Author/Editor
Kim Klaiman
Description
Offers to educate readers about options, and publishes 10-15 trading ideas per month. Most ideas are short-term (2-5 days) and are based on evaluating Implied Volatility.
Overall Rating
Rating: 4.0/5. From 144 votes.
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4.2
Rating from 538 votes
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Investment Performance
Rating from 141 votes
Rating: 4.1/5. From 141 votes.
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Quality Of Writing/Analysis
Rating from 131 votes
Rating: 4.2/5. From 131 votes.
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Value For Price
Rating from 122 votes
Rating: 4.3/5. From 122 votes.
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Customer Service
Rating from 144 votes
Rating: 4.0/5. From 144 votes.
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Ok, LAST TIME:
As I said over and over but you either ignore it or threaten me with a law-suit:
There is SLIPPAGE relative to your results because you post the trades AFTER you execute them.
Anyway: thanks for your comments, this is not your bulletin board.
This was my review of your service. Hope others find it useful.
And I repeat one last time: there is no evidence that on average, members fills are worse than mine.
At least have the decency to go to the Pro-Trading-Profits link and confirm the numbers I provided. Those numbers are SO MUCH off the numbers you referred to.
And I hope that other will scroll few reviews back and read some real reviews from members who used the service longer than 2 months.
Iโve been a member of SO in the past but let by subscription lapse because of a lack of time to dedicate. The slippage argument is a red herring. There were trades I let ride and did much better than Kim. Your trade can get filled at the exact price as Kim, simply by setting limits post his execution. Or you can set limits when you enter a trade as many members on SO do.
Be prepared to learn the Greeks since many of the discussions center on the terms. Also, several members are willing to mentor to get you up to speed more quickly on a complex topic. One difference from stock trading or covered call writing is that most trades are entered at a paper loss and rely on the expiration of the options involved in the trade to show the profit. This requires confidence and patience so follow SO advice and paper trade for a while first. Then work with your broker on how to actually enter a complex, multi-leg option trading strategy at a limit price. I spent too much time learning to enter trades on my own and making silly mistakes.
I’ve subscribed to a dozen or more of these types of services over the years and this seems to be the real deal. I like the quick and easy format and straightforward directions on the picks.
Some disclosures: I’ve been subscribed to SteadyOptions since its launch and even before that when there was a YahooGroup about these earnings trades. Kim sent out an email asking for reviews but didn’t push any particular line.
Honestly, I haven’t traded on the service very much and not at all in 2013. But I still pay the subscription fee because I’m intrigued enough by the ideas that I may want to try again in the future.
Kim is a straight-shooter and I’ve got nothing against him at all. I would just emphasize that you need to have a schedule that allows you to watch your trades continuously if earnings are going to announced after the markets close (or the previous day if earnings are going to be announced before the markets open) and to some extent on the days leading up to the earnings announcement. So, think about whether your day-job is compatible with that.
At the same time, you have to have a lot of self-discipline to stick with your overall plan (although sometimes adjusting your position) and exit at the appropriate time when the prices are changing rapidly, even if that means taking a (hopefully small) loss. So, think about whether you have the disposition to do that. Many traders don’t, and I have been disappointed in myself in this regard a few times when I have tried some of the SteadyOptions strategies.
But the biggest reason I have not tried the SteadyOptions strategies for a while is that I don’t understand why they work. That is not to say that they don’t work. Kim has provided real-time evidence that they can work (if you have time, discipline, a good broker, etc.). There are some companies for which these earnings trades have worked X out of the last Y quarters. But I’m still not comfortable that I understand why they work and why they fail (you are supposed to sustain a small loss about half the time and offset that with bigger wins about half the time).
The basic idea is to buy a delta-neutral position, hold it for a few days before the scheduled earnings announcement, wait for implied volatility (and thus the price of the position as a whole) to increase, and then sell before earnings are announced. And where do the values for delta, implied volatility, and the other Greeks come from? As far as I know, all the brokers are using a basic version of the Black-Scholes model to compute these values. And what does a continuous-time, constant volatility model like Black-Scholes have to say about the increase in implied (that is to say implied by the Black-Scholes model) volatility leading up to a discrete-time earnings announcement that is scheduled for a time when the markets are closed? In other words, the Black-Scholes model is great as a tractable first approximation to option prices in general, but I don’t understand why its parameters should be used as the foundation for a short-term trading strategy in the few days leading up to a quarterly earnings announcement that is explicitly an exception to the Black-Scholes framework.
So, I feel that the SteadyOptions strategies work despite the Black-Scholes model, rather than because of it. There is probably more money to be made trading off a model that is intended to explain the change in option prices due to rare but scheduled events. But I don’t know what that model is. I get that earnings announcements provide some new information that often induce big short-term swings in the underlying price and that risk-averse people should be willing to pay a premium to risk-neutral people to hold risk through earnings announcements, but that is explicitly not the SteadyOptions strategy (you are supposed to close your position before the earnings announcement).
