Ali Pashaei Group Mentoring

Ali Pashaei Group Mentoring Archive

Ali Pashaei is a seasoned options trader and educator. Ali teaches two group mentoring sessions each month. Ali covers a wide variety of topics for options traders in his mentoring.

• There is no overlap between this mentoring program and Ali's SPY Weekly Strategy course. Two different contents.
• The program is not just about learning new option strategies, but it also teaches tools, techniques, market timing, and options mastery skills to help you succeed in any market condition.
• Unless you have personally done deep-dive mentoring sessions with Ali or Charles Cottle, some of the tools and techniques will probably be nothing like what you have seen elsewhere. NOTE: Ali's trading approach is very different from Charles, but you’ll see that Ali's thinking process and obsession with trade efficiency is highly influenced by Charles Cottle's teaching.
• As you go deeper into the program, you will see how both Charles and Ali think & trade very differently from most option traders and educators.
• The program is not for beginners or those with less than 1 year of options trading experience.
• Each month has a main theme and the following months, even though somewhat independent, build on the knowledge from prior months.
• In addition to the main theme of the month, additional tools, techniques, and insights are also taught each month.
• A couple of paper accounts were setup to provide near-real time trades via email notification to demonstrate the strategies, tools, and techniques. This is not meant to be a trade recommendation service. It was not designed for that. Each month, Ali focuses mostly on paper trades that demonstrate what is taught for that month. The purpose of the paper accounts is to show examples and document Ali's thinking process to enhance the learning experience.
• Private forums are provided for discussion for current subscribers. One of them documents each paper trade. There are other forums dedicated to other topics include student trades, that are submitted for analysis and feedback.
• Ali provides two sessions per month that go for about 1:30. Charles also does the same for total of four sessions per month. You have the choice of having both or one of them, as a mentor. Some months may include a bonus session. For example, during Month 3, Ali did a bonus Q&A session.
• The sessions are only one part of the program. You’ll have access to Charles and Ali via email, which as mentioned above are a huge part of the program that allow for on-going education throughout each month.

Purchase Previous Month's of Ali's Training

Month 1 – May 2018

Month 1 focused on mean-reversion system and a specific credit spread strategy. Ali went into details about why and how of buying dips in a bull market and selling rallies in bear markets using specific indicators, and why the long-term trend is important. Specific guidelines (including a short write-up) was provided on the steps Ali follows for finding, trading, and exiting credit spreads. Ali doesn’t trade credit spread systems that can create a large loss due to sudden market moves. Most of his credit spreads have a 1-to-1 or at most 1-to-2 reward to risk ratio, yet still yield a high probably of success. Ali taught exactly how he does this and showed examples. Even if you don’t trade credit spreads, they are a building block of other types of trades such as condors, butterflies, BWBs, and other exotic wing-spreads. This month is a foundation for future months, and yet it can be used as a standalone system to run a successful credit spread business.

Month 2 – June 2018

Month 2 focused on trend following setups and debit spreads. Ali went deeper into verticals in general. Most option traders don’t fully understand all the angles and techniques around vertical spreads, even if they have been trading options and “advanced” strategies for a long time. Since verticals are the building blocks of wingspreads (butterflies, condors, BWBs, etc.) Ali went deeper into vertical pricing as a foundation for Month 3. Ali discussed more mean reversion and shared a master plan (template) for how to create your own custom trading plan and structure your trading approach. For trend-trading, Ali shared a specific technique of combining mean-reversion and trending following to increase probability of success. Understanding directional trading is not just about trading it, but also being able to understand it such that you don’t get in the way of a strong trend, if you favor sideways strategies.

Month 3 – July 2018

Month 3 was all about wingspreads, which is the family of trades that include butterflies, condors, BWBs, and other exotic balanced and unbalanced configurations. Ali covered his indicators and additional technical trading techniques and setups, continuing that from the last two months. Month 1 was mean reversion setups and credit spreads, month 2 was trend following setups and debit spreads – and going deeper into verticals. As most know, wingspreads are built with verticals and therefore a good part of the knowledge from prior months are used during this month.

Ali covered the Sphinx Trade Pattern. This is what Ali calls a Trade Pattern instead a specific trade configuration/structure, because it morphs and changes depending on the market condition. Sphinx is the primary approach Ali uses to trade the indexes, mostly SPX. Ali also trades it on stocks. This trade adapts to the market. There are many ways of going into the final configuration, which are demonstrated via numerous trade examples during the month. There are bullish, neutral, and bearish variations and for the bullish variation, it can also be done using calendar spreads instead of wingspreads, if a better calendar trade is available.

Month 3 included a bonus Q&A session (therefore total of 3 sessions by Ali for this month).

Month 4 – August 2018

Month 4 was all about multi-expiration spreads such as calendars and diagonals. Diagonals can be dissected into calendars and verticals. Because of that, using knowledge from month 1 & 2, one can create better diagonals. Regarding calendars, Ali noticed that most option traders have a very difficult time with them because they don’t fully understand how to configure them correctly. Ali went into how he likes to configure them for maximum potency and efficiency. A specific type of SPX calendar spreads he calls Lean Calendars was my best trade last year, as many option trades were frustrated with lack of volatility and the relentless upward movement. Ali dug deeper into understanding proper configuration of calendar & diagonals, especially SPX calendars during month 4.

