0DTE options

0DTE options are contracts that expire on the day you trade them. All of their value is time value, and that time runs out by the closing bell.

Illustration: 0DTE options

In depth

Buy a call that expires today and you own a bet with a deadline of a few hours. There is no rolling and no waiting for tomorrow. Theta, the daily time decay, is charged over one session instead of spread across weeks. A contract loses value while the stock sits still.

That changes what a mistake costs. Being right about direction and early about timing usually loses money here. The same call with two weeks left would survive. So many day traders put a time limit on the trade. If the move has not started within a few candles, they are out.

Why it matters

Same-day contracts punish waiting. A stock that drifts sideways for twenty minutes has done nothing wrong, and your option has still bled. Traders who hold hoping to get back to flat watch the premium reach zero at 4pm. The clock takes the decision away if you do not.

How TraderLog tracks this

TraderLog keeps no options fields per trade. The strike and expiry go in the day's journal entry, or on a tag you make. What it does measure is hold time. Results grouped by how long you held show whether these trades die of time or of direction.

Frequently asked questions

Zero days to expiry. The contract expires at the end of today's session, so no time is left after the close.

They move faster and expire worthless more often. No time is left for a wrong entry to recover.

Keep your 0DTE options trades on the record in TraderLog

Trades import from Schwab and IBKR on their own, every day lands on a calendar with its P&L, and the day's entry sits beside it. Replay any trade on a TradingView chart. Free for 14 days, no card.

Every trading morning at 8:40 ET our model draws the SPY, QQQ and IWM zones it expects to matter, on a TradingView chart, before the open. Where price reaches one, it has turned 74 percent of the time. Free, no account. See today's map