FAQ
What is Monument Traders Alliance?
Our mission at Monument Traders Alliance is to change the way you approach speculation by giving you the tools, market intelligence and real-time, actionable advice to send your daily profit-making potential into the stratosphere.
Like most investors, you’ve probably safely tucked away 90% to 95% of your money – earning a modest return that’s hopefully outperforming the S&P 500 – while also outpacing inflation. That’s smart, that’s safe, that’s secure – but it’s also boring.
Here at Monument Traders Alliance, we’ll help you put the remaining 5% to 10% of your wealth to work – speculating intelligently.
Let’s be crystal clear – this isn’t reckless trading. Far from it. Rather, as a subscriber of Monument Traders Alliance, you’ll receive calculated, precise strategy speculations that have proved successful and enormously profitable for decades.
A big part of smart speculation means being properly positioned ahead of time for a future market move. There’s no point hearing about all the “big winners” on CNBC after they’ve already run up. We want to be the ones buying ahead of the hoopla surrounding a newsworthy move or event. If your trade is executed properly – and your speculation hits – you’ll be the one cashing in when other traders are just hearing about the payoff.
Of course, not every speculation will pan out. But the ones that do hit will give you a toe-curling rush of adrenalin unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. It’s this exhilaration that makes life worth living, and you’ll be in position to feel it on a daily basis – all by being part of Monument Traders Alliance.
What is Trade of the Day?
Trade of the Day is a free, daily e-letter that anyone can sign up for to receive trading ideas, market analysis and more. There’s also a weekly Trade of the Day recap on Sunday.
Who is Bryan Bottarelli?
Graduating with a business degree from the highly rated Indiana University Kelley School of Business, Bryan got his first job out of college trading stock options on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). There he was mentored by one of the country’s top floor traders in the heart of the technology boom from 1999 to 2000 – trading in the crowded and lively Apple computer pit. Standing alongside the pit’s top Apple trader – and executing his trades in real time – is where Bryan learned to identify and implement some of his most powerful trading secrets.
Bryan eventually launched his own independent trading advisory service called Bottarelli Research. From February of 2006 to December of 2018, Bryan gave his precise trading instructions to an elite group of high-level traders – most of whom joined him on day one and were clients ever since. He founded Monument Traders Alliance in 2019 with the plan to restore the lost art of smart speculation.
Who is Karim Rahemtulla?
Karim Rahemtulla is a multilingual best-selling author. His best-selling book, Where in the World Should I Invest: An Insider’s Guide to Making Money Around the Globe, teaches practical strategies for investing in more than 20 countries and capital markets around the world.
Through his Automatic Trading Millionaire service, Karim shows subscribers how to safely and reliably generate thousands in extra income each month by buying and selling exchange-traded options.
In 2019 Karim joined Bryan as the Head Fundamental Tactician for Monument Traders Alliance. He is also a contributor to Wealthy Retirement, The Oxford Club’s free e-letter providing retirement-focused investors with solutions for growing and preserving their wealth. Karim is a recognized derivatives expert with more than 30 years of investment industry experience.
What is The War Room?
The War Room is a live chat room for Monument Traders Alliance subscribers. It’s where Bryan Bottarelli and Karim Rahemtulla give paid subscribers daily trade advice in real time. The Monument Traders Alliance community can interact directly here, sharing trades, stories and more.
Which browsers is The War Room compatible with?
Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Webkit.
How do I log in to The War Room?
Visit www.monumenttradersalliance.com and click the “ENTER THE WAR ROOM” button at the top-right of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear where you can enter your log in information. Click enter and you will enter The War Room. When The War Room is closed, you will instead be directed to the dashboard upon logging in.
How do I link a chart in The War Room?
To link a chart in The War Room, put a hashtag before a stock ticker symbol. Example: #NVDA. After your message is posted, anybody who clicks on the ticker symbol will have a chart populate in their “Full Chat” tab.
Are charts in The War Room live or snap view?
Charts in The War Room are live! Sometimes the information presented in the charts is slightly delayed.
How do I chat in The War Room?
Simply click the rectangular box under where other users are chatting. Enter your text and then hit the enter button to send it.
How do I reply to messages in The War Room?
To reply to a message, simply click the “Reply” button at the bottom left of a user’s message. A new window will pop up where you can add a message. Click the Enter button to send.
My messages aren’t appearing in The War Room. What do I do?
Try doing a hard refresh of your page by pressing Ctrl + F5. If that doesn’t work, please make sure you are using one of the browsers that supports The War Room.
What are all of these tabs in The War Room, and what do they do?
The War Room portal contains the following tabs: Full Chat, Trades, Tacticians, Notifications, Moderator and Search. Here’s a quick rundown of each one.
Full Chat: This displays every single post. This is where all of our trading discussions take place.
Trades: This tab displays only the trades posted by a tactician (which is either me or Karim Rahemtulla). There’s also an open positions tab where you can see all current open trades in The War Room.
