The HM5 Credit Spread System

This is the simplest expression of the entire five-indicator stack. No predicting tops. No catching bottoms. You wait for a stock to exhaust itself at an extreme, confirm the move with real order flow, then sell a defined-risk spread and let time and volatility do the work. Five indicators. Five steps. Set and forget.

What You Are Actually Doing

You sell a vertical credit spread in the direction the stock has stopped moving. When a name is deeply overbought and rolling over, you sell a call spread above it. When a name is deeply oversold and turning up, you sell a put spread below it. You collect a credit up front, immediately set a good-til-cancelled buy-to-close order that locks in a 25% profit, and walk away.

The Four Spread Scanners

The system runs on one engine — the validated TRIGGER confluence: a deep VMC cross from ±60, an RSI curl through 40/60, a MACD turn, and CVD pressure agreeing. Two scripts (BUY and SELL), each saved twice (Daily and Weekly), gives you four clean lists every morning.

Loading the Scanners

You do not build these by hand. The four scanners are shared in the Discord paid member section exactly like the indicators and every other HM5 scanner — as ThinkorSwim shared links. You click the link, ThinkorSwim opens it, you import it, and it is ready to run. No scripts to paste, nothing to type.

Install — From Discord to TOS

The 5-Step Check

A name fired on a scanner. Now you decide. Walk these five steps top to bottom. Every step must pass. The moment one fails, you skip the name and move to the next — no negotiating with a setup that is already broken.

Structuring the Spread

All five steps passed. Now you build the trade on the options chain. Here is exactly what a clean put-spread entry looks like — and the four numbers that have to be right before you click Send.

What To Skip — No Exceptions

Most losses are not bad entries — they are trades that should never have been taken. These three conditions are instant skips. You do not read the rest of the chart. You do not "see if it works out." You move to the next name.

The Spread Trader's Day

This is a set-and-forget income strategy, not a screen-staring one. The entire active workload is a focused window in the morning. After your orders are in with their GTC exits attached, the correct action for the rest of the day is to leave them alone. (Trading shares, the wheel, or active options too? The full hour-by-hour session schedule lives in Schedule & Rules.)

Welcome to the Trading Journey

Before you read another word, hear this: this is not financial advice. This handbook teaches you to read the Hou5eMoney Tradedesk across everything you might trade — long shares, short shares, intraday scalps, swing positions, and the full options stack from CSPs to vertical spreads. Five indicators speak the same color language. Their dashboards line up to tell you, in plain terms, what the market is doing right now and what kind of trade — shares or options — that environment calls for. What you do with that read is your decision and your risk.

The Tradedesk is not magic. It is a system. Whether you are buying 100 shares of a name on a BUY DIP arrow, shorting a breakdown candle, selling a cash-secured put, or buying a defined-risk debit spread — the read is the same. Direction comes from Trigger and Grid. Strength comes from Pulse. Confirmation comes from Flow. Sizing comes from Tide. Your job is to match the right vehicle to the read the colors are giving you, size positions you can afford to lose, and exit the moment the read flips.

How to Use This Playbook

This manual covers everything from the ground up, but you do not have to read it cover to cover before you place a trade. Pick the path that fits where you are today — both roads lead to the same place: the HM5 Spread System, the one repeatable trade you will run over and over.

The Hou5eMoney Creed

Read it once. Then read it before every session.

« Trade the plan. Let the colors guide you. Your only job is to obey them. »

Let's Go to Work

If you took a job, you'd learn how to do it. The Tradedesk is no different — you'll get out of this system exactly what you put into it. Show up, run the routine, follow the rules. Hou5eMoney does not predict the future. It does one thing well: it shows you, in plain colors, what the market is actually doing right now so you can stop guessing and start reacting — then pick the right options structure to express that read.

The Whole System in Three Sentences

1. Look at the TREND labels. If they say BULL on all five indicators, you sell puts, buy call spreads, or run the wheel long-side. If they say BEAR, you sell calls or buy put spreads. If anything says CHOP, you do nothing.
2. Check IVR on the Pulse dashboard. IVR above 50% = sell premium (credit spreads, CSPs, covered calls). IVR below 30% = buy premium (debit spreads, defined-risk directional plays). The number tells you the structure. The color tells you the direction.
3. Exit when the signal reverses. When the purple Exit Dot appears, the trend flips, or the CVD trend rolls against your position — close for a credit, roll to a later expiry, or cut the loss. Never let a defined-risk spread become an undefined-risk position by removing a leg.

