Taylor Horton
VP of Directional Options Strategies
“My goal is to only trade setups where the odds are stacked in my favor as much as possible, and to completely ignore anything that doesn’t fit my criteria.”
Taylor’s Trading Plan
- To pursue mastery of the craft.
- To create long-term wealth.
- To live life on my own terms.
- To challenge me mentally and emotionally.
- To motivate others in the process, and be a strong advocate for trading as a career path.
- I am a swing trader that likes to focus on combining technical setups with options strategies.
- I focus on trading the strongest stocks in the market, aiming to trade nothing but my go-to setup: the squeeze.
- I like to build my positions inside the squeeze above the 21EMA, with the goal of collecting profit as the squeeze releases energy and fires.
- Monthly:
- #1 goal = get better.
- #2 goal = average of 10%+ return per month.
- Yearly:
- #1 goal = get better.
- #2 goal = 100%+ overall return.
- Long Term:
- Grow my account to $1,000,000 and begin wiring 2.5% of balance weekly.
- I aim to focus on nothing but the setups that have proven to serve me well (the squeeze) and to ignore all else.
- I only want to trade setups that fit my personal criteria.
- I want to trade setups that can not only be highly profitable, but also allow me to have peace-of-mind away from the charts, so I’m not at risk of being bothered by the day-to-day “noise”.
Mid/large cap US equities in strong uptrends
- Weekly
- 3 Day
- Daily
- 4-hour timeframes
- Weekly, 3 day, daily, and 4 hour squeezes on bullish stocks.
- The EMA’s must be stacked positively.
- The stock must be trading just above it’s 21 EMA.
- The histogram should show positive momentum, or yellow bars at the very least.
- The stock must be in an uptrend on the weekly and daily timeframes.
- The stock should be in a tight-squeeze, trading just above it’s 21 EMA.
- The EMA’s have to be stacked positively.
- If the histogram has yellow or light blue bars, I begin to build position.
- Once my criteria is met, I like to sell put credit spreads, going as far OTM with the short-strike as possible while still retaining at least a 3:1 risk-reward ratio.
- When I find a setup that fits this criteria, in my experience (and through what I’ve been taught) this is an optimal setup.
- Trading this setup (where the odds are stacked in my favor of catching a move to the upside) with an OTM put credit spread puts the odds in my favor even more.
I’m always comfortable taking my max loss, and never risk more than I can afford should a position go to zero.
While I’m comfortable with the max loss on my spreads, this rarely happens when the trades are managed appropriately.
I set limit orders to buy back my credit spreads at 80% of the max potential profit.
I hold my trades until “something has changed” in the structure of the setup I’m trading. Typically, this starts with a close BELOW the 21 EMA of the timeframe I’m trading (or above for bearish trades).
I wake up every day at 5:00am and head straight to the gym for a workout. I find that this floods me with positive-endorphins and leaves me energized and ready to start my day.
Once at my desk, I check the futures markets to get a gauge of where things are set to open. If there’s an extreme move, I adjust working-orders accordingly and begin to write-out my game plan for managing open positions.
Once at my desk, I check the futures markets to get a gauge of where things are set to open. If there’s an extreme move, I adjust working-orders accordingly and begin to write-out my game plan for managing open positions.
Run a scan for weekly, 3D, and daily squeezes in all optionable stocks, sorting by market-cap with the biggest names at the top of the list.
- I take notes on any emotions I felt throughout the session, positive or negative, and aim to identify what caused those emotions.
- I make sure all working-orders are set properly for the following session.
- Take notes on what John Carter & Henry Gambell are trading/their current thoughts on the market.
- Squeeze pro indicator
- 21 period EMA (exponential moving average)
- Bollinger bands
- Simpler Trading Scanner
- I track all of my open and closed positions in a spreadsheet I’ve built that quickly calculates P&L.
- I review all of my trades, thoughts, and emotions in a hand-written journal.
I watch recordings of John Carter and Henry Gambell’s options room sessions, and take notes on any important observations I make and the stocks they’re trading. I resonate with both of their approaches, so learning from the best in the game is a huge part of my continued growth.
- “As within, so without”.
- “Life is a constant quest to be the best version of one’s self”.
- “Move the ball forward”.
- Never go against-the-grain of the overall trend.
- Never fight the squeeze (trying to short a stock firing long).
- The results of a single trade are meaningless. It’s all about the probabilities over the long run.
- I don’t need to get paid today. Patience pays, and it pays better than forcing trades that are less than ideal.
- It’s always best to wait for “your pitch”.