Tacticians: This tab filters the chat to display comments made only by me and Karim.
Notifications: This tab is specific only to your posts. For instance, if you posted a comment and members have replied to your comment you can see that in this tab. It filters out everything except your specific conversations.
Moderator: This tab is for technical questions and questions about setting up your user profile, posting a comment, etc. Please use this tab for questions like these so the Full Chat discussion can focus on trading.
It’s important to know the moderator is your personal “go between” for trading questions. For instance, if you want a tactician to comment on a trade idea you have, you must first post your question to the moderator, who will then pose the question to the Full Chat for discussion. Per government regulations, tacticians cannot respond to personal questions without first going through The War Room moderator.
Search: This allows you to search the last five days of Full Chat discussions for a topic or thread you’d like to reference.
Who is the moderator?
The moderator is your direct link to Bryan Bottarelli and Karim Rahemtulla. If you have any questions related to The War Room, please feel free to message the moderator in the Moderator tab. If you want to relay a question to any of the tacticians, you can also add that to the Moderator tab, and the moderator will filter questions to the tacticians. Not all questions will be answered, and the tacticians cannot respond to any user directly, aside from the moderator or the MTA Research Team.
What is the MTA Research Team?
The MTA Research Team is the brain behind managing the portfolios of the tacticians and writing select reports. Members from the team will be in The War Room to make sure trades are recorded properly.
Why won’t Bryan or Karim answer my messages in The War Room?
Per SEC regulations, Bryan and Karim can never respond to any user directly. Please send your questions for them to the moderator, who will filter them and prompt Bryan and Karim for responses.
What is the Headquarters page, and how do I access it?
After logging in to the website, you will be directed to The War Room. In The War Room, click the Headquarters button. There you can read the chat rules and troubleshooting tips, see weekly War Room recaps, and access your premium reports.
What is the My Profile section?
The My Profile section of The War Room is a place where you can enter information about yourself that other subscribers will be able to see. This is a great place to record your achievements and let other War Room members know you are an experienced trader.
How do I change my username in The War Room?
Choose “Display name publicly as” from the My Profile page. This will make your screen name show up instead of your username.
Is there an app for The War Room?
Right now, the Monument Traders Alliance web team is working on making an app for The War Room, and it will be ready at some point in 2019.
How often are trades made in The War Room?
The tacticians will usually make one trade a day, but there will sometimes be more than one trade a day. On average, there are one to three trades each day.
What are alerts, and how often will I receive them?
Alerts are messages that tell subscribers about a trade going on in The War Room. There will usually be an alert made once a day, but more than one alert could go out in a single day depending on the amount of trades made in that day.
How do I access my premium reports?
All premium reports can be accessed through the Headquarters under the “War Room Staging Area” tab.
Where can I learn more about options?
For more information on weekly options trades, please refer to these additional references:
- Learn More About Weekly Options
http://www.cboe.com/micro/weeklys/introduction.aspx
- Introduction to Weekly Options
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/optioninvestor/11/intro-weekly-options.asp
- Options Industry Council Weekly Options FAQ
http://www.optionseducation.org/tools/faq/weekly_options.html
Should I use a protective sell stop?
Protective sell stops are intended for traders who want to strictly limit risk. Other traders who are more speculative in nature typically don’t place stops at all. Knowing that everyone’s risk profiles differ, we attempt to maximize our trading guidance for the entire spectrum of traders. For example, if we still like a particular position even after a stop is triggered, we’ll continue to follow and update the play. In cases like this, you can either hold along with us or adhere to the original sell stop. It all depends on the type of trader you are.
No matter whether you adhere to the stops or not, we’ll always tell you when we’re officially closing a trade. So the decision to strictly adhere to the sell stop is yours to make.
How is risk properly managed?
To limit risk, we will typically provide suggested stop limits or hedges. The decision to strictly follow, loosely follow or not to follow these protective stops is entirely up to you.
What is a sniper sell?
A “sniper sell” is a term we coined to represent our automatic, no-questions-asked sell price. For example, we may recommend an option for $2.00 and set a sniper sell at $4.00. In this example, let’s say that around lunchtime news is released that pushes the option up to $4.00, but you don’t see an alert advising you to sell. In this case, do not wait. With the sniper sell already in place, you know to take your profits and sell. Overall, this move is a safeguard that works in your favor to maximize your profits on any quick moves.
What is an earnings strangle?
This is an options trading strategy used just prior to a company reporting earnings. A balanced position of calls and puts is established on the same underlying asset and maturity (expiration date) but with different strike prices. In simple terms, getting positioned on both sides of a trade is called a strangle. Executing this maneuver ahead of an earnings announcement is known as an earnings strangle.
Paying $0.10 to $0.15 above entry price.
