Before We Get Started…

After years of working for other people, often in environments shaped by marketing first, product second, I’m genuinely grateful to finally be building this on my own terms.

What’s made the last chapter of my career feel different isn’t just the freedom. It’s you.

For more than 15 years, a small group of incredibly loyal readers has stuck with me, through different firms, different formats, and different market cycles. I never took that for granted. But since stepping out on my own, that support has gone to an entirely different level. The growth over the last six months, free subscribers and paid members, has been far beyond anything I expected this early. I’m thankful for every single person who decided to give The Option Premium a shot, and especially for those who chose to pay for it and trust me with their attention and their capital.

What’s hit me the hardest has been the feedback.

The comments. The emails. The trade updates. The “this finally clicked for me” messages. The quiet testimonials from people who didn’t need hype, just a repeatable process and someone willing to teach it clearly. That has been a real eye-opener, and it’s also what I’m most proud of. Because it confirms something I’ve believed for a long time:

Most traders don’t need more noise. They need structure, probability, and risk management, delivered by someone who respects them.

I’ve spent a long time watching the “predatory marketing” side of this industry up close. You’ve seen it too: urgency, theatrics, exaggerated claims, the constant push to sell you something by making you feel behind. I’ve always hated that. And I made a decision early with The Option Premium: we’re not doing that here. No gimmicks. No manufactured scarcity. No pretending trading is easy or guaranteed.

Just the work:

• clear frameworks,

• honest expectations,

• disciplined position sizing,

• and a community that values process over ego.

And here’s the part that still surprises me: the growth we’re seeing hasn’t come from “tricks”, it’s come from you. From organic sharing. From word-of-mouth. From people telling a friend, “This is the first options newsletter that actually teaches you how to think.”

That’s the highest compliment I can receive.

So I have one simple ask, nothing flashy:

If The Option Premium has helped you, I’d be grateful if you shared it with one person…or one group…or one community where you think it could genuinely help. Not as a favor to me, but as a way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in a space that desperately needs it.

I’m here for the long game. I’m building something durable, something I wish existed when I was coming up: practical education, real trades, transparent tracking, and a consistent process that holds up across market regimes.

Thank you for being part of it. Thank you for the trust. Thank you for the push to keep raising the standard.

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📰 Market Commentary & Snapshot

This was a “the market caught its breath” kind of week.

Big indexes didn’t do much (slightly down), but small caps kept quietly leading. Volatility didn’t explode, but it did firm up into the mid-teens. For us, that’s a solid setup: not panic, not sleepwalking, and still enough movement under the surface to find paid trades.

The simple read: the market isn’t euphoric, but it isn’t easy either. That’s usually where disciplined premium-selling works best.

What moved (and why we care)

1) Small caps kept showing strength.
While the S&P and Nasdaq drifted, small caps were green again.

Options takeaway: This is how you get more “real opportunity” away from the same crowded mega-cap names. More separation between winners and losers means more pockets of good premium if you’re picky.

2) Volatility is back to “paying rent.”
VIX around the mid-15s isn’t fear. But it’s not the dead, underpaid tape either.

Options takeaway: This is the zone where you can sell premium, but you still need to respect one ugly headline day. Wider strikes, smaller size, quicker profit targets.

3) Monthly expiration is behind us, and the tape can loosen up.
After opex, markets sometimes move a little more freely because positioning resets.

Options takeaway: Don’t assume “quiet” is the default. If you put trades on, put them on like a one-day surprise move is possible.

What it means for readers of The Option Premium

Index income (SPY / QQQ / DIA / IWM):
This is not the week to get cute. I’d rather collect “boring” credits with room to breathe than squeeze premium near the money and spend the week managing stress. Defined-risk spreads and conservative iron condors still make the most sense.

Wheel / cash-secured puts:
Same rule as always: if assignment would annoy you, don’t sell the put. Premium can look great right up until you’re staring at 100 shares you never wanted.

PMCC / LEAPS:
If you’re building long delta, do it in layers. You don’t need to nail the exact bottom or top. Ladder in, keep deltas intentional, and let the short calls do the steady work.

Looking Ahead: The Week’s Macro Risk

It’s a holiday-shortened week (markets closed Monday), but don’t confuse fewer trading days with less risk.

• PCE inflation (Fed’s preferred inflation gauge)

• Earnings season ramps up

• Headline risk always lurking around rates and positioning

Practical takeaway: If you sell premium this week, act like you might get a fast move when you least want one. That means farther strikes, smaller size, and quicker exits.

