jevaughnbailey. ✪ @BrandonOption

Every investor follows this same path. (including me starting out) Stage 1 — Day trader. Follows trade alert services. (Gets smoked) Stage 2 — Swing trader. Follows momentum. No fundamentals. (Smoked) Stage 3 — Covered calls. Caps upside. Misses every big move. (Underperforms) Stage 4 — Index investor. VOO + QQQ. Beats most people. (ok) Stage 5 — The system. Base + sold puts portfolio secured + LEAP calls. All markets. (Wins) Most people get stuck at Stage 3 & think they have it figured out. Nvidia at $12. Sold covered calls at $30. Stock went to $140. Left a 10x on the table for $200/month in premium. Stage 5: Nvidia at $95. Sold 1yr puts. Collected $10k premium. Bought calls + shares. Bounced 93%. Triple dip.

x.com/i/article/2038…

I cannot tell you how many people told me they were smart for selling covered calls on Nvidia. (until now) They bought at $10. Sold covered calls at $20. "If it doubles I'm out. I made 100%. That's enough." They doubled their money & got called out. Then watched Nvidia go to $50. Then $80. Then over $200. They left a 10x on the table chasing a little monthly premium. Here is the rule. If you are bullish on a company buy the shares & hold them. Super bullish? Sell portfolio secured puts and buy calls. If you are bearish, sell the shares & be done with it. Covered calls cap your upside while giving you almost zero downside protection. 1-2% per month in premium does nothing when a stock drops 40%. You are still down 38%. Do not let the tail wag the dog.

The 5 most popular option strategies ranked. (only 1 actually works long term) 🔴 D tier — Covered calls. Bullish with one hand. Cap your upside with the other. Doesn't protect downside. Usually makes no sense.... 🔴 C tier — Cash secured puts. Bullish to sell put, but sitting in cash doing nothing while the stock runs. 🟡 B tier — Buying puts. You're betting against every CEO whose job is to prove you wrong. 🟡 A tier — Buying calls. Better but timing still has to be perfect. Hard to do consistently. 🟢 S tier — Portfolio secured puts + LEAPS + shares. This is what scaled me to 7 figures through bull & bear. SIMPLE!

I sold a put on Nvidia. Here is exactly what happened. Nvidia was below the EPS growth line. I acted. Premium collected instantly: $25,000. Cash in my account: $0. What a cash secured put would have needed: $150,000 sitting idle. What I did with the $25,000: Bought Nvidia LEAP calls with part of it. Bought Nvidia shares with the rest. My base portfolio secured the put. Not $150,000 in cash. Every dollar worked on the way up. Sold put. Collected premium. Bought shares & calls. Everything worked. Ratios in check to manage risk That is the whole system in one trade. Portfolio secured put wins again.

If you get value from my posts, you'll love my 10 Day Stock & Options Transformation Training. No day trading. No swing trading. No BS. Just straight up investing the right way. Over the course of 10 days of training (you can do it faster if you want), you'll learn exactly how you can scale your portfolio to millions with Stocks & Options in a low risk way & get access to my mastermind Discord community. This is the exact same system I have used for the last decade & scaled to millions with tens of thousands in monthly cash flow in a low risk way. Get set up here: learn.investingwithbrandon.co/join

The wheel strategy sounds good on paper. Sell a put. Get assigned. Sell covered calls. Repeat. Here is the problem. You sell a $600 QQQ put. Collect $682. The cash securing that trade? $60,000 sitting idle. That is 1% per month. 12% annualized. Meanwhile the NASDAQ went up 134% in 3 years. You did all that work. You stressed about every earnings report. You hit trade after trade after trade. You underperformed buy-and-hold by 90% in 3 years. And when the market falls 35% you are not in capitalization mode. You are in survival mode. Trying to wheel out of assigned shares. Missing the entire rebound. The wheel is a hamster wheel. Portfolio secured puts + LEAPS + base portfolio. That is the exit.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Do something productive. Become a better investor. Focus on the signal, not the noise of this market. Long term investing will win. Short term volatility = opportunity.

Lots of people ask how I invest and do options. I built a playlist on YouTube that will help out A LOT! Check it out here: youtube.com/playlist?list=…

I sold puts on Meta. Collected $46,000 instantly. My cash balance? $232. Cash secured put on the same trade would have required $280,000 sitting in cash doing nothing. Instead I used my base portfolio as collateral. Took that $46k & bought Meta LEAP calls. Took the rest & bought VOO, QQQ & META shares. Zero margin interest. Zero cash drag. Full upside intact. Ratios in check to be fine in any downturn. It is exactly like a HELOC on your house. Except you pay nothing in interest. That gap = $280k working vs $280k sleeping This is a MAJOR difference.

Nobody talks about the real cost of cash secured puts. You sell a put & lock $10,000 in cash as collateral. The stock you are supposedly bullish on runs 40% You collected $300 in premium & missed $4,000 in upside. (Every. Single. Time.) Now do that for 10 years straight. That gap is not small. That gap is your entire retirement. Sell portfolio secured puts & collect the premium without sacrificing the position.

