InvestingWithBrandon

Most people "trading" check their phones probably 200 times a day.
Every red candle feels like a punch in the gut.
You refresh your account at red lights.
You lie in bed at 1am running scenarios you can't control.
Some weeks you'd be up. The next week you hand it all back.
But it doesn't have to be like that...
Because hey... We are all here to make money right.
How many day trading billionaires do you know?
This is why the name of the game is the long game.
Buy great companies for less than they are worth with great EPS growth.
Then ONLY use options to magnify ultra bullish plays.
It's that s

When your whole feed is green screenshots of "easy money"
That's exactly when I get careful.
Not because I'm calling a top. I don't predict the unpredictable.
But when everyone's a genius, I tighten my ratios, demand a deeper margin of safety, and prepare even more for volatility.
And when everyone's panicking and posting red?
That's when the fattest put premiums of the year show up on the companies I already wanted to own.
Be boring when they're greedy.
Be greedy when they're scared.

5 options mistakes that will keep you broke for years:
Buying short dated calls (theta will eat you alive)
Selling cash secured puts (dead money rotting in the account)
Selling covered calls (caps the best winners)
Running the wheel (busy work, limits appreciation)
Forcing a monthly income quota...
Notice the pattern?
Every single one is you being impatient or betting against your own conviction.
Kill the impatience and 90% of your options problems disappear.

"Selling puts on margin? That's insane, you'll get wiped out."
No.
YOU'D get wiped out. Because you'd over leverage and panic.
Margin isn't the risk. A lack of discipline is.
I sell portfolio secured puts with my ratios always in check. The market could fall 60-70% and I could still cover every assignment. I'm rarely ever actually on margin.
A chainsaw is deadly in careless hands and a tool in skilled ones.
Don't blame the chainsaw because most people swing it with their eyes closed.

Same EXACT companies as yesterday.
Only difference today? The price.
You should be happy that things are cheaper today.
Yet I see the herd in full blown panic mode.
Common guys…

"I need to make $2,000 in options income every month."
That one sentence has blown up more accounts than any crash.
Because the good setups aren't always there.
When you FORCE a monthly number, you start selling puts on garbage at bad prices just to hit your quota.
I only sell when the setup is close to perfect.
Some months I sell a lot. Some months nothing at all.
Need cash to live on? Sell a few shares from your base.
NEVER sell a put just to sell a put. That quota will bury you.

You want to beat 99% of options traders?
You don't need a better indicator.
You don't need to be smarter.
You need to be willing to be BORED.
Sell a portfolio secured put. Wait a year. Collect. Reinvest. Repeat.
No screens all day.
No 0DTE adrenaline.
No monthly garbage wheel strategy.
No "what's it doing right now."
Most people can't handle that.
They NEED the action.
So they trade themselves into the ground chasing dopamine.
The boring trade is often the profitable trade.
Boring scaled me to millions & Warren Buffett to billions

The bull market is lying to you...
Your account is up.
Your calls are printing.
You feel sharp.
But ask yourself one honest question:
Are you up because your STRATEGY works... or because the tide lifted every boat in the harbor?
Because when the tide goes out (and it always does) that's when you find out who built something real and who was just along for the ride.
I built my strategy to win on the way UP and survive/capitalize the way DOWN.
Most people only built half of that.
They just don't know it yet.

Want to know my real edge? It's not the trades I make.
It's the 90% I DON'T.
I look at a setup.
Below intrinsic value?
Real moat?
Pricing power?
Durable edge?
Macro thesis intact?
All five pass → I sell the put.
Even ONE fails → I walk.
Every time.
No exceptions.
No "but it feels right."
Everyone obsesses over what to buy.
I made millions obsessing over what to skip.
Saying no to 95% of trades isn't being picky.
It's the entire strategy.

