because of this narrative that I sided with is that I value what I've currently

[05:17] secured over potential yet uncertain gains. I haven't mentioned, but right now I'm managing other people's money. I'm managing other people's money. I'm managing six to seven figure accounts

[05:31] and basically account owners of that size don't need fantastic returns. They size don't need fantastic returns. They want consistent lower returns and they want consistent lower returns and they value consistency over gains. These

[05:45] people are also in their 50s and 60s, so they they only invest about maybe 30 to 35% in the only invest about maybe 30 to 35% in the S&P index, and the rest

[05:59] they just have sitting in cash, and they would rather have 2 to 3% would rather have 2 to 3% a month than a bigger amount throughout the year skewed towards several months. So, one of the problems with the

[06:14] So, one of the problems with the classical MEIC is that it gives you very high returns during several months throughout the year, but for some other months, you have losses.

[06:30] It's okay if you're not concerned about that, but if you are like some of my clients are, they were asking me, especially in the beginning of this 2026, as you might recall, January and February were not very favorable for

[06:48] February were not very favorable for regular MEICs. We all had either little regular MEICs. We all had either little gains or losses for two straight months, and this was not very nice to have. And so, I came up

[07:03] with this variation of MEIC. Once again, it does not provide higher returns throughout the year, but it does provide more consistent returns.

[07:16] I would rather have 24 to 30% a year with more certainty than to 30% a year with more certainty than 40 to 50% a year with less certainty. 40 to 50% a year with less certainty. An MEIC as such has fairly low

[07:31] drawdowns, I would say, compared to a number of other zero DTE strategies, but you have made it even even smaller drawdowns, if I understand So, I'm I'm very curious to get into this now and the details of how you

[07:46] this now and the details of how you trade it. So, I enter starting from 8:00 a.m. Pacific time, which is 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, every 15 to 20

[07:58] minutes. I do about uh a dollar 50 per contract on each side. And throughout the day, this premium decreases. So, I start with about 160,

[08:13] 170 on each side, and it goes 170 on each side, and it goes down to about 90 cents close to down to about 90 cents close to noon Pacific, 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

[08:25] My profit target is set at 25% for 25% of the entries, 50% for the other 25% of the entries, and so on. We can

[08:40] on. We can see that in the bot description. And my see that in the bot description. And my stop loss is between 65 to 75% of the net loss. So, it's only .65 to .75 of what I'm collecting.

[08:57] And it did work marvelously in the month of March when most of the people trading that uh have experienced losses due to sudden

[09:09] moves in the market, but when the losses are capped with only 65 to 75% of the collected gain, it did benefit the account holders

[09:22] quite a lot. And this is all about on SPX, right? And this is all about on SPX, right? Yes, 100% SPX, which is the most liquid, Yes, 100% SPX, which is the most liquid, meaning the bid ask price is often

[09:37] 5 to 10 cents at max. And because it's the most liquid when we meaning the index gaps up or down 50 to 60

[09:50] points, which did happen a few times throughout the month of March, we are more protected and other ways the slippage, which is the difference between your stop loss target and the actual

[10:05] number that you are getting is much less in SPX compared to other not as liquid asset classes. And you said that you start with about And you said that you start with about 150, 160 dollars on each side, so 300

[10:19] 150, 160 dollars on each side, so 300 >> per contract. 320 per dollars per >> Right. What type of delta will you this typically be? I'm actually not looking at

[10:32] deltas at all, but I would suggest that that would be about 20 30 but again, my my software chooses the strikes. So, it would be about

[10:46] So, it would be about 30 to 40 points from ATM to start with and then when moving closer to about 20 and then 10 15 points closer to midday Pacific 3:00 p.m. Eastern. How wide are your strike strikes

[11:03] typically? So, my strikes are typically wider than than most of the people are using. Most of the people are using 40 to 50 point wide strikes. I'm using between 80 and 100

[11:17] and 100 point wide. The reason is that with that point wide. The reason is that with that selection, I can be further ATM. So, the wider the strike, the further ATM you can be with the same gain, right? I aim

[11:31] to be further ATM meaning that the probability of me being hit with a stop loss is lower. And when you say ATM you mean at the money, so where the is now. Yeah.

