Posted by Martin March 05, 2022
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February 2022 $100 Challenge account review

February 2022 and the beginning of March were not good for our Challenge account. Extreme volatility made options so expensive along with increased margin requirements, we no longer could maintain our positions and we closed them for a loss. We need to build equity first.

Accumulation phase

The account is underperforming our goal. We will be investing in building equity positions first and wheeling the positions in March and subsequent months.

February 2022 Challenge account review

MONTH	GOAL $$	ACTUAL $$
June 2021:	$203.00	$202.67
July 2021:	$306.00	$334.75
August 2021:	$409.00	$397.71
September 2021:	$512.00	$476.91
October 2021:	$615.00	$632.37
November 2021:	$718.00	$659.00
December 2021:	$821.00	$802.08
January 2022:	$924.00	$594.29
February 2022:	$1,027.00	$283.87
March 2022:	$1,130.00
April 2022:	$1,233.00
May 2022:	$1,336.00

From the chart above, the red dot (line) indicates the current account value, compared to the blue line (plan). Our account is underperforming our goal. When trading naked options, expect volatility in your net-liq. That can be seen by some as a disadvantage. When trading spreads, your net-liq will be stabilized by neutralizing delta. With naked options, you would have to choose other instruments to do so, for example owning stocks to neutralize your call side. We do not have this yet as our account is small, but we are building our position.

October 2021 Overall Challenge account review

The chart below indicates our account value compared to the overall goal and plan to grow $100 investment into a $75,000 portfolio. As of today, we are at the beginning of our journey.

YEAR	CONTRIBUTIONS $$	GOAL $$	ACTUAL $$
Year 0:	$100.00	$100.00	$100.00
Year 1:	$1,300.00	$1,336.00	$283.87
Year 2:	$2,500.00	$3,016.96
Year 3:	$3,700.00	$5,303.07
Year 4:	$4,900.00	$8,412.17
Year 5:	$6,100.00	$12,640.55
Year 6:	$7,300.00	$18,391.15
Year 7:	$8,500.00	$26,211.96
Year 8:	$9,700.00	$36,848.27
Year 9:	$10,900.00	$51,313.64
Year 10:	$12,100.00	$70,986.56

February 2022 Challenge account Income

Total Invested in Stocks	$255.40
Total Unrealized Profit	-$4.68
Total Realized Profit	-$1.17
Strangles Income	-$1,316.00
Dividends Income	$13.75
Deposits Total	$1000.00
Cash	$33.15
Net-Liq	$283.87

Cumulative return Challenge account review

As of today, our challenge account provided a -82.07% monthly cumulative return.

If you want to see what investments we take, what trades and strategies we will use to grow this small account join our program today and grow your money too. We engage in safe investments, select strategies to maximize winning trades, and grow our portfolio. And you can do it too, today! We do not provide quick rich promises, gambling, or reckless strategies. We want our portfolio to grow steadily and preserve our capital while maximizing returns.

As a member, you will have access to the following features:

Weekly newsletter which provides market news and outlook, stocks analysis, and options trading course
Account statements
Account trading journal
Archived emails

SUBSCRIBE HERE

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Posted by Martin February 26, 2022
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2022 Week 08 investing and trading report

Last week, the markets trading staged a big reversal, perfectly according to “sell the rumor, buy the news”. When Russians attacked Ukraine, markets finally rallied (no matter how cynical it is). Unfortunately, these large swings gave us hard time because, first, we had to roll our trades down, and after a strong reversal, we had to roll everything back up. Crazy week!

But these rolls made us $1,787.00 of options premiums that helped our Net-liq hold steady.

