How the Boards Work

Every column, symbol and number on the Daily Doze boards, in plain words.

Cartoon: a station departure board with blank rows hangs over the concourse, a man with a red pointer explains one row to a woman with a notebook while two travellers look up, titled How the Boards Work.

Model output for education. Not advice.

Jump to: Autobahn │ Value Lane │ Freefall │ Snapback │ Boiler Room │ Earnings Grenade │ Time Machine

How to Read Any Board

One real row of the Boiler Room board as of Oct 29, 2026, with four callouts: Trade, the order at today's quotes; Win Odds, the chance of a profit at the exit; IV Rank, why it is here: the fear a week ago and now; EV, the expected profit on the money at risk.

The four numbers on every option board: Trade: The exact structure at today's quotes, written the way you would enter it as one order. Win Odds: Our model's chance that the trade ends in profit at its exit. Exit: The day to close the trade, if nothing closes it sooner. EV: The expected profit as a percentage of the money at risk.

Every row is one name and one trade. The columns always answer the same five questions, left to right: what it is, the trade, why it is there, the odds, and the expected value.

What EV Means

Expected value: the average result the model expects if the same trade were placed many times, divided by the money at risk. Worked example: an EV of +12 on $1,000 at risk is about $120 of expected profit over many such trades. The cell shows -10 to +20. Per month of holding: Snapback. Per trade: Boiler Room, Time Machine. Per report: Earnings Grenade.

Most boards only show trades with a positive EV.

The Shared Symbols

The legend: ⚠️: Thin option market: trade small, limit orders only. ⏰: Earnings within four weeks. 🇩: Ex-dividend before the exit: a short call can be assigned early. 📌: A dated event inside the trade. The numbers do not price it: size down or skip. ~: Weekend estimate at model prices. Out by Oct20: An earnings report before the normal exit. Close by that date, win or lose. Jan15'27: An expiry in the next calendar year.

📌 A dated event inside the trade. The row stays on the board for you to judge, and the event is named under the table.
Out by Oct20: an earnings report falls before the normal exit, close by that date, win or lose. Jan15'27: an expiry in the next calendar year.

How a Trade Gets on a Board

Four steps every trading day: 1. Screen: Each board screens the US market every trading day for one kind of setup. 2. Price: Every name that passes is priced at that day's real option quotes, after trading costs. 3. Keep the liquid: Only names with a liquid option market stay. 4. Or stay empty: A board with no name that passes stays empty for the day.

Only names with a liquid option market stay. A board with no name that passes stays empty for the day.

The Boards, One by One

Board 1, Autobahn

Board 1 of 7, Autobahn (Free): Growth stocks in an uptrend, with a plan. Columns: Ticker, Price, Entry, Trade, Score. Holding: Shares, a call spread or a put credit spread, from the entry to the stop or the target. Look first: The mark on the row: buy zone, buy above the level, or wait for a pullback.

👉 Autobahn on the Trade Boards

🟢 Buy zone. 🔜 Buy above the printed level. 🔙 Wait for a pullback into the zone. 🚩 Stop. 🏁 Target.
🟡 Price is through the level during the day: buy only if the day closes above it. If the price has run more than 5% past the level during the day, the row keeps its waiting levels: no chasing.
"Shares Win": owning the shares beat every option structure. "Nov20 65/ 85C · Db 19.10": buy the 65 call, sell the 85 call, pay 19.10.
A put credit spread can take a row when it beats every way of buying: "Nov20 −95P +85P · 2.10" means sell the 95 put, buy the 85 put, collect 2.10. Close at half the credit.
🎲 No trade today. ⏰ after the print: the trade comes after the report. ⚡ A price from outside market hours. ⏳ The row waits.

Board 2, Value Lane

Board 2 of 7, Value Lane (Pro): Quality businesses that trade cheap against their own history. Columns: Ticker, Price, Entry, Trade, Score. Holding: Shares, a call spread or a put credit spread, judged on weekly closes, to the stop or the target. Look first: The mark on the row, then the room from the entry level to the target. The values are blurred: the live board is for Pro members.

👉 Value Lane on the Trade Boards

Same plan and marks as Autobahn, judged on weekly closes: 🟡 means buy only if the week closes above the level.
🔺 No room left: the target sits at or below the entry level. A row must offer at least as much reward as it risks, from its entry level to its target, or it is benched. A row whose buy level sits more than 12% from the price is benched too, so every name on the board is close to a trade. Benched names stay on the TradingView list.

Board 3, Freefall

Board 3 of 7, Freefall (Pro): In the build: stocks and funds in a falling trend, with a plan to profit from the drop. Columns: Ticker, Price, Entry, Trade, Score. Holding: Short shares, a put, a put debit spread or a put butterfly, from the entry to the stop or the target. Look first: The mark on the row: sell zone, sell below the level, or wait for a bounce. The values are blurred: the live board is for Pro members.

