Frequently Asked Questions
Every objection, answered directly.
If something about IVIntel makes you hesitate, it's probably answered here. Can't find it? Contact us directly.
General
The basics
What is IVIntel?
IVIntel is a daily options signal service. Every trading day, it scans roughly 900 liquid stocks — the S&P 500 plus the S&P MidCap 400 — using live market data gathered after the open, and identifies a small number of defined-risk options setups with the strongest historical probability, favorable pricing, and controlled risk. You typically get 0–3 trade ideas a day, delivered by email at 11:00 AM ET, along with the reasoning behind each one.
Who is IVIntel designed for?
Self-directed traders who want statistically grounded options ideas without spending the day at a screen. Most subscribers have a full-time job — the newsletter arrives at 11:00 AM ET, built from live market data captured after the open, so you can read it, decide, and place a trade (or not) using pricing you could actually get.
Is IVIntel for beginners?
Yes. Every recommendation explains the strategy, the maximum defined risk, and why it qualified — not just a ticker and a strike price. You don't need prior options experience to understand what you're being shown, though you should understand your own broker's order entry before placing any trade.
Why is IVIntel different?
Most trading services sell excitement — a hot pick, a big win, a reason to trade today. IVIntel is built to do the opposite: it rejects far more setups than it publishes, says nothing on days that don't qualify, and publishes every trade's outcome, wins and losses both. The product isn't trade frequency. It's trust.
Methodology
How trades are selected
How are trades selected?
Every candidate passes through an 8-layer system: a market regime check (bullish, neutral, bearish, or defensive), a 900-stock scan, pattern detection, strategy routing by implied volatility rank, an options probability check, historical validation against at least 100 past occurrences over 5+ years, and a 0–100 composite score. Only A grades (85–100) and B grades (75–84) are ever published.
Why do you scan 900+ stocks?
A wider universe means more chances to find genuinely strong setups instead of forcing a signal out of a small, familiar watchlist. Most of the 900 get eliminated at the first scoring pass — that's by design, not a flaw.
Why don't you send more trades?
Because more trades isn't the goal — better trades are. The grading threshold exists specifically to keep marginal setups out of your inbox. If IVIntel sent every setup that technically qualified at a lower bar, the average quality — and your trust in it — would go down.
Why do some days have zero signals?
Because a zero-trade day is a valid, honest outcome. If nothing in the 900-stock universe clears the bar that day, or if the market regime engine reads DEFENSIVE conditions, nothing gets sent. IVIntel will never manufacture a signal just to avoid an empty inbox.
Why only defined-risk strategies?
Because your maximum loss should be knowable before you ever place the trade. Credit spreads, debit spreads, and iron condors all have a hard ceiling on risk — there's no scenario where a defined-risk position produces an unlimited loss.
Why don't you recommend naked options?
Naked options carry theoretically unlimited risk (uncovered calls) or very large risk (uncovered puts) — the opposite of what a defined-risk system is built to deliver. IVIntel's mandate is trades where the worst case is known in advance, so naked options are excluded entirely, not just discouraged.
Track record
Performance and honesty
Is the track record real?
The published track record is IVIntel's own signal-tracking log — every signal the system generates is logged with entry, exit, and P&L, wins and losses included, using live option pricing captured after the market opens (bid/ask spread rules and liquidity gates still apply; Black-Scholes reconstruction is only a fallback when a live chain is unavailable). It's not a simulation that only shows the good weeks — everything gets recorded.
Why are you paper trading?
Paper trading lets the system build a verifiable track record — entry to exit, every signal — before subscribers or the founder put live capital behind it. It's the same discipline a fund would use before deploying real money: prove the process works, then trade it.
When will live trading begin?
The founder plans to begin trading the system with his own capital once paper trading results meet the bar he's set for himself. Public launch follows that milestone, not the other way around.
Why do you publish losing trades?
Because a track record that only shows wins isn't a track record — it's marketing. Losses are part of trading. Publishing them is the whole point of calling this "transparent."
How should I evaluate your performance?
Look at the full sample, not a single week. Check win rate against sample size (every published pattern has at least 100 historical occurrences), read the 95% confidence interval, and weigh the forward-tested period most heavily — that's the only period that counts for real performance claims, by design.
Risk
What you're actually exposed to
Does IVIntel guarantee profits?
No. No signal service can, and any service that claims to is not being honest with you. IVIntel provides statistically validated research and trade ideas — the probabilities favor the setup, they don't guarantee the outcome.
How much money should I start with?
That's a personal decision based on your own risk tolerance and financial situation — IVIntel doesn't recommend a specific starting amount. What it does provide is defined maximum risk on every trade idea, so whatever amount you start with, you'll know the worst case before you commit it.
Can I lose money?
