Zero Days To Expiration
Zero Days To Expiration
Ernie Varitimos
Getting Closer to the Money Gonna Cost You
53 minutes Posted May 20, 2026 at 12:41 pm.
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Show notes

You think moving your butterfly closer to the money gives you a better shot — but what if it's actually bleeding your account dry?

In this episode, Coach Ernie breaks down the math behind why paying less for a better risk-to-reward is the real edge in 0-DTE trading. He walks through how to spot convexity in butterfly pricing — that moment when the cost drops off a cliff between strikes — and why chasing that drop instead of chasing proximity to the money is what separates consistent traders from the ones grinding sideways.

What you'll learn:

  • The 10% debit rule: why your butterfly should never cost more than 10% of the width — and why that's a ceiling, not a target
  • How to read the price curve between strikes and find the "kink" where convexity lives
  • Why a cheaper fly further out can pay the same or more than an expensive one closer in — for 40% less capital
  • The expected move trap: why trading inside the expected move limits your upside while exposing you to the same losses
  • Real examples from live 0-DTE SPX chains showing exactly how Coach filters and selects positions
  • How this approach produces a Sharpe ratio of 4 with max drawdown under 6% and a 50/50 win rate

Coach also shares takeaways from his recent keynote at TraderFest, hosted by Tradier and sponsored by Cboe, where he presented this exact framework to a room full of professional traders.


Ready to see how this works in real time? Join Coach Ernie's live trade room at flyonthewall.ai — watch every trade, every receipt, every decision as it happens. Start with a no-commitment 4-week trial, cancel anytime week by week. Your first look at how convexity trading actually works is just one click away.