👉 Freefall on the Trade Boards

🚧 In the build: the board is new and its trades are model trades while we test it. Autobahn turned upside down: names whose uptrend has just given way, now in a falling trend and weaker than the market. We tested a year of prices: these fresh breakdowns lagged the market more steadily than names already deep in a fall, so only they qualify. On a quiet day the board shows fewer than 20 names.
🟢 Sell zone: the trade is on at the printed level. 🔜 Sell below the printed level, after a close under it. 🔙 Wait for a bounce into the zone. 🚩 Stop, above the entry. 🏁 Target, below the entry.
"Short Shares": selling the shares short beat every put structure. Only names that are cheap to borrow qualify, and the stop is not optional.
"Jan15'27 57.5/ 45P · Db 4.89": buy the 57.5 put, sell the 45 put, pay 4.89. That is a put debit spread. "Jan15'27 70/ 55/ 45P fly · Db 2.12": buy the 70 put, sell two 55 puts, buy the 45 put, pay 2.12. That is a put butterfly: it pays most when the price ends near the target.
A put, a put debit spread or a put butterfly can never lose more than you pay. 🎲 No trade today. ~ A price from outside market hours.

Board 4, Snapback

Board 4 of 7, Snapback (Pro): Names stretched far from their 20-day average, faded with a credit spread. Columns: Ticker, Price, Stretch, Trade, Exit, Win Odds, EV. Holding: To half the credit, or the Exit day. Look first: Stretch, in standard deviations: 2σ or more is rare. The values are blurred: the live board is for Pro members.

👉 Snapback on the Trade Boards

"Oct30 −150C +160C · 2.40": sell the 150 call, buy the 160 call, collect 2.40. Every spread collects at least 1 for every 3 it risks.
An Exit day that falls on a market holiday moves to the trading day before. A report inside the trade makes the last day before it the Exit day. No ex-dividend date falls inside a call spread.
A name the Autobahn or Value Lane holds long the same day is never faded here. A 🟡 row has not closed back through its level yet; the level stands beside the price.
Exit day: 21 days before expiry, earlier when a report or a short expiry needs it.

Board 5, Boiler Room

Board 5 of 7, Boiler Room (Pro): Rich option premium sold as the fear fades: the best of fifteen iron condor shapes. Columns: Ticker, Trade, Win Odds, IV Rank, Exit, EV. Holding: To the Exit day, about two weeks before expiry, win or lose. Look first: The ✅ in IV Rank: the fear is fading, the strongest setup. The values are blurred: the live board is for Pro members.

👉 Boiler Room on the Trade Boards

"IC Dec18 103/106 ±2": sell the 103 put and the 106 call, buy wings 2 points further out. Every run, fifteen condor shapes are priced for each name, with the short strikes from 20 to 40 delta and the wings from half to one and a half expected moves, and the shape with the best expected value takes the row. A shape that collects more than 40% of the wing width is refused: in our tests the richest credit came with the worst losses.
Every condor with a positive expected value is shown. ✅ in the IV Rank column marks the strongest setup: the fear has started to fade, its IV Rank fell at least 5 points in a week. We sell after the scare, not during it. A name that reported earnings in the last 10 days gets no ✅: its falling IV is the earnings premium leaving, not fear fading. It can still show, ranked by its EV. Win Odds on this board are counted, not modelled: how often the same kind of condor, with the same short strikes and the same IV trend, closed in profit on its Exit day in our 2022 to 2026 tests. When the S&P 500 closes below its 200-day average, the board stands aside.
Two expiry months can share the board. The nearer month comes first and stays until it is 30 days from expiry. Once the next month is 70 days away or nearer, its condors with a positive expected value follow below, best first. A line above each block names its expiry (front month, back month), and each month has its own Exit day. The back month is judged on its own numbers: its own premium against what the stock really moves, and in that block IV Rank is the rank of the 60-day implied volatility, with its own ✅. A ticker can show in both months, or in one only. Do not compare EV across the two blocks: the later month ties up the money about three weeks longer, and in our 2025 to 2026 tests the nearer month paid more.
Close on the Exit day, about two weeks before expiry, win or lose. In our tests, closing early when the price ran at a short strike gave up more profit than it saved. An Exit day that falls on a market holiday moves to the trading day before.

Board 6, Earnings Grenade

Board 6 of 7, Earnings Grenade (Pro): Options that price a bigger move than the stock usually makes. Columns: Ticker, When, Trade, Fear, After/ Won, EV. Holding: Sold today, closed in the session after the report. Look first: Fear, then Won: how often selling this premium paid in the last six reports. The values are blurred: the live board is for Pro members.

👉 Earnings Grenade on the Trade Boards

Names reporting within a week. Sell the trade today and close it in the session after the report. The trade uses the first expiry after the report, where most of the premium melts overnight; when that expiry trades too wide, the next monthly instead.
After shows whether, a week after past reports, the price held, ran or mixed. ☕ before the open, 🌙 after the close, ❔ date not yet confirmed.

Board 7, Time Machine

Board 7 of 7, Time Machine (Pro): A double calendar: sell the near month, own the later one. Columns: Ticker, Trade, Front/ Back IV, Win Odds, Exit, EV. Holding: Days, not weeks: closed on the Exit day. Look first: The two strikes and the two months of the trade.

👉 Time Machine on the Trade Boards

Sell the near month at two strikes, own the later month at the same strikes. The near month, priced for more movement, decays faster. Close on the Exit day.
Win Odds show a dash for now. When we scored every calendar this board printed in August and September, it had shown 65% odds, and 45% won. So this board prints counted odds only: from the day 40 of its double calendars have closed, how often they won on their Exit day.

👉 Back to the Daily Doze Trade Boards │ Compare the plans

One board is free. Not ready for a plan? Start with the free letter: one options trade every Tuesday, scored in public.

Everything on MacroDozer is for education only. Nothing published is investment advice, and past performance does not predict future results. Options carry risk, including the loss of the entire amount invested.