📩 The Option Premium Weekly Issue - November 9, 2025

Thank you for being here.

Whether you've been reading since day one or just discovered The Option Premium, your engagement matters. The questions you ask, the feedback you share, the way you engage with this work, it pushes me to create something genuinely valuable.

What I'm Committed To

I built this service to be different from the start. No inbox spam. No artificial scarcity. No treating you like a number on a dashboard.

You deserve better than that.

My goal is simple: create the most useful options education resource available. Real strategies. Real trades. Real transparency from someone who's been doing this for almost two and a half decades.

What's Next

I'm expanding The Option Premium in 2026:

YouTube videos and live sessions where you can see setups develop in real time. Subscriber webinars diving deep into the mechanics and decision-making behind successful trades. New portfolios launching at year-end, designed for different risk tolerances and time commitments.

Each addition serves one purpose: helping you understand options as practical income tools, not gambling instruments.

An Invitation

If you've found value in what I share publicly, I'd be honored to have you join as a subscriber. You'll watch me build the 2026 portfolios from the ground up—seeing how theory translates into actual position management.

But only if it makes sense for you. No pressure. No games.

I'm grateful you're here either way.

Thank you for your time and trust.

Andy
Founder and Chief Options Strategist

📰 Market Commentary & Snapshot

Week's Market Notables

The S&P 500 dropped 1.6% and the Nasdaq fell 3% in early November, but fundamentals remain solid: 82% of S&P 500 companies beat earnings expectations, tracking toward 12% growth for the fourth straight quarter of double-digit gains. The selloff came from cautious bank commentary at a conference, triggering profit-taking after seven consecutive months of tech gains.

For options traders, this gap between strong earnings and sentiment-driven selling creates premium-selling opportunities where implied volatility has expanded despite solid fundamentals. Tech earnings grew 22% and the Magnificent Seven continue AI investments, this looks like sentiment adjustment, not fundamental deterioration.

Technical Picture

The top 10 stocks now comprise over 40% of the S&P 500's market cap, unprecedented concentration that amplifies volatility when sentiment shifts. NVIDIA alone exceeds $5 trillion (larger than five entire S&P sectors). Unlike the dot-com bubble, today's tech leaders are profitable, cash-flow positive, and operating during Fed easing rather than tightening.

Technicals suggest rotation rather than capitulation, with mid-caps and international equities showing strength as investors diversify. Support levels matter, breaks could trigger systematic selling, while holds could attract value buyers.

Sentiment Indicators

Breadth and sentiment metrics show caution, not panic. Sharp sector rotation indicates repositioning rather than equity abandonment. Put-call ratios rose but haven't reached capitulation extremes.

The opportunity: elevated volatility after pullbacks often misprices premium, favoring systematic credit spread sellers. Labor data adds nuance, modest stabilization (ADP's 42,000 October gain) alongside AI-driven tech layoffs (software openings down 75% from pandemic highs) supports margins while keeping the Fed in easing mode, generally supportive for risk assets despite near-term chop.

📊 Weekly Market Stats

📰 Weekly In-Depth Articles 

🗓️ Tuesday, November 4th - LEAPS Options: The Complete Guide (Mechanics, Strategy, and Real Use-Cases)

🗓️ Thursday, November 6th - Small Account Options Trading - PMCC Strategies Under $10,000

🧭 The Earnings Playbook

(Educational and idea-generating for all readers)

How to Read This Week's Earnings Calendar

1. Liquidity Considerations

CSCO and OXY display the largest open interest figures (1.12M and 1.06M contracts respectively). Higher open interest combined with steady volume typically correlates with narrower bid/ask spreads and more consistent order execution. These characteristics make them useful subjects for observing options market mechanics around earnings announcements.

2. Volatility Characteristics

RGTI, RKLB, NBIS, and OKLO all exhibit triple-digit implied volatility levels. These securities serve as case studies for observing post-earnings implied volatility contraction (commonly called "IV crush") and how option spreads behave following significant price gaps.

3. Understanding IV Rank vs. Absolute IV Levels

This distinction often creates confusion:

CSCO example: Shows 33% implied volatility (relatively low in absolute terms) but a 76.5% IV Rank. This means current IV is low by historical standards, yet positioned high within its own 52-week range.

OXY example: Displays 35.8% implied volatility with a 21.1% IV Rank but an 86% IV Percentile. This illustrates how IV Rank (position between the 52-week high and low) and IV Percentile (percentage of trading days in the past year with lower IV) can present different perspectives on the same underlying volatility environment.

4. Timing Dynamics

After-hours releases (Monday, Tuesday PM, Wednesday PM): Price discovery typically begins during extended hours and continues into the following morning session.

Pre-market releases (Tuesday AM: NBIS; Thursday AM: DIS): Early announcements often exhibit wider bid/ask spreads immediately at market open, which tend to narrow during the first 15-30 minutes of regular trading.

