Options traders in San Diego, at a table that's already booked

Options attracts more noise than almost anything else you can trade. Every platform has someone selling a strategy, every feed has someone posting only their winners, and it becomes very hard to find a plain conversation with somebody who is actually doing it.

That's most of what these tables are for. Five to ten people, a booked table, and a conversation about how people are actually trading — what's working, what stopped working, how they size, what they've had to give up on.

Nobody is going to sell you a course, because that's the one hard rule, and the intake form asks directly whether you're selling anything trading-related. Nobody is going to tell you what to buy either — that's rule two, and it isn't negotiable.

Tables are tagged by style as well as market. An options table marked Swing & Position is people holding for days and weeks. One marked Scalp & Day is intraday. You pick the one that matches how you trade, and if your answers on the form suggest a different table would suit you better, the form says so before you pay.

Ninety minutes with a stated end time, at a coffee shop or taproom. Everyone buys their own drink. I'm there early and I make the introductions.