How we test YouTube option strategies

Minute-by-minute (1-minute) exchange price data for NSE and BSE index options, futures and the indices themselves, from 2017 onwards. SENSEX options start in May 2024 and some strategies start later where data for that contract type begins.

Days with missing or broken exchange data are skipped and listed rather than filled in with guesses.

A signal formed on a candle's close is filled at the next minute's open. That is what a person or a bot reacting to the close could realistically get.

The first entry we allow is 09:18 (the opening minutes are too thin to fill reliably); the last new entry is 15:25.

Stops and targets are checked against each minute's high and low. If both could have hit in the same minute, we assume the stop hit first.

From 3 August 2026 the F&O session closes at 15:40 instead of 15:30; time-of-day rules near the close are shifted where the video's intent clearly depends on the closing time.

Every order pays real retail broker charges plus every statutory cost: STT (at the rate in force on that date), exchange transaction charges, SEBI fee, stamp duty and GST.

Slippage: by default we take 0.25% of the price off each fill (you pay a little more when buying, get a little less when selling). Where a strategy is very sensitive to it, the page says so.

Each trade uses the lot size the exchange set for that date, not today's lot. Results are per lot unless the video says otherwise.

Margin for selling strategies is the exchange's own SPAN margin plus exposure margin for that date, so return-on-capital figures use what a broker would actually have blocked.

We code the rules the video gives — entry, exit, strikes, stops, targets, days — and nothing else. No tuning, no extra filters, no better stop picked with hindsight.

Where the video leaves a gap (a strike not named, a time not given), we pick the most natural reading and write that assumption on the result page.

We publish only the as-taught result. If a small change happened to work better in our data, we don't advertise it — that would just be curve-fitting.

Reality Score (0–100) = claim match (up to 40: matches 40, partly 25, fails after costs 8, not reproduced 0) + after-cost profit (up to 30: zero if it loses; more when total profit is large versus the worst drawdown) + steadiness (up to 30: share of profitable years, plus 5 if the latest year made money).

Verdicts: Holds up (claim matches), Half true (some of it holds), Busted by costs (the edge disappears once real charges are paid), Not reproduced (we couldn't get the claimed result even before costs).

A backtest is not live trading. Real fills can be worse in fast markets, rules can be misread, and the future can differ from the past.

Claims in videos are paraphrased; watch the video for the creator's full explanation and context.

We test option strategies only with the information shown publicly. Paid add-ons or private rules are outside what we can check.

Creators and viewers can ask for a review: write to [email protected] with the page link and what you believe is wrong (a misread rule, a better reading of a gap). We re-run the test and update the page, noting the change.