📊 Weekly Market Stats (Week Ending Jan. 16, 2026)

*MSCI EAFE stats are proxied using EFA (iShares MSCI EAFE ETF), which closely tracks the index.

📰 Weekly In-Depth Articles 

🗓️ Tuesday, December 13th - Building a Small Dogs PMCC Portfolio (And Why It's Not Just "Dogs of the Dow With Options")

🗓️ Thursday, December 15th - Beta-Weighted Delta: The Risk Metric Most Traders Ignore

🎓 Options 101: The First Steps to Trading

If delta is the speedometer and theta is the engine…gamma and vega are the road conditions.

And when the road changes, “safe” trades stop behaving safely.

In this week’s Options 101, we dig into the two Greeks that turn calm markets into white-knuckle P&L swings: gamma (how fast your exposure changes) and vega (how options reprice when volatility shifts). I’ll show you where the real danger zone lives, why premium sellers are most vulnerable late in the cycle, and the clean rules pros use to avoid the “everything was fine yesterday” moment.

If you sell premium, run spreads/condors, or use PMCCs, this is the piece that helps you stop feeling “unlucky” and start trading with a cleaner, more mechanical process.

👉 Read the full article: Options 101: Gamma and Vega - The Two Forces That Blow Up “Good Trades”

🧠 Mental Capital

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

Most traders start an options trade by asking the wrong question:

“Where do I think the stock is going?”

This week’s article starts with the better one: “How far is the market already charging for?”

Options premiums aren’t random. They reflect what the market is charging for a likely range of movement over a specific time window (based on implied volatility).

That’s the expected move, the single metric I check before every trade, because it turns options from guesswork into terms of a bet. In one number, it tells you the market’s “one standard deviation” range for expiration (roughly 68%), which instantly changes how you pick strikes, choose strategies, and manage risk.

Using real SPY data, you’ll see exactly how this works in practice:

• SPY: $691.66

• 34 DTE

• Expected move: ±$18.91

• Range: $672.75 to $710.57

• IV Rank: ~7 (low-vol environment)

From there, the article shows my step-by-step approach to building trades around that range, not around headlines, vibes, or chart doodles. You’ll learn how to use Prob.OTM vs. Prob.Touch so you can stop getting surprised by “good trades” that suddenly feel uncomfortable mid-cycle, and you’ll see why the best traders don’t chase 95% probability pennies that aren’t worth the risk.

If you’ve ever sold premium and then watched price drift toward your strike thinking, “Wait…how is this happening?”, this is the missing piece.

👉 Read the full article: Expected Move: The Single Most Important Metric Before Placing Any Options Trade

📊 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.

Uptrend Still Intact… but the “easy premium” is hiding in pockets

Here’s the clean read from your table:

• The core tape is still healthy. SPY / DIA / VTI are RSI(14) 56 to 60, QQQ is 52. That’s not a broken market.

• But index premium is still skinny. IV Rank is single digits to low teens across SPY (7) / DIA (8) / VTI (5) / QQQ (11).

• Translation: you can be right and still get chopped if you sell tight strikes for small credits.

Best posture: smaller size, farther strikes, defined-risk, quicker profit-taking.

This Week’s Playbook (only the best, most usable setups)

1) Paid + Strong Trend (great premium… but crowded)

These are paying you, and the trend is real. The mistake is selling them too tight.

Top pockets

• SLV - IV Rank 93, IVP 99, trend strength screaming (ADX 46/44), RSI(14) 69

• URA - IV Rank 63, IVP 71, ADX 42/25, RSI(2) 95 (very hot)

• GDX - IV Rank 55, IVP 85, RSI(14) 72, RSI(2) 99 (white-hot)

Actionable approach (simple rules)

• Prefer wide, defined-risk structures (wide condors / wide put spreads)

• If you sell puts: farther OTM than your ego wants, smaller size than your confidence wants

• Take profits faster (don’t wait for “max win” in crowded trades)

The tell: if you’re thinking “I’ll just go a little closer for more credit,” that’s the exact moment to go wider instead of closer.

2) Paid Discomfort (often the best risk/reward for sellers)

These are the “uncomfortable but clean” spots: pressure is showing up, and that’s where premium becomes useful again.