Most of the subscribers to SteadyOptions don’t care about why a strategy works as long as they can make money from it. If you are comfortable with that (and have the requisite time and discipline), then SteadyOptions is probably a good thing to subscribe to. I just haven’t been able to convince myself to commit much time or money to it (yet).
I have been reading some of the negative reviews about SO and I am a little confused about what people expect from an options trading site. For me personally I was looking for a long term winning strategy education with an experienced options trader that discusses each trade before it is entered and gives you explanation as to how and he chose it, the price and why. With some effort you can learn to anticipate and make this strategy your own. This will take some work and time not just a couple of months. I have been an SO member for a little over 6 months and I am extremely gratified with the service and the money I am making. I have no affiliation with Kim Klaiman or SO and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to put time and effort to learn how, not just blindly follow trade alerts and expect sombody else to make money for them. Good Luck with that.
Just the research and the wealth of information on all the trades is worth the price of admission. Trading options comes with variance and over time a winning strategy will prove itself. This is one of them.
I highly recommend Steady Options
Bret Medford
Nice try, Kim (aka bret)!
To repeat what I said before: I don’t have an objection you calling your site a “continuous education site.” Everybody can then decide whether it worth $1,500 / year to subscribe. [For me it wasn’t, your ‘bret’ alias claims that it does. Not a problem.]
What I pointed out to the unsuspecting public that your claim that you “provide real time trade alerts” is misleading. These are not trade alerts. These are [delayed] notifications of your alleged personal trades.
As to Ben’s comments:
I like the approach to evaluate the system from an option pricing theoretical perspective. I didn’t have this insight, much appreciated.
I did have some concerns from statistical perspective though that I aired a couple of times on the site as well:
The trade setups compare current pre-earnings option prices with 4 previous earnings. If they are in line with 2 or 3 (I don’t remember) out of them, the trade is recommended.
This is an extremely small sample. Kim pointed out that going further back tends to be irrelevant, not effecting today’s market conditions. This may be right but such a small sample is not convincing about the relevance of the data either. How do we know that company X’s options prices pre-earning don’t correlate with the sector’s performance or with a competitor’s earlier earning announcement or with the market as a whole more than with its own previous 4 earnings? We don’t. I suspect that they do and they correlate with a bunch of other things too (what about seasonals? what about exchange or interest rates? what about overseas market?)
From statistical perspective the model is oversimplified and statistically not convincing.
Hope this helps.
I have been a subscriber for 2 years. its a good service. Not all trades are profitable but you shouldn’t expect them to be. But losses are generally small and most trades are profitable. Kim will respond to my emails on questions and his website has a lot of good discussions and resources. I work full time so I really like the trade alerts. Compared to other services out there, Kim is honest, above board and transparent on his performance and option picks. Thanks Kim !
I have been a member of steadyoptions for past 6 months. I had read lot of books and even been through few newsletters before joining steadyoptions.
All I can say is steadyoptions is the best site I have ever encountered in options trading. If you are serious options trader and active in the markets then you should join steadyoptions.
It is not the same like other hundreds of options newsletters out there who just recommend buying some calls or put spreads using their technical approach and let it to fate to turn out winner or looser.
At steadyoptions it is not just putting a trade and hoping it works out. It is about using strategies which are proven and backtested.
The discussion groups are wonderful . I have learnt a lot from other members and from Kim.
Kim does a great job of searching and looking for opportunities.
Its all about making money and a lot of money.
Just checkout the performance graph and you can see the results. Those results are real trades.
I am a risk averse trader and dont like to loose a lot and at steadyoptions the drawdown is so little .
Options trading is hard money and you really need a support group to be with you . It is more fun to make money together than try to be alone.
I sincerely hope, as a teacher of options trading, that anyone looking to sign-up with this guy’s service knows the truth. Let me explain. Kim Klaiman changed his username on Seeking Alpha when he started to “write” articles. Basically what he did was plagiarize, Augen a lot, and many others. Kim was a part-time worker. Was looking for a way to get out of that. Had no knowledge of how a Reverse Iron Condor worked. None. Said so. He was always e-mailing me, asking me how many “hits” I got daily, which was none of his business, but he took a great interest in. Hence, oops, a subscription service. Besides the constant personal attacks (speaking of lawsuits), everything about that site is a lie. I know he does front running. Before any trade I make, I ALWAYS post the trade before placement. But see, SO, looks at a way to navigate around that. Not up-front. Irarely like to comment on bboards like this, but feel it was necessary to do so here, because I know more than anyone what this guy is, and to save others money badly spent.
I offered Kim Klaiman a sweetheart proposition. I would give him 100k to trade for a week, my own money. If he made just a measly 2 percent or higher, for the week, he gets 50k. And, I also offered to pay his travel expenses and hotel ahead of time, 10k. He turned it down. All I asked that the entire week was recorded, so everyone could see. Telling.
