Things are picking up… which is pretty much the same thing I said in last month’s episode.
But, hey, we need to talk.
My approach to trading and my perspective on the market have evolved and matured (hopefully) since I started this site and pretending to know what I’m talking about. I’m less swayed by the daily noise and have little problem waiting for the better trades and the bigger moves. This can lead to less exciting content as these opportunities can take their own sweet time to arise.
I’ve come to realize that posting less fits more appropriately with my style of trading these days, and it also takes quite a bit of pressure off of me, honestly. This will allow me to show you the full life of a trade instead of having to recap and update on the same dang trades every month.
This is what I mean: this here is a little graphic I made of The Wheel Strategy.
I did Step 1 there at the top, “Sell Puts Get $$$”, back at the end of last year. I was assigned and forced to buy the shares, like, 8 or 9 months ago. I’ve been on Step 2, “Sell Calls Get $$$”, ever since and have yet to be assigned and have my shares called away.
If I waited to show you the whole life of the trade, you could see all the ups and downs, how much I was able to lower my average cost over that time, and the total amount of premium received, plus any lessons I learned along the way. I would be able to show you the whole picture. This stuff is confusing enough, probably even more so if you’re only seeing a few threads of the quilt.
I’ve tried some new strategies, like hedging… you know, what options are actually meant to be used for? I’ve also been buying some stocks with the intention of holding onto them for a bit, with a portion of the premium received, instead of putting it all back into the same cash pool to sell options with.
Very exciting, but it’s difficult for me to report on changes or results when I’m only looking at such a short time frame. I also don’t want to write about something I’ve only just implemented and don’t have much of a feel for yet. Ya know?
Plus, it never hurts me to practice the art of talking less.
Monthly Roundup
Here are my trades. I made $143 in June.
Clicking the image will take you to my Theta Gang profile where you can view more details and notes on all of my trades.
But wait looooook, just to prove things are picking up, I’ll go ahead and show you my trades from July as well, where I made a few bucks shy of $1000.
Seeee?!
So, this isn’t goodbye. I’m not quitting the race; I’m just changing my cadence. I’ll be back, and with greater numbers. Feel free to reach out on here or social media if you have any questions. You can click the subscribe button below and be notified when I post.
Be excellent to each other, Chris
Lend as little as $25 to create a more equitable world.Donate directly to the poor.
I’ll keep this one short with just a brief recap and a quick update of how things are going.
Click here if you would like a simple primer on what I’m doing here. I’m selling Cash Secured Puts until I am assigned shares. Then I sell Covered Calls to sell the shares, collecting premium along the way. This is known as The Wheel Strategy.
You’re Probably Wondering How I Got Here
By the end of last year I wound up with a lot of shares of SOFI and HOOD through selling Cash Secured Puts. The problem now is that both of these stocks continued to drop, losing almost half their value for most of this year.
With their current stock prices being so far below the price I paid for them, the premium I was collecting back in their heyday has now completely vanished. These past few months, I’ve been forced to sell contracts for just a few bucks at a time as I wait for the stock prices to recover.
Thankfully, both stocks are finally starting to bounce back. HOOD has almost returned to my cost basis and it feels good to sell juicy contracts again. I opened two Covered Calls recently for a combined premium of over $670. A pale comparison against the $30 or so I was collecting just a month prior.
These mistakes that I made have had long-term consequences. I made these errors back in October and I’m still dealing with it and course-correcting to this very day. However, I do know that when I come out of the other side of this, I will be a better, more seasoned trader. I will be a Bishop in the Chapel of Extreme Experience.
I won’t sugarcoat it, it has been difficult. I haven’t been able to trade as much. In May, I went through a brief period of being too gun-shy to take on a trade or found myself closing winning trades early, fearful of losing more money. It’s challenging, at times, to keep chipping away, penny by penny, to crawl back out of the hole I dug. It’s humbling to do it publicly.
Ultimately, I was left with 2 choices. I could either decide the road to recovery was too long and difficult and throw in the towel and return to passive investing.
