🚨 I’ll be live at 9 AM ET🚨
 We ended January with a bang so we’ll cover what just happened as we set up for the new month, a bonus trade, my gold and silver correction prediction and new positioning and more [tap to join us for the Daily Profit Plan]!
There’s a reason most traders lose money on iron condors.
It’s not because the strategy is flawed. It’s not because the market is rigged against you. And it’s definitely not because iron condors don’t work.
The problem is much simpler — most traders are winging it.
They throw on an iron condor because it sounds sophisticated, collect a credit and hope the market stays in range. But they skip the most important part — the mathematical framework that determines whether the trade ever had a chance in the first place.
Let me show you what I mean.
The Structure Is Simple — The Setup Is Everything
An iron condor is just two credit spreads combined. You sell a call spread above market price and a put spread below market price. That’s it. Nothing fancy about the structure itself.
But here’s where most traders go wrong — they don’t know where to place those strikes. They guess. They eyeball it. They use an arbitrary delta without understanding why. The real work happens before market open, when you’re building the probability framework the trade will rely on. You need to calculate the Market Maker Move from your broker platform. You need to know your VIX extremes using the Rule of 16. You need ATR percentages, gap conditions and any unusual pre-market activity that might throw off your assumptions.
And it’s not just about the expected move. It’s also everything risk. Whether you use a 5 wide or 10 wide spread changes your exposure immediately, so you need to model your risk before you click the button. If you’re placing spreads without knowing how width impacts your break-even levels, max loss and behavior under stress, you’re setting yourself up for trouble.
Let me walk you through a real example. Say we’re looking at tomorrow’s expiration with a plus-or-minus 43-point expected move. I’d identify my 10-delta strikes — maybe a 7005 call and a 6845 put. I’d create 5-wide spreads around those levels.
Now here’s the discipline part. If the current credit available is 80 cents but I want a dollar — I wait. I don’t chase. I let price movement bring me the fill I want or I don’t take the trade at all. That’s the difference between trading with intent and reacting emotionally.
That’s also where most traders fall apart. They want to participate so badly that they abandon their plan the moment the market doesn’t give them what they want right away.
Stop Hoping for Big Moves — Start Grinding Consistent Income
Here’s what drives me crazy about how most people approach options. They want to buy calls and hope price rips higher or buy puts and pray for a crash.
That’s not trading — that’s gambling on directional moves you can’t control.
I don’t care what the market does. Up, down, sideways — I want to make money regardless. That’s the power of a properly structured iron condor backed by a solid mathematical foundation.
You don’t need price to explode higher. You don’t need a meltdown. You just need price to stay within a calculated range that you’ve already identified using probabilities, delta and volatility metrics. When you combine that with smart spread width decisions, proper risk modeling and disciplined execution, you put yourself in a position to grind consistent income instead of chasing lottery tickets.
The iron condor isn’t the problem. The lack of preparation is. Do the math. Know your levels. Build your risk framework. Wait for your price. Then execute with discipline.
That’s how you turn a strategy most traders lose on into one that actually works.
I’ll see you in the markets.
Chris Pulver
Chris Pulver TradingÂ
Follow along and join the conversation for real-time analysis, trade ideas, market insights and more!
- Telegram:https://t.me/+av20QmeKC5VjOTc5
- YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@FinancialWars
- Twitter:https://x.com/realchrispulver
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealchrispulver
Important Note: No one from the ProsperityPub team or Chris Pulver Trading will ever contact you directly on Telegram.
*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.Â
P.S. 1 Strange Trade Would Have Doubled A Stake 31 Times in 2025 Alone…
And according to two former hedge fund traders, this special option could present more opportunities in 2026.
Would you like to get all the details?
Yes! Show Me This Special Trade
We develop strategies to the best of our ability, but we cannot guarantee a future return. There is always a risk of loss when trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The results shown are from a 237-trade backtest from 1/1/20 – 1/1/26. The result was a 70% win rate, 40% average return (winners and losers), with a 7-day hold time.
