Tag: personal-finance

  • February 2025

    I know ya’ll are itchin’ to get your grubby little eyes on these numbers so we’ll start there.

    My monthly goal is to increase my accounts by 10%. In February I achieved an increase of 16.37% bringing in $1,691 total.

    20 trades with no losses. That’s 2 months and 42 trades in a row with no losses for those who are counting. Don’t worry, there’s some big blunders coming up next month. Stay tuned!

    I’m up 31.76% this year increasing my accounts by $2,905 so far in the year of our Lord 2025.

    Profit and Loss Calendar for February

    Market’s on the fritz thanks to tariffs so you’ll notice I traded small and less often. I find it helpful to try and see my trading as matter of preserving capital instead of increasing it quickly.

    “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”
    Proverbs 13:11

    That’s right, it’s my website and I’ll quote whatever I damn well please!

    My Tip-Top Trade

    Here’s a quick breakdown of my favorite trade of the month and once again I owe it to being inspired by someone else. I have a coworker that I convinced to start trading who, through their trading, reminded me I was completely forgetting about just buying and flipping shares and was limiting myself by primarily focusing on options. So with some extra cash in my buying power I bought almost 50 shares of HIMS (Hims & Hers) at $45.75 per share.

    When you start seeing numbers flying all over the screen and those numbers represent real money your emotions can easily get the best of you. When you read about trading you’ll find that a huge portion will actually be discussing the psychology involved and the importance of having a plan.

    Even though my profits were huge I was finding great difficulty in deciding when to sell. On paper it was clear as day it was time. The difficulty came because I wanted to make even more money. That’s embarrassing to admit but you’d be surprised the emotions you go through when things are moving fast. This is why it’s important to have rules and to stick to those rules. If you are at the mercy of your emotions you will not trade well. Life will also prove to be difficult for you.

    “If you wouldn’t pay the current price it’s time to sell.”

    That’s the rule that repeated in my head when I was in peril and I’m very grateful for it. The shares were way overpriced and it was time to sell, it was that simple. I trusted my gut and sold the shares that I bought at $45.75 for $65 for a profit of $935 in 10 days time.

    The next day the stock dropped 25%. The same thing happened the following day. In fact, as of writing this in March the price still hasn’t recovered.

    I try to learn from mistakes. This painting is one of mine that my partner immortalized on a mini canvas. I didn’t sell when I should’ve causing me to be in the trade for weeks longer than I wanted and tying up lots of capital. It was frustrating. Now the painting is by my desk as a tiny reminder. Looks similar to the chart above, eh?

    Kill Your Darlings

    AST Space Mobile (ASTS) has been one of my favorite stocks since I started trading. It’s a satellite company aiming to eliminate all cellular dead zones.

    Over time I was able to slowly buy stock as well as sell Cash Secured Puts in order to acquire 200 shares. Then I started selling Covered Calls against them. By trading options around the underlying stock I was able to drop the average price of my 200 shares from $22 to $17 a share. Neat!

    Since September of last year it has traded in a range between $20 and $25. Up and down, up and down, sideways for months.

    Recognizing something like this you can better time your entries and exits and receive the most premium. I made $906 selling Covered Calls while simply owning the stock would have done nothing for me during the same timeframe.

    But it finally happened where 2 Covered Calls I sold were assigned and I was obligated to sell my 200 shares at $22 each. Meanwhile the stock jumped up to $35 revealing the biggest downside to Covered Calls. But I knew the risks going in and I made a profit in the end.

    The stock has been on a steady downtrend since (currently mid $20’s) and I’ve already made $178 selling Cash Secured Puts in an attempt to buy back into the stock.

    It still stings a little, though.

    Subtracting and Adding Insult to Injury


    What stings a little more is I used the $4,500 in profits to open a position in Robinhood (HOOD). I bought 100 shares at $56.

    I held through an earnings report where the price soared and I gained over $1,000 in profits overnight … except I didn’t do anything but sit on my hands. I assumed the stock would settle down after the huge spike and continue the trend upwards, at which point I would start selling Covered Calls.

    “If you wanna hear God laugh tell him your plans.”

    Very, very silly in hindsight because it’s been on a downtrend ever since and now I’m currently down just shy of $2000. Only once I saw the writing on the wall did I begin selling Calls, which to date has only netted me $168. The only thing that concerns me is the opportunity loss from tying up that much capital and waiting on it’s value to rise again. The market is very down right now and it’s a great time to buy, however this stock is holding most of my equity preventing me from doing so.