Or, if I thought about it for a minute, I could project myself into the future, even just a year down the road, and see myself being proud that I stuck it out. The tricky part is trusting the process. Or maybe it’s having the patience for it. Maybe it’s Maybelline, what the hell do I know?
Now I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea that I lost all my money or anything, turning you away from trading. Like I mentioned in my video last month, I made around $25k in the market last year, I’ve just given a lot of that back now, is all. The reason for the loss is because I strayed from the plan that was working just fine.
I’ve already advanced about half an inch since last time!
Like a nice vacation, some time away can help to put things in perspective. When I return, I notice the urgency has been stripped away from life along with all the little things that I thought were important or absolutely crucial. I can see things with fresh eyes.
We just returned last night from spending most of the week in the mountains in Georgia. Had a nice, little cabin by the creek.
Monthly Roundup
Here are my lil baby trades for May. I made $92. Man, I’ll tell ya, I’m just now seeing this number for the first time, just like you are. Not great lol. Not great.
Clicking the image will take you to my Theta Gang profile where you can view more details and notes on all of my trades.
Welp, that’s all for now. I’m excited that things are picking back up in my portfolio. Remember, kids, don’t buy options. Sell options.
I promise more exciting times are coming. Once I’m able to get out of these two stocks, I will free up almost $30k of buying power in just one of my accounts. This will allow me to wreak havoc once again. Man is a creature with an apocalyptic view point who responds best to violent change.
Until then, Chris
Lend as little as $25 to create a more equitable world.Donate directly to the poor.
“Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.” – Steve Martin
Here’s something that’s been tossing around in ye olde noggin’ recently.
You ever notice the sense of awe that comes over people while watching someone extremely talented? It’s hard to describe, but there’s something gripping about witnessing someone effortlessly create, work, or play at a higher level.
For me, I’m usually thinking about all the time and dedication that must have gone into it and what it would take for me to reach that level. I’m usually left inspired and find it can often refuel my tenacity with regard to my own passions.
It’s as if you can perceive how much time and effort it took to reach that level of expertise, and it magically takes you out of the mundane, bringing you right into the moment for you to pay respects to it.
It’s like they’ve transcended and have tapped into something deep within themselves.
Witnessing it feels like a mini out-of-body experience where the world fades away and your focus becomes single-pointed on them.
This is a sick cover of “Crazy Train”
I’m currently rereading The Occult by Colin Wilson (1974) and I found this passage relevant to this month’s theme.
“Whenever I am deeply moved by poetry or music or scenery, I realize I am living in a meaning universe that deserves better of me than the small-minded sloth in which I habitually live. And I suddenly realize the real deadliness of this lukewarm contentment that looks as harmless as ivy on a tree. It is systematically robbing me of life, embezzling my purpose and vitality. I must clearly focus on this immense meaning that surrounds me, and refuse to forget it; contemptuously reject all smaller meanings that try to persuade me to focus on them instead.”
Side story.
I had my bandage leak all over the place where I donate plasma last week. A nurse had to come get me, leaving behind pools of blood in an empty office with only this book lying next to it.
I hope it comes across that I’m not trying to speak from some place of higher enlightenment, as if I’ve got things figured out over here. I write as if I’m reminding myself, whether I’m going on about trading or the trials of life.
I believe in the collective unconscious and think that sometimes we can all be learning lessons or experiencing similar themes simultaneously. If I talk about my current situation, more often than not, someone else can relate, and that can be comforting. And frankly, it’s helpful for me to write it out.
Oftentimes someone has some handy advice or a slightly different viewpoint to offer that can change one’s perspective. Sometimes you just need someone to listen. Wisdom comes from within yourself, other people just help to remind you of what you already know.
Everything is practice
In this post, and just about every other post for that matter, I talk all about the things I do every day. It includes: yoga, meditation, aprendo un poco de español, journaling, ceremonial magick, and I toss in a weekly run for good measure.
