Following the Trades

You don't need to be an options expert to follow a trade. You need to know these ten words.

A stock alert is simple — ticker, entry, stop, target. An options alert has more pieces because every contract has a strike and an expiration. Miss one and you're in a different trade than me.

1.1Match It Exactly

The most common way people lose money following alerts: they buy a slightly different contract. A different strike, a different expiration, "close enough."

It is not close enough. If the alert says $150 Dec 19, you buy $150 Dec 19. Same four pieces, every time.

1.2The Exact Format You'll See

When I post or update a trade in the channels, it looks like this. Here's every line, word by word:

• [Trade 1] — STILL OPEN — which trade in the challenge, and its status (open or closed).
• 🎯 Ticker: $FIVN Calls — the stock (Five9) and the direction. Calls = a bet it goes up.
• 📈 Strike: $30 — the price the contract is locked to. It gains as FIVN pushes toward and past $30.
• 📅 Expiry: Jan 15, 2027 — the deadline. The contract is alive until this date, then it's done.
• 📦 Contracts: 1 — how many contracts. Each one controls 100 shares.
• 💵 Cost / Contract: $5.15 — the premium per contract, per share. ×100 = $515 for one contract.
• 💰 Total Cost: $515 USD — the full dollar cost of the position (1 × $515).
• 🔻 Current: −15% (−$85) — the live profit/loss right now: down 15%, or −$85 on the $515.
• 🟢 Take Profit — TP1 / TP2 / TP3 — up to three stock-price targets to scale out at. Trim a chunk at each; aim to bank 50–80% across them and leave a runner.
• 🛑 Stop Loss — the stock-price level where the trade is wrong. If it hits, you're out — no hoping.
• 📍 Posted in — the channel the trade lives in (here, demon-options), so you know where to watch for trims and updates.

Updates use the same lines — only Current changes as the trade moves, and the status flips to CLOSED when we're out.

1.3Theta — The Clock Is Ticking

Theta is time decay. Every day that passes, an option loses a little value — even if the stock doesn't move — because there's less time left for the bet to work. The decay is slow when expiration is far away and speeds up in the final weeks.

This is why you can be right on direction and still lose if the move takes too long. Theta is the rent you pay to hold the contract. Long-dated contracts like the FIVN Jan 2027 calls decay slowly, so the thesis has room to breathe; short-dated contracts bleed fast, which makes them far riskier.

1.4Following Demon Options

Demon Options posts fast, simple alerts. They look like this:

• BTO — "Buy To Open." You're entering a new position.
• $UNH — the ticker (UnitedHealth).
• 420c — the $420 strike. The c means Call (bullish); a p would be a put.
• 06/12 — the expiration date.
• @1.28 — the entry premium: $1.28 per share, so $128 for one contract.
• The note ("lighter swing, also looking for daytrade") — the plan: size it light, hold it as a swing, but he may scalp it intraday.

To follow: buy the same contract (same strike + expiry), size it to your account, use a limit near the listed price — don't chase — then watch the channel for the exit.

1.5Following Sniper Charts

Sniper Charts calls are chart-based — the setup is marked directly on the chart (entries, levels, zones). To follow them, you first need to be able to read a chart: support, resistance, trend, and key levels.

Once you can read the chart, you follow the marked plan the same way: enter near the level, set your stop where the idea is wrong, and take profit at the marked targets.

1.6Following Photon (#photon-options)

Photon's alerts come with a letter grade and a confidence read, then scale out in thirds:

• BUY / SELL — open or close the position.
• AAPL 06/08 315C — ticker, expiration, then the $315 strike Call.
• @ $2.58 — the entry premium.
• [B GRADE] — Photon's quality grade for the setup. A is best; a B is solid but not top-tier.
• Quantum Wave X/10 — a confidence score built from agreement across timeframes (scalp, day, swing, position). Higher = stronger; a low or "conflicting" read = be cautious or skip.
• SELL … 1/3 — Photon scales out in thirds, trimming a third at each target (+9%, then +49%), then ALL OUT closes whatever's left.

To follow: enter on the BUY, then trim a third each time Photon posts a SELL 1/3 — the same trim rule from above. Respect the grade and confidence: lower grades or conflicting waves mean smaller size, or sit it out.

The number one mistake new members make is copying the contract count instead of the percentage. The alert says "2 contracts." That does not mean you buy 2 contracts.

Your account	2% per trade
$1,000	$20
$5,000	$100
$10,000	$200
$25,000	$500
$50,000	$1,000

3.1Entry — Don't Chase

When an alert drops, the contract price can spike for a minute as people pile in. Use a limit order near the listed entry — not a market order. If price already ran past the entry, wait for the pullback or skip it. You don't have to be in every trade.

3.2Exit — Trim at the Target

I trim at the target — not randomly on the way up. When the trade hits the target I posted, take 50–80% off to lock in the bulk of the gain. What's left (the other 20–50%) is the runner: the piece you keep after the target is hit to chase a bigger move on house money. If it keeps running, great — if it gives it back, you already banked most of the win. Only own one contract? Your "trim" is simply selling at the target. Taking profit there is never wrong.

3.3Set Your Own Stop

The alert has a stop — the premium level where the trade is wrong. Honor it. If the contract hits the stop, you're out. The members who lose more than they planned almost always do the same thing: ignore the stop, hold a loser, and watch it bleed to zero by expiration. Set the stop when you enter. Every time.

Protect the account first. Profit comes second. No money tomorrow means no trades tomorrow.

4.1The Rules

• Small slice per trade. I keep each options trade to 1–3% of my portfolio. (The $1K Challenge is the aggressive exception — don't copy it on your main account.)
• Copy the %, never the contract count. The same alert is a totally different risk on a $1K vs a $50K account.
• One contract that fits beats two that don't. Too pricey for your size? Skip it — there's always another trade.
• Stop set on entry. Every time. A loser you won't cut bleeds to zero by expiration.
• Never average down a loser to "make it back." Honor the stop instead.
• 3–5 positions max so one bad trade can't sink the account.

If options feel like too much, you don't have to trade them. Take the alert NVDA Dec 19 $150 Call — that's just a bet NVDA goes up. The stock version: ignore the strike and expiration, and buy NVDA shares.

The trade-off is smaller gains — options move faster in both directions. Shares are the calmer, slower version of the same idea. Size a bit bigger than options if you like, but still keep any one position to a sensible slice of your account.