    Lessons Learned … again

    I shouldn’t have written covered calls on ASTS after a big drop in price, I should’ve waited for it to rise again. I was impatient and it caused my shares to get called away unnecessarily. But ultimately selling 200 shares at $22 when my cost was $17 while getting paid another $170 in premium ain’t so bad.

    As far as the HOOD trade goes I need to not “marry my shares” and be OK with letting them go. If I would’ve had the same conviction as I did with the HIMS trade I would’ve been smooth sailing by now. When I see something shoot that high that fast I should know that a pull back in price is soon to follow in most cases or freefall in this case.

    I actually set my self back by trying to get the most premium paid to me. Even though I was doing it safely, I was still attempting to speed things up a little. I haven’t lost money, just time by being impatient. But I guess time is money??

    There you have it. I broke and obeyed the same rule and you see the bed that I’m lying in now. I made it myself. Stuck to the rule and profited over $900. Broke the rule and I’m down $2k.

    “Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughtered”

    Didn’t I say something earlier about learning from mistakes? I got some things right and some things wrong but that’s life, baby. Just gotta do a little better each time and don’t beat yourself up too bad over it. Finding compassion with yourself over your mistakes will ultimately lead you to showing compassion towards others.

    On the bright side even with those blunders I still did pretty well for myself this month while learning some lessons and simultaneously not learning some lessons.

    Finally, here are all my trades for the month.

    Clicking the image will take you to my Theta Gang profile where you can view more details and notes.

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Chris

    PS – If you’d like your own tiny painting check out her Etsy store at Teeny Tiny Paintings. You can even custom order your own shortcomings to be commemorated!

  • January 2025

    Before we get started on my inaugural review be sure to check out this page if you need a simple primer on the different strategies discussed here.

    Recently the market has been uneasy about the car wash of stupidity we’re about to drive through. Now that’s just a cheeky way for me to say the market has not been doing so hot lately, but when you are on the side of selling options you can make money when things trade up, down, and sideways.

    … and slantways, and longways, and backways.

    My monthly goal is to increase my accounts by 10%. In January I achieved 13.27% with around 2/3 of those profits coming from trading options and the other 1/3 from trading stocks.

    Profit and Loss Calendar for January

    22 total trades with no losses and increasing the accounts by $1,214.

    Here’s the play I’m most proud of this month and I’ll break every thing down but first let me just say I owe a lot to the inspiration I get from others in all areas of my life. I find myself constantly inspired by someone’s tenacity and dedication towards their passions. I had been peeping what other positions people were taking in the market when I stumbled upon a series of trades one person was able to pull off so smoothly that I had to give it a whirl.

    Over the course of a few days I would simply pull up their handful of trades, like the ones listed below, and admire them which would lead me to work out how I could replicate it in my trading. Here is what I pulled off.

    Listed first you’ll see I sold 3 consecutive Cash Secured Puts in hopes that the stock price would drop and I would be assigned 100 shares. Although the price rose and I wasn’t assigned the shares I was paid a total of $247 in premium for taking on the obligation. That’s money earned without actually owning any stock!

    After that I decided to perform a Buy/Write where I purchased 100 shares then sold a Covered Call against them. In total I opened 3 Covered Calls agreeing that I would sell my 100 shares if it rose to a certain price by a certain time. It didn’t and in total I was paid $151 in premium while getting to keep my shares. That’s extra money earned just for owning stock!

    After this I sold all 100 shares at a $30 profit because my sentiment had changed and I wanted to lock in my profits. I made $428 in total when it was all said and done.

    Easy-peasy.

    The beauty is any of the above strategies can work alone or you can make them dance together. You can just buy and sell stock. You can just focus on cash secured puts. You can put all your energy into finding proven, blue-chip companies with a strong dividend and writing covered calls against shares that you own using the premium collected to buy even more shares. It’s why they’re called options.

    Lastly I’ll leave you with the full list of my trades for the month.

    Clicking the image will take you to my Theta Gang profile where you can view more details and notes.

    Handstanding on the shoulders of giants

    I wouldn’t know most things were possible unless someone did them first and was willing to share that knowledge and experience. Take Roger Bannister beating the 4 minute mile, for example. For decades all thought this was impossible but once the record was broken by one person suddenly thousands were able to follow suit around the world. So I keep a look out for my own Roger Bannisters.

    I work best by building on the work of others, not coming up with completely new discoveries. I’m OK with that. I like getting fired up by other people’s achievements. I’ll take that over the alternative.

    So get on out there and find your own inspiration in whatever it is that you’re up to. Stare at it. Ponder it. Let it marinate in your subconscious. Show it to your co-workers who don’t care.