📋 Overview & Trading Letters

Filters, mini cards and external trading letter recommendations

In this Chapter

1 ☢ Important — No Investment Advice 2 How to Read a Strategy Card 3 Strategies Overview — Filter & Navigate 4 Trading Letters — External Resources 5 Responsibility & Independence

1. ☢ Important — No Investment Advice

☢

NO INVESTMENT ADVICE · NO PERSONAL EXPERIENCE · ALL INFORMATION WITHOUT WARRANTY

This chapter is a curated overview of publicly available trading approaches and external trading letters. It reflects neither the platform operator's own trading experience, nor does it constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or an invitation to buy/sell specific securities. All information is researched with care; no guarantee of accuracy, completeness or currency is given. Trading involves risks including total loss.

Welcome to an unusual chapter. While all other sections of this handbook are either neutral knowledge transfer or concrete app guides, this chapter is a guide — a curated overview of well-known trading approaches and external resources that have their own depth.

What you will find here: A systematic overview of 18 trading strategies (from Wheel to Iron Condor to trend following), a table of recommended trading letters, and filters to pre-sort by asset class.

What you will not find here: The platform operator's own trading experience. Recommendations on which specific securities to invest in. Performance guarantees. Predictions. This platform is a tool, not an advisor — and this chapter is a library, not a teacher.

2. How to Read a Strategy Card

Every strategy card in the detail chapter has the same structure. Here is what the fields mean:

Asset tags (top left)

Which asset classes the strategy covers (stocks, options, futures, forex, ETFs, crypto, CFDs).

Market outlook (top right)

📈 bullish · 📉 bearish · ↔️ neutral. Multiple badges = strategy has several directional variants.

Risk level (★★★☆☆)

Subjective assessment 1–5: 1 = very defensive (Buy & Hold), 5 = very aggressive (futures day trading).

Ideal setup

Concrete parameters such as DTE, Delta, IV-Rank, MA filter — what characterizes the trade setup.

Known methods

Where available: a concrete method with setup parameters, management rules, profit/loss targets and source references.

Further reading footer

📖 Link to the matching handbook chapter · ✉️ Link to a trading letter that covers this strategy in depth.

A click on a mini-card in the overview grid (next section) jumps directly to the detailed strategy card in Chapter 11.5.

3. Strategies Overview — Filter & Navigate

The following overview shows all 28 trading strategies as mini cards. Use the filter pills above to filter by asset class (multiple selection possible, OR logic). A click on "All" resets the filter.

⚡ Options🏦 ETFs📈 Stocks 📈

Cash-secured put, assignment, covered call, repeat. Combines stock accumulation with a continuous stream of option premium.

⚡ Options📈 Stocks 📈

Sell a put with cash set aside to cover assignment. You collect the premium and, if assigned, buy the stock at your target price.

⚡ Options📈 Stocks ↔️📉

You own 100 shares and sell a call above the current price. You keep the premium each month as long as the stock stays below the strike.

⚡ Options 📈

LEAPS is an acronym: Long-term Equity AnticiPation Securities - introduced by the CBOE in 1990 for options contracts with more than a year to expiration. The "Poor Man's Covered Call" is the popular nickname: instead of buying 100 expensive shares (e.g. $20,000 for Apple), you buy a deep-in-the-money LEAPS call with a delta around 0.80 for a fraction of the capital - it behaves like a stock position but costs only a fraction of the capital. You then sell short-term calls against it monthly, with the premiums progressively paying down the LEAPS. Use it when you are bullish on a stock but do not want to commit the full capital for 100 shares - ideal for high-priced underlyings like SPY, AAPL, or MSFT.

⚡ Options📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs ↔️📈

Hedge an existing 100-share position: buy a protective put (downside insurance) and sell a call above it whose premium funds the put. A defined range, often close to cost-neutral.

⚡ Options ↔️

The name describes the payoff diagram: the wide profit body between four strikes with loss "wings" spreading out on both sides recalls the Andean condor and its legendary wingspan of up to 3.2 meters - the "iron" stands for the fully defined, ironclad risk structure of all four legs. Mechanically it combines a bull put spread (below) with a bear call spread (above): both OTM spreads are sold simultaneously, collecting both credits. The iron butterfly is the ATM variant with narrow wings - a higher credit but a much tighter profit zone. Use it when implied volatility is elevated (IV rank > 50) and you expect a quiet, sideways phase - typical after earnings or during consolidation.