That's the entire job.

The Multi-Timeframe System

Every timeframe has a different job. Stack them together and you stop guessing — you read it.

Paper Trade First. No Exceptions.

How to Enable Paper Trading in ThinkorSwim

The Five Indicators at a Glance

Five scripts. One color language. One trend brain. When their dashboards agree you have a confirmed setup — when they disagree, sit on your hands and let your existing spreads collect theta.

The Color Language

Every signal is encoded by color. All five indicators share the same palette. Learn the color once — read it everywhere.

How to Use Each Indicator

Each indicator answers one question. You read them in order — direction first, then confirmation, then size. Here is the job of each one and exactly what its signal looks like on the chart.

The 3-of-5 Rule — Before You Take Any Trade

No single indicator is a trade. The desk is built so the five confirm each other. Require at least three of the five to agree before you commit. More agreement = bigger size. Fewer than three = stand aside and let theta work on what you already hold.

The Full Stack in Action

Before we break down each indicator individually, here is the entire Hou5eMoney Tradedesk running live on a single ticker. Every panel below the price chart is one of the five indicators. When they all light up the same color, the trade picks itself.

SNIPE — fastest EMAs, tightest cooldown

SCALP — balanced default

SWING — slowest EMAs, widest cooldown

The same NOW 4h chart under all three TRIGGER speed settings. Notice how the dashboard, entry arrows, and trend state shift: SNIPE fires the most signals (fast EMAs, 3-bar cooldown), SWING the fewest (slow EMAs, 12-bar cooldown), SCALP sits between. Set PULSE to the same speed as TRIGGER so their trend states agree.

Trigger — Your Entry Clock

Trigger is the only indicator that says "take the trade." For options traders, Trigger replaces the need to guess entry timing. When an arrow fires, that is your reference bar — your strike selection anchor, your delta decision, your debit or credit entry point. Never enter a spread without an arrow or an Exit Dot signal. A colored candle alone is noise.

Pulse — Your Structure Selector

Trigger says when. Pulse says how hard and what structure. The six Pulse pills are your options trade blueprint. Read them before you pick a single strike.

Flow — The Clarity Engine

Flow estimates order flow — who appears to be winning the volume battle inside each candle. It uses price position within each bar's range as a proxy for buying and selling pressure, then tracks it cumulatively as CVD. This is a directional pressure gauge, not an exact audit — treat it as a confidence tool, not a certainty. For options traders, Flow is your directional reality check. It prevents you from entering a credit spread into a trap reversal or a debit spread into exhausted momentum. Before every spread entry, confirm Flow agrees with your direction.

Grid — The Structure Backbone

Grid draws three nested channels that wrap price action. For options traders, Grid answers the question: "Is the trend healthy enough to sell premium against, or is it breaking down?" The GRID action gate on the Trigger dashboard tells you in one word.

Tide — The Size Multiplier

Tide answers: "Is institutional money actually showing up this week, or is this a thin tape I should size down on?" For options traders, Tide is your position sizing dial. A great Trigger signal in a thin-volume week is a half-size trade. The same signal in a TREND BULL SURGE week (unusual volume, buyers leading) is a full-size trade or more.

Shares Trading with the Indicator Stack

Options are leverage. They are not the only way to trade what the Tradedesk shows you. Before you sell a single put or buy a single call, understand this: the five-indicator stack was built to read price first. Every signal you will use to enter a credit spread or buy a debit spread is the exact same signal that tells a shares trader when to go long, when to short, when to scale in, and when to step out. Stocks. ETFs. Day trades. Swing positions. The colors do not change.

This section is for the trader who wants to express the read with shares — whether you cannot trade options yet, do not want to manage expiries, run a smaller account, or simply prefer the cleaner P&L of a stock position. Same Tradedesk. Same arrows. Same Exit Dots. Different vehicle.

The Four Shares Plays

Everything you do with shares boils down to four plays. The Tradedesk picks the right one for the current tape.

How Each Indicator Drives a Shares Trade

The five-indicator stack does not change when you swap options for shares. What changes is the action it asks you to take.

