Sources: Inside a 0DTE Options Strategy Targeting 50–100% in 24 Hours, Jeff Tompkins Golden One-Day Options Trade REVEALED!!!, and The Golden One Day Options Trade | 4-Step Market Neutral 0DTE Strategy

This is a strategy by Jeff Tompkins using the three sources above.

A long strangle on very short-dated options, built around the market’s expected move. Non-directional: profits from a big enough move or a jump in volatility, in either direction.

Items marked ★ are parameters we added because the original strategy didn’t specify an exact number — they’re reasonable starting points, not the original method. Everything else is the strategy as originally described.

Why a long strangle, specifically: Jeff has directly compared this to the other market-neutral structures and explained why he doesn’t use them for this trade:

• Iron condor — rejected: unfavorable risk/reward skew. A string of small wins can be wiped out by one bad trade.
• Iron butterfly (as the primary trade, not the adjustment) — rejected: it needs the underlying to land in a narrow range precisely by expiration, which is a much harder condition to satisfy than “moved enough in either direction.”
• Short strangle — rejected: profit is capped at the credit received, while directional risk is theoretically unlimited. Same “wiped out by one bad trade” problem as the condor.
• Long strangle (what this playbook uses) — defined risk (capped at the debit paid), no need to guess direction, and profit potential that’s effectively open-ended in either direction (capped only by the underlying not going below zero on the downside).

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1. Should I even look at this trade today?

Check these before doing anything else:

•  Underlying is SPY, QQQ, SPX, or XSP (occasionally ES options)
•  IV percentile is under ~35% — or IV percentile is higher but clearly rising
•  No same-day earnings or major binary event on this underlying
•  Bonus signal (not required): recent candles have been narrow and are just starting to widen — a sign volatility may be picking up

If IV is already elevated and flat, or there’s an earnings event today, skip the trade.

Jeff’s own IV percentile scale, for context on where “<35%” sits:

IV Percentile	Jeff’s label
0–20	Extremely low
20–40	Quite low
40–50	Medium
50–80	Moderately high
80–100	Extremely high

The strategy’s “<35%” entry filter sits inside his own “quite low” band (20–40) — so the numeric threshold isn’t an isolated cutoff, it’s the lower half of what he considers a normal low-IV range.

Caution, not an expansion of scope: 0-DTE contracts have started rolling out on individual mega-cap stocks (e.g., Amazon, Nvidia) in addition to the usual index products. That’s market context, not an endorsement to run this strategy on single names — single stocks carry earnings and headline risk that SPY/QQQ/SPX/XSP mostly don’t, and the strategy’s own IV-crush avoidance rule already warns against exactly that kind of event risk. Stick to the index-based underlyings above unless you’ve separately vetted a single-name case.

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2. Pick the expiration

• 0-DTE: enter near the cash market open
• 1-DTE: enter near the prior day’s cash close, for tomorrow’s expiration
• Never go further out than 1 day — the whole trade depends on short-dated gamma

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3. Build the trade

1. Find the expected move for today’s expiration (shown next to the expiration date on most broker platforms — e.g., “±$2.67”). If it’s not shown, add the ATM call offer + ATM put offer as an estimate.
2. Round it to a convenient number (e.g., $2.67 → $3).
3. Call strike ≈ current price + expected move
4. Put strike ≈ current price − expected move
5. Check the actual premiums quoted at those strikes. If one side costs noticeably more than the other (more than ~30% off ★), nudge the strikes to balance the cost — you don’t want to be paying up mostly for one direction.
6. Buy 1 contract of each (the OTM call and the OTM put), same expiration.

Cost ceiling — don’t take the trade if it’s more expensive than:

• SPY: ~$1.15/contract ($115)
• QQQ: ~$1.30–$1.40/contract ($130–$140)

(A separate interview gave a rougher blanket figure of $90–$150 to put the trade on across tickers — consistent with, and a slightly wider version of, the per-ticker numbers above.)

If it’s too expensive, walk away. That’s a real filter, not a suggestion.

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4. Size the position

• Decide your maximum acceptable dollar loss for this trade before entering.
• Divide that number by the total debit (per contract) to get your contract count.
• Example: willing to risk $300, debit is $100/contract → 3 contracts.
• No stop-loss needed on the original position — your max loss is already capped at the debit paid, by design.