Best candidates

• FXI - RSI(2) 9 (washed), RSI(14) 49 (just below 50), premium still decent (IV 24%)

• XLV - RSI(2) 15, RSI(14) 50, IV Rank 18

• TLT - RSI(14) 48 (below 50), RSI(2) 24, premium is thin (IV Rank 3) but it’s a risk-management setup for patient traders

How to trade it

• Defined-risk put spreads > naked puts (because these can keep dripping lower before they turn)

• Scale entries after stabilization (even a small RSI(5) turn helps)

• If RSI(14) is below 50 (FXI/TLT area): keep it smaller + wider + slower

Where Premium Sellers Get Cut Up

Indexes: OK trend, mediocre pay

• SPY IV Rank 7, RSI(14) 57

• DIA IV Rank 8, RSI(14) 60

• VTI IV Rank 5, RSI(14) 59

• QQQ IV Rank 11, RSI(14) 52

Translation: the market is “fine,” but the price of insurance is cheap, so you don’t want to be the insurer too close to spot.

If you insist on selling index premium this week:

• smaller

• farther

• defined-risk

• faster exits

One “Hidden Edge” Note (worth real money)

HYG: RSI(2) 99 (extremely hot) with IV Rank ~3 (no pay). That’s a classic “looks safe, pays nothing” trap. If it snaps back, you won’t have enough credit to cushion normal mean reversion.

Final Signals From The Implied Truth

• Primary trend: still up, still tradable.

• Best premium opportunities: SLV / URA / GDX (but crowded, so trade them like a pro: wide + defined-risk + quick profits).

• Best “seller’s bargain” setups: FXI / XLV (washed-out short-term pressure with structures that can be defined-risk).

• Rule of the week: when premium feels “meh,” your edge comes from distance + structure, not bravery.

👉 For a deeper dive each week, including a full breakdown of the most liquid optionable ETFs and an in-depth analysis of 100+ highly liquid equities, check out The Implied Perspective, our paid service that turns this data into structured, high-probability premium ideas.

As always, this section is meant to be an educational lens on the current landscape, not personal advice. The edge comes from matching the strategy to the regime, keeping position sizes small, and letting a large sample of disciplined trades do the heavy lifting over time.

Quick Reference

📚 Educational Corner: Options Deep Dive

Most traders want options income…without the “one bad move” risk that comes with naked selling. Iron condors help. But when volatility is high and options are paying well, I often prefer a simpler structure with a smarter risk profile: The Jade Lizard.

Think of it like this:

• Sell a cash-secured put (just like the Wheel)

• Add a bear call spread to bring in extra credit

Here’s the key rule that makes it special:

Your total credit must be bigger than the width of the call spread. When that’s true, you have no upside risk. If the stock/ETF rips higher, the most the call spread can lose is fully covered by the credit you collected.

So what’s the real risk? Downside, just like a cash-secured put. That’s why this strategy fits so well for put sellers.

In the full article, I break down a real URA example, show how to use probability stats (Prob. OTM vs. Prob. Touch), and give clear rules for:

• profit targets (when to take the win)

• rolling (what to adjust and when)

• assignment (how to handle it calmly)

If you already sell puts, the Jade Lizard is one of the cleanest “next steps” when IV is elevated.

👉 Read the full guide here: The Jade Lizard: High-Probability Income When Volatility Pays You to Wait

⁉️ Did You Know?

A Collar Isn’t Just a Hedge. It’s You Drawing the Lines Before the Market Gets Emotional.

A collar is simple on paper: you own shares, sell a call, and buy a put.

But the real benefit isn’t the mechanics.

It’s what the collar forces you to do: pick a range you can live with ahead of time.
A floor where you’re protected if things get ugly… and a ceiling where you’re willing to sell if the stock runs.

That’s why collars work so well for real investors. They reduce “in the moment” decisions.

Here’s a clean way to make it systematic:

• Sell a call around 15 to 30 delta (a realistic “I’m fine selling here” level)

• Buy a put around 10 to 20 delta (enough protection without paying for a doomsday scenario)

Then do one quick sanity check with expected move:

If your put strike is too close to current price, you’re often overpaying for insurance you’ll “touch” in normal noise. If your call strike is too close, you’re giving away upside for a small coupon.

And one rule that saves people a lot of regret:

If you’d be annoyed getting called away at your call strike, don’t sell that call.
Because the call isn’t “bonus income.” It’s the funding source for your protection.

👉 Want to read more on the topic? The Collar Options Strategy: How to Lock In Gains and Limit Risk Without Selling Your Position

Read even more about collars here: Collar Strategy (Archive)

🔗 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]

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💌 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.