I will never understand how or why anyone goes into options trading looking for such horrible returns as SO laud. Like that’s an accomplishment (of course if you got in/out at the exact perfect time), just not something I would brag to my friends about. I would deal with bonds if that’s the goal, really.
I have been a member for over two years. It has been an excellent experience. The level of education and customer service are unmatched. The performance is really. Highly recommended.
steady options is a very high quality service. I have been a member for about a year now and it really helped me to become a better trader.
The community value is priceless. There are a lot of very smart traders there who are always ready to help.
The price is not cheap but I got the subscription costs back very quickly. Worth every dollar.
Great service. Great education. Great results.
Unlike other services that give you just few credit spreads, SO trades mix of different strategies and implements portfolio approach. The results are also reported as portfolio returns, including cash.
Highly recommended.
Excellent options trading community
If you can afford it, then i highly recommend the SO subscription.
I paid the monthly subscription 5 months ago just to see what it is about and switched to the annual plan because of value i receive from SO.
First, Kim (SO founder) really cares about his members, is like a mentor for those of us that are new to this. At the same time, he really pushes you to “learn how to fish”.
And yes it requires some dedication and work to get successful, like anything in life that’s worth doing.
Do you go to college spending (hundreds of) thousands of dollars, and expected everything to be served ready for you ? No !
Another thing is that Kim sends trade alerts with real filled trades, but once you put in the work, then it’s possible to enter trades yourself even before the official alert to get good fills.
Another benefit of the subscription is the community where other members share their opinions, strategies and often their real trades. I cannot stress enough how valuable that is.
So all in all, i really recommend the SO subscription.
Great service, excellent communication. Signed up for a year after 3 months of successful trading.
Looks like the SteadyOptions Service is now closed to new members. Any idea when it closed or when/if it might re-open? Thanks
looking to join anyone to help me?
I was 1 year with SO community and Kim. I believe Kim is one of the most transparent people in that business I know. My result for 2017 was 12% profit after commissions (return on the whole account). There are a lot of clever people in the SO forum including mentors, who are willing and able to answer all questions with never-ending patience. All the time Kim tries to add additional value to new tested strategies. The approach is mostly through non-directional strategies with very conservative entries (only the best setups). One of the main advice is “Don’t chase and wait for the price to come to you”. Of course, there is no free lunch and to achieve consistency dedication and making homework is needed. It was the nice year 2017 with my first overall profiting year and a lot of new training skills gained along the way with some mistakes which was quite costly but manageable.
I propose you to give a shot at this service.
Petr
I was with SO for 1 year before I cancelled. I had a 10k account and by the end of the year I was up approximately 7%. I learned allot and liked being part of the community. Some of the mentors on the site like sbatch and yowster are the most valuable. I found Kim to be moody and i would avoid asking him any direct questions. In his defense he gets asked the same questions repeatedly and im sure its pretty annoying. Also in his defense, I asked some pretty dumb questions looking back, but considering he makes 100โs of thousands of dollars a month in subscription fees he should treat the members, his customers, like gold. Anyway, for a new options trader i was able to preserve my capital. I probably couldnt have accomplished that without his guidance. But the amount of time i had to put in didnt justify the returns. I’m sure i would have gotten better as time went on. I may return at some point.
Dear “Guest”,
Thank you for posting a honest review.
To put things in perspective, most new traders blow up their accounts within 6 months. So making 7% in your first year is not that bad.
Could you do better on your own? Maybe. The fact is that 90% of new traders lose money in their first year, but of course you could be among the 10% who don’t.
As for questions – I’m trying to answer all questions to the best of my ability, usually within few minutes, even if the same question has been asked and answered hundreds of times (sometimes in the same discussion topic). But I know I cannot satisfy everyone.
A final note: I recommend not counting other people’s money. It is not healthy. And no, I do not make 100โs of thousands of dollars a month in subscription fees, but this is really not your business.
Thank you again and you are welcome to come back anytime, assuming we are open to new members (we are closing next week).
When Kim replied with this :
“A final note: I recommend not counting other peopleโs money. It is not healthy. And no, I do not make 100โs of thousands of dollars a month in subscription fees, but this is really not your business.”
he kinda proved the original reviewers comment of “I found Kim to be moody….”
Kim – if you are reading this – no one is counting your money, or be-grudging you for it. The reviewer made a valid point that if people are paying you money for a service then you really should respect them a little more. You run a great service, but frankly, almost everything I learnt there was from Yowster, SBatch and the other mentors, and very little from your posts. Nothing personal, but your posts and responses on SO really provide little guidance, and sometimes you comes across as a “boss” rather than as a “leader”.
Thank you for your comment. I’m glad that you are learning from our great trading community and our team of mentors.