Reference point, not a rule to copy: Jeff has stated he personally risks around 0.25% of his account (or less) on a trade like this — smaller than his typical swing-trading size, and smaller than the commonly cited “1–2% per trade” convention. He’s explicit that this is subjective and scales with account size, so treat it as one data point on what a conservative allocation looks like, not a target to hit.

Why no stop-loss, concretely: the reasoning isn’t just “your risk is already defined” — it’s that a stop-loss can actively hurt you here. Jeff described sizing two traders to the same $1,000 max risk: one (sizing for zero) buys fewer contracts and holds through the full session; the other buys more contracts but exits via a 50%-premium stop. He cites a real example — a QQQ call whose premium fell to a penny about an hour before the close, then reversed and rallied into a profitable close by end of day. The stop-loss trader would have been shaken out before the reversal; the size-for-zero trader wasn’t, because there was nothing to trigger. Since 0-DTE premium is exactly this volatile intraday, a percentage stop-loss risks getting you out right before the move you were waiting for.

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5. Set your profit target before you’re in the trade

Target range: 50%–100% ROI on the debit paid.

• IV is low and rising → aim toward the top of the range (closer to 100%)
• IV is already elevated and flat/falling → aim toward the bottom (closer to 50%)

Use two separate limit orders, one per leg. The market can sell off, hit your put’s target, then reverse and hit your call’s target later in the same session — don’t assume only one side can pay off.

If you significantly blow past your target, you can either take the full profit or trail a stop on the winning leg for more upside — know which you’ll do before it happens.

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6. If the trade is losing — the adjustment decision

Don’t panic-close and don’t automatically “rescue” every loser. Work through this in order:

Step 1 — Has the position dropped enough to even consider adjusting? Suggested starting trigger ★: position has lost about 40–60% of what you paid (test this range for yourself — there’s no single “right” number here).

Step 2 — Is there enough time left? Suggested rule ★: don’t adjust in the first ~60 minutes after entry (too early — you haven’t given the original idea a chance), and don’t open a new adjustment in the last ~60 minutes before expiration (too late — assignment/execution risk gets messy).

Step 3 — Is there enough premium available to make it worthwhile? Look at what you could collect by selling premium against your position. You want it to be roughly equal to or more than your original debit — otherwise it’s probably not worth the added complexity and risk.

Step 4 — Butterfly or condor?

• Iron Butterfly: sell an at-the-money call and put (a straddle) at the strike closest to the current price. Simpler, usually more premium available.
• Iron Condor: sell a call and put one strike outside your original long strikes. Only if there’s enough premium there to matter.

Step 5 — If none of the above lines up, just let it go. Accepting the original debit as your loss is a completely valid outcome, especially if the market is erratic or headline-driven that day. This is the default, not a failure state.

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7. Know your risk

• Unadjusted position: max loss = total debit paid. Full stop.
• Adjusted position: risk can exceed the original debit if the adjustment moves against you — this is the tradeoff for trying to recover a loser.
• Assignment risk: none while you’re only long options. It shows up once you sell the adjustment legs (butterfly/condor) on equity-based underlyings like SPY/QQQ. Use SPX or XSP if you want to avoid assignment risk entirely, since they’re cash-settled.

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8. Quick Reference Card

Item	Value
Underlyings	SPY, QQQ (also SPX, XSP, occasionally ES)
Expiration	0-DTE or 1-DTE only
IV filter	IV percentile < 35%, or rising
Entry timing	Near cash open (0-DTE) or prior cash close (1-DTE)
Strikes	± expected move from current price
SPY cost ceiling	~$1.15/contract
QQQ cost ceiling	~$1.30–$1.40/contract
Profit target	50–100% ROI
Adjustment loss trigger ★	~40–60% down
Adjustment time window ★	Not in first 60 min after entry; not in last 60 min before expiry
Adjustment types	Iron butterfly (ATM straddle) or iron condor (one strike out)
Max loss (no adjustment)	Total debit paid
Position sizing	Size for the full debit as if it goes to zero
Jeff’s personal sizing reference	~0.25% of account or less (his own stated practice, not a rule)

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This is a trading strategy playbook, not financial advice. Options can lose their full value, and every ★-marked parameter is a starting assumption to validate for yourself — not a guaranteed rule. Consider paper-trading before committing real capital.