Hey everyone -- I'm back with a Q3 trading results update. Below are my prior two quarterly posts:
\- Q1 - [https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1sa3zrk/q1\_2026\_trading\_review/](https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1sa3zrk/q1_2026_trading_review/)
\- Q2 - [https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1uk91p9/q2\_2026\_trading\_review/](https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/1uk91p9/q2_2026_trading_review/)
Q3 was a bit of a slog on the 0DTE front. I ended the quarter positive, but due to a mix of trying a few new strategies that were in R&D that didn't do well, entering a diagonal trade in Morgan Stanley that didn't pan out, and having a two left tail days in the 0DTE trades led to me finding out if I had what I needed to stick to a plan, and continue to trust the strategies to play out.
Summary of Q3
* Starting account balance - $52,162 (VTI \~$19,982, other shares \~$100, and $32,080 of cash and open options)
* Ending account balance - $67,222 (cash $33,352, equities $20,288, options $13,582, one-time cash deposit of $10,000)
* Total trades - 80
* Win rate - 66.3%
* 63 trades 0DTE SPX
* 17 non-SPX, non-0DTE trades. A number of mid & long term trades were opened (mid-term SPX butterflies, long term CSP's & Strangles on Stocks
* SPX 0DTE P&L - $3,896.48
* XLK & XLI Credit Spreads - $427.04
* Total options P&L - $4,802.35
* Total Fees - $185.20
* Tradier Pro - $105 ($35 per month)
* Total Commissions - $80.20
Things that went well that were not a surprise
* Unfortunately, nothing much. I stuck to my plan for the most part, but I did exit a few 0-DTE positions early during the quarter. Ultimately, it ended up at a slight net-loss (-$600), so I still haven't been able to kick being 100% automated on the 0DTE trading
Things that went well that were a surprise
* My core 2 trades are a mix of buying or selling premium at the start of the day, and I make sure that I enter trades daily. With that, I've been looking for a few other trades to compliment these. I found a similar paired trade based on a SMA indicator where I enter a long premium or short premium trade in the afternoon. On days where both short and both long traded, they had modest gains. But the real save was on days where I was short premium in the morning and long premium in the afternoon, it saved me from a couple left tail events, but I was able to actually make money on them (not just lose money).
Things that didn't go well that were a surprise
* My Morgan Stanley diagonal. For my mid-term trades, I take a page from Quantitative Momentum and find stocks with strong Frog-in-Pan scores. Morgan Stanley was a top contender, and since I wasn't sure how tech was going to pan out post SpaceX IPO, I committed to the trade. I'm down $2700 (71%) on a 3/19/2027 long call, and have sold \~$880 in premium against it, for a total of \~-$1950. I'm closing my existing short out soon and plan to sell another 11/20 short call against it at the $200 or $210 strike and will ride this until at least the new year.
* My morning long premium trade was net negative this quarter. This is the first time one of my Core 2 finished negative in a quarter. It had a strong start in Q1, and we're still up on the year, but we posted negative -$1912.00. I do plan to stick with the trade, as there have been drawdown periods in the backtest similar to this, but it is something I'm going to keep a close eye on in Q4.
Things that didn't go well that weren't a surprise
* Nothing really. Nothing negative that I was expecting to happen this quarter
Progress on Q3 Goals:
* Open a second account for a new 0DTE bot. It's with a different provider than my current one, and it doesn't have the ability to see existing legs for entering/exiting positions. Going to look to fund it with \~10 - 15k and see how it performs. It's similar to Dale Perryman's Iron Butterfly strategy
* I did not commit to this yet. I decided to fund this account instead. The paper traded version of this trade is running well, so I really should get around to funding this...
* Continue trading the Core 2-Part system
* Done
* Evaluate 3 - 20 DTE SPX positions, including calendars or long vol
* Added \~20 - 30 DTE SPX butterflies, and added CSP's & Strangles
* Idk put in werk, make money
* Put in werk, made some money.
Goals for Q4
* Look for long volatility trades in VIX
* I paper traded some Sinclair/Natenberg Volatility style dynamic hedging on a few positions and enjoyed it. Continue paper trading and track results, evaluate portfolio fit for Q1
* Idk put in werk, make money
I'm happy to discuss or answer any questions.
[TY vibecode overlords for YTD performance & comparison graph](https://preview.redd.it/z451gxna85uh1.png?width=2288&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b5b2001026fbfe975a87a95f0c1f6492c9d42dc)