Here is our investing and trading report:

Account Value:	$101,648.56	$474.71	0.47%
Options trading results
Options Premiums Received:	$1,787.00
01 January 2022 Options:	$8,885.00	+8.36%
02 February 2022 Options:	$9,866.00	+9.71%
Options Premiums YTD:	$18,751.00	+18.45%
Dividend income results
Dividends Received:	$0.00
01 January 2022 Dividends:	$303.38
02 February 2022 Dividends:	$547.35
Dividends YTD:	$850.73
Portfolio metrics
Portfolio Yield:	5.67%
Portfolio Dividend Growth:	7.74%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 10 yrs:	$37,138.44	24.54%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 20 yrs:	$377,352.45	249.31%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 25 yrs:	$1,983,077.87	1310.17%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 30 yrs:	$16,961,000.59	11,205.71%
Portfolio Alpha:	13.42%
Portfolio Weighted Beta:	0.44
CAGR:	500.58%
AROC:	13.88%
TROC:	9.00%
Our 2022 Goal
2022 Dividend Goal:	$4,800.00	17.72%	In Progress
2022 Portfolio Value Goal:	$151,638.03	67.03%	In Progress
6-year Portfolio Value Goal:	$175,000.00	58.08%	In Progress
10-year Portfolio Value Goal:	$1,000,000.00	10.16%	In Progress

Dividend Investing and Trading Report

Last week we have not received any dividends. Our dividend income for the entire month of February is still at $547.35 beating our expectations.

Last week, we bought the following dividend growth stocks:

10 shares of BAC @ $45.76
20 shares of CSQ @ $16.75

Here you can see our dividend income per stock holding:

Growth stocks Investing and Trading Report

Last week we bought the following growth stocks and funds:

10 shares of TMUS @ $121.95

Options Investing and Trading Report

Last week we rolled our strangle trades to keep our account safe. That raised cash and buying power.

These adjustments delivered an income of $1,787.00 bringing February total to $9,866.00.

We were actively trading our SPX strategy that delivered -$530.05 weekly loss.

You can watch all our trades in this spreadsheet. You can watch the spreadsheet and look for a “NEW” indication next to the trading date. When the indicator shows up, it is typically good for up to 3 days to follow that trade.

Expected Future Dividend Income

We have received no dividends last week. Our portfolio currently yields 5.67% at $101,648.56 market value.

Our projected annual dividend income in 10 years is $37,138.44 but that projection is if we do absolutely nothing and let our positions grow on their own without adding new positions or reinvesting the dividends.

We are also set to receive a $5,748.79 annual dividend income ($479.07 monthly income). We are 15.48% of our 10 year goal of $37,138.44 dividend income.

The chart above shows how our future dividend income is based on the future yield on cost and what dividend income we may expect in the future. The expected dividend growth depends on what stocks we are adding to our portfolio and the stocks’ 3 years average dividend growth rate. It is interesting to see what passive income we may enjoy 10, 20, 25, or 30 years from now.

Market value of our holdings

Our non-adjusted stock holdings market value increased from $152,457.86 to $154,563.70 last week.

In 2022 we plan on accumulating dividend stocks, monetizing these positions, HFEA strategy, and SPX trading. We plan on raising more of our holdings to 100 shares so we can start selling covered calls. We continued rebalancing our options trades that released buying power significantly. That allowed us to start buying shares of our interest again.

Our goal is to accumulate 100 shares of dividend growth stocks we liked and then start selling covered calls or strangles around those positions. We also planed on reinvesting all dividends back to those holdings.

Investing and trading ROI

Our options trading delivered a 9.71% monthly ROI in February 2022, totaling a 18.45% ROI YTD. We hope that in 2022 we exceed our 45% annual revenue selling options against dividend stocks target!

Our entire account is down -2.86%.

Our options trading averaged $9,375.50 per month this year. If this trend continues, we are on track to make $112,506.00 trading options in 2022. As of today, we have made $18,751.00 trading options.

Old SPX trades repair

This week, we have not adjusted any of the old trades. We adjusted a trade a week ago and it appears to be playout out well. I hope, it will end in our favor and we will be able to get rid of that trade.

We however traded our SPX put credit spread strategy which you will be able to review in my next report. The SPX strategy held well so far, and our signals kept us away from opening new trades.

