Zero Days To Expiration

Ernie Varitimos
  • 4.0 (44)
  • Investing
  • Updated Daily

Coach Ernie spent 40 years in institutional trading, hedge fund management, and FinTech. Now he teaches retail traders how to flip the script on risk — using zero DTE butterfly strategies that risk small and aim big. Every episode covers volatility, volume profile, market structure, and the daily routine that separates professionals from everyone else. Live every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

  1. 3d ago

    The Best Way to Trade 0DTE

    There are a dozen ways to trade zero-day options. Most of them will eat your account. One of them has the math on its side. Part 2 of the 28-Day series — the method behind the promise. Presentation https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wcg3qs24dxkhmdtmv44ap/Best_Way_To_Trade_0DTE.pptx?rlkey=2183yer75ycjb6y4j1y68v696&dl=0 In this episode: The field: lotto calls, credit spreads, iron condors, naked options, gamma scalping  The five criteria that define "best": defined risk, asymmetric payoff, rules-executable, repeatable, scalable  Why the OTM butterfly clears all five — and why the alternatives each fail at least one  What the alternatives sacrifice — and why those sacrifices compound against you over time  The structural reason "best" is a math question, not a style question  Best isn't an opinion. It's what the math forces you to. → Test it for 28 days as an Observer: https://flyonthewall.ai/try 4-week paid trial. Daily livestream, Friday coaching call, Discord community, and the full 0DTE framework. Stay through month-end and the Navigator annual plan unlocks at 35% off. Our goal is to make you Consistently Profitable, become an Independent Trader, and Trade at a Pro-level.

    39 min

  2. 4d ago

    28 Days to Become a Profitable 0DTE Trader

    Twenty-eight days isn't long enough to make you a master. It's exactly long enough to make you a trader who knows — knows the framework, knows whether the rules pay, and knows whether they can execute. Part 1 of a three-part series this week on the path from skeptic to consistently profitable 0DTE trader. In this episode: What "profitable" actually means at Day 28 — and why it's not what most traders think it means  Why 28 days is the right diagnostic window — not 28 minutes, not 28 months  The four things you'll have on Day 28 if you commit  What separates the traders who get there from the ones who quit on Day 19  Presentation Link:  https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mhr1xgg8rguby0d7w8ubq/28-Days-to-Expert-v2_4.pptx?rlkey=twdxdgrwt61kszl7jk4603cv9&dl=0 The clock starts when you do. → Start your 28 days as an Observer: https://flyonthewall.ai/try 4-week paid trial. Daily livestream, Friday coaching call, Discord community, and the full 0DTE framework. Stay through month-end and the Navigator annual plan unlocks at 35% off. Our goal is to make you Consistently Profitable, become an Independent Trader, and Trade at a Pro-level.

    55 min

  3. May 20

    Getting Closer to the Money Gonna Cost You

    _*]:min-w-0 gap-3 font-claude-response"> You think moving your butterfly closer to the money gives you a better shot — but what if it's actually bleeding your account dry? In this episode, Coach Ernie breaks down the math behind why paying less for a better risk-to-reward is the real edge in 0-DTE trading. He walks through how to spot convexity in butterfly pricing — that moment when the cost drops off a cliff between strikes — and why chasing that drop instead of chasing proximity to the money is what separates consistent traders from the ones grinding sideways. What you'll learn: The 10% debit rule: why your butterfly should never cost more than 10% of the width — and why that's a ceiling, not a target How to read the price curve between strikes and find the "kink" where convexity lives Why a cheaper fly further out can pay the same or more than an expensive one closer in — for 40% less capital The expected move trap: why trading inside the expected move limits your upside while exposing you to the same losses Real examples from live 0-DTE SPX chains showing exactly how Coach filters and selects positions How this approach produces a Sharpe ratio of 4 with max drawdown under 6% and a 50/50 win rate Coach also shares takeaways from his recent keynote at TraderFest, hosted by Tradier and sponsored by Cboe, where he presented this exact framework to a room full of professional traders. Ready to see how this works in real time? Join Coach Ernie's live trade room at flyonthewall.ai — watch every trade, every receipt, every decision as it happens. Start with a no-commitment 4-week trial, cancel anytime week by week. Your first look at how convexity trading actually works is just one click away.

    53 min

  4. May 6

    Your 0DTE Strategy Only Covers 25% of the Day

    Most 0DTE traders don't realize they're only participating in 25% of the actual trading day — and in a low-VIX regime like this one, that's exactly where the wheels come off. When volatility drops, premium gets pulled out of your contracts the day before you ever place the trade, and the real moves happen overnight while the market is closed to you. So you wake up to a gap, watch a session of dojis, and wonder why your usual setup keeps grinding nickels. Presentation Link This week's series breaks down the fix: the Batman 1DTE — a strategy Coach Ernie and the Fly On The Wall traders developed in late 2023 specifically for low-VIX, gap-and-doji conditions. In this episode: Why low volatility is the worst regime for credit spreads (and why "high win rate" is a canard) The 25% problem: the real trading day is 24 hours, not 6.5 Gaps and dojis — what they tell you about where the premium actually went The Batman setup: long call fly above + long put fly below, placed the night before How a six-month member-run experiment turned this into a permanent fixture in the VIX Playbook When to switch from 0DTE to 1DTE — and how the Zombieland regime tells you to push DTE even further out Q&A: ES futures vs. SPX cost math, capital allocation per Batman, and PDT considerations This is Day 1 of a three-part series. Tomorrow: the trade mechanics — entry, sizing, and profit management. Wednesday: the results. Want to trade the Batman alongside Coach and the Navigator group? Start your 4-week free trial at https://flyonthewall.ai/try Our goal is to make you Consistently Profitable, become an Independent Trader, and Trade at a Pro-level.

