We enter the week with several trading opportunities on the horizon. My plan is to add two trades this week, an iron condor and the potential for another bear call spread.

Implied volatility ranks, otherwise known as IV ranks, are low across the board. IV rank is where the current implied volatility (IV) sits in comparison to the last 12 months of readings. This makes sense given the recent surge in the market, right? And while macro conditions seem to be improving, with more indicators showing a bullish bias and numerous other bullish signals, we have to remember, we place trades going out 45 to 60 days in Quant Trader with the average trade lasting 20.5 days.

Okay, we are back at it after the holiday-shortened week.


The plan this week is to add another iron condor to the portfolio and potentially a bull put spread. Both positions, particularly the bull put spread, will help to balance out the deltas of our portfolio. Currently our open positions consist of two bear call spreads and as a result, the overall leaning is to the short side. While I’m not opposed to the slight bearish leaning, I would like to bring it back closer to a neutral state. Of course, if we manage to take off both of our bear call spreads for profits, which I think we all hope that will be the case, our current state of short deltas won’t be an issue.

Due to the holiday-shortened week I am going to keep the report short this week.


I am excited to inform everyone that I will be adding educational videos to the mix, focusing on all assets of the service. So, if you have anything, and I mean anything, that you would like for me to discuss or explain in greater detail please do not hesitate to email me with your requests.

The eight-week rally in the market-leading Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) ended last week as the tech-heavy index finally surrendered to short-term overbought conditions. Makes sense…because over that period of time QQQ saw returns of just under 15%, well over a third of the 37.9% year-to-date returns.

The pullback led us to lock in profits in our August 18, 2023 SPY 465/470 bear call spread and our July 21, 2023 IWM 196/191 – 156/151 iron condor. We locked in 10.1% and 6.2%, respectively, to bring our total returns to 159.9%. Our win ratio stands at 88.6% (31/35 winning trades) since we launched Quant Trader on June 2, 2022.

The market continues to rally higher. And while some of the momentum was lost on Friday, the bulls, at least for the moment, continue to control price action.


We are witnessing overbought levels not seen in five to six years – overbought levels that have only been reached less than a handful of times over the past 20 years.

Before we get started, our next Live Analyst Briefing with Q&A is scheduled for June 15, 2023, at 12 p.m. ET, where we will be discussing the options market, giving a detailed look at open positions, strategies used, and will have a follow-up with live questions and answers.

The market sits at a pivotal juncture with volatility sitting at the lowest levels in a few years. The week ahead is littered with market-moving events. But Wednesday is the day that offers up the most intriguing and potentially market-moving event. Wednesday at 2:00 ET we have the Fed’s rate decision, FOMC statement, and economic projections followed by Chairman Jerome Powell speaking at 2:30. I would expect to see price action vacillate widely immediately after the event. I’ll be paying close attention to see how the VIX reacts prior to and after the statement.

The market continued to rally this week and as a result, the probability of success on our positions moved slightly lower. That being said, both of our open trades still have a favorable probability of success. Our IWM iron condor sits at approximately 76% (tested side) and our QQQ bear call currently stands at a probability of success of better than 81%. Of course, anything can happen with 47 days left until our positions are due to expire on July 21.

We decided to take off our SPY June 16, 2023 430/435 bear call spread for a nice profit last week which marked 29 out of 33 winning trades since we started Quant Trader exactly one year ago. Moreover, our total return is now hovering around its highest point at 150%.

As we move past the May 19, 2023 expiration cycle, I want to add an iron condor and potentially two new vertical spreads, a bear call spread and a bull put spread, for the July expiration cycle. An iron condor will be the initial priority early this week as we dip below 60 days to expiration for the July 21 expiration cycle. My hope is that by week’s end we will have, at minimum, two new trades for the July expiration cycle, if not three.

I’m going to keep it short this week as we enter a busy end to the expiration cycle. We locked in an 11.1% profit in our DIA bear call spread last week to add to our 6.8% gain the week prior. Our total cumulative return stands at 135.63% (an all-time high) with a win ratio of 87.5% (28/32 winning trades) since we started Quant Trader just under one year ago … numbers we are proud of and hope you are as well.

We locked in a small 6.8% profit in our SPY iron condor last week and added another bear call spread, in SPY, to the mix later in the week. Our total cumulative return stands at 124.52% with a win ratio of 87.1% (27/31 winning trades) since we started Quant Trader just under one year ago.

We have two positions on at the moment, both due to expire at the June 16 expiration date. Fortunately, both are hovering around the same price we sold them for, so all is well at the moment. And given we are leaning bearish in both positions, a move lower will obviously immediately help both positions and possibly lead to some early profit taking.

We have two positions on at the moment, both due to expire at the June 16 expiration date. Fortunately, both are hovering around the same price we sold them for, so all is well at the moment. And given we are leaning slightly bearish in both positions, a move lower should certainly help both positions and possibly lead to some early profit taking.


My hope this week is to add one more trade to the June 16 expiration cycle, preferably a bullish leaning trade to balance out the deltas in the portfolio. Otherwise, we will simply sit on our hands and allow time decay to work in our favor.

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

I want to add some downside exposure; so with DIA trading for 338.15, I want to place a short-term bear call spread going out 53 days and outside of the expected range to the upside, or 350. My intent is to take off the trade well before the June 16, 2023, expiration date.

With 30 days left until the May 19 expiration cycle ends, we have the ability to lock in roughly 75% of the original premium sold.

With 30 days left until the May 19 expiration cycle ends, we have the ability to lock in roughly 75% of the original premium sold.

I want to add some downside exposure so with DIA trading for 337.40, I want to place a short-term bear call spread going out 37 days and outside of the expected range to the upside, or 350. My intent is to take off the trade well before the May 19, 2023, expiration date.

Our DIA bear call spread has hit its stop loss, so we are going to stay mechanical and exit the trade.

With 24 days left until expiration, we have the ability to take off our SPY iron condor for a nice profit.

With the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) trading for 172.95, I want to place a short-term iron condor going out 57 days. As always, my intent is to take off the trade well before the May 19, 2023, expiration date.

With 39 days left until expiration, we have the ability to take off our DIA bear call spread for a nice profit.

With the DIA trading for 335.70, I want to place a short-term bear call spread going out 46 days and outside of the expected range to the upside, or 348. My intent is to take off the trade well before the April 21, 2023, expiration date.

Even with a probability of success that sits just over 80%, we still have 16 days until our IWM March 17, 2023, iron condor is due to expire.

With the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) trading for 397.25, I want to place a short-term iron condor going out 57 days. As always, my intent is to take off the trade well before the April 21, 2023, expiration date.

Just 12 days ago we added a bear call spread in DIA. The recent decline has given us the opportunity to take some nice profits off the table.