Going Long — Buying Shares with the Stack

Long shares is the simplest expression of a bull read. You buy. You hold while the colors stay green. You sell when they don't. There is no expiry working against you, no IV to track, no Greeks to manage — just price, the EMA stack, and the discipline to exit when the Tradedesk tells you the party is over.

The Long Shares Entry Checklist

Run this top to bottom before every share purchase. If any line is no, you do not enter.

Position Sizing for Shares

Same Tide-driven dial as spreads, applied to share count instead of contracts.

How to Manage a Long Shares Position

Entry is one decision. The next ten are management. Here is the rule set.

Long Shares vs. CSP or Bull Put Spread — Which Vehicle?

Same bullish read, three ways to express it. Use this matrix to decide.

Going Short — Shorting Shares with the Stack

Shorting is the mirror image of going long. You borrow shares from your broker, sell them at the current price, and aim to buy them back lower. Your profit is the difference. Your risk is the difference too — if the stock rises against you, your loss is theoretically unlimited until you buy to cover. For this reason, short positions on this desk are always paired with a hard stop above the entry candle's high, and they are sized smaller than equivalent long positions.

The Short Shares Entry Checklist

The Three Highest-Probability Short Setups

Position Sizing for Short Shares

Shorts size down relative to longs. The asymmetric risk (theoretically unlimited upside on the stock = unlimited loss on the short) demands smaller positions.

Managing a Short Position

Day Trading vs. Swing Trading — Same Stack, Different Clocks

The Hou5eMoney stack runs on every timeframe — from the 1-minute up to the weekly. Which timeframe you trade decides what kind of trader you are. Pick one. Master it. Then add a second.

The Day Trader's Setup

Day traders open and close positions in the same session. No overnight risk. No gap exposure. You are paid for execution, not patience.

Day Trader's Rules

1. One timeframe for entries. Pick 1H or 15m. Don't bounce between them mid-trade.
2. Stops are tight and mechanical. Below the entry candle low (longs) or above the entry high (shorts). No "give it room."
3. First Exit Dot of the session closes the trade. No exceptions.
4. Max three trades per session. If you're 0 for 3, you're done. The market is not paying you today.
5. All positions flat by 15 minutes before the close. No "I'll see how it closes" — that's a swing trade you didn't plan for.

The Swing Trader's Setup

Swing traders hold positions for days to weeks. You are paid for patience, not execution speed. The same Tradedesk stack runs on slower timeframes.

Swing Trader's Rules

1. Daily close confirms — not intraday. Wait for the daily candle to close before acting on a daily arrow. Intraday spikes lie.
2. Stops are wider — give it ATR room. Default: 1.5x daily ATR below entry for longs. Above for shorts.
3. Hold through noise. A 15-minute pullback does not invalidate a daily signal. If GRID is HOLDING BULL, you hold.
4. Daily Exit Dot or GRID flip = exit on the close. Don't panic out intraday on a daily signal that hasn't closed yet.
5. Re-evaluate every weekend. Check Weekly Tide, Daily GRID, and your open positions every Sunday. Plan, don't react.

Day Trader vs. Swing Trader — Which Are You?

Choosing the Vehicle — Shares, Spreads, or the Wheel

The Tradedesk signal does one thing: it tells you what the market is doing. The vehicle you pick — long shares, short shares, CSP, covered call, credit spread, debit spread — is a separate decision that depends on three things: your account size, your IVR environment, and your time horizon.

The Decision Tree

The Master Vehicle Matrix

What's Next

That covers the shares side of the Tradedesk. From here, the playbook moves into the options stack — what options are, how they work, and how the same five-indicator signals map to defined-risk structures that can pay you premium, leverage your read, or hedge a shares position. Read on. The colors are about to do more work than just buy and sell shares.

Options: The Language

You don't need to be an options mathematician. You need to know what each structure does, when the Tradedesk calls for it, and how to enter and exit cleanly. Here is everything you need — nothing more.

The Four Building Blocks

Naked Positions vs. Spreads — Know the Difference

The word "naked" gets used two ways in options. Both matter. Both can hurt you if you mix them up.

When to Use a Naked Long vs. a Debit Spread

Both make money on the same directional read. Different trade-offs.

The Three Greeks You Actually Use

Advanced Structures — Know These, But Don't Chase Them

These structures exist. You will hear about them. Here is what they are and why the Tradedesk does not prioritize them for most traders.

