Here is a simple trade - it was designed to test a brand NEW trading bot.  I want a trade that would get lots of transactions and follow the markets having ups and downs with the general S&P 500 market.

The original idea of this Iron Condor trade came from the guys on TastyLive - I just adapted this Zero Day Trade to my needs - testing a bot platform.  The general requirements were positive expectancy and a neutral trade that would NOT need to be monitored - a fire & forget strategy.

See this Tasty video:  How To Trade 0DTEs After Lunch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYlxnu1dZ-Y

The Bot I wanted to gain experience with was the Beta version of Option Auto Trader by Austin Bouley.  I highly recommend this platform - it is very easy to learn and setup - the platform has well known trades to Option's Traders, and can be customized quickly.

A quick video about the Auto Trader  (an early video - many new features).  And keep surfing Tasty's research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WoRM6hbkJU

The very first version of the Meneldor trade (some call it the "Original Gangster") is an Iron Condor on SPX entered around Noon (market time) and allowed to run until the end-of-day expiration.  Which on the SPX index is settled to CASH at the end of the day - so NO closing trade fees, no assignment risk, just CASH in your account at the end of the day.

The specifics were selected to model the TastyTrade suggestions:  a condor body of $40 width & wings of $20 beyond the body.  The typical notation for strikes:  [$40Put/$20put/$20call/$40Call] 0dte SPX IronCondor.

The version 2 Meneldor trade was a change of the wing width - going with smaller ($5) wings made the trade more stable (less volatility) but it reduced the income and the max drawdowns.

Meneldor [Ver 2  P$25/p$20/c$20/C$25 0dte on SPX]

A fellow member of the Option Auto Trader community Discord did some extensive backtesting to determine if the Meneldor was a good trade and when the "best" entry time would be...  This resulted in a change to 2:45pm entry for the trade.

Meneldor [Ver 3 P$25/p$20/c$20/C$25 - 2:45entry 0dte on SPX]

After 33 executations - I feel I've given this trade enough time... the last few trades had reward/risk ratios that are unacceptable (about 2%).  Who wants to risk $500 to gain $10? 

I'm going back to the Original Gangster Meneldor trade.

Meneldor Ver1 P$40/p$20/c$20/C$40 - 1pm entry 0dte on SPX]