The Simple Secret to Easier, More Profitable Trading (and a Happier Life)

I wish everyone were doing this...

My paid subscribers are familiar with my longtime friend and colleague, Jay Harris. I've known Jay for 18 years - and for the past five of those, he's been my head of research.

The Money Calendar crunches a lot of work for the trades it finds, but there's still a TON of research for us mere humans to do, and Jay is one of the best, hardest workers I know. In fact, he hasn't really taken a vacation in these five years.

So I did what any good friend (or boss) would do: I pretty much begged him to go off on an Alaskan cruise.

Finding the time for him was easy; the man has a ridiculous amount of PTO saved up.

The money was even easier; Jay knows the same easy tricks I do to make his trades much "juicier" in terms of payoff.

And that's what I'm going to show you how to do today.

What you'll do with all the extra money and time is up to you, whether you want to take your family on a vacation, put someone through school, sock something away, treat yourself - that's your thing. You know best.

I'm just here to show you how to quickly and easily pay for it...

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There's More Than Just "Buying" and "Selling" Going On

Buying and selling are really only half of making money trading in the markets. How, when, and where you do that are just as important, but that doesn't seem to get much press.

But to make the kind of cash you want, you only need around five minutes to set up your trades to get the how, when, and where just right.

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It's fast because it's largely automatic.

Let me walk you through...

Buy-to-Open and Sell-to-Open Calls and Puts: When you open a call option trade (what we call "taking a position"), you're purchasing the right to buy a stock at a specific price on or before a certain date. When you open a put option trade, you're purchasing the right to sell a stock at a specific price on or before a certain date.

Whether you're buying to open a call or put trade, your position stays open until either the option expires or you sell to close your trade. With what's called American-style options, this can be done prior to expiration. European-style options can only be exercised at expiration.

You can track open option contracts by looking at open interest (OI), which you can find on your brokers trading platform.

Buy-to-Close and Sell-to-Close Calls and Puts: When you close a call option or put option trade, it means you're relinquishing your right to either buy or sell the stock. You can do this prior to expiration, which means that you're accepting either a profit or loss on the trade at that time. But the most important thing is understanding your online trading platform and selecting the proper order execution. There have been too many instances when novice options traders inadvertently sell to open an option instead of selling to close it. This mistake leaves them with an open, naked option - which is even more uncomfortable and riskier than it sounds. In fact, an open naked option is pretty much the ultimate in risk. I'll have more to say on this later. Suffice it to say you want to take some extra time to make sure you're opening and closing trades correctly.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the four order types you'll need to know...

I Never Place an Order Without "Tagging" It This Way

Market Order: This is an order that essentially leaves you at the mercy of the markets as of that particular moment you're placing your order - not necessarily a bad or worrisome thing if you've got a good idea of where the stock's going. You're going to open or close your position at whatever the current price for the option is. For example, if the bid/ask spread on an option (the difference between the price you're willing to pay and the price you're willing to sell) is $2.00 x $2.20, then that means you're likely buy it at $2.20 (or higher if the ask price moves higher than $2.20 by the time the order is filled).

Limit Order: This is an order that specifies the maximum price you're willing to pay to open your position. Using the example above, you'd be placing a limit order if you place your buy to open order at a $2 limit. This means that no matter what happens in the markets, you're willing to pay $2 or less - but not a penny more.

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Day Order: This order is only good for that trading day (or session). You can use it if you don't want to leave your order open longer than one trading day.

Good-till-Canceled (GTC) Order: This order is only good for the next 30 to 90 days, depending on your broker. Ask your brokerage support desk to ask how long their GTC orders are good for. If you don't get filled within this time frame, then you would need to open a new position.

Whatever price at which you open your position, you can do the math and calculate the price at which you'd need the option to be trading in order to realize our profit target. So let's say our target is 100% - a nice, round number that means you've doubled your money!

If you bought a call option at $2.20 (less commissions and fees), then you'd need it to reach $4.40 in order to hand you a 100% gain (or a "double," as I like to call it). And you can place a sell-to-close order at $4.40 using a limit order, too.

These order types are able to rake in gains over and over again. And here's the best part: It doesn't take any extra work on your part.

Last week, my V3 Trader readers got a research alert from me to open a limit order on Phillip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM). My screen showed a volume spike underway - one that could move the stock 4%. The options play, though, has the potential for 80% in gains. Thanks to the nature of these orders, my readers following along had the power to set up their exit strategy at the same time as their entry strategy.

Now, like I said, the profit target on the PM trade was 80% - and just seven days later, those following along had the chance to hit that profit target. And of course, they didn't even need to lift a finger.

As you'll see, you can have the power so you can make these "money grabs" all by yourself - again and again - in about five minutes a day.

Check out how it works now - and get ready for your life to change for the better.

These 100 Stocks Have a 94% Win Rate (and a Brand-New Opportunity Is Going Live)

There are about 4,000 stocks traded daily on the U.S. markets - but only about 100 of them may be worth your time. Most people can't tell the difference... and this opens the door to tremendous opportunities for folks who DO know the secret. In fact, just by zeroing in on one tiny fraction of the market, you can pinpoint winners with 94% accuracy based on our testing.

And as soon as the markets open Monday morning, we're going to release a brand-new recommendation from this top-100 list. Take a look now - before you miss it...

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About the Author

Tom Gentile, options trading specialist for Money Map Press, is widely known as America's No. 1 Pattern Trader thanks to his nearly 30 years of experience spotting lucrative patterns in options trading. Tom has taught over 300,000 traders his option trading secrets in a variety of settings, including seminars and workshops. He's also a bestselling author of eight books and training courses.

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