5. Educational Observation Framework

Consider tracking these variables in a trading journal:

• How did implied volatility and IV Rank change from 30 minutes before the announcement through the first hour afterward?

• Did options trading volume concentrate in weekly expirations, or distribute across monthly contracts?

• How did bid/ask width compare between at-the-money strikes and 10-20 delta strikes?

• For pre-market announcements, what was the timeframe for spread normalization?

• Which securities showed the largest divergence between the expected move (derived from pre-announcement IV) and the actual price movement?

Summary

CSCO and OXY provide environments for observing more liquid options markets and standard IV behavior patterns. RGTI, RKLB, NBIS, and OKLO offer examples of elevated-IV environments, including gap behavior, wider spreads, and accelerated volatility contraction. DIS represents a traditional large-cap pre-market scenario for studying how spreads and implied volatility stabilize in the opening minutes of the trading session.

🧭 Earnings Season Options Trade: A Step-by-Step Guide: Explore the in-depth, quantitative approach to the best strikes, probabilities, and setups for earnings trades: learn the mechanics of the high-probability approach.

👉 For detailed frameworks, including delta targets, exit triggers, and trade structuring ideas, join the paid edition: The Implied Perspective. 

⁉️ Did You Know?

You Can Dial Your Delta Exposure with a Ratio LEAPS Strategy

Most traders think of Poor Man’s Covered Calls as static income positions, but a small ratio adjustment can transform them into dynamic portfolio tools.

Here’s how it works: instead of selling one short call for every LEAPS contract you hold, you own multiple LEAPS (for example, 5) and sell fewer short calls (2 or 3) when you want to stay longer delta, meaning more bullish exposure with room to participate in upside moves.

When the goal shifts toward more income generation or downside protection, you simply sell more short calls, increasing the hedge, collecting additional premium, and reducing directional risk. The long LEAPS anchor your position; the short calls control how aggressively or defensively you lean.

For Options Traders

This ratio approach bridges the gap between passive LEAPS investing and active portfolio management. It’s not just about premium, it’s about precision. By adjusting the number of short calls, you can fine-tune delta exposure and income levels like a professional portfolio manager.

📍 Big things ahead for The Option Premium, including a new model portfolio launching in 2026 built entirely around this ratio LEAPS framework. Stay tuned.

Read more about fractional PMCCs here: The Ratio Poor Man’s Covered Call: Using Multiple LEAPS for Smarter Options Income

🎓 Options 101: The First Steps to Trading

The Law of Large Numbers, And Why It Matters in Trading

This week’s lesson explains a boring but powerful truth: the more trades you place with the same rules, the more your results reflect your real edge, not luck. A handful of trades can fool you; hundreds reveal the truth. Don’t chase win rate; focus on expectancy, what you make on average per trade. Losing streaks are normal even in good systems, so size small and spread trades across different tickers and expirations. Take profits mechanically (50 to 75% of max) and keep repeating the process.

Quick actions:

• Risk 1 to 5% per trade, no more.

• Avoid clustering: don’t load the same ticker/expiration.

• Enter when IV Rank pays you; exit after 50 to 75% profit.

• Log every trade so your data, not your mood, guides changes.

👉 Read the full article: Options 101: The Law of Large Numbers, Why It Matters in Trading

🧠 Mental Capital

Train not just your trading system, but your trading self.

Why Good Traders Keep Throwing Money at Bad Options Trades

This week’s article digs into one of the most expensive habits in options trading: chasing losses. The problem usually isn’t the strategy, timing, or even volatility, it’s the refusal to cut a losing trade when the only rational move left is to close it. Our brains fight against us with loss aversion, hope, and attachment, and options make it worse with time decay and brutal recovery math. A 50% drawdown with theta working against you isn’t a “wait it out” situation, it’s an account risk.

Inside, we break down a practical framework to stop throwing good money after bad: simple exit rules like the 50% max-loss rule, time-based exits (14 to 25 DTE), the “Fresh Eyes Test” to expose positions you’re only holding out of hope, and why rolling losers often just digs a deeper hole. You’ll also get a weekly action plan for turning exits into a rules-based habit so your worst trades stop defining your year.

👉 Read the full article at The Option Premium

📊 The Implied Truth: Weekly Table Overview

Unlock the Full Picture - Upgrade to access the complete table, including all 100 equities (AAPL, META, AMZN, NVDA and more)

Every number tells a story. Each week, we decode the landscape across the most liquid ETFs, because this is where retail traders get the cleanest signals and the least slippage. But the power isn’t in the data, it’s in how you interpret it.

Below is your edge: a strategic overview that reveals where the premium is overpriced, where price action is exhausted, and where the highest-probability setups exist for the coming week.

This section is here to help you choose what works for your strategy. The numbers are facts, not opinions. Whether you sell premium, buy directional spreads, or trade reversals, the edge begins with understanding volatility and momentum. Let’s dig in.

