Learn options and smart-money investing

Plain explanations of the strategies and signals behind the screeners, written to be useful before you open a position. Educational content only, not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.

Strategies

The Wheel Strategy Explained, Step by Step With a Worked Example — How the wheel strategy works, what each leg costs you, and a full worked example of one cycle including the case where it goes against you. (7 min, updated 2026-10-12)
LEAPS Options Strategy: Long-Dated Calls Instead of Shares — What LEAPS are, the arithmetic of using a long-dated call as a stock substitute, and the extrinsic premium you have to make back before you profit. (8 min, updated 2026-10-12)
Iron Condor Strategy: Setup, Max Loss, and the Win Rate It Needs — How an iron condor is built from two credit spreads, why only one wing can lose, and the break-even win rate the structure has to clear to pay. (8 min, updated 2026-10-12)
Covered Calls for Beginners: How They Work and What They Cost — What selling a covered call commits you to, a worked example of all three outcomes, and the upside you give up in exchange for the premium. (7 min, updated 2026-10-12)
Cash-Secured Puts: How They Work and How to Pick the Strike — What a cash-secured put obligates you to, how much capital it ties up, and the trade-off behind every strike choice, with a worked example. (7 min, updated 2026-10-12)
Bull Put Spread: Setup, Max Loss, and When to Use It — How a bull put spread is built, what it can actually lose, how it compares with a cash-secured put, and the break-even win rate it has to clear. (7 min, updated 2026-10-12)

Smart Money

How to Track Congress Stock Trades and Read the Filings Properly — What the STOCK Act requires, why disclosures arrive up to 45 days late, what the dollar ranges hide, and the few things the data genuinely shows. (8 min, updated 2026-10-12)
Insider Buying Signals: What Form 4 Filings Really Tell You — How Form 4 works, why open-market buys carry more information than sells, and the four kinds of filing that look like conviction and are not. (8 min, updated 2026-10-12)

Options Basics

Trading Options Around Earnings: IV Crush and the Expected Move — Why option premium swells before an earnings report, how to read the expected move out of the straddle, and what IV crush does to each side of the trade. (8 min, updated 2026-10-12)
What Is Probability of Profit in Options, and How Reliable Is It? — What probability of profit measures, the break-even win rate it has to beat, and why a 70% chance of winning is often not enough to be worth taking. (8 min, updated 2026-10-12)