我每月通过出售期权赚取大约$30k 。
没有日内交易。没有整天盯着屏幕。没有赌博。
这里让人脑袋炸裂的部分是：
我不是在预测任何事情。
我不是在喊顶。
不是在判断底部。
也不猜特朗普会发什么推文。
我是在卖有保障的股票组合看跌期权，当它们已经变得便宜时，行使价比当前低10%，期限至少一年，让时间价值的流逝帮我赚钱。
这就是我在过去十多年+战胜市场的方式。
它很无聊，但能赚钱。
这就是我们所有人在这里的原因……

Simple rule that fixes 90% of options mistakes:
Only sell puts on companies you'd be HAPPY to marry.
Not date. Marry.
Companies with a real moat.
Pricing power.
A durable edge.
Earnings going up.
Great valuation level to start.
Because when you sell a put, you might get assigned. You might own it.
If you only sell puts on companies you'd gladly hold for a decade, getting assigned is just fine.
FYI, I have been selling long duration portfolio secured puts for over a decade and I have been assigned only 4 times.
This is the power of doing it the right way.
Also, every time I was assigned, I made

While you sat in traffic this morning, a portfolio secured put I sold months ago quietly decayed a little more in my favor.
I didn't check it. I didn't touch it. I didn't lose a second of sleep over it.
That's the part nobody tells you about selling options the right way.
It's not about being glued to a screen all day.
It's about setting up trades so good you can forget they exist.
The money shows up whether you're watching or not.
This is the power of longer durations & only doing it on ultra compelling setups.

VERY UNPOPULAR FACT ABOUT DELTA WITH OPTIONS:
It tells you NOTHING about if a contract is likely to expire ITM or OTM.
It’s a fact.
Stop following other retail investors thinking this.
So what does actually matters for what a stock price is going to do & helps us with options?
EPS growth
Revenue growth
Profit margins
Valuation
Moat
Competition
Interest rates
Economy
Does delta factor in those HUGE needle movers?
Not really… no.
So when you use delta & get smoked, it’s because you are looking at something that really tells you nothing about % chance a contract expires ITM.
Go look it up yours

The single biggest mindset shift that made me millions:
Volatility is NOT risk.
A 40% drop isn't risk. It's a sale.
Risk is permanent loss, owning trash, over leveraging, or panic selling at the bottom.
That's why my ratios are ALWAYS in check.
I will never get wiped out.
When the market dumps and everyone's screaming "risk!"...
I see the best opportunities.
I see the best sold put premiums.
I see the cheapest call options.
Volatility is the opportunity.
Not the risk.

It takes many people YEARS to realize the wheel is a trap.
On paper it sounds perfect.
Sell puts, get assigned, sell covered calls, repeat. "Income machine."
Here's what actually happens:
You sell puts on garbage you don't want.
You get assigned.
Now you're stuck selling covered calls that CAP your upside on the rebound.
So you make pennies while the good companies you SHOULD have owned run without you.
The wheel keeps you busy.
It doesn't make you rich.
I'd rather sell long duration portfolio secured puts on elite companies and let them compound.
We are all here to make money... RIGHT?

Here's something that'll blow your mind with options.
I sold a $Q portfolio secured put.
Took the cash flow and reinvested back in $Q
Bought it back later for a fraction of what I sold it for.
Walked away with $20k of $Q shares I basically got out of thin air.
No margin. No interest. No cash drag. No opportunity cost.
Now here's the part nobody thinks about:
Those $20k of shares?
In 20 years they're worth $100k+
So that ONE put trade didn't make me a few grand.
It made me $100k down the road.
The trade doesn't end when the trade ends with portfolio secured puts.

Let me say the thing nobody wants to hear.
Everyone posting their gains the last 3 years is a "genius."
In a bull market, throwing darts works.
Buying random calls works.
The wheel works.
Everything works.
The market's been a tailwind so strong it's covering for terrible strategies.
The real test isn't now.
It's the next 40% drawdown.
The next COVID circuit breaker.
The next 2022.
Ask yourself honestly:
Does my options strategy survive THAT?
If it only works when the market goes up... you don't have a strategy...
You are gambling & got lucky.

Here's a secret the wealthy will never say out loud:
They don't sell their best shares. Ever.
I plan to hold my core $VOO / $Q until I die.
My kids inherit them at a stepped up cost basis... meaning all those gains? Taxed at basically zero.
Meanwhile I'm selling puts against those same shares for cash flow the whole time.
Income now. Appreciation forever. Taxes drastically reduced.
Selling portfolio secured puts let you generate the income WITHOUT ever touching the golden goose.