The first thing you want to do is check the overall trend of the S&P index. If it is trending down use a Bear Call Spread. If it is trending up use a Bull Put Spread. There are a number of ways you can do to determine the trend of the market. One simple way is to use the 50 day moving average. If the market is above 50 day moving average the market is considered to be in an uptrend, below it the market is in a downtrend. There are also things like moving average crossovers and or the close above the highest high of the last three trading weeks or a close below the lowest low of the last 3 trading weeks.

You then want to find a stock that is trending the same way as the index. So again if the index is bullish you want to find a stock that is going up, if the index is bearish find a stock that is falling.

You then want to find a support or resistance level on the stock or exchange traded fund (ETF). You can use bollinger bands, the 50 day moving average or pivot points for this.

After that check the stocks fundamentals. One good way of doing this is using Investors Business Daily. Using their website all you have to do is type in the ticker symbol and it gives you a letter grade for the stock you are looking at. Obviously if you are bullish on a stock you want it to have a grade of A or better. If you are bearish on a stock it should have a C or lower. The website will also give you information on things like earnings per share, relative strength of the stock and institutional accumulation. All important things for determining a stocks fundamental strength.

Finally you want to purchase the credit spread. In the case of a bull put spread sell a put at the money and buy a put two or three strike prices below. So let’s say the Nasdaq Stock ETF is selling at $29.00 and it’s January. You can sell a February $29.00 Put for $1.60 and buy a February Put for .90 bringing in a total of $70 per contract (.70 x 100) If the stock closes above $29.00 at options expiration in February (3rd Friday of the month)then you will keep the full credit. If it ends at $28.30 ($29.00-.70) you will break even. If it ends at $27.00 or below you will lose $130 per contract ($29.00-$27.00)-.70.Depending on the number of contracts that you use you can easily earn anywhere between 1-10% a month using this method. The beauty of it is that as it gets closer to the expiration date the options will begin to lose value, which is what you want to happen. Because once they go to 0 you don’t have to do anything, but keep the money that you’ve already collected.

1. There are a couple of key points to remember about using this technique.
2. Always use good money management.
3. Don’t expose more than 6% of your portfolio at one time.Don’t trade before earnings or other announcements come out.
4. Don’t take more than a 2 to 1 risk to reward ratio. In other words if you’re risking $2 you should be making at least $1. I usually like more of a 1 to 1 risk to reward ratio if I can get it.