How I Find Options Trades Each Morning (My Actual Process)

Before I built StrikeScan, finding a trade took 60 to 90 minutes. I was pulling IV data from one platform, checking charts on another, manually calculating probability on a spreadsheet, and still second-guessing whether I had the full picture by the time I placed anything.

Now it takes a few minutes. Here's the exact process — not a theoretical framework, just what I actually do every morning.

Step 1 — Read the Market First

Before I look at a single ticker, I check the broader environment. VIX first. Is it elevated, dropping, spiking? A VIX above 25 means premium is rich but there's a reason it's rich. I'm more selective about what I sell, more conservative on sizing, and I'm more likely to skip trades that would have been obvious in a lower-vol environment.

I also check oil and the broader index futures if it's pre-market. If there's a geopolitical headline driving things, I want to know that before I start scanning individual tickers. The environment shapes everything. A great setup in a chaotic market is still a dangerous trade.

This whole step takes about a minute. I'm not doing macro research — I just want a quick read on whether today is a day to deploy capital aggressively or a day to be patient.

Step 2 — Chart Check Before the Scanner

This is where most traders skip straight to scanning and miss something important.

Before I trust a scanner result, I want to know what the stock looks like technically. My process is top-down — I start on the monthly chart and work down. Monthly first, then the two-week, then the weekly, then the daily. Sometimes I'll drop to the two-day if I want a more granular read. It sounds like a lot but once you've done it a thousand times you can get a read on a chart in seconds.

The one indicator I always have on is the 200-period moving average. That's it. I'm not looking at 15 indicators — I'm reading price. Where has the stock been? Where is it now relative to where it's been? Is it in a range, trending cleanly, or in a mess?

What I'm really looking for is basic support and resistance. Where has price stalled or reversed before? Those levels matter. I'll also check the daily HLOC data — high, low, open, close — to see if anything stands out. Sometimes you catch a rejection at a key level or a failed breakout that changes how you think about the trade.

I'll occasionally check RSI — not as a rigid buy/sell signal but just to see if a stock is extended in either direction. Same with ATR — it gives me a quick sense of how much the stock moves on a typical day, which helps me think about position sizing and strike selection. But these are context tools, not triggers. Price is what I follow.

If the chart looks messy — choppy, no clear structure, breaking down below the 200 — I skip that ticker regardless of what the scanner says. Good premium on a broken chart is a trap.

Step 3 — Run the Scanner

Once I've done the market check and I know what kind of day it is, I open StrikeScan and run my scan. My standard filters:

DTE: 14 to 45 days. I want enough time for the trade to work but not so much that I'm tying up capital for months. The sweet spot for me personally is often around 10 to 21 days — I like the faster theta decay — but I'll go out to 45 if the setup is strong enough.

Historical probability: 70% or higher. I want at least a 70% chance of expiring worthless based on actual price history — not delta, not theoretical probability. Real back-tested data on how this specific stock has moved historically.

Annualized ROI: 10% or higher. If the premium isn't compensating me for the capital at risk, I skip it. Low IV environments sometimes don't clear this bar and that's fine — I'd rather wait than force a bad trade.

No earnings before expiration. This is non-negotiable. I don't sell premium through earnings unless I specifically intend to. The scanner flags this automatically so I never accidentally walk into an earnings trade.

The scanner returns results ranked by the composite score — a combination of historical probability, Monte Carlo probability, annualized ROI, DTE, and delta. The top results are the most balanced setups across all five factors. I don't just grab the highest annualized ROI — that's usually the closest-to-the-money contract with the most risk. I want balance.

Step 4 — Check the Options Chain

Once I have a candidate from the scanner, I pull up the full options chain before I do anything else.

The two numbers I look at first are historical probability and Monte Carlo probability side by side. If they're close together — say 78% historical and 74% Monte Carlo — that's a consistent read. If they diverge significantly — 82% historical but 55% Monte Carlo — that tells me something. Either the stock has been unusually well-behaved historically and the Monte Carlo is flagging real current risk, or there's a specific reason the two models disagree. Either way I want to understand the divergence before I trade.

I also check the S/R levels that show up in the chain. StrikeScan flags support and resistance levels and gap zones directly on the options chain — so I can see instantly if my strike is sitting near a meaningful level. If it is, that's either reassuring (strong support below my put strike) or concerning (resistance right at my call strike).

IV rank context matters too. Is this ticker's current IV elevated relative to its own history? If yes, I'm getting paid well for the risk. If it's at the low end of its range, the premium might not be worth it even if the absolute dollar amount looks okay.

Step 5 — Decide on Size and Enter

If the chart looks good, the scanner result is solid, and the options chain confirms the setup, I decide on position size. This is where most of the real risk management happens.

I don't have a rigid formula but I think about it in terms of what I'm comfortable losing if the trade goes completely wrong. For cash secured puts, that means the stock could drop to zero and I'd be on the hook for the full strike price times 100. Obviously that's a tail scenario, but thinking about max loss keeps position size honest.

In elevated-vol environments like right now with VIX in the mid-20s and geopolitical headlines dropping every few hours, I size down. The premium looks better but the risk is real. I'd rather collect 70% of the premium at half the size than collect all of it and be overexposed to a headline that moves the market 2% overnight.

When I enter, I always use limit orders at the mid price or slightly below. I never market-order options — the bid-ask spread will eat you if you're not paying attention.

Step 6 — Journal It Immediately

The last step is the one most traders skip and it's the one that compounds over time.

The moment I enter a trade, I journal it in StrikeScan — one click from the options chain directly into the trade journal. It captures the entry price, the market conditions at entry (VIX, IV rank, underlying price), the probability data, and all the greeks. I don't have to type anything. It's automatic.

The reason this matters: six months from now I want to be able to look back at every trade and see exactly what conditions I was trading in, what my probability estimates were at entry, and how they compared to what actually happened. That's how you build a real edge — not from reading about it, but from your own history.

The Similar Trades Engine in StrikeScan goes one step further — it analyzes your winning trades and finds current setups that match the same conditions. After enough trades in the journal, your own history starts telling you where to look next. That's the goal.

The Whole Process in a Few Minutes

Market check — 60 seconds. Chart check on candidates — a minute or two. Scanner run and results review — a couple of minutes. Chain check and size decision — another minute. Journal entry — 30 seconds.

That's it. The data is there. The process is repeatable. The only variable is discipline — not trading when the setup isn't there, sizing down when the environment is dangerous, and tracking everything so the process keeps getting better.

If you want to run this same process on your own trades, the scanner is free at StrikeScan.com — no account needed to start scanning.