[11:46] So let's look at how you specific you use trade automation trade steward and trade automation toolbox. So let's take a quick look at how you actually set this up in in trade steward maybe. In trade steward you have to create

[12:04] trade steward you have to create multiple bots for both call side and put a one full iron condor but full iron condor but the downside is that you cannot do

[12:19] the downside is that you cannot do a stop loss on the short leg only. I prefer to do a stop loss on the short leg only just to make sure that the orders

[12:32] the orders the stop losses are held at the exchange not at the broker when market gaps ups up or down securing your

[12:46] profits and the only way to do that is when your orders are held at the exchange and the only way trade steward allows that is you have to create separate bots for

[13:00] the call side and the put side. Okay, so leg one option type put short premium is leg one option type put short premium is 1.5 target leg number two put long 0.2 premium up to 80 points. Then we

[13:18] skip leg three and leg four. These are all of the bots that are active and they're grouped by time And as you can see, Trade Station allows you to see the win

[13:33] Trade Station allows you to see the win rate over here. You see? Mhm. And based on this win rate, I'm putting in the quantity. So, if the win rate is low, quantity. So, if the win rate is low, which is below 50%, I have three

[13:48] which is below 50%, I have three contracts. If it's between 15 and 55, I have five contracts such as here. So, let's say at 8:38 So, let's say at 8:38 Pacific, uh I have five contracts on

[14:02] rate is 50 four over here and 58 over here. Then we move on and at 65% win rate, so I have six contracts and and so on. So, right

[14:15] six contracts and and so on. So, right here at 9:23, the win rate is only 33% and I have three contracts on. Then, just 20 minutes later, the win rate is 57% and I have five contracts on. So, this is the number of contracts I'm

[14:30] constantly changing every week based on the changing win rate. These are different entry entry times, and the win rate you are showing here is how you have succeeded with this particular entry time in the past.

[14:44] >> Exactly. As you can see, here on the left, we have the bot name 8:38 call, meaning that tranche one. The entry here, it says 11:30 to 11:42. Monday,

[14:58] Tuesday, Wednesday, all the days. And it gives you in the description that each of the legs is 160 per short call and 10 cents up to 80

[15:11] points on the long call. Five contracts. At that time, the resting stop is at 65% loss only on the short. Okay? And then it it gives you

[15:24] year-to-date profit loss, all-time profit loss, and then the win rate. So, out of 129 times, 70 were profitable at 54 times, 70 were profitable at 54 percent. And so, all my bots are between

[15:39] three and six contracts per side. How many trades do you place during a day, typically? As I was let's see you in this particular Trade Station account. So, I have 10 tranches,

[15:54] 10 times I'm entering. Each entry is between three and six contracts. This is how you do it on Trade Station, and you have several accounts as you said, and you also use a Trade Trade Automation Toolbox, which is

[16:10] Trade Trade Automation Toolbox, which is another software for automating trades. So, shall we take a quick look at how you have set it up there as well, maybe? Oh, yes, for sure. This is the main window of Trade Automation Toolbox. And

[16:24] if you go to Trade Templates, you can see I have several trade templates over see I have several trade templates over here created. My major ones are AM, MAC, here created. My major ones are AM, MAC, and PM MAC. So, let's go to AM first and

[16:38] see what the actual settings are. The actual settings in TAT are easier to maintain than that in the Trade Station. So, as you can see, we have the name,

[16:51] So, as you can see, we have the name, the symbol, the trade type, iron condor, short strike selection. You can do both put and call in the same window. So, I'm doing two different types of MAC

[17:06] throughout the day. In the first half of the day, I'm doing AM, the day, I'm doing AM, which targets between 125 to 165 dollars per leg per contract.

