Ladder happens naturally if you're watching the market daily and doing credit spreads on both sides of the market (selling calls spreads wehn overbought and put spreads when oversold).
    I tend to sell options with around 45 days to epiration and they are always out of the money (no more than 20 delta when sold). Given these parameters, I'm not sure what you mean by "flat market is no good."  I would LOVE a flat market right now. Although, you want the vol to be high when you enter the trade, you WANT it to collapse after you're in (with credit spreads) 

    I dont want the market

    Posted by mirhamedali on 12th of Sep 2022 at 04:50 pm

    I dont want the market to be flat so that I can exit the trade early.  I rarely hold to expiration.  I normally exit halfway through.  I end up making more on a per day basis that way.

    You are right the ladder can happen naturally if you are opening trades on both sides, that's a cool approach.  But then one trade may be a loser.  However with an actual ladder each of the trades can be winners. 

    I  only trade SPX options

    Posted by DigiNomad on 12th of Sep 2022 at 09:43 pm

    I  only trade SPX options in taxable account and SPY options in retirement accounts (better liquidity but I have to use more contracts).  Since I've focused my efforts on what amounts to a single product / index, my results have been outstanding and predictable.  Unfortunately, I know that someday I'll likely have to transition over to more volatill e products again. But with the VIX where it's been at recently, I can stick with a single index for my option set ups and do just fine. I'll cross the lower volatility bridge when we come to it. 

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