Market Outlook

The stock market staged a strong reversal on Thursday after Russia attacked Ukraine and the Western countries imposed sanctions on the country and Putin. Then Putin announced his willingness to negotiate and markets rallied even more on Friday.

As I mentioned last week in our newsletter, we could see two potential price actions. Either break through the support and continuation down, or the support would hold and we would rally. On Thursday, the futures and later the market dropped significantly below the support and it all looked like we were doomed. Then algos and buyers stepped in and pushed the market up and it closed above the support. On Friday, we saw a continuation that could be considered a confirmation.

We now need to wait and see what would happen next. Many people say that the FED would sink the market again and even lower, but I think the interest rates are already priced in and the markets typically rally after the first interest hike. So, it is my view that when the FED raises the rates next month, the market will rally hard again.

If you want to learn more about the stock market, events that moved the market last week and will likely impact it in the near future, I recommend you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Knowing where the market is heading and knowing when you should expect its reversal can benefit your trading and investing. Subscribe and you get one month free.

Investing and trading report in charts

Account Net-Liq

Account Stocks holding

Last week, S&P 500 grew 51.48% since we opened our portfolio while our portfolio grew 20.01%. On YTD basis, the S&P 500 fell -13.28% and our portfolio -9.76%. This clearly indicates that our stock holdings performed better than the market.

The numbers above apply to our stock holdings only. Our overall account net-liq is up by -2.86% this year thanks to our options strategies that generated enough income to stay up a bit.

Stock holdings Growth YTD

Our stock holdings are starting to outperform the market. Hopefully, this trend will stay and we will be doing better than S&P 500 constantly.

Our 10-year goal is to grow this account to $1,000,000.00 value in ten years. We are in year two and we accomplished 10.16% of that goal.

Our 6-year goal is to reach $175,000 account value to be eligible for portfolio margin (PM) and today we accomplished 58.08% of that goal.

Our 2022 year goal is to grow this account to a $151,638.03. and today we accomplished 67.03% of this goal.

Investing and Trading Report – Options Monthly Income

Investing and Trading Report – Options Annual Income

Our dividend goal and future dividends

We planned to make $4,800.00 in dividend income in 2022. As of today, we received $850.73. This is in line with our projected dividend 2022 goal. We also accumulated enough shares to start making $5,748.79 a year.

Our account cumulative return

The chart below indicates our cumulative adjusted return since we started tracking this metric.

Here is the cumulative return for the year 2022:

Our win ratio overall:

Our win ratio for 2022:

As of today, our account overall cumulative return is 19.05% (note, data in this section are since March 13, 2021, only as that is the date we started tracking these metrics. Thus the results are skewed a bit and will show full picture next year.) and our 2022 cumulative return is -19.36%.

I have a favor to ask. If you like this report, please, hit the like button so I know that there is enough audience that like this content. Also if there is something you want to know or you want me to change this report to a different format, let me know in the comments section.

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Posted by Martin February 26, 2022
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2022 SPX put credit spreads trading review – week 08

Last week was difficult to trade SPX spreads. As the market was dropping and speeding up in declining, I started reversing and adding credit call spreads to neutralize the put spreads and collect premiums to offset the cost of rolling the puts. But the market reversed sharply and rallied hard on Thursday and Friday and pretty much all call spreads got busted. With a benefit of hindsight, one could say, it was a bad move to do and we should have left the puts intact. But no one knows the future. We reversed the calls to puts again (which if this rally fizzles will give us more hard time) and that cost money. Fortunately, last and this week, we built enough cash cushion to have enough cash for these costs.

The overall market decline took 50 days so far and dropped over 14% from its peak. That is a typical pullback depth and length for a geopolitical mess, so we may assume the worst is behind us. But people say that we now have FED that would send the markets lower. I don’t think so. I think the FED is already priced in and when they raise rates next month, the market will, in fact, rally. Same as with the war in Ukraine. When it was unknown if and when Putin starts his aggression, markets were falling. And when he finally attacked all the innocent people, the markets rallied.