Yes. Every options trade carries risk, and defined-risk doesn't mean risk-free — it means the maximum loss is capped and known in advance. You can still lose the full amount at risk on a given trade.
Why do you recommend defined-risk spreads?
Because they let you take a directional or volatility view with a hard ceiling on loss, instead of the open-ended exposure of buying or selling options outright. It's the same reason professional risk desks favor spreads over single-leg positions.
How should I size positions?
IVIntel's internal tracking uses 1–2% account risk per trade, sized off account value rather than fixed dollar amounts, with a cap of two positions per sector. Subscribers manage their own accounts and are free to size differently based on their own risk tolerance — this is IVIntel's internal discipline, not a rule imposed on you.
Subscription
Plans and billing
What's included in Tier 1?
The daily newsletter, signals, and market commentary — free, no credit card required. Strikes and expirations aren't included at Tier 1.
What's included in Tier 2?
Everything in Tier 1, plus exact strikes and expirations, the live dashboard, position updates, and intraday alerts.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Subscriptions can be canceled at any time, no lock-in.
What is Founding Member pricing?
The first 100 paying Tier 2 subscribers lock in the founding rate for as long as they stay subscribed. After the first 100, new Tier 2 subscribers pay the standard rate.
Will my price increase?
Not if you're a Founding Member — that rate is locked in. See Pricing for current numbers on the standard rate.
Brokers
Where you actually trade
Which brokers can I use?
Any broker that supports multi-leg options strategies — most major brokers do. IVIntel isn't tied to a specific platform.
Does IVIntel place trades?
No. IVIntel sends the signal — you place the trade yourself, through your own broker, on your own terms.
Do I need a Tradier account?
No. IVIntel works with any brokerage that supports the options strategies you choose to trade.
IVIntel uses professional market data APIs behind the scenes to improve the accuracy and reliability of the trade ideas we provide. That's part of how we deliver trustworthy recommendations — not a requirement for where you place your trades.
You're free to use the brokerage that best fits your needs.
IVIntel uses professional market data APIs behind the scenes to improve the accuracy and reliability of the trade ideas we provide. That's part of how we deliver trustworthy recommendations — not a requirement for where you place your trades.
You're free to use the brokerage that best fits your needs.
Do I need Level 2 options approval?
Most IVIntel strategies (credit and debit spreads) require Level 2 options approval at most brokers — a standard tier that's typically straightforward to obtain, well below the higher clearance needed for naked or uncovered options.
Education
The reasoning behind the rules
Why do you use IV Percentile?
IV Percentile (IVP) measures what fraction of the past year's trading days had lower implied volatility than today — a different calculation than the more commonly cited "IV Rank," which instead measures where today sits between the year's single highest and lowest reading. We use percentile because one freak volatility spike a year ago can't distort it the way it can distort a min-max IV Rank. It's what routes the strategy choice — high IVP (≥50) favors credit strategies that benefit from volatility contracting; low IVP (<50) favors debit strategies. It adapts the structure to current conditions instead of using the same trade type every day.
Why exit at 50% profit?
Capturing half the maximum available profit locks in gains before time decay and volatility swings can erode them, and it's a widely used, statistically grounded exit point for premium-selling strategies. It's IVIntel's internal tracking assumption, not a rule subscribers must follow.
Why stop at 40% max risk?
A −40% stop caps losses well before they can approach the maximum defined risk, while still giving the trade room to work through normal volatility. Like the profit target, it's an internal tracking assumption for consistent performance reporting — you set your own stop based on your own risk tolerance.
Why does market regime matter?
The same setup that works in a bullish market can fail in a bearish or high-volatility one. The market regime engine reads conditions like VIX level and SPY trend first, before any stock is even scored — in DEFENSIVE conditions, no new bullish signals go out, regardless of how good an individual setup looks.
What most financial companies won't tell you
Every one of these questions could hurt a sales pitch. We're answering them anyway.
This is the part most services skip. If a question makes IVIntel look less impressive, that's exactly why it belongs here.
Why does IVIntel publish losing trades?
Because hiding them would make the track record marketing instead of a track record. If a service only shows you wins, ask why.
Why doesn't IVIntel send trades every day?
Because most days, most of the 900-stock universe doesn't produce a setup worth your attention. A newsletter that always has something to say has stopped being selective.
Why doesn't IVIntel promise high returns?
Because nobody can promise you a return in the options market, and a service that does is telling you what you want to hear, not what's true.
Why doesn't IVIntel chase the latest hot stock?
Because a name trending on social media isn't the same as a name that has cleared a systematic scoring and validation process. IVIntel scores what the data supports, not what's popular that week.
Why does IVIntel reject most trade opportunities?
Because rejecting the marginal ones is what makes the ones that do get sent worth reading. The grading threshold exists to keep the bar high, even on days that means sending nothing at all.
Still have a question?
We typically respond within one business day.