I've been consistently tracking my trades for the past week, learning and refining my options trading strategy.

This journal helps me delude myself on how I am staying accountable by recording every trade, the context around the trade, what I was thinking as exit decisions when I entered the trade, etc. I am very aware that none of that matters. The only thing that really matters is what is your P&L (Profit and Loss), all else is gimmickry.

See my writeup, Hello! , for more around the context of this experiment.

Portfolio Overview

• Market Value: $11,700
• Cash: $12,100
• Options Collateral: $4,000

Today's Trades: Earnings Excitement

Earnings season always brings a mix of thrill and strategy. I've placed some calculated bets on two tech giants: Microsoft and Meta.

Once again, note that I do not trade fundamentals, I am not a professional, and you absolutely must not follow my advice (I am not giving any!). These stocks just show up on my radar because of two things: I have a couple of vibe-based screeners - one manual based on my intuition, and one precisely calculated based on market cap and profitability.

Alright, back to today's trades.

Microsoft (MSFT) Trades

• $420 / $415 Put Credit Spread
  • 13 delta option
  • Received $45 premium
  • Potential 9% return if trade succeeds
  • Maximum risk: $500

Meta (META) Trades

I've diversified my META strategy with two different put credit spreads:

• $575 / $565 Put Credit Spread
  • 10 delta option
  • Received $98 premium
  • Potential 9.8% return
  • Maximum risk: $1,000
• $590 / $580 Put Credit Spread
  • 15 delta option
  • Received $160 premium
  • Potential 16% return
  • Maximum risk: $1,000

Ongoing Positions

MSFT Call Credit Spread

• Entered when stock was at $444
• Betting against continued rapid price increase
• Received $200 premium
• Potential strategy: Close at 50% premium if opportunity arises

PLTR Put

• PLTR $50 Put, Expiring 1/31
• Hedge
• Potential Strategy: Let it expire, or roll for another month if I own a CSP or get assignment

History View

Here are my most recent trades reflecting the above positions in a spreadsheet format.

Week 1 Reflections

Earnings trades are inherently risky but exciting. I'm managing risk by:

• Limiting position sizes
• Using defined-risk spreads
• Having a clear exit strategy
• Diversifying across different stocks and strike prices

For the first time since I started tracking my trades (the first recorded trade is January 10, 2025), I have breached the $1000 mark in income made, although I have $4000 in collateral. Effectively, if I lose the entire collateral I will actually be down 3 grand, not up 1!.

My first Income Trade (i.e., not a Hedge) in log above was on 1/17. It took a week to breach the $1000 mark. To celebrate that, I am now declaring that earning $1000 through trading options is my first milestone.

Anyway, that still does not reflect as my market value. While I am up 5.86% for last week as shown below, the amount is $651, not what my spreadsheet shows, since my spreadsheet still needs the closing trades to reflect true gain or loss.

I should probably think through what my long term milestones are going to be if I want to continue this journey. However, enjoying the thrill for now where I am not even sure I will be able to keep my collateral or if I will be able to find more opportunities like the ones this past week. And this is just Week 1!

Looking forward to seeing how these trades develop!