    36 min

  5. May 4

    Why High Win Rate Strategies Destroy Accounts

    In this episode of Zero Days to Expiration, Coach Ernie unpacks why high win rate strategies quietly destroy retail trading accounts — and why the inverse approach (low win rate, asymmetric risk-to-reward) is how professionals actually trade 0DTE options. Why 75% of your profit comes from extrinsic value — and why that changes everything about where you place your butterflies  The "loser distribution" that creates rollercoaster equity curves, and the right-skewed long-tail distribution that produces a stair-step account instead  The 10% debit rule for wide butterflies and why pushing further out of the money is counterintuitive but mathematically correct  The probability breakdown nobody talks about: you only land inside the profit tent ~12.5% of the time — and that's a feature, not a bug  Why volume profile, node edges, and market memory are real structure — while trend lines, fair value gaps, and moving averages are not  How GEX and gamma exposure tell you when price is in compression vs expansion mode Join Fly on the Wall https://flyonthewall.ai/try

    43 min

  6. May 3

    Mastering Volume Profile for 0DTE Entries

    Return to the foundational tool that powers every high-probability 0DTE butterfly: Volume Profile done right. Coach Ernie shows why raw POC often misleads, how to read true structure (high-volume nodes, valleys, market memory), and how to combine it with convexity and GEX for precise entries that fit the 10% debit rule. Step-by-step TradingView + FlyOnTheWall.ai walkthrough using today's developing market. Build the skill that makes your pre-trade checklist bulletproof.   Presentation: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/85x7ridm1nov6nw99v3d0/Mastering-Volume-Profile-for-0DTE-Entries.pptx?rlkey=tiy7n66rcivsbcyz33j3pmbta&dl=0   Join Fly on the Wall https://flyonthewall.ai/try

    53 min

  7. May 2

    How Cheaper Flies Make More Money

    Master the single most important pre-trade rule in 0DTE butterfly trading: never pay more than 10% of the fly width. Coach Ernie explains where the rule comes from, the math behind why lower-debit flies deliver higher percentage returns on your defined risk, and exactly how to scan for and build these asymmetric setups. See real examples of wide vs narrow, expensive vs cheap flies and why this discipline alone separates professional results from random outcomes. Perfect routine reinforcement with today's platform demo. Presentation https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tlahu0m6qlkrogsgpzaho/10-percent-debit-rule.pptx?rlkey=tiw729gqw4fjiapf8kk0j32xo&dl=0 Join Fly on the Wall https://flyonthewall.ai/try

    40 min

  8. Apr 27

    Gamma Scalping for Retail Traders — Why the Trade Desk Way Will Eat You Alive

    Coach Ernie unpacks why traditional gamma scalping — the long-straddle, sell-against-it institutional approach — is structurally hostile to retail traders, and walks through the version that actually works in a retail account: a late-day, out-of-the-money butterfly placed into structural support, sized for asymmetric risk-to-reward. The episode covers the mechanics that make the trade work: how the real-time P&L curve fills the butterfly as premium decays, why low-volatility environments produce steeper gamma earlier in the session, and how the VIX level dictates the size of your daily window of opportunity. Concrete example walked through: a 20-wide fly bought for ~$0.80 (roughly 1:25 R:R), turning a 10-point move off structure into a 3x–8x payoff. Three conditions stacked before entry: (1) lower-volatility regime for accelerated premium decay, (2) late-day timing for maximum gamma steepness, (3) a structural level as a directional backstop. Why a 50% win rate is more than enough when the math is this skewed. Live-tool demonstration to follow in the next episode.   About Fly On The Wall Fly On The Wall is a full-service platform built specifically for 0DTE options traders. It's not just a tool — it's a Discord community, a daily livestream and group coaching for Navigator members, Friday coaching calls, and direct access to Coach Ernie's 40+ years of trading experience. Every concept you hear on this show is practiced live, every trading day, with the community. Start your 4-week free trial → https://flyonthewall.ai/try Our goal is to make you Consistently Profitable, become an Independent Trader, and Trade at a Pro-level.

    44 min
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4
out of 5
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About

Coach Ernie spent 40 years in institutional trading, hedge fund management, and FinTech. Now he teaches retail traders how to flip the script on risk — using zero DTE butterfly strategies that risk small and aim big. Every episode covers volatility, volume profile, market structure, and the daily routine that separates professionals from everyone else. Live every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

Information

  • Creator
    Ernie Varitimos
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    152
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    Zero Days To Expiration

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