Most retail investors doing monthly puts think they are beating what I do... Here is the math that ends that argument. Market gets cheap. I sell one 2 year put. Collect $20,000. You sell monthly puts on the same company. $1,000 per month average. You make money in the up months. You lose in the volatile months. You have to sell at the top when it is not compelling. After 8 months you made $8,000. I made $20,000 in one trade when the market was cheap. Took the premium. Bought shares. Bought calls. Sat back. 4 months later the market rebounded. I closed the 2 year puts at 75% profit. I held them for 4 out of 24 months. You hit 8 trades. I hit 1. You made $8,000. I made $20,000+. Less trades. More conviction. Portfolio secured put wins again.

If you get value from my posts, you'll love my 10 Day Stock & Options Transformation Training. No day trading. No swing trading. No BS. Just straight up investing the right way. Over the course of 10 days of training (you can do it faster if you want), you'll learn exactly how you can scale your portfolio to millions with Stocks & Options in a low risk way & get access to my mastermind Discord community. This is the exact same system I have used for the last decade & scaled to millions with tens of thousands in monthly cash flow in a low risk way. Get set up here: learn.investingwithbrandon.co/join

Cash secured puts are a trap. Here is the math that proves it. You are ultra bullish on a stock. You sell a cash secured put. $60,000 in cash sits in your account doing nothing to secure the trade. Meanwhile the stock you are bullish on goes up 93%. Your cash made zero. Your sold put made a few hundred dollars. Now run the portfolio secured version. Same sold put. No cash sitting there. Your portfolio is the collateral. Ratios in check. Zero margin interest. That $60,000 is now in shares going up 93%. You also collected the put premium on top. You are bullish. You should have every dollar working. Cash secured puts punish you for being right. Portfolio secured puts reward you for being right.

$500 per month. 30 years. 3 different strategies. 1. S&P 500 only (10% avg): $1 million. 2. Base + portfolio secured puts (20% avg): $9 million. 3. Base + puts + LEAPS (25% avg): $61 million. Same $500/month. Same 30 years. The only variable is your system. That gap from $1M to $61M is not luck. It is the free loan double dip as I call it. Money in two places at once. Shares appreciating + sold puts generating income + LEAPS magnifying conviction. The options layer does not just make income. It is a compounding accelerator.

I'm going to be VERY honest with you. 🔴Most people should NOT own stocks. 🔴Most people should NOT use options. Why? Because most people can't control their emotions when the market is volatile. They panic sell the dips and FOMO buy the tops. Instead, use the volatility to your advantage & capitalize.

If you get value from my posts, you'll love my 10 Day Stock & Options Transformation Training. No day trading. No swing trading. No BS. Just straight up investing the right way. Over the course of 10 days of training (you can do it faster if you want), you'll learn exactly how you can scale your portfolio to millions with Stocks & Options in a low risk way & get access to my mastermind Discord community. This is the exact same system I have used for the last decade & scaled to millions with tens of thousands in monthly cash flow in a low risk way. Get set up here: learn.investingwithbrandon.co/join

I retired at 31 doing this. Step 1. Build your base. $40k VOO. $40k QQQ. $20k high conviction companies near intrinsic value. This is your foundation & your collateral. Step 2. Sell 1+ year portfolio secured puts. Quality companies only. Moat. Pricing power. Good valuation. Collect the premium. Pay zero margin interest. Step 3. Redeploy every dollar of premium. More shares. LEAPS on your highest conviction names. Never let it sit as cash. Step 4. Keep ratios in check. Always know your 7-day liquidity. A 40% crash should not keep you up at night. That is it. No day trading. No covered calls. No spreads. No stress. Just structure & time.

Every options trader follows this same path. Stage 1 — Day trader. Follows trade alert services. Buys weekly calls. Gets smoked. Stage 2 — Swing trader. Follows momentum. No fundamentals. Gets smoked again. Stage 3 — Covered calls & cash secured puts. Caps upside. Misses every big move. Underperforms buy-and-hold. Stage 4 — Realizes the market cannot be timed short term. Stops chasing. Starts studying fundamentals. EPS. Valuation. Moat. Stage 5 — Portfolio secured puts + LEAPS + base portfolio. Sells puts when cheap. Buy shares. Buy calls. Patient. 25.89% CAGR. Retired at 31. Most people never make it past Stage 3. Hopefully this shortcut helps.

These are the hot stocks everyone online was preaching last year. The “can’t lose” names. The “future” names. The stocks all over X, YouTube, Reddit, and Discord. Here is how far they are down from their all time highs right now: $SOFI Down 51.21% $HIMS Down 71.75% $HOOD Down 54.47% $IONQ Down 64.57% $EOSE Down 84.76% $RKLB Down 32.21% $PLTR Down 28.17% $ACHR Down 71.08% $UPST Down 93.67% $OPEN Down 87.37% $AFRM Down 74.86% $IREN Down 50.66% Point is simple. Narratives sound the strongest near the top. Hype is the loudest near the top. And that is usually where the risk is the highest. This is exactly why valuation matters. This is exactly why position sizing matters. And this is exactly why you do not chase stories just because everyone online is screaming about them. When sentiment flips, these things can get cut in half fast. Or worse. Not saying these are bad companies. But you need a good valuation to make a good company a good investment.