Profiting from Weekly Options: How to Earn Consistent Income Trading Weekly Option Serials
By Robert J. Seifert
Quick Summary
A structured guide to trading weekly options for consistent income, combining market psychology education, technical analysis for timing, and specific weekly options strategies. Seifert builds the book as a progressive learning system, starting with market psychology and historical bubble analysis, then moving through technical analysis tools, and culminating in weekly options trading strategies designed to generate recurring income from time decay (theta). Each chapter includes quizzes to reinforce learning.
Categories
- Options
- Trading Systems
- Trading Psychology
Detailed Summary
"Profiting from Weekly Options: How to Earn Consistent Income Trading Weekly Option Serials" (John Wiley & Sons, 2015) by Robert J. Seifert is a 275-page educational guide structured as a progressive learning system for weekly options traders. The book is designed as a building-block curriculum where each chapter provides the foundation for the next.
Part I: Market Psychology and History is an unusual opening for an options book. Seifert begins by examining six famous market episodes spanning nearly 300 years: the South Sea Bubble, tulip mania, the 1929 crash, the dot-com bubble, the 2001 terrorist attack aftermath, and the Bitcoin phenomenon. His purpose is to demonstrate that emotions (fear and greed) drive markets at extremes, not rational analysis of underlying value. He argues that understanding market psychology is a prerequisite for successful options trading because "you have to know what the other side of the trade is thinking and how they are reacting." The Bitcoin analysis notes its 70%+ drawdown from the December 2013 peak and questions whether it represented a speculative investment or a Ponzi scheme.
Part II: Technical Analysis Tools covers the technical methods Seifert uses to time weekly options trades. This includes trend analysis using moving averages, support/resistance identification, candlestick pattern recognition, and momentum oscillators. The focus is on short-term technical signals appropriate for the compressed time frame of weekly options (which expire each Friday).
Part III: Options Fundamentals covers the mechanics specific to weekly options. Unlike monthly options, weekly options have minimal time value remaining, which works to the advantage of sellers (who collect premium that decays rapidly) and against buyers (who pay premium that evaporates quickly). Seifert explains the Greeks (particularly theta and delta) as they apply to short-duration options, and discusses the unique risk/reward characteristics of weekly versus monthly options.
Part IV: Trading Strategies presents specific weekly options strategies for generating income. These primarily involve selling premium -- credit spreads, iron condors, and other defined-risk strategies that profit from time decay and the tendency of short-dated options to expire worthless. Seifert provides entry criteria, position sizing guidelines, adjustment techniques when trades move against you, and exit rules.
Part V: Trade Management and Psychology addresses the real-world challenges of executing the strategies consistently. This includes managing emotions during volatile weeks, handling consecutive losses, and maintaining discipline when the market does not cooperate with your thesis. Each chapter concludes with a quiz (multiple choice, 1-3 points per question) with a 90% threshold before proceeding to the next chapter, reinforcing the building-block pedagogical approach.
The book's distinctive contribution is its holistic approach -- rather than jumping directly to options mechanics, Seifert insists that traders must first understand market psychology, then technical analysis, then options theory, before attempting to trade. His argument is that without the psychological and analytical foundation, even the best options strategy will fail because the trader will not execute it properly under pressure.