Of course, I can’t seem to leave well enough alone, so at the beginning of the New Year I added one more to the list. Guitar. I’ve played for around 25 years, and though I identify as a drummer, I sure do play an awful lot of guitar.
“Music has always soothed my vicious temper.”
My casual approach to playing had me feeling stagnant, so I decided to adopt a more focused, daily practice. I’ll spare you the details as my point here is to encourage you to fully commit to that thing you got going on over there.
Time is not for the wasting.
These rituals take up a lot of my time. I’m usually doing them after working outside all day. My energy is spent and I want to sit, watch body cam videos, and do nothing. And recently I’ve been a big baby about it, honestly.
Normally I carry on with these daily tasks just fine, but I’ve just gone through a period where I’ve really felt bogged down by them. I was left asking time and time again why I gave myself so much daily homework.
But every day, step by step, I attempt to get a little bit better. I’m either recalling my day and realizing some small change I could make, or just practicing some scales on guitar. I’ve learned through life and trading that success isn’t made in giant leaps. It slowly blossoms by showing up every day. It’s in the little things. But you have to make time for the little things.
God is in the details.
Time is the only currency we spend without knowing the balance. We spend time, save time, and, Lord have mercy, do we love to waste time.
Time is money and it’s not gonna feel very good at the end of our lives if we spent it on a bunch of nonsense. Invest in the things that align with your true will.
All this is to say that I’m having to remind myself to be persistent not just with my musical and spiritual pursuits, but also with my finances and trading. Things are down pretty bad right now in my portfolio, but now is not the time for quitting.
But I will keep showing up, because that’s the part that actually works.
Also, if you did happen to read the post linked in this section, you might recall a small portion where I mention that my dad and I didn’t talk. Since that post, we have reconnected. I’ve even been teaching him how to trade options and he’s up over $3k so far this year. So I think I should be allowed to add those profits to my running tally 😉
Snitches Save Bitches
One last story to round out our little chat on persistence.
We just hit the one year anniversary of buying our house. Soon after moving in, I became aware of dogs being mistreated in the area. It took one whole year of me buggin’ the ever-loving hell out of law enforcement before my complaint finally happened across the right person’s desk.
They had been watching the house but didn’t have access to view the conditions of the dogs. But you could from our yard.
This led to the owner’s arrest and the rescue of 12 dogs from a fighting ring.
Things don’t always happen fast, and at times it may seem as if you’re getting nowhere, but it’s important to keep up the good fight, nonetheless.
“Let my people go!”
I can’t tell you how good it felt to see those cage doors open.
Monthly Roundup
Oh yeah, forgot this was a stock blog. In April I made $301 lol.
This is the boring part of the strategy where I’ve been assigned a bunch of shares and now I’m having to sell Covered Calls against them at very low premiums. Slowly climbing my way back out of this hole.
Here are the trades.
Clicking the image will take you to my Theta Gang profile where you can view more details and notes on all of my trades.
As a short recap, over the past few months I’ve been assigned a few hundred shares of Sofi and Hood through selling Cash Secured Puts. Their current stock prices are a lot lower than the price I paid when I was assigned the shares. This makes the Covered Calls not worth as much.
To briefly explain this, let’s say I paid $115 for the shares, but the price is at $80 now. Selling a Covered Call against those shares doesn’t bring in as much premium because the chances of a stock jumping from $80 to $115 in a short amount of time are very low. The contracts aren’t worth a lot because the thing I’m selling is not likely to be profitable to the person buying it from me. I’m basically selling these contracts to gamblers at this point.
A few months ago I was able to sell Covered Calls on Hood for around $400 in premium because it was trading around the price that I paid for it. Now that the price has dropped significantly, I’m getting pennies. Hence, the low returns.
Find home. Again.
So I hope you’re out there setting a little time aside to do something that you love or want to improve on. 5 minutes is all it takes. You might even find yourself shedding some of the nonsense from your life in order to make time for your own pursuits.
Doing small, meaningful things for yourself can let in the light when we’re blinded by the curtain of everydayness.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the Law. Love under Will.
Moses of the South 