⚡ Options ↔️

"Straddle" comes from "to straddle" - sitting astride: with a call and a put at exactly the same strike, you sit with one leg on each side of the current price. "Strangle" describes the OTM variant - the two strikes sit further apart, squeezing the price range in from both sides as if choking it. Short versions (collecting premium) profit when price stays within a range; long versions (paying premium) profit from a big move in either direction, typically ahead of earnings or macro events. Go short when IV rank > 60 and no major events are pending; go long shortly before a known catalyst while IV is still low.

⚡ Options ↔️

"Calendar" is literal: the strategy trades two different calendar dates - a near-term expiration is sold, a further-out one is bought. "Diagonal" describes the visual position in the options chain table: the two legs sit diagonally offset because they differ in both strike AND expiration - with a calendar, only the date differs. Both benefit from the sold short-term option losing time value much faster than the purchased longer-term option (theta differential). Use it when you expect a quiet market in the near term but a move is possible further out - the trade profits from stable vol and loses if price breaks out of the range.

⚡ Options ↔️

The Jade Lizard was developed by Tom Sosnoff and Tony Battista at tastytrade - the exotic name fits: like the rare emerald lizard, it is nearly untouchable on the upside, and "jade" (emerald green) stands for the safe profit zone with no upside risk. Mechanically it combines a short put with a short bear call spread, sized so the total credit collected is at least as wide as the call spread - which means there is literally no loss zone on the upside, no matter how far the stock rallies. Full risk, as with a cash-secured put, sits entirely on the downside. Use it when you are mildly bullish-to-neutral and want to collect more credit than a plain CSP without taking on upside risk - especially attractive when put-side IV skew is elevated.

⚡ Options ↔️

A symmetric butterfly has equal-length "wings" on both sides of the middle strike - in a Broken Wing Butterfly, one wing is deliberately "broken," meaning wider than the other, which shifts the risk profile and effectively eliminates one loss direction. The resulting asymmetry often lets you put the trade on for a net credit: that side is risk-free from the start, and max profit sits at the middle short strike. It is a clever middle ground between a credit spread (premium income with defined risk) and a classic butterfly (narrow profit peak). Use it when you have a clear price target at expiration and want to keep one side risk-free - commonly run as a weekly or monthly trade on the S&P or ETFs.

⚡ Options 📈📉

Sell an OTM put (bull put = bullish) or an OTM call (bear call = bearish), plus buy further OTM protection. A premium strategy with defined risk.

⚡ Options 📈📉

Buy an ATM/ITM option + sell a further OTM option in the same direction. Defined debit, defined max profit.

⚡ Options 📈📉

Plain long options for leveraged directional bets. High profit potential, but subject to theta decay and vol risk.

⚡ Options 📈📉

The name describes the core idea: "ratio" refers to the uneven relationship between the legs - instead of the usual 1:1, e.g. 2 contracts are sold for every one bought (or the reverse). "Backspread" means you buy "back" more than you sell - the opposite of a ratio spread, where more contracts are short than long. With a ratio spread (1 long / 2 short) you collect a credit for a limited directional view, but carry unlimited risk on the naked side. With a backspread (1 short / 2 long) it is the reverse: the position profits from strong moves and vol expansion, and can often be put on credit-neutral or even for a small credit. Use backspreads ahead of known vol catalysts, or ratio spreads in range-bound markets with a slight directional bias (strict risk management required).

⚡ Options 📈📉

"Risk reversal" describes the mechanics: you reverse the risk profile - the short put on the downside "mirrors" the long call on the upside, and together they replicate a stock position, often at near-zero cost. ZEBRA is an acronym for Zero Extrinsic Back Ratio Approach: buying 2 deep-ITM calls and selling 1 ATM call creates a synthetic delta of about 100 with essentially no time-value component (zero extrinsic). Both replace 100 shares with far less capital, making them go-to tools for capital-conscious traders who want exposure to a stock without buying it outright. Use it when you have a strong directional conviction and want to avoid tying up the full capital for 100 shares - ZEBRA works especially well on high-priced underlyings like SPY or AMZN.