Close Early. Don't Wait for Expiry.

This is the single most important habit separating profitable options traders from blown-up accounts. Whether you are running credit spreads, debit spreads, CSPs, covered calls, or a naked long call you bought on a breakout — you do not hold to expiry. You close at a planned profit target. Read the rest of this page twice. Tape it to your monitor.

Why You Close Early — The Math

It feels good to "win the whole credit" or "let the spread expire worthless." It is also the single fastest way to give back a winning trade. Here's why.

The Profit-Take Matrix — Every Structure, Every Target

Place these closing orders the moment you fill the opening trade. "Set it, walk away, let it work."

How to Place a Closing Order in ThinkorSwim

Do this immediately after every opening fill. It takes 30 seconds. It is the single highest-EV habit in options trading.

When to Close Before Hitting Your Profit Target

The 25–50% rule is the default. But the Tradedesk overrides it on three signals.

Your Trading Platform — Why ThinkorSwim

Every options trade in this system is placed through ThinkorSwim (TOS) by Schwab — the most powerful retail options platform available, and the one the entire Hou5eMoney Tradedesk was built and tested on. Before you look at a single order ticket, you need to know why we use it and what it gives you that other platforms do not.

Why ThinkorSwim for Options

The Four Parts of TOS You Actually Use

The Two Things TOS Cannot Do For You

Reading ThinkorSwim — The Options Chain

Every options trade starts here. When you type a ticker and click the Trade tab in ThinkorSwim, you see the options chain — a grid of every available strike and expiry. This page decodes every column so nothing surprises you when it counts.

Reading ThinkorSwim — The Order Ticket

After you right-click a strike and select Sell → Vertical, ThinkorSwim opens the Order Confirmation Dialog. This is your last checkpoint before anything is real. Read every row. If anything looks wrong — wrong ticker, wrong strike, only one leg — hit Delete and start over. Here is what every line means.

The Four Numbers Every Beginner Must Know

Before you place any options trade you must be able to answer these four questions. Pull them from the order ticket every time.

The Wheel Strategy

The Wheel is the most mechanical, Tradedesk-friendly options strategy that exists. It is a three-stage cycle that generates premium income from stocks you are already bullish on — using the same trend signals you already read every day. The Tradedesk was built for this.

Reading the Tradedesk for the Wheel

Wheel Strike Selection Using IVR + EXP

The Wheel — Chart Read + Order Setup

Here is what a wheel candidate looks like inside ThinkorSwim with the Tradedesk running. You are looking at Ford (F) — a low-priced stock with liquid options, a clear daily bull trend, and IVR near 50%. The 4H is still in chop, but the daily structure gives you the direction. You are waiting for the 4H to confirm before opening the CSP.

When the Signal Fires — How to Set Up the CSP in TOS

The Wheel — Stage 3: Selling a Covered Call

Tradedesk setup: Assigned on the CSP at $112 · Now own 100 shares · GRID: HOLDING BULL · TREND BULL · IVR > 45% · Sell call above your cost basis

Credit Spreads

A credit spread is a wheel-style premium collection trade with defined maximum loss. You sell one option and buy a cheaper one further OTM to cap your risk. You collect a net credit. You keep that credit if the stock stays on the right side of your short strike at expiry. This is the primary trade structure of the Tradedesk options system.

Anatomy of a Bull Put Spread

Reading the Tradedesk for Credit Spreads

Strike Selection — The 1× EXP Rule

Your short strike must be at least 1× EXP away from current price. The EXP pill on Pulse gives you the market's own estimate of the expected move. Selling inside EXP = selling in the expected zone = lower probability. Selling outside EXP = selling beyond the expected move = higher probability of expiring worthless.

Bull Put Spread — Chart Read + Order Setup

Here is what an A+ credit spread setup looks like. SOXL shows all five indicators aligned bullish, IVR at 91% (historically expensive premium), and Tide showing an TREND BULL SURGE. This is the highest-conviction environment for selling a bull put spread.

How to Set Up the Bull Put Spread in TOS

Debit Spreads

When IVR is low, buying options outright is cheap — but you pay theta every day. A debit spread solves this. You buy an ATM or slightly OTM option for direction, and sell a further OTM option to offset the cost and reduce theta drag. You pay a net debit. You profit when price moves to your long strike. Maximum loss is the premium paid. Maximum gain is the spread width minus the debit.

