The whole course is about one idea
A stock has one dimension: up or down. An option has three. Every strategy is a different combination of the three, and every loss comes from a dimension you didn't notice.
DirectionDelta · Gamma
Where the underlying goes, and how fast. Chapter 4 explains it; Chapters 7 and 8 use it to choose a structure.
TimeTheta
Who pays and who collects as each day passes. Chapter 5 covers the shape of the decay; Chapter 8 covers how sellers make a living from it.
VolatilityVega · IV
The gap between the volatility the market expects and the volatility that actually happens. Chapters 6, 9 and 10 are built around it.
Three ways to read the course
New to options
Read in order. Chapters 1–3 lay the foundation; Chapters 4–6 are the most important part of the course, so don't skip them. Do each chapter's self-test before moving on.
Already trading options
Start with Chapter 4, Chapter 6, Chapter 13 and Chapter 15. Use the stress tests and the “five ways accounts die” to check your current account, then go back and fill in the other chapters.
Just looking something up
Go to the Appendix: more than a hundred terms, a quick-reference table and payoff diagrams for more than twenty structures, and templates you can copy as is.
Foundations
What a contract is, how it trades, and where its price comes from.
What an option is, and where the money comes from
The six terms of a contract, the four basic positions, payoff diagrams at expiry, and the five sources of option profit.
02US options in practice
American vs. European style, the expiration calendar, exercise and assignment, accounts and margin, orders and liquidity.
03An intuition for option pricing
The six inputs, the intuition behind Black-Scholes, put–call parity, reading prices as probabilities, and mental-math rules.
The core variables
Four Greeks and volatility: every source of change in an option's price.
Delta and gamma
Directional exposure and how fast it changes: share equivalents, beta weighting, P&L approximation and Gamma scalping.
05Theta and vega
The shape of time decay, sensitivity to volatility, IV crush, plus Rho and the second-order Greeks.
06Volatility
Realized vs. implied, the volatility risk premium, IV Rank, term structure, skew and VIX.
Strategies
Buying, selling, neutral, event and hedging structures, and what each one is betting on.
Strategies for buyers
The buyer's three enemies, choosing strike and expiration, debit spreads, LEAPS and management rules.
08Strategies for sellers
What selling insurance really means: covered calls, cash-secured puts, the wheel, credit spreads and position stress tests.
09Neutral and volatility strategies
Straddles, strangles, iron condors, butterflies, calendars and diagonals: when to buy volatility and when to sell it.
10Trading events
The earnings IV cycle, expected vs. historical moves, macro event days, 0DTE and expiration-day effects.
11Hedging and portfolio protection
Protective puts, collars, put-spread hedges, tail-hedge budgets, and reshaping a portfolio with options.
Portfolio and risk management
From a single trade to the whole account: aggregation, stress tests, process.
Portfolio Greeks and adjustments
Adding up a portfolio's four Greeks, reading its shape, the three directions to roll, and when to simply close the position.
13Risk management for options
Three measures of position size, rules for buyers and sellers, stress tests, the illusion of diversification, and the margin spiral.
14Systems and process
A nine-step process, turning a view into three dimensions, a strategy selection matrix, the trading journal and expectancy statistics.
Mindset and next steps
How options accounts die, and where to go from there.
Psychology and how accounts die
The psychological traps of buyers and sellers, the five paths to a dead account, and their early warning signs.
16Where to go next, and a summary
Advanced directions in volatility trading, a master table of strategies, a 90-day practice plan and a summary of the whole course.
Quick reference
Terms, strategies, payoff diagrams, templates and data sources.
Companion reading: Trading Psychology
An eleven-chapter study handbook on probabilistic thinking, cognitive biases, position-sizing math, the odds of losing streaks, and review. Best read alongside Chapters 13–15 of this course.
Companion reading: Macro Trading Framework
A twelve-chapter study handbook on the cross-asset dashboard, rates and valuation, market regimes, breadth and flows, event playbooks, and going from view to trade. Best read alongside Chapters 10–11 of this course.
Companion reading: Policy Narrative Investing
A twelve-chapter study handbook on breaking the grand narratives in the news into investment themes you can verify, bet on, and admit you got wrong. Best read alongside the Macro Trading Framework.