Thank you so much for joining me for 30 Minutes a Day!
I hope the class gave you a clearer understanding of how I approach the market, what I’m looking for before entering a trade, and how much can change when you learn to slow down and spend just 30 intentional minutes preparing.
I’d also love to hear what you thought about the class. I put together a super quick survey so you can tell me what clicked, what could have been clearer, and what you’d like to learn more about.
30 Minutesa Day
A same day options strategy for the last thirty to sixty minutes of the session. Three setups, one ticker, and a fixed floor on both sides of the trade.
What you will learn
How to recognise each setup on a live chart, how to measure what a move can pay before you take it, how to choose the contract, and how to decide where you get out.
The Rules
Everything else in this course is about finding the trade. This page is about what you do once you are in it. It is the shortest section and the one that decides your results.
Take profit at
30%A floor, not a goal. Thirty percent is the least a trade should return to be worth taking. Fifty percent is the sweet spot. Anything past that is the day being generous, and how much of it you hold is a question for your own risk management.
Cut the trade at
30%The same number in the other direction. Thirty percent is the full size of the loss you accept. You do not widen it because the setup still looks good, and you do not average down into it. On same day expiry there is no time for a trade to come back to you.
Three reads, in this order
The setup tells you there is a trade. The price gap tells you what the trade can pay. The thirty percent floor tells you whether to take it. Keep them separate and you will stop talking yourself into trades that were never there.
Reading the Price Gap
The price gap is a measurement you take off the chart, not a target you set for yourself. Once you have spotted a setup, measure the distance from where you would enter to the level you are aiming at. That distance tells you what is available before you risk anything.
| Gap on SPY | Gap on SPX | What it is | What that distance has room to produce |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 to 0.30 | 0.00 to 3.00 | Quick scalp | Very little room. Only worth it if you are certain and quick, and it will often fall short of the thirty percent floor. |
| 0.30 to 0.60 | 3.00 to 6.00 | Average move | Enough distance to clear thirty percent with the right contract. Needs your eyes on the chart. |
| 0.60 to 0.90+ | 6.00 to 9.00+ | Sweet spot | Room to produce fifty percent or more. This is the distance you are hoping to find. |
Choosing the Contract
Contract pricing is not about finding something affordable. You are buying how fast the position responds to price. Since these expire the same day, you want something that moves with the chart without being eaten by theta or slippage.
| SPY | SPX | Zone | How it behaves |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.09 to $0.15 | $90 to $150 | Volatile | Cheap because they are fragile. Highly sensitive to gamma and able to decay to nothing within minutes if the move does not happen straight away. Momentum only, and only on a setup you are sure of. |
| $0.15 to $0.35 | $150 to $350 | Ideal | The best balance of movement and survivability. Strong delta to premium relationship, responsive without going to zero instantly. Most of your trades should live here. |
| $0.40 to $1.00 | $400 to $1,000 | Premium | More capital up front and slower in percentage terms, but it holds together while you manage the trade. Use it when direction is obvious and you want room to breathe. |
Stay at or near the money
At the money gives you the cleanest risk to reward. Be aware that in the closing hour an at the money SPY contract often prices in the premium zone rather than the ideal zone, and one strike out can cost a fraction of it. Know which of the two you are buying before you send the order, because they will not behave the same way.
Trading Within a Defined Zone
Price keeps reacting to the same two levels. You trade inside those boundaries, entering at one edge and taking profit toward the other. Precise, controlled, and usually the smallest of the three moves.
A tight two point zone. The move runs the full width of the range rather than stopping in the middle of it.
- Setup
- A two point range, roughly 636 down to 634, holding on the one minute chart
- Direction
- Puts
- Entry
- 635.20, at the upper edge
- Exit
- 634.50, toward the lower edge
- Gap
- 70 cents, into the sweet spot
What to notice
Both edges were established before the trade existed. Price had already tested each of them, which is what makes the zone tradeable rather than a guess.
Do not take profit halfway across a zone this size. The whole reason the setup works is that the far edge is a known level, so let the move run to it.
A Wide Zone With the 200 Below
The same idea on a bigger range, with the 200 moving average sitting underneath as the destination. Price builds inside the zone, breaks the floor, and heads for the 200.
Price breaks the floor, carries through the 200, and then flattens out. That flattening is the exit signal.
- Setup
- Zone between 767.15 and 766.58, then a hard break through the floor
- Direction
- Puts, bought at the money
- Entry
- 766.45, on the break with confirmation
- Target
- 765.85, the 200
- Exit
- Where price stops moving and starts consolidating
- Contract
- $1.01, premium zone, 10 contracts
The 200 is a target, not a stop sign
If price reaches the 200 and keeps going, you can stay in the trade. Do not close simply because it touched the level you were aiming at. What tells you to get out is consolidation: price stops making progress, the candles tighten up, and a new floor forms underneath.
Waiting for the break was the whole trade. An entry inside the zone would have had almost no room before the 200.
Where you get out, and what it paid
| Exit | Contract | Return | On 10 contracts | What it cost to get there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The floor, at the 200 | $1.31 | +30% | $303 | Nothing. The position never moved meaningfully against you. |
| Holding to the peak | $1.41 | +40% | $405 | Ten more points, available for roughly twenty seconds. |
| Holding past the peak | $1.27 | +26% | $265 | You gave back fourteen points and finished under the floor. |
Breaking Consolidation
Price compresses into a tight range, pressure builds, and it releases with momentum. The most common of the three and the one that produces the fastest moves, especially in the last few minutes of the session.