[17:20] And as you can see here, my maximum width is 100. Usually, it is 80, but with a higher volatility, when the market is crazy, I can go as high as 100

[17:32] points. GT trade entry is zero. I don't do any mean max since every time I'm doing a TAT, it's it's very good at creating at choosing the right minimum maximum. Stop

[17:48] loss configuration, this important. So, as you can see, I am at stop market. as you can see, I am at stop market. Stop type is short. Multiple of 0.75 differences I'm having with other people. I'm only at 75% stop multiple,

[18:05] which is much lower than the regular 100 to 110%. And then I want also have a trigger offset of 10 cents. The leftover long behavior, I have a sell average price. Oh, and also one of

[18:20] the interesting things about TAT over here is that it only tries to sell your leftover long once. If to your leftover long is below 5 cents, which is bidless,

[18:33] long is below 5 cents, which is bidless, it does nothing after just one try, which means that you can gain quite a lot on your leftover longs if and only the market gaps either up or down more than, let's say, 70 points. It happens

[18:50] very rarely, but when it does, it helps you to offset your slippage quite quite a bit. And then, this is my profit target. As you can see, profit target. As you can see, my target amount is 55%

[19:06] per leg, not per IC, per leg. And so, I sell not I, but the the software sells uh quarter of the position when it it only hits 55%

[19:23] it sells the other quarter when it hits 65%, the other quarter 75, and the rest 65%, the other quarter 75, and the rest the the fourth quarter at 85% target. Why I'm doing this is just to avoid double stop losses when the market does

[19:40] a V either up or down. Uh I would rather have less profit than suffer double losses. So, this is the AM MEIC and so PM MEIC is very similar.

[19:57] It just targets lower a credit because it's in the afternoon and you either have to be closer to ATM or collect less. So, I'm collecting or collect less. So, I'm collecting around a dollar dollar 10. So, my

[20:12] minimum is 80 cents, my maximum is $1.30. Everything else is the same, but also to simplify things, my profit target is a bit little bit different. I have 50%

[20:27] of the position closes at 65% target amount and the other 50% of the position closes at 85%. And at TAT TAT I have

[20:39] this so I have schedule. It finishes at 12:07. As you can see my It finishes at 12:07. As you can see my entry times are roughly every 15 to 20 minutes. 12:07, 11:48, 11:33, 11:12, 11:05, etc. etc.

[20:55] 11:48, 11:33, 11:12, 11:05, etc. etc. and I started 7:54 a.m. And all these >> Pacific Pacific times. So, let's see. Over here I have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

[21:09] Over here I have 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 times I'm Wow. Is it correct that you trade multiple accounts? And all automated, but you do have a bit

[21:22] different rules on the different accounts, I understand for profit taking and stop loss, is that correct? They are different because different trade automation software allows you to only do certain things. In other words,

[21:36] only do certain things. In other words, in TAT TAT, TAT, okay? In TAT, you are only allowed to take profit target on either call side or put side. In Trade Station, you can do

[21:51] you can you can take profit target on the whole iron condor at the same time. So, for that reason, the settings have to be a little bit different, and so the results are also a little bit different, but they only are different

[22:04] throughout, let's say, 1 day or 1 week. For a month or several months, they tend to be around the same. Let's sum up a bit to to be sure we understand how you do

[22:18] this. Your profit target varies from 25% 55%? Yeah, so my profit target have the When the whole iron condor has 25% profit, I

[22:35] take about half of it off. When the profit target hits 50% on the whole iron condor, I take the whole iron condor off.

[22:49] So, let's give it an example in in real numbers. So, let's say I open up one numbers. So, let's say I open up one iron condor and I collect $400. So, when iron condor and I collect $400. So, when this whole iron condor becomes $300.

[23:04] I sell half of the position. When the remaining iron condor gives me 50% profit, I sell all the leftovers. So, the maximum that I can collect is So, the maximum that I can collect is 50%, which is $200 out of $400. So, I do

[23:19] not wait until the end of the day because I have multiple entries and I know that I would rather collect a 200 per contract rather than wait for 400 with more

[23:33] uncertainty at the end of the day. And this is one big way you differ from most people trading, including myself. I basically close mine for profit when the

[23:45] basically basically basically at expiry, most people I think believe wait for it to expire if it is profitable. But when you

[23:57] have chosen to take the profit earlier and earlier than most traders do. And your stop loss, let's repeat that again. What is your stop loss set at? So, my stop loss is set on short only