What This Table Tells Us

• Use this weekly to guide your trade ideas, not predict outcomes.

• The data is factual. There’s no opinion in this grid, only opportunity.

• Choose what aligns with your timeframe, risk appetite, and edge.

📍 This Week's Market Reading: Where the Action Is

The major indexes are telling an interesting story when you look across RSI timeframes. SPY's 2-day RSI of 11.5 shows sharp recent selling, but the 14-day reading of 47.29 reveals the intermediate trend remains balanced. QQQ mirrors this pattern, 10.72 on the 2-day versus 46.81 on the 14-day. These divergences between short and longer timeframes often signal temporary weakness rather than sustained breakdowns.

Energy (XLE) shows one of the most extreme momentum profiles. The 2-day RSI of 92.84 stays elevated across all timeframes: 73.37 (5-day), 63.4 (9-day), and 58.15 (14-day). This cascading pattern indicates persistent buying pressure, not just a one-day spike. Contrast this with homebuilders (XHB), where the 89.08 two-day reading quickly fades to 43.07 by the 14-day measure, suggesting a short-term pop without intermediate follow-through.

Precious metals show interesting divergences. Gold (GLD) sports a 71.58 two-day RSI that immediately moderates to 48.87 (5-day) and 50.93 (14-day). Silver (SLV) displays nearly identical behavior: 71.69 dropping to 51.62. These patterns suggest quick pops rather than sustained trends, even as both maintain elevated IV percentiles (72% and 78% respectively).

The VIX progression reveals sustained fear: 85.01 (2-day) declining to 70.62 (5-day), 61.06 (9-day), and 57.5 (14-day). When the fear gauge itself shows overbought readings across multiple timeframes, it often signals exhaustion of panic rather than the beginning of it.

Meanwhile, bonds (TLT) show consistently subdued readings across all timeframes, 45.62, 37.24, 39.76, 44.13, never cracking 50 on any measure. This lack of directional momentum translates directly to the anemic 4% IV percentile. Without movement, premium simply doesn't exist.

Notable Market Conditions

Elevated Premium During Weakness:

• URA - 92% IV percentile while RSI climbs from weakness, high volatility pricing in uncertainty during recovery

• QQQ - 81% IV percentile with sharp recent selling, fat premiums available during short-term pullback

• SMH - 75% IV percentile as momentum improves, semiconductors volatile while recovering

Sustained Overbought Conditions:

• XLE - Extreme across all timeframes, persistent strength rarely this extended

• GDX - Recent surge fading at 83% IV percentile, short-term extreme moderating quickly

• XLP - Quick pop reverting to neutral, staples showing unsustained momentum

Precious Metals Pop-and-Fade:

• GLD - Short strength disappearing at 72% IV percentile

• SLV - Identical pattern at 78% IV percentile

VIX Exhaustion Signal:

• VIX - Overbought across all periods, sustained elevation suggesting fear fatigue

The key insight: markets showing consistent momentum across all RSI timeframes (like XLE) behave differently than those with short-term spikes that quickly fade (like GLD or XHB). When you overlay high IV percentiles on these patterns, URA's 92% during a pullback, or QQQ's 81% during weakness, you see whether volatility reflects genuine uncertainty or simply stretched short-term positioning.

Quick Reference

👉 For detailed idea generation, explore my curated list of highly liquid ETFs and equities in this week’s issue of The Implied Perspective, where I break down specific trade frameworks/strategies, delta setups, and portfolio integration for premium sellers.

📚 Educational Corner: Options Deep Dive

Retirement Income with Options - Safe Strategies for Seniors

Most retirees are told to avoid options entirely, or to chase unsafe “monthly income” schemes that quietly put their nest egg at risk. This week’s article cuts through the noise and shows how seniors can use defined-risk strategies like the Wheel, conservative PMCCs, vertical spreads and index iron condors to add steady income without betting the house. We walk through position sizing, realistic return ranges, and the one rule that matters most in retirement: preserve the portfolio first, let income grow second.

If you’re looking for more cash flow in retirement but refuse to gamble with your savings, this is the playbook.

👉 Read the full guide: Retirement Income with Options - Safe Strategies for Seniors

🔗 Let’s Stay Connected

Have questions, feedback, or just want to say hello? I’d love to hear from you.
📩 Email me anytime at [email protected]

📺 Subscribe on YouTube so you’ll be notified when the first videos are released.
👥 Join the private Facebook group or connect with me on X.
💌 Send me your topic requests, whether for the newsletter, YouTube, or webinars. Seriously, send them. 🙂 

Thanks again for reading. I hope you found today’s insights valuable and worth your time.

Trade Smart. Trade Thoughtfully.
Andy Crowder
Founder | Editor-in-Chief | Chief Options Strategist
The Option Premium

Educational use only. The Option Premium is a publication for educational purposes and does not provide personalized investment advice. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Always confirm details and manage risk prudently.