Month 5 – September 2018

Month 5 was about long-term trading and investing using dynamic hedging. An investment approach with options may involve long-term option positions or it might involve short-term options being traded around a core long term position. During this month, Ali went into a method for establishing a long-term position in an underlying either using stock or a specific option structure, and then dynamically hedging it using shorter term options to take advantage of short-term swings while maintaining a long-term core position. A solid foundation in debit and credit spreads established in months 1 & 2 would be a great help for this strategy since those trades used this strategy and vertical lessons were not repeated during this month. You may have heard of a strategy called Dynamic Collars where the investor gets into a collar and dynamically moves the long puts and short calls around to hedge as well as take money out of the trade over time. But that strategy has specific weaknesses such as requiring a highly volatile stock as well as requiring stock purchase, which could be quite expensive especially for high priced stocks. The dynamic hedging strategy taught during this month helps over-come many of those weaknesses by traders that can trade vertical spreads instead of naked long/short options. Some of the topics covered: How to use options instead of stock. How to create much cheaper hedges than buying puts. How to sell premium to help pay for the hedge without limiting upside. How to trade low volatility as well as high volatility stocks; and much more.

Month 6 – October 2018

Month 6 is all about trade management, adjusting, and hedging. Proper trade management is what differentiates a great option trader from an average trader. Managing a position is not just adjusting. For example, taking profit at 25% and exiting at 20% loss are also forms of trade management. The lessons taught during this month should be applicable to all option traders.

• Should you adjust or just exit?
• What is the best adjustment for what the market is currently doing?
• How do you create a trading plan that has logical management moves?

During this month we go beyond specific techniques and dive deep into fundamentals and principals that would allow a trader to

1. Create the best possible plan for their trades
2. Make the best decisions possible that makes sense at that time

Should we be continuously adjusting a trade or just keep it simple with minimal or no adjustment? The answer depends on your style as well as what works best for that trade. During the lessons in this month, you will learn the principals and the simple logical steps to decide which approach is best for you and your trades. What is covered during this month is truly unique. We have not seen anyone else cover the material that was taught during this month. NOTE: Due to market correction and increase in volatility, majority of members voted to switch topics for the second class of the month to “How to trade in volatile markets”. The second class went into general guidelines for volatile markets, various technical setups, trades that can be considered, how to manage them, and a trading strategy Ali call the Trailblazer, and how to apply it as a hedge for existing trades or the portfolio.

Month 7 – November 2018

Class 1 was about Trading Butterflies in Volatile Markets. Ali discussed a specific butterfly pricing approach that he likes to use. Then he discussed the steps and guidelines he uses for trading butterflies. Ali also went over the method for a specific butterfly trade example he did in this volatile market that made 18% in 13 calendar days. This was done with very little effort and very small drawdown, keeping delta relatively flat throughout the trade. A second trade with the same setup resulted in a 25% return in about a week with no draw down. If trading with relatively flat deltas is your preferred method, then this trade might interest you. Class 2 was Trade Management Part 2. Ali went into part 2 of what he stared in October. Ali did a quick review of part 1, and then described the management process he uses and variety of techniques and practices for managing trades, with examples.

Month 8 – December 2018

Class 1 was Trade Management Part 3. If you can learn to manage vertical spread and naked options then managing more complex structures such as butterflies, condors, double diagonals, etc. becomes a whole lot easier. This is because complex structures can be broken down to their smaller parts and verticals are a key component of many trades. During month 3 Ali covered how to break down complex wing spreads into sub components and isolate the higher risk embedded vertical from the lower risk inert & stable wingspreads. In this class Ali went deep into variety of management techniques for dealing with long and short vertical spread, as well naked options. Ali covered many examples and scenarios of how they can be managed under different market scenarios. Ali also starting discussion on hedging individual trades as well as portfolio. There is great trade in the forum in IWM and SPY that demonstrates active hedging in a volatile market. Please note that the core strategy for these two trades in IWM and SPY were taught in month 5. Class 2 was about Technical Trading & Trade Management. Ali covered technical trading tools and techniques and how he use them for trade entry, management, and exit. Ali shared two of his favorite methods, indicators, and setups for decision making to help with trade entry, management, and exit.

Month 9 – January 2019

The main theme was about diagonals. I covered how to trade and manage them. Two specific diagonal strategies were taught, what I call SPX Lean Diagonals and another diagonal strategy called CWS: Covered Write Surrogate

Month 10 – February 2019

The main theme was about diversification and putting together a portfolio of trades. I also covered a strategy I call Cascading Spreads, showing how to overlay multiple butterfly strategies on top of each other to create a portfolio where each trade complements the other trades.

Month 11 – March 2019

The main theme was about technical trading and how to create directional systems. I also distributed a specific trend following strategy that runs on TOS that you can plug-in that shows buy/sell signals.

Month 12 – April 2019

Is the continuation of the theme from last month, discussing how to create a reliable directional system or yourself and how to apply option strategies once you have a system. This is the final month.