Options Strategies

Options Strategies is a skill for CLI Trader that gives your agent a structured decision-making framework for options trading, from strategy selection through position management and adjustment. Options offer a precision that stock trading cannot match — you can express views on direction, volatility, time, and combinations of all three — but that flexibility creates complexity. This skill organizes options knowledge into actionable frameworks so your agent can reason through strategy selection, evaluate risk-reward, and manage positions systematically.

The skill centers on a strategy selection decision tree that maps your market view to the appropriate options structure. It covers core strategies across the complexity spectrum: vertical spreads for directional plays with defined risk, iron condors and iron butterflies for range-bound income, straddles and strangles for volatility expansion, calendar spreads for time decay harvesting, and ratio spreads for skewed payoffs. Each strategy is analyzed through the lens of the Greeks — delta for directional exposure, gamma for convexity risk near expiration, theta for time decay characteristics, and vega for sensitivity to implied volatility changes. The skill also covers implied volatility analysis using IV rank and IV percentile to assess whether options are relatively cheap or expensive, earnings play construction with pre- and post-event volatility considerations, and position adjustment techniques including rolling, adding spreads, and converting positions when your original thesis changes.

In a CLI trading workflow, this skill serves as the strategy reasoning layer between market analysis and order execution. Feed your agent a market view from technical or fundamental analysis, and it applies the options decision tree to recommend structures, strike selection, and expiration timing. During the life of a trade, it monitors Greek exposures and flags when positions need adjustment. Pair it with an options data feed for real-time Greeks and IV surfaces, and with a broker integration for order routing, to create a complete options trading workflow from analysis through execution.

For the complete methodology — including formulas, decision trees, worked examples, and validation checklists — see the full Options Strategies skill guide.