Last week, we gave back some of the gains we built in the previous weeks. Our SPX PCS strategy finished the week down -6.90% while SPX was up +0.82%. Our overall SPX account is up +98.67% since the beginning of this program. However, unlike in previous weeks, we now have about $993 in unrealized losses. And that could give us some headwinds in the coming weeks. If however, the market will rally from now on, we will be able to offset these losses quickly.

Initial trade set ups

For my SPX strategy, I dedicated a $3,600 initial amount that will be used to trade SPX PCS strategy per week. If this amount is depleted, I will evaluate the strategy to determine whether to continue or change it. If I grow this amount, I will scale up the trading.

WHAT WILL WE TRADE?
DAY	DTE	TYPE
MONDAY	7 DTE	Put Credit Spread
TUESDAY	30 DTE	Put Credit Spread
WEDNESDAY	7 DTE	Put Credit Spread
FRIDAY	60 DTE	Put Credit Spread
EVERY MONTH	120 DTE	Put Debit Spread – HEDGE

Last week trading

Last week was not typical and we rolled many of the in-the-money puts, opened a few call spreads, added them to those puts (converting the put trades into Iron Condors), and opened call spreads in lieu of puts. All had to be undone at the end of the week.

Here are our delayed open trades:

SPX PCS delayed trades

The trades are two weeks delayed. If you want to see the most recent trades or receive alerts, subscribe to our SPX alerts.

Overall, the strategy resulted in a -$530.05 loss last week. Note that the gain might be unrealized as some or all trades may be still open.

Initial account value (since inception: 12/07/2021):	$3,600.00
Last week beginning value:	$7,682.00
Last week ending value:	$7,151.95 (-6.90%; total: +98.67%)
The highest capital requirements to trade this strategy:	$15,413
Unrealized Gain:	-$993 (-6.89%)
Realized Gain:	$4,425 (+30.69%)
Total Gain:	$3,432 (+23.80%)

SPX PCS account value

Our SPX net-liq increased a bit last week. I consider it a good result since the market is volatile and non-trending, well, it is trending but the trend is choppy and weak.

SPX PCS account vs SPX index net liq

However, comparing the account with SPX net-liq, we are still outperforming this horrible market.

SPX PCS account vs SPX index

If the market continues being this choppy or even going down as fast as it has so far, I expect to use the gains to roll the trades that are in the money.

If you want to receive trade alerts whenever we open a new SPX put credit spread or a hedge trade, you can subscribe to our service:

SUBSCRIBE HERE

Note, if you wish to subscribe to multiple levels, you can do so by subscribing to one level only and then send us an email that you want to be added to other levels too.

Also, if you like this report, hit the like button so I know there is enough audience wanting to see this type of report. If you have any questions or want to see anything else about my SPX trading, do not hesitate to contact me or write a comment in the comments section. Thank you!

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Posted by Martin February 19, 2022
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2022 Week 07 investing and trading report

Last week, the markets were weak on fear of inflation, interest rates, and Russian aggression, and our trading was all about adjusting our existing strangles. But on Thursday and Friday, it all went downhill again. We adjusted more to the downside so we prepare for more selling. These adjustments delivered nice cash we used to buy a few of the depressed shares of companies I believe will do well in the long run.

We made $2,550.00 of options premiums that helped our Net-liq hold steady.

Here is our investing and trading report:

