Most people who buy options learn the same expensive truth in 6 months. Roughly 70% to 80% of options expire worthless, decay charges you every calendar day, and volatility priced in is higher than what happens. Sellers sit opposite that math, collecting cash up front while that $ decay works for them. This book makes the seller edge usable with a terminal, not a desk.
Steve Gordon does not sell the wheel as a bull trick and leave you exposed in the 55% of days that are flat or down. You get 3 regimes: credit spreads for trend, iron condors for range, and bear spreads and hedges for declines. The difference between an 8% year and a 25% drawdown is not stock picking. It is sizing at 1% to 2% per trade and a 2 to 1 stop that needs a 33% gain to recover if broken.
Claude Code fetches live chains, computes 4 Greeks, ranks 200 strikes in seconds, and writes backtests you would otherwise skip. You get prompts tested 200 times, like scan SPY for puts with 30 to 45 days, delta 0.20 to 0.30, IV rank above 50%, rank by theta per $ width.
Inside, you will discover:
• Why theta accelerates in the final 30 to 45 days and the sweet spot for risk
• The volatility premium that lets sellers profit with 0% directional view
• Half Kelly capped at 1% to 2% and 12 guardrails for AI agents
• Backtesting without look ahead bias and walk forward windows that prevent overfit
• Section 1256 tax math that saves $2,000 to $5,000 per year on SPX versus SPY
• Assignment and early exercise near ex dividend with expected value tables
You do not need to be a programmer. If you can paste a prompt and read a $ table, you can run a scanner before the open and manage 20 positions in under 30 minutes a day. The approach stays practical for a $15 lunch and a 9 PM dinner, and it works in about 85% of real life meals when you follow the plate and the list for 7 days straight.