The Test Bench › option_strategy

Does Jade Lizard actually work?

REAL

A measurable edge that survived the checks we ran.

The claim

The jade lizard collects a credit with no upside risk — TastyTrade / premium sellers

What we did

Tested against Expectancy net of REAL bid/ask — patient mid vs. crossing the spread, 2014–2025, real EOD bid/ask, manage 50%/21DTE.

The result

Result: 27.0 expectancy $/trade (crossing the spread)

mid +41 → cross +27/trade, keeps 66% of edge, 66% win, worst -2530

The numbers

Worst drawdown-5227.9%

Verdict

Real edge that survives real fills: +27/trade crossing the spread (keeps 66% of the +41 mid-price number their studies quote), 66% win. Half the tail of a strangle — the capped call side removes upside risk as designed. But the win rate hides the tail — worst trade -2530 on a 1-lot.

What the test did and did not do

Almost nobody publishing a backtest says which of these they did. We list the ones we failed as well as the ones we passed.

Tested 2026-06-23. The same treatment, applied to every other system, is on the test bench.