📈 Stocks 📈

Buy only in strong uptrends that meet Minervini's 8 Trend Template criteria. Strict stops, position sizing by the 1R rule.

📈 Stocks 📈

Buy on a breakout above a multi-week consolidation with above-average volume. Fast in, fast out.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs 📈

Buy short-term oversold quality stocks for a bounce trade. Clear entry and exit triggers via RSI/Bollinger Bands.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs 📈📉

Multi-day trades on classic chart setups: trendline bounces, flags, pennants, channel strategies.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs 📈

Long-term holding of quality stocks (Buffett style) or Dividend Aristocrats. "Time in the market beats timing the market."

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs ↔️

Long the undervalued side + short the overvalued side of a correlated pair (e.g. KO/PEP). Profit from spread convergence, entered via a z-score trigger.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs 📈

Rotate capital into the strongest sectors/ETFs by relative strength. Dorsey RS, P&F bullish percent index, and momentum as signal sources.

📈 Stocks🛢️ Futures 📈📉

A rule-based trend-following system: entry on an n-day high/low (Donchian channel), ATR-based position sizing, mechanical stops. The classic approach from Richard Dennis's Turtle experiment (1983).

📈 Stocks 📈📉

Use opening gaps as a setup: gap-and-go (momentum continuation) or gap-fill (mean reversion back to the prior close). A clear, day-focused setup.

📈 Stocks 📈📉

Breakout from the first 15/30-minute range, or VWAP as dynamic support/resistance. A daytrading standard in US markets, well suited to systematization.

📈 Stocks 📈

William O'Neil's 7-criteria system for growth stocks: Current/Annual Earnings, New, Supply/Demand, Leader, Institutional, Market Direction.

🛢️ Futures 📈📉

Intraday trading of ES/NQ/GC with leverage and tight stops. Entry and exit within the same day.

💱 Forex 📈📉

Long-term holding of currency pairs with an interest rate differential (carry), or trend-following on major pairs.

🛢️ Futures ↔️

Long/short different delivery months of the same commodity future - trading the shape of the forward curve (contango vs. backwardation) instead of price direction.

🛢️ Futures 📈📉

Trade recurring seasonal patterns - natural gas winter demand, the grain harvest cycle, gold strength in Q1. Statistical recurrence as the edge.

💱 Forex ↔️

Place buy/sell orders at fixed intervals above and below the current price (a grid). Profits from oscillation in sideways markets - no directional forecast needed.

₿ Crypto 📈

Dollar-cost averaging into Bitcoin/Ethereum: a fixed amount at regular intervals, regardless of price.

₿ Crypto ↔️

Long spot + short perpetual future to collect the funding rate (or long spot + short dated future = basis trade). Market-neutral yield, independent of price direction.

⚡ Options ↔️

The name comes from the payoff diagram: no matter where the price lands at expiration, the payout is always exactly the same (spread width x 100). The diagram is literally a flat box (rectangle), not a triangle or a curve. Mechanically it combines a bull call spread with a bear put spread on identical strikes and the same expiration - all four legs together form a perfect hedge that eliminates market risk entirely (delta near 0). In practice it is used either for risk-free arbitrage (when the debit sits below the present value of the spread width) or as a "box loan": a credit box lets you borrow capital at the implied option rate - historically cheaper than broker margin rates. Requires European-style options (SPX/XSP) - with American-style options, early assignment can destroy the "risk-free" structure.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs🛢️ Futures💱 Forex₿ Crypto 📈

Trend entry after completion of the wave 2 correction. Enter at a Fibonacci retracement hold, targeting a wave 3 extension.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs🛢️ Futures💱 Forex 📈

Counter-trend entry after completion of an ABC zigzag correction. Wave C = 100-161.8% of wave A as the target zone.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs🛢️ Futures💱 Forex₿ Crypto 📈

Breakout after completion of the E-wave of a contracting triangle. Target: the width of the triangle's base measured from the breakout point.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs🛢️ Futures💱 Forex 📉

A reversal trade after completion of an ending diagonal in wave 5 or wave C position. Target: retracement back to the diagonal's starting point.

📈 Stocks🏦 ETFs🛢️ Futures💱 Forex₿ Crypto 📈

Enter at a confluence zone where at least 2 Fibonacci levels from different wave counts line up.

