One Member Turned Volatility Into 536% in a Day… Here's the Tool That Found the Trade VIEW IN BROWSER 
Before the opening bell on Monday, a member of our Discord community – Greg (.odd.1.) – spotted something unusual in the options market. Institutional traders had been quietly accumulating options on the Invesco QQQ Trust over the past few weeks. And the flow suggested that something bigger might be brewing beneath the surface. Once he discovered the signal, he realized there was one big catch… Between rising geopolitical tensions involving the U.S. and Iran, shifting liquidity conditions, and sharp swings in tech stocks, the QQQ could easily break in either direction. So instead of trying to guess the market’s next move, he took a page right out of the Masters in Trading playbook: He hedged the trade. Specifically, he built a strangle. That’s when you buy a call and a put with different strike prices but the same expiration date. That strategy lets you position for a large move without needing to predict which direction the stock will go. That large move Greg was looking for hit much faster than he expected. Greg bought contracts Monday morning. By the end of the trading day, he was up over 536%! 
Strangles are just one of the tools we use here at Masters in Trading. [You can watch my full lesson on strangles and straddles right here.] We also use straddles, spreads, and other setups designed to profit from volatility itself — not just market direction. Right now, this kind of flexibility matters more than ever. Markets are in panic mode amid the escalating Iran-U.S. war. Crude futures are spiking. Major indexes like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are taking massive hits, with both down roughly 7% this week. Bonds bottomed out with their largest sell-off in nine months throughout February and early March. In other words, the market that looked “stable” only days ago suddenly feels very different. And this is exactly the environment where traditional long-term portfolios struggle the most — when volatility expands overnight. But remember something important. There is always a bull market somewhere. Where the New Bull Market Lives Right now, the bull market isn’t broad — it’s just concentrated in key assets like energy stocks, crude, and industrial metals. When volatility spikes across these asset classes at the same time, it tells you something important: institutional capital is repositioning away from risk. We saw it last year with the endless tariff shock headlines and AI-driven sell-offs. We’re seeing the same exact thing happen right now. But here at Masters in Trading, the goal isn’t to eliminate risk completely. The goal is to control it. We look for moments when institutional positioning and probability signals start to diverge from what the broader markets are pricing in. Then we structure trades around that gap. That means positioning ourselves so we can capture significant upside while limiting our exposure to risk — no matter which direction the market ultimately breaks. This is the strategy that keeps our capital at work even when markets melt down. Whether you’re taking my recommendations or applying the Masters in Trading playbook to your own trades like Greg did… Now is the time to lean into our options trading fundamentals. The next place to look for profitable setups is in volatility itself. That’s our edge. And just like I taught Greg and all the other members of the Masters in Trading community, it all comes down to the key charts showing us where volatility is building next. The Volatility Signals We’re Watching Now: MOVE, VVIX, Crack Spread, USD/YEN For the last month, I’ve been highlighting our five alarm, early warning system of volatility indicators to figure out exactly where the next volatility-based plays are emerging. And I’ve been repeating one thing over and over: The market cannot rally until the front end of the yield curve turns. Last week, it finally did. Short-dated yields started falling faster than longer-dated yields — something investors call a bull steepening of the yield curve. That shift typically signals expectations for easier monetary policy, future rate cuts, and increased liquidity in financial markets. So that’s one out of five charts shifting in the right direction. But just because one chart is turning doesn’t mean we can breathe a sigh of relief just yet. Next, we watch the VVIX. Think of the VVIX as the volatility of volatility — a measure of how aggressively traders are buying protection in the options market. Right now, it’s still elevated around 120. Until that comes down, broad stock market rallies will likely struggle to gain momentum. Now we zoom out to the yen carry trade. This global strategy involves borrowing cheap yen and investing the money into higher-yielding assets like U.S. stocks or bonds. When the yen weakens, the carry trade strengthens — which usually supports U.S. equities. Lately, the yen has been moving fast again. The last time we saw a move like this was August 2024, when global markets sold off sharply. That’s a key level for us from here. A weakening yen keeps the carry trade in play. Finally, we monitor one of the most important signals in the energy market: The 3-2-1 crack spread. This measures the profit margin oil refiners earn by turning crude oil into gasoline and diesel. When the crack spread rises, refinery stocks tend to follow. And right now? It’s ripping higher. That’s not surprising when you consider that roughly 20% of global oil and natural-gas flows move through the Strait of Hormuz. Any threat to that supply instantly pushes energy prices higher. And when margins expand, refiners outperform. That’s why names like DK, DINO, and PSX are strong. Each of these charts is flashing alarms through the global financial system. They’re broadly signaling a shift away from risk. Commodities and other safe havens are soaring amid a major repricing moment in the broader market. Markets aren’t collapsing — but they aren’t fully confident either. They’re hovering right on the edge of a larger move. That uncertainty causes most investors to panic. But for traders like us who understand volatility, it creates opportunity. Because our strategy doesn’t rely on predicting the market perfectly. Instead, we stay proactive — not reactive. If markets drop? We position with puts. If momentum builds higher? We ride the breakout. That’s how we captured: - 30% gains on a uranium trade this week
- 330% gains on an AI trade in Fastly (FSLY) — even during one of the worst tech selloffs so far this year
- And a massive triple on CVR Energy (CVI) in just under two months
Each of these trades is based on the same volatility signals I highlight every day. The same system I’ve perfected over 28+ years. Consistent, repeatable, and profitable in any market. Right now, I’m working on a complete overhaul of the essential technology behind that system. And it’s set to change the way we trade unusual options activity forever. The New Unusual Options Activity (UOA) Scanner AI is making it possible to turn trading ideas into sophisticated tools faster than ever before. In the past, building something like this required explaining every detail to a developer — then waiting weeks to see the results. Now we can build, test, and refine these tools in days. And what we’re working on now will dramatically improve how we identify smart-money options flow. All of this is factoring into the new Unusual Options Activity (UOA) Scanner I’m building. This is no mere face lift. I’m making a lot of tweaks to how we visualize options flow. For example, we can now get date ranges over the last one-day to seven-day range in total. I’m even able to fine tune the criteria for how stocks get tapped for the list in the first place. But the real upgrade is something I rebuilt over one weekend – the Advanced Notice Scoring System. This latest iteration of the model is generated by a machine learning model trained on 80,000 historical options flow events spread across a trailing 111 trading day window. That covers roughly 1,500 stocks. This model looks for patterns in options activity that predict significant stock moves and options finishing in the money. Instead of staring at a wall of options data trying to interpret it yourself, you’ll be able to see where the smart money is really concentrating its bets. Now, I’m not ready to release everything just yet. I want to make sure the system meets the same standard as the other tools I’ve built for our community. There are still a few refinements underway. So keep in mind that the specifications you’re seeing today are part of a working prototype and may evolve before the final release. Consider this your first look at what we’re building. Once this is finished, it’s going to change how we identify and trade unusual options activity. You can watch the entire demonstration of my upgraded scanner right here. And if you’re interested in finding out more about the UOA Scanner overhaul – and the tickers and setups it reveals once I take it live… The Masters in Trading Options Challenge is where you need to be. The Challenge is where we take everything you’ve learned in my daily LIVEs — fixed risk, thesis-driven exits, laddered entries, defined-duration trades, and emotional discipline — and put it into practice in a structured, step-by-step environment. Just click here to check out what the Masters in Trading Options Challenge has in store for you. Remember, the creative trader wins, | 
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