[24:13] So, my stop loss is set on short only at between 65 to 75% open. So, in other words, if I collect So, if one of the legs is 150, the other leg is 150, that's $3. $3 times

[24:31] 150, that's $3. $3 times .7 is 210. So, it would be a 210 in my .7 is 210. So, it would be a 210 in my example per short. So, 210 for short call and 210 for a short put. So, this is also tighter than most

[24:46] is also tighter than most most of the traders do. Most of the traders with this MES or break even iron condors will set the stop loss on each side similar to the total premium they they collected. Some people set the stop

[25:01] loss on spreads, some on on including myself on the shorts only, but you know, that's basically the rule. So, you have tighter profit target and you have a tighter profit target and you have a tighter stop loss than most traders do

[25:14] >> Exactly. And as I was mentioning earlier, the reason is that when when the market moves in the one way or the other throughout the day very rapidly, it's it's not a good environment for for the

[25:31] classical AMIC. So, we need to do this. What I'm doing what what I also do is throughout the day I do not monitor the trades in cell automated, but what I do quite some time, I would say maybe 50% of the time is that I

[25:49] adjust my stop loss when in the beginning of the day, you see that the market gyrates up and down, it that the market gyrates up and down, it means that the day is going to be very

[26:03] choppy, I make it tighter. When the market is smoother in the beginning, I make it up to 90%. So, that's one of the adjustments that I do within the first maybe 2 hours of

[26:18] trading. You automate all your trading. How well has it worked for you to How well has it worked for you to automate this this kind of strategy? I think that it all depends on the person. I am one of the people who

[26:33] I think that automation is best suited for because I'm more emotional than your for because I'm more emotional than your average person. So, I cannot control my emotions and the only way to control my emotions is that

[26:49] you need to have your plan and you need to execute your plan and if you cannot execute your plan manually, you need your plan to be executed by the your plan to be executed by the computer. So, in my case, automation is

[27:04] a much better idea because you have a set plan, you have a a set of rules that you have to follow and they will be followed no matter what. For some other people like maybe yourself,

[27:19] it might not work as well. But I I I find it just very beneficial. Also, I like to travel and I do travel with my family quite a lot, maybe

[27:32] 3 to 4 months throughout the year and when I'm traveling, that would be when I'm traveling, that would be the only way I can trade is that my positions are going to be opened and closed without my presence.

[27:46] During the last months, we have had some pretty huge moves, sometimes sudden moves in the in the market connected to war in Iran sometimes, sometimes war in Iran sometimes, sometimes connected to the presidential tweet or

[28:00] other news that make pretty sudden moves in the market. How well is the automation working in those situations with regard to slippage and so on? I would say that much better than I expected because my stop losses are

[28:16] expected because my stop losses are tighter, right? So, let's say if there is a sudden move in the market, my stop losses are going to be hit first. So, losses are going to be hit first. So, during the months of March and April

[28:29] when we did have more than a fair share of those moves, I than a fair share of those moves, I only experienced one very subtle

[28:41] slippage meaning that my stop was set at two and I had three dollars. So, the slippage was just one. I was checking messages in

[28:53] the Facebook group where I belong and some people were complaining that they some people were complaining that they were having eight, nine, 10, up to 13 dollars slippage, which is just outrageous. So, I would say that one of

[29:06] the advantages of the tighter stop loss is that you do not experience any huge slippage because your positions are going to be because your positions are going to be executed first before everyone else's

[29:21] stop loss is hit. But, you also have very wide wings, 80 to 100, which means that your theoretical risk is pretty pretty high if something goes wrong compared to let's say, personally I have 30 to 35

[29:38] dollars in the in the width. So, in theory in theory, if something nuclear happens, then your losses are kept at the width of the IC. My losses are much wider, but I just

[29:55] cannot imagine what could happen, which in theory I should maybe consider to so that the the actual loss is the width of the of the iron condor. We all are zero DTE

[30:11] option traders, meaning that we do not transfer any of the positions we do not transfer any of the positions overnight, which makes this risk I mean, it's still there, right? We cannot control it, but we can mitigate

[30:24] cannot control it, but we can mitigate it by tighter stop losses, number one, positions overnight. Anton, what is the worst that can happen Anton, what is the worst that can happen risk-wise with your way of trading?