Each pullback stops higher than the one before it. That is pressure building, not a range drifting.
- Setup
- Compression with each low higher than the last, then a break upward
- Direction
- Calls
- Entry
- 769.99, on the break
- Exit
- 770.60
- Gap
- 60 cents, the sweet spot floor
- Contract
- $0.19, ideal zone, 52 contracts
What to notice
The rising lows are the tell. Draw that line on your chart and the break becomes obvious before it happens.
This one ran straight into the bell. Late session breaks are worth taking as long as the contract price makes sense, and you can still work the position for about nine minutes after the close.
Where you get out, and what it paid
| Exit | Contract | Return | On 52 contracts | What it cost to get there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The floor | $0.25 | +30% | $296 | Reached early, with the position never far from your entry. |
| The sweet spot | $0.29 | +50% | $494 | A few more minutes of holding. |
| The full run into the bell | $0.48 | +150% | $1,482 | The position first fell to minus 13%. To collect this you had to sit through a loss. |
A Standard Break, Downward
The same setup running the other way. Price consolidates near a level, breaks below it with a strong candle, and then builds a new base underneath. That new base is your exit.
Break, confirmation, then consolidation at the bottom. The sequence is the same every time you see this setup.
- Setup
- A classic break of consolidation near 632.60
- Direction
- Puts
- Entry
- 632.60, once the break is confirmed
- Exit
- 631.00, where a new base formed
- Gap
- A dollar and a half, wider than the sweet spot
What to notice
Break, then confirmation, then exit on consolidation. This is the bread and butter version of the setup and the sequence never changes, whichever direction it runs.
A gap this wide will usually clear your floor early. Take it. The rest of the move is a bonus you are not owed.
9 and 13 Into the 50
The 9 and 13 period moving averages give the early signal, the 50 confirms it, and the 200 is the final target. When price walks that path it produces the most reliable runs of the three.
Price bases, reclaims the 9 and 13, and turns them upward. Entered as two legs at the same moment.
- Setup
- Price bases, then reclaims the 9 and 13 and turns them up
- Direction
- Calls, two legs entered together
- Entry
- 765.35, on the reclaim
- Exit
- 766.40
- Contracts
- $0.60 at the money, and $0.11 one strike out
What to notice
The 9 and 13 turning is your early warning, and the first entry on this setup is often too tight. The stronger confirmation is the break of the 50, with the 200 beyond it as the target and the exit if the move stalls.
Two legs, two different trades
| Leg | Exit | Return | Result | Worst point first |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.11, one strike out, 100 contracts | Floor at $0.14 | +32% | $350 | minus 23% |
| $0.11, one strike out, 100 contracts | Full run at $0.25 | +123% | $1,350 | minus 23% |
| $0.60, at the money, 16 contracts | Floor at $0.78 | +30% | $288 | minus 18% |
| $0.60, at the money, 16 contracts | Full run at $1.01 | +68% | $648 | minus 18% |
Convergence Into the Close
The same signal on a day where the end of session trend kept going. What looked like a forty cent scalp turned into a move of more than a dollar, which is exactly why the exit rule matters more than the entry.
A tight setup at entry that extended once the end of session trend took hold.
- Setup
- The 9 and 13 converge and push toward the 50 and 200
- Direction
- Calls
- Entry
- 636.60
- First target
- 637.00, about a forty cent scalp
- Extended
- 637.80 into after hours, over a dollar in total
What to notice
At entry this read as a small trade. Late in the session even tight setups can stretch, so manage the safe target first and treat the extension as separate. If a reversal appears, the tight target is your exit and you take it.
Practice
You do not have to wait for the market to practise this. Your platform can replay a past session minute by minute, which means you can run the closing hour of four different days before breakfast and take live orders in each one.
How to run a rep
Pick a past date and start the replay before the closing hour. Let it run and wait for one of the three setups to appear. Measure the gap. Choose the contract. Place the order in a paper account and manage it to thirty percent in whichever direction it goes first. Screenshot the entry and the exit.
What consistency actually means
Not a trade every day. Some weeks hold three of these setups and some hold two. Across a month you can reasonably expect to find ten or more. Over the course of last year these setups appeared more than a hundred and twenty five times. Consistency is finding them when they are there and leaving the screen alone when they are not.
Run Your Numbers
The calculator turns the thirty percent rule into a plan. Put in your starting capital and it will show you how many trades that supports and what a winner and a loser each do to your account.
Open the 30 Minutes a Day calculator
Before you trade this live
This strategy assumes you can already read a chart and place an option order. If any of that is new, work through Intro to Stock, Technical Analysis 101 parts one and two, Risk Management, and Making Your First Trade inside MBG University first.
Charts in this course are drawn from real sessions and are shown to illustrate what each setup looks like on a one minute chart. Figures shown come from a simulated account. Options carry risk including the total loss of the premium paid, and same day expiry magnifies that risk. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security, and no figure shown should be read as an expectation of future performance. Market share figures for same day options are published by Cboe. For tax or business structure decisions, speak with a qualified professional.