While we don’t advocate chasing prices, we also don’t want you to miss out on a profitable trade. So as a general rule, feel free to pay $0.10 to $0.15 above our listed buy price, just to ensure that you’ll be able to enter the trade. That way, you don’t allow a dime to prevent you from participating in a strong gain. If prices are higher than the $0.10 to $0.15 buffer zone, then you have to let it go. You missed it.
But don’t worry, there will be plenty of other profitable trades coming your way soon.
How are War Room entry and exit prices recorded?
When an entry trade is posted: Whenever a new trade is initiated in The War Room, we will have a 15-minute “entry window” for subscribers to enter the trade. After this 15-minute entry window has lapsed, we will then choose an entry price to record in our track record that represents (to the best of our knowledge) the average entry price of our subscribers.
For instance, say we recommend buying a particular option “at or under $1.50 per contract.” Once this new trade is posted, some contracts get filled for $1.45, some for $1.43, some for $1.50 and others for $1.40. In this case, we would most likely record an entry price of $1.45, which is the best median representation of everyone’s entry price. Will your entry price be exactly what’s recorded as our entry price? Most likely not. This is because our entry methodology aims to reflect the average entry price of The War Room subscribers.
When an exit trade is posted: Similar to the entry price methodology, whenever we recommend to sell a position in The War Room, we will have a 15-minute “exit window” for subscribers to exit the trade. After this 15-minute exit window has lapsed, we will choose an exit price to record our track record that represents (to the best of our knowledge) the average exit price of our subscribers.
For instance, using the $1.45 entry price from above – say we now recommend selling this option “at or above $2 per contract.” Once this new exit trade is posted, contracts get filled for $2, $1.98, $2.05, and $2.10. In this case, we would most likely record an exit price of $2.05, which is the best median representation of everyone’s exit price.
I missed that trade! What now?
We don’t expect you to make every trade. In fact, it’s unrealistic to think you’ll get in on every single play. The market never waits around for you to board the train.
Sometimes, news hits and a trade shoots up faster than we expected. Other times, a large majority of traders may pile in – thus moving the needle for the entry requirements above our posted limit. These things happen – it’s just a part of trading. Avoid the urge to chase the one that got away and instead focus on being locked and loaded for the next one that comes your way.
What is a “landmine?”
In the trading world, you will step on a “landmine,” which is a term used to describe a completely unforeseen event that moves a particular trade against you. It could literally be hundreds of things – all of which are utterly unpredictable. So when you do happen to step on a landmine, chalk it up as an unlucky loss and move on. You did nothing wrong – the news flow just went against you that day. Don’t let it ruin your speculative spirit!
What brokerage should I use?
All you really need is a broker that can execute your trades quickly. Any reputable discount broker with ultra-fast option execution and a low commission rate will suffice.
How many trades are recommended each day or week?
The frequency of trades is always dictated by market conditions and the upcoming earnings schedule. Some weeks could have 20 trades – other weeks (such as periods of summer doldrums and market holidays) could see few or no trades. We will never force a trade just to “put something out.” It’ll always be based on profit potential – and if there is none available – our best advice is to “sit on hands,” or SOH for short.
How do I follow your options recommendations? Is your trade a weekly or monthly options series?
We trade both monthly and weekly options. The key difference in recognizing them is found in the “D” line of our posted recommendation.
A monthly option will always expire on the third Friday of the month. A standard February 2019 monthly option will have the symbol that ends with “D15,” which represents the expiration day of Friday, February 15.
A weekly options contract will expire on a different Friday expiration in February. An expiration for a weekly options contract on Friday, February 8, will be labeled as “D8.”
Using the month of February as an example, a monthly options trade would be displayed as Trade: Buy the MSFT February $110 calls (O:MSFT 19B110.00D15) for the best prices available, good for the day.
A weekly options trade would be displayed as Trade: Buy the MSFT February $110 calls (O:MSFT 19B110.00D22) for the best prices available, good for the day.
How much money should be invested in each trade?
Due to SEC regulations, we cannot provide personal advice. Making decisions on investment and capital amounts is solely up to you. After all, nobody knows your risk profile better than you. What we can tell you, however, is to start small and grow comfortable with our trading style. As your account grows, you can increase your allocation. We highly recommended “paper trading” without using real money to start so you can track your trading performance before risking real capital.
What level trading account is needed to execute trades?
We mostly buy and sell call or put options, and a Level 2 brokerage account meets the trading requirements.
What is the minimum starting capital to trade?
We do not impose any minimums. However, most online brokerages require a minimum deposit of $500. Margin accounts typically require a minimum deposit of $2,000 and impose requirements.
Is auto-trading available?
The War Room does not engage in auto-trading, and we prefer you trade in your own account. Why? Because we believe that learning the art of proper speculation is a lifelong wealth-building skill – one you cannot hone by having someone else do it for you. However, you may choose to auto-trade at your sole discretion. We can’t prevent it. We just don’t believe it’s that beneficial.