Let me ask you something straight up…
When’s the last time you collected money on your car insurance?
For most people, probably never, right? That’s exactly how I think about put options. They’re usually hedges, not profit machines. If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you already know where I stand…
I’m blind to puts. I don’t even look at them anymore when they hit my scanners.
I understand why buying puts can feel smart. It seems cautious, as if you’re protecting yourself and playing both sides. But buying puts doesn’t mean a stock will fall.
You’re paying for insurance against a position, just as you pay for car or home insurance without expecting disaster. In a bull market, that protection can become an expensive drag.
Buying Puts in a Bull Market Is Insane
Buying puts in a bull market is like going skinny dipping in an ice bath — you’re crazy. It would take a 10% market sell-off before I’d even consider looking at them. Not 2%, not 5% — 10%.
We harp on this every day with short-dated options…
We focus on calls, not puts. I joke that if you buy puts, you go to prison — you get locked up. That’s obviously an exaggeration, but it captures how strongly I prefer trading with the market instead of fighting it.
That doesn’t mean puts are never appropriate. I recently traded puts on certain banks, but I would never buy puts on a strong stock. A stock would need to be below its 20-day moving average before I’d even entertain the idea. That’s when bearish momentum may support the trade rather than work against it.
The Exception That Proves the Rule
Here’s where I’ll eat a little crow…
After talking a big game about avoiding puts, we made 300% on BP (BP) puts, which later climbed to roughly 500%. Energy and oil puts can work in the right environment when sector conditions, price action and a specific catalyst align.
But that’s the exception, not the rule. Puts are very, very risky — I can’t stress that enough. The market has a built-in upward bias over time, so fighting it with puts can get expensive fast.
You’re paying a premium while time decay works against you and the market refuses to cooperate with your bearish thesis.
The takeaway is simple…
Don’t default to puts as a hedge or treat them like easy profit machines. If the market isn’t down 10%, the stock isn’t below its 20-day moving average and you don’t have a specific catalyst, I’d rather keep my focus on calls.
That’s where the trend is — and that’s where I’m playing.
Order Flow:
This is for informational and educational purposes only. These are not official alerts issued by Lance, but rather some interesting orders picked by the team at Lance Ippolito Trading.
When you look at these plays, always take the market maker move into consideration.
You can be right on the direction but still lose money if the stock doesn’t move enough. That’s where the market maker move comes in clutch.
With puts, they’re often downside hedges in case a stock tanks, especially around earnings. The further out of the money they are, the more likely they are to be hedges.
Also be sure and check when the company’s earnings date is because many of the plays we post here are centered around earnings!
If a stock is really expensive, consider a spread to lower the cost.
And finally, always remember the golden rule when it comes to buying calls: Buy dips, sell rips — and don’t chase!
If a stock’s moved a ton already today, maybe wait for a pullback.
There is inherent risk in trading. Trade at your own risk.
Note: If no date is listed after the month, it’s the monthly expiration (third Friday).
The team at Lance Ippolito Trading
Lance doesn’t want the CCP spying on him, so you’ll never find him on TikTok. Same goes for other social media sites, which are filled with impersonators, scammers and crypto bros.
You can only find him on his personal YouTube Channel — smash that Subscribe button! https://www.youtube.com/@LanceIppolito
And in his private Telegram channel: https://t.me/+-gVwEIwGJhplMTgx
Important Note: No one from the team at Lance Ippolito Trading, New Money Crew or any of its associated brands 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.
P.S. Wall Street’s 90% Secret and Graham’s $500 Fix
If someone tells you the only way to build daily cash in the stock market is by buying stocks… do me a favor.
Walk away.
Wall Street loves telling hard-working folks to buy overvalued shares and “hope” they go up over the next 30 years.
Or worse… they push people into buying risky lottery-ticket options that expire worthless almost every single time.
In fact, financial researchers found that up to 90% of option buyers end up losing money.
Ninety percent.
It’s a sucker’s game… and it’s why so many good people feel like the stock market is rigged against them.
But here’s what Wall Street will never tell you…
Options trading is a zero-sum game… Which means every single time an option buyer loses… the seller wins.
So it stands to reason that if buyers lose 90% of the time, guess who wins 90% of the time?
The seller.
It’s like switching sides at a casino, going from the person pulling the slot machine handle to becoming the house collecting the cash.
And that’s the exact secret behind Graham Lindman’s brand-new initiative, America’s Income Project.
With this method, you don’t buy a single share of stock.
You don’t buy an ETF… You don’t buy anything at all.
Instead, you use a simple “2-Click” routine right around 2 p.m. ET each day that helps flip the script on Wall Street.
It takes less than 60 seconds on a smartphone or laptop.
And it’s designed to target right around $500 in cold, hard cash every single day the market is open on a $1K starting stake.
Graham’s reopening early access to 100 people today before he launches this project nationwide.
And because he wants to prove to you just how serious he is about this…
While we cannot make any guarantees in the market…
The first 100 people who step up today can claim a $500 cash allocation to get started.
He’s put together a short video showing you the live screen-share demonstration of how this two-click trade works… line by line.
Be sure to watch the full video breakdown and claim your $500 early-access spot.
