The course was not designed to produce something spectacular. It is not one of those turn 100 dollars into 100K in 3 months. It is designed to grind out a monthly return, month after month. You are correct in that the very nature of the structure is meant to manage risk by keeping position sizes in check and using various hedging strategies to hedge out risk. I say that calling out a trade is meaningless because even if I call out a 20% winner, it does not reflect the rest of my portfolio, which could be underwater this week. It also opens me up to answering a bunch of questions about how and why I put on the trade, and so on. I am unwilling to be specific about the mechanics behind any trade that I would call out. So, therefore, saying I was long or short anything without a broker statement is just boasting, which is what everyone loves to do on these types of forums. It also begins to drift away from the topic of the thread. As far as chances for success, the best traders in the world have a 50% strike rate on average. 55/45 is about as good as you are going to get. That said, over time, 51% success after commissions is all you need to be comfortable over the course of your lifetime.