InvestingWithBrandon

Retail investor: I always take profits when I'm up 20-30%. Lock in the gains.
Me: On your best companies too?
Retail investor: Especially those. Don't want to get greedy.
Me: So you sell your WINNERS... the elite companies actually carrying your portfolio?
Retail investor: I mean, a gain isn't real till you sell, right?
Me: & then it triples after you're out, you pay taxes on the sale, & you're sitting in cash wondering what to buy next.
Retail investor: ...I've literally done that.
Me: I never sell my winners just to sell them... I often hold them for years & sell portfolio secured puts to pu

9/10 times owning a home that you live in is a terrible investment.
Most people will say oh I bought it for 400 and sold for 500.
Yet they don’t add up what they paid in taxes, interest, HOA, insurance, etc over the hold period. Plus RE commissions to sell.
The stock market will VERY likely outperform your RE appreciation for a home you personally live in.
Run the numbers...

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.
We are all here to make money... RIGHT?
This isn't the way.
Portfolio secured put IS the way.
Watch this YouTube playlist I made to learn how:

Retail investor: My portfolio is serious money. I keep it far away from options.
Me: What do you think I'm doing that's risky, exactly?
Retail investor: Options man. Leverage, expiration dates, all of it. It's gambling.
Me: Walk through my actual trade with me. I promise to buy a great company at 15% below an already fair price a year or 2 from now.. & someone pays me thousands TODAY for that promise.
Retail investor: Ok...
Me: Worst case, I'm forced to buy one of the best companies on earth... at a discount... with the premium already in my pocket. What exactly is the gamble?
Retail investor:

Let's put actual numbers on this.
Say you've got $100k sitting in $VOO & $Q.
That base alone does its ~10% a year. Roughly $10k.
Now you use that SAME base as collateral to sell puts on quality companies when they're cheap.
Conservatively another ~10%. Call it $10k.
Same $100k. Now around $20k is working for you instead of $10k.
You didn't add a single new dollar.
You didn't go on margin.
You kept your ratios in check to be fine in any DEEP market crash
You just stopped letting your collateral do one job when it could easily do two...
Compound that gap for 30 years and it's the difference betw

You will NEVER get rich selling covered calls.
Let me explain why.
You own the shares = you're bullish.
Then you sell a call = you cap your own upside.
So when the company you LOVE finally rips 40%, you get called away at your low strike and watch it run without you...
You collected pennies to give away the steak.
Sell portfolio secured PUTS instead.
Take that premium. Buy MORE shares. Let them compound for years.
One strategy caps your upside.
The other compounds it.

Retail investor: I sell covered calls for income. Made $1,400 in premium this year on my shares.
Me: Any of them get called away?
Retail investor: One position, yeah. It ripped right through my strike in the spring.
Me: So run the real math for me. How much did it keep running after they took your shares?
Retail investor: ...a lot. If I'd just held I'd be up like $15k more on that position.
Me: So you collected $1,400 in premium... & paid $15,000 of upside for it. That's the covered call for you... Works 9 out of 10 times... but the 10th one hurts.
Retail investor: ... I learned the hard way..

UNPOPULAR BRUTAL TRUTH...
We will ALWAYS have something "bad happening" & something to "worry about"
But the "this time is different" saying has yet to be correct 1 single time...
Continue to buy great companies for less than they are worth and only do 1+ year options to magnify ultra high confidence setups.
& guess what... the future is likely to look like the past. VOLATILE.
Allocate to win in the good times & the bad. ALWAYS.