⚡ Options 📈📉

Sell an OTM vertical spread (put or call spread) on an index expiring the same day. Maximum theta, high gamma risk.

⚡ Options ↔️

An iron condor expiring the same day - profits if the index stays within a tight range through the close.

⚡ Options ↔️

A cheap butterfly expiring the same day, placed at an expected price target - small risk, high leverage if the pin lands right on target.

⚡ Options ↔️

Buy an ATM call + ATM put ahead of earnings - profits from a large price move in either direction.

⚡ Options ↔️

Sell OTM options ahead of earnings - collects the inflated IV and profits from the IV crush after the report.

⚡ Options ↔️

Sell the near-term (high-IV) option + buy the longer-dated option at the same strike - exploits the difference in IV crush between the two expirations.

⚡ Options ↔️

Short index vol + long the vol of the individual component stocks - captures the systematically overpriced implied correlation of the index.

⚡ Options ↔️

Long the target / short the acquirer after a takeover announcement - captures the deal spread as a risk premium for deal-break risk.

4. Trading Letters — External Resources

Trading letters are subscription services that regularly deliver trade ideas, market analyses and strategy guidance. They are no substitute for your own knowledge — but they can accelerate your learning when you want to understand a particular strategy more deeply than a handbook chapter can provide.

Important note: These letters are examples representing different style approaches. They are not a recommendation by this platform and not sponsored content. Data is researched with care (as of 2026-04) but may change at any time. Always verify directly with the provider.

Letter	Provider	Asset	Style	Frequency	Price	More
Rendite-Brief Combines fundamentally selected value stocks with options selling (cash-secured puts) as a predictable income strategy. Weekly trade suggestions with a defined risk framework, supplemented by ongoing market commentary.	Marcus Ruhnau · kursplus	📈 Stocks⚡ Options	Income · Cash-Secured Puts on Value Stocks	Weekly recommendations	€€ — Free trial available	↗ Provider
Optionstrading Workshop Live workshop format for US options with joint market analysis, trade identification and guidance through to position close. Focus on spreads, single options and the Wheel strategy, plus optional 1:1 coaching and video library.	Claudia Jankewitz	⚡ Options📈 Stocks	Spreads · Wheel strategy · Single options	Live workshops via Zoom + weekly updates	€€–€€€ — 1 or 3-month subscription via elopage	↗ Provider
Cashflow-Strategie Börsenbrief Multi-asset cashflow approach using dividend stocks, option premiums, bonds and income ETFs as a continuous income source. Four model portfolios with different focuses and concrete buy signals.	Emil Jusifov · Cashflow Profi	📈 Stocks⚡ Options🏦 ETFs	Cashflow · Dividends · Multi-asset (stocks, options, bonds, ETFs)	Weekly	€ from €25/mo (beginner) · €€ premium	↗ Provider
AM Option Trading Amy Meissner, known as "Queen of Iron Condors", offers live trade accompaniment and community access for systematic Iron Condor trading. Based on her own method: RUT, 80–88 DTE, 30 wide, asymmetric delta setup (Δ8 Put / Δ12 Call).	Amy Meissner	⚡ Options	Iron Condor · Index options · RUT · Systematic selling	Live trades · Market analyses · Community	$$ — Subscription options available	↗ Provider

💡 Tip: Before subscribing, use trial issues or webinars. A strategy that is well presented in a letter must still fit your personal capital, time and risk tolerance.

5. Responsibility & Independence

Every strategy shown here has been traded by many traders across many market phases — with varying success. What works for one fails for another. The question is never "Which strategy is the best?", but "Which strategy fits me?"

Before you adopt any strategy from this chapter:

Read the matching detail chapter in the app (📖 link on each card) and optionally the letter suggestion (✉️ link).
Backtest or paper-trade for 3–6 months before any real capital flows.
Define position size and stop-loss according to the 1R rule (Ch. 6.0) — before you enter the trade.
Journal every trade with setup rationale, emotion and review. See Mindset (Ch. 7).
Be skeptical of win rates and performance charts. Cherry-picked data is the most common trap in the trading world.

The platform supports you at every step — with automatic strategy recognition in your trade journal, risk tracking, dimension tags and performance analytics by strategy family.

"Plan your trade, trade your plan" — and make your decisions your own.