My Trading Plan for Next Week - Sell Volatility, Buy Stability

As a philosophy, I want to get premium for selling options. And the best time to get high premiums is when volatility is high, so the best time to sell options is when volatility is high, and conversely, the best time to close is when volatility is low.

Yesterday, the United States imposed a lot of tariffs on some countries. The specifics don’t matter for this context, what matters here is that I anticipate some 1-2% of volatility within a day.

I've been thinking about how to play the market given all this volatility from the new tariffs. My strategy is pretty straightforward - I love collecting premium when everyone's freaking out and volatility is high. Then I get to sit back and relax when things calm down.

Looking at futures right now, everything's in the red (no surprise there), and VIX is climbing. Perfect conditions for what I have in mind. Image Courtesy: https://unusualwhales.com/futures_indices

I'm planning to mainly sell some weekly Call Credit Spreads. My thinking? With all this uncertainty, stocks probably won't rocket back to their monthly highs anytime soon. Might also grab some Puts to catch any big drops - nothing wrong with playing both sides when the setup is right.

Here's where it gets interesting - I'm thinking about betting up to half my portfolio on this. Sounds aggressive, I know, but hear me out. If this plays out well, it could set me up for the whole month. I'd then switch to super conservative plays or maybe just chill.

But I'm not going all-in at once. My plan is to scale in as volatility picks up, saving some dry powder for when VIX really starts pumping (maybe even hits 30?). I'll be watching sectors hit hardest by the tariffs and keeping an eye on technical levels.