[30:38] In the very very theory, if something nuclear has to happen, then the worst would be losses up to the width of one side of the iron condor. But as as I was saying, this

[30:52] I don't even understand what has to happen in order to achieve that. But in my three years of trading, the worst that could happen is getting in the money. But I was getting

[31:08] in the money only when I having tighter stop losses when I was running not now, but in the past when I was running stop losses at 200 over the slippage. They went to

[31:25] point, what we all have experienced is that we could do double stop losses. Again, the way I'm trading,

[31:37] I cannot fortunately enough get double stop losses. Why? Because when one of the sides, let's say market goes down 70 in 10 minutes, all the puts are removed from the table,

[31:54] but also half of my calls are removed because the profit targets are hit. Under normal circumstances, when I say normal circumstances, I mean classical

[32:06] classical way of trading of I mean IC, you can do only have double stop losses on portion of your trades. But to answer your question, in theory, double stop loss on

[32:21] let's say 70% of the trades is what could happen. And I have this capped at could happen. And I have this capped at 1% of the account. So, I did have one day actually a few weeks ago, I think it was in April,

[32:37] when we have this very weird move down and then sudden move up. This was the worst day where I lost a 1% of the account, but uh other people did lose

[32:49] much more. I always ask my guests to place their strategy on a risk profile scale where one is very low risk and a 10 is a very high risk. You are free to

[33:01] define those numbers as you see fit. Where would you put your strategy? fit. Where would you put your strategy? If we say that a covered call on uh a piece of equity is a one, the least risk, and 10 is something

[33:16] crazy, then I think this is something closer to four, I would say, especially with uh tighter I would say, especially with uh tighter stop losses and tighter gains. If we

[33:29] define risk as the variance of your returns, then it can be as low as three because your in practice, your uh losses are less

[33:42] than 1% a month, and your gains are between between 3 to 5% a month. So, I would say three. Let's uh go to your results. But before we take the financial numbers, uh I

[33:55] would like to ask about the win and loss rates with your way of trading this Yeah, sure. As you can see on the screen, these are the actual results for one of the accounts for the past

[34:11] several months. Trade Steward allows you to to see your win rate on each and every tranche. And as you can see here, do you

[34:24] see my mouse? Yes. Okay. So, this is the win rate. So, Yes. Okay. So, this is the win rate. So, the win rate uh ranges 54, 58, 65, the win rate uh ranges 54, 58, 65, 56, 52, 33, but this is one of the

[34:38] recent ones, only 18 trades within 56, 51, 35 again, just a recent one, 60, 60, 55, 63, 44 again, recent one, 72, recent

[34:51] 56, 57, 62. So, let's say this number 62% is 57, 62. So, let's say this number 62% is 63 days because it was put on 63 times,

[35:04] only once a day. So, 63 days it was profitable out of 101. So, I would say if my method is correct, it's around 55-ish, 56%. And this the win rate is for

[35:20] each leg separately, right? >> Yeah. Yeah, but if you do an average, actually a weighted average, then you only have 33% six out of 18. Again, all the all the small ones are just six out of 17 days,

[35:37] and all the big ones are longer dated. So, they're more precise. What is the relationship between the average win relationship between the average win size and the average loss size?

[35:50] John, I hope is going to put a link to my Instagram account where I put out my daily trading results for one of the accounts from a Trade Station. I just take a screenshot every day, and as you can see

[36:05] over there, I started in I think in December, the average a win is around December, the average a win is around 1,000 plus, and the average loss is

[36:17] about minus 6 to 700. So, the expectancy is about 4 to 5% a month of the account.

[36:29] So, I win and I lose about the same amount in dollars, but because my win rate is around 56 to 57%, the expectancy is positive. So, what have then been your

[36:44] So, what have then been your financial results trading this strategy? People are defining their results by many metrics. defining their results by many metrics. I think that the most important ones are

[36:57] I think that the most important ones are two metrics. One is a return on your BP, which is buying power, and the other one is PCR, which is a premium capture rate. Exactly.