Account Value:	$101,173.85	-$242.66	-0.24%
Options trading results
Options Premiums Received:	$2,550.00
01 January 2022 Options:	$8,885.00	+8.36%
02 February 2022 Options:	$8,079.00	+7.99%
Options Premiums YTD:	$16,964.00	+16.77%
Dividend income results
Dividends Received:	$473.78
01 January 2022 Dividends:	$303.38
02 February 2022 Dividends:	$547.35
Dividends YTD:	$850.73
Portfolio metrics
Portfolio Yield:	5.69%
Portfolio Dividend Growth:	7.74%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 10 yrs:	$36,803.35	24.64%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 20 yrs:	$375,332.47	251.31%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 25 yrs:	$1,978,173.68	1324.54%
Ann. Div Income & YOC in 30 yrs:	$16,983,550.44	11,371.77%
Portfolio Alpha:	11.77%
Portfolio Weighted Beta:	0.44
CAGR:	506.80%
AROC:	12.71%
TROC:	7.36%
Our 2022 Goal
2022 Dividend Goal:	$4,800.00	17.72%	In Progress
2022 Portfolio Value Goal:	$151,638.03	66.72%	In Progress
6-year Portfolio Value Goal:	$175,000.00	57.81%	In Progress
10-year Portfolio Value Goal:	$1,000,000.00	10.12%	In Progress

Dividend Investing and Trading Report

Last week we have received $473.78 in dividends bringing February’s dividend income to $547.35.

We didn’t buy any dividend growth stocks last week.

Here you can see our dividend income per stock holding:

Growth stocks Investing and Trading Report

Last week we bought the following growth stocks and funds:

3 shares of AAPL @ $172.91
5 shares of PYPL @ $110.00

Options Investing and Trading Report

Last week we rolled our strangle trades to keep our account safe. That raised cash and buying power.

These adjustments delivered an income of $2,550.00 bringing February total to $8,079.00.

We were actively trading our SPX strategy that delivered $955.00 weekly income.

Expected Future Dividend Income

We have received $473.78 in dividends last week. Our portfolio currently yields 5.69% at $101,173.85 market value.

Our projected annual dividend income in 10 years is $36,803.35 but that projection is if we do absolutely nothing and let our positions grow on their own without adding new positions or reinvesting the dividends.

We are also set to receive a $5,732.19 annual dividend income ($477.68 monthly income). We are 15.58% of our 10 year goal of $36,803.35 dividend income.

Market value of our holdings

Our non-adjusted stock holdings market value decreased from $156,648.84 to $152,457.86 last week.

Investing and trading ROI

Our options trading delivered a 7.99% monthly ROI in February 2022, totaling a 16.77% ROI YTD. We hope that in 2022 we exceed our 45% annual revenue selling options against dividend stocks target!

Our entire account is down -3.32%.

Our options trading averaged $8,482.00 per month this year. If this trend continues, we are on track to make $101,784.00 trading options in 2022. As of today, we have made $16,964.00 trading options.

Old SPX trades repair

This week, we adjusted our old SPX trade. Since the markets tanked, one of our old Iron Condors had the calls out of the money and put spread in the money (for a year or two it was the other way around). With this, we could roll our put spread away and same strikes. That resulted in a debit trade. But we could also roll our calls higher, way higher than we had before. If the market starts moving up again, I hope, the SPX price will land in between the spreads (as we now have a way wider window than before) and the entire Condor expires worthless. If not, we will roll it again, but as of today, we have a way better position than before.

We still have a second Iron Condor (actually a box) and we didn’t adjust it, as it is in bad shape. We will wait for a better opportunity or wait for eligibility for a portfolio margin.

With RegT margin, the capital requirements would be approx. $66,586.06 and that is beyond our means. With PM the requirement for margin would drop to around $10k. That is doable in our account. Once we reach this level, we will start adjusting our SPX trades accordingly. Until then, we will just roll these trades around.

We however traded our SPX put credit spread strategy which you will be able to review in my next report. The SPX strategy held well so far, and our signals kept us away from opening new trades.

Market Outlook

The stock market crashed on Thursday and Friday last week again and it is now pretty much at or near the previous lows. The SPX is now re-testing the previous lows. But if we break below those lows, all hell will be loose and we may see a very aggressive downtrend.

Next week will show us what to expect. If we bounce, we will see a nice rally. If not… From looking at charts and reading about the market, I am getting an opinion that the market will go lower and that FED will not step in to bail the market out. There is a high possibility of an upcoming 20%+ correction.