Anatomy of a Bull Call Spread

Reading the Tradedesk for Debit Spreads

Debit vs. Credit — The IVR Decision Tree

Bull Call Spread — ThinkorSwim Setup

Tradedesk setup: TREND BULL · IVR 34% (cheap premium → buy it) · SQZ FIRED in bull regime · BREAKOUT arrow · FLOW: ACCEL UP (yellow bars) · PULSE STRENGTH > +60

Bear Call Spread — Chart Read + Order Setup

Here is the mirror of the bull put spread. QQQ is in a full bear regime across all timeframes — magenta candles, EMA stack inverted, FLOW bear, Tide showing TREND BEAR (VOL ≥100%). IVR at 68% means premium is elevated and worth selling. This is the environment for a bear call spread.

How to Set Up the Bear Call Spread in TOS

HM5 Scanners — Options Edition

The scanners are your hunters. They surface candidates for spreads and wheel trades before you open a chart. A scanner result means: look here. The indicators confirm: act here. Never confuse those two things.

Reading the Tradedesk Together

The whole point of running five indicators is confluence. A real spread trade is one where all five agree at the same bar. Walk down your screen before every entry:

1. Trigger — Direction. Arrow fired? Which signal type? Is speed/mode correct for your timeframe?
2. Pulse — Structure. IVR above or below 50%? STRENGTH past ±50? SQZ state?
3. Flow — Truth. BIAS on your side? No opposite divergence dot in the last 2 bars?
4. Grid — Structure. GRID BUY or HOLDING BULL? Not WAIT or EXIT?
5. Tide — Size. WK% above 100%? a green or yellow VOL pill on your side?

If all five answers are yes, take it. If two or more are no, you don't have a spread — you have a hope trade.

The A+ Options Setups

Complete Daily Schedule — Options Edition

The market opens at 7:30 AM MT (9:30 AM ET) and closes at 2:00 PM MT (4:00 PM ET). Not all hours are equal for options traders. This schedule tells you exactly what structure to run, when to enter premium, and when to keep your hands in your pockets.

Day-by-Day Personality

When to Use Each Structure

Skip This Spread Unless...

If you can't check off at least four of these boxes, the spread isn't A+ — pass. The premium will still be there tomorrow.

Audio Alerts Mapped to Options Actions

Every indicator fires audio alerts on bar close. Here is what each alert means for your options workflow. Right-click any indicator, scroll to Alerts, and toggle on what you want.

Beginner Rules — Options Edition

Final Thought

Glossary Snapshot

Every abbreviation that appears on any Hou5eMoney dashboard or options trade, in one place.

Learn the Language. Then Trade It.

For deeper market structure, technical analysis, and options strategy, ask about the Hou5eMoney Trading Library and our live trading channels where every setup in this manual is called in real time.

Disclaimer

1. No Investment Advice; Educational Use Only. This handbook, the Hou5eMoney indicators, scripts, charts, signals, and any related materials are provided for general educational and informational purposes only. Nothing constitutes investment, financial, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Consult a licensed professional before making any trading or investment decision.
2. Risk of Loss; No Guarantee of Results. Options trading involves substantial risk, including the potential loss of all capital. Defined-risk spreads cap your maximum loss to the spread width — they do not eliminate the risk of losing 100% of capital committed. Past performance, hypothetical results, and any signals produced by these materials are not indicative of future results. Trade only with capital you can afford to lose entirely.
3. Options-Specific Risk. Options are complex instruments that expire. A spread that expires worthless results in total loss of premium paid (debit) or maximum spread-width loss (credit). Early assignment, pin risk, and liquidity risk are real and can affect even defined-risk positions.
4. No Warranties. The materials are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or uninterrupted operation.
5. Limitation of Liability. In no event shall Hou5eMoney be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including lost profits or loss of capital, arising from use of or inability to use these materials.
6. Intellectual Property. All materials — including the Hou5eMoney name, logos, indicator code, color systems, and this handbook — are the exclusive property of Hou5eMoney and protected by copyright, trademark, and applicable laws. No portion may be reproduced, distributed, sublicensed, reverse-engineered, or used to train any AI or derivative model without prior written consent.
7. Governing Law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA.

— TRADING & OPTIONS EDITION —

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