[37:10] >> Premium capture rate. So, those two numbers are usually about the same, and numbers are usually about the same, and in my case, they are between two and 5%

[37:22] meaning that for the maximum I can invest, I earn between two and 5% a month. To be more specific, in the month of March of 2026,

[37:36] I earned on this TradeStation account 4.8% a month, which I should say is a big deal because most in the month of March were either break even or lost some.

[37:52] I had a good month. So, you are one of the exceptions then. Okay, now, it's not my role to brag here, but when So, you say 4 to 5% is that of your account? No, that's of your buying

[38:05] power. How much of your account are you are you using in buying power on a are you using in buying power on a typical day? Usually, the accounts that typical day? Usually, the accounts that I'm managing, they have about a 70%

[38:18] I'm managing, they have about a 70% of buying power available because 30% of buying power available because 30% are invested somewhere and the 70% are sitting in just cash. So, this 70% of the account

[38:30] is actually 100% of buying power. So, I use all of it. In in money terms, let's use all of it. In in money terms, let's say we have a $1 million account of say we have a $1 million account of which 30% is invested into SPY, 70% is

[38:46] which 30% is invested into SPY, 70% is in cash. So, this 70% which is $700 $700,000 is what I count as buying power and all is what I count as buying power and all my calculations, 3 4 5% a month is

[39:00] related to this buying power, that is to 700,000. But, those are very good results if you can get 3 to 5% per month on your buying power. They they are good, yes. But, again,

[39:13] break for several months. I cannot do this long-term because I don't have real numbers. If we meet again in a year and if I have those sustainable results, I would be

[39:28] very happy. How will you sum up your strategy in a few words? And what would be the two to three most important takeaways you want the audience to takeaways you want the audience to remember from this interview? First off,

[39:42] the classical strategy MEIC is a great strategy and I strategy and I have a great respect for both Taimi and you and other followers because I think this is one of the few, if not the only

[39:56] this is one of the few, if not the only one, strategy that not only produces one, strategy that not only produces results in theory, but it also produces the results in practice. I don't know any other strategy, you need to show me

[40:09] where people can actually show real positive numbers using real money and This is number one. Number two, MIC itself has nothing wrong

[40:21] with it. It's a great strategy and people who are using it are doing It's that um just because sometimes the markets become more volatile

[40:35] in both directions and if you have a bigger account, you need to sleep better at night. And so for those people, they might be getting more consistent results maybe by

[40:52] sacrificing returns. And so if you have a bigger account, maybe 500 thousand or more, then you want to do tighter profit target

[41:06] and tighter stop losses. This would allow you to get something out of the market instead of losses. Uh so this is in general what it is. Have you back tested this strategy?

[41:21] Yeah, yeah. So back testing shows a lower results when you are taking off some something from the market when when you are in a profit target

[41:36] what it is what what I'm using. Uh for the past 3 years, it's less Uh for the past 3 years, it's less beneficial than the actual MIC. for the month of March, when the markets were crazier than usual, it was more

[41:54] were crazier than usual, it was more beneficial than MIC. Um probably less variation in the results. >> Exactly. Yeah, exactly. It's like Dow Jones Industrial Average versus Nasdaq. Anton, what would be good resources to

[42:08] learn more both about this strategy in particular, but resources you also recommend for options trading. Uh strangely enough, I do not think that there is a single useful book about options trading in the market. I

[42:23] stumbled upon a few which I did not like at all. Uh I would suggest this channel to learn more. There are some

[42:35] Facebook groups where people are communicating, exchanging ideas about that. If you want to learn more about this style of trading, we do have a couple of videos on this channel. We have one with Tammy Chambless where she

[42:49] have one with Tammy Chambless where she presents her MEIC strategy and how she traded and there's also a video with myself where I present in depth how I trade zero DTE break-even iron condor. So, these two videos do give some

[43:03] context around what we have been talking about today. Anton, thank you very much for joining us and explaining your way of trading. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.