The Outlier Trading Podcast Andrew Mack on How to Build an Options Trading Strategy | The Outlier Podcast
Mar 18, 2026
Andrew Mack, options trader and author known for volatility modeling, shares his pragmatic playbook. He explains when to favor long volatility versus single-stock momentum. He digs into choosing tenors like zero-DTE, simple volatility models, avoiding overfitting Greeks, and matching strategies to your psychology. Practical tooltips on R vs Python, monitoring tenors, and tracking rolling performance round out the conversation.
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Don't Apply Pareto Until You Know The Field
- Early learning requires broad foundational work before Pareto prioritization becomes possible.
- Andrew Mack warns you must build background knowledge in volatility and options before cutting to the '20% that yields 80%'.
Seek Disagreement To Avoid Echo Chambers
- Do actively seek disagreement and learn to articulate the counter-arguments to avoid echo chambers and overconfidence.
- Andrew Mack recommends keeping a beginner's mind and being able to present opposing views as in law school training.
Go Deep On One Strategy First
- Do pick one strategy and go deep so you become 'deadly' at it rather than being mediocre across several.
- Andrew Mack explains mastery of one skill often transfers across instruments (options, futures, crypto) expanding your opportunities.
