InvestingWithBrandon

Retail investor: I just buy and hold index funds. Slow and steady.
Me: Good. Seriously. That's the base. I do the exact same thing with $VOO and $Q
Retail investor: Wait, you hold index funds too?
Me: Of course. The only difference is I don't let them just sit there. I use them as collateral and sell puts against them for another 15% ish on top.
Retail investor: So you're not replacing index investing… you're stacking on it?
Me: Exactly. You're doing step one perfectly. You just stopped before step two.
Retail investor: What if he market crashes with he portfolio secured put?
Me: Ratios are al

I haven’t met a 1 SINGLE PERSON that beat the SP500 in the last 10 years doing covered calls or cash secured puts as their primary strategy.
NOT ONE...
What does that tell you?
(trust me, this comments section would have nothing but ROI screenshots if I was wrong)
I want nothing but for everyone to crush it and make lots of money, but these strategies do not work...
Covered calls cap upside, don't do much to protect downside, & you are bullish & bearish at the exact same time. (bullish to buy shares, bearish to cap upside)
CSP have huge cash drag at a time you are bullish... Won't beat market

Try to argue against portfolio secured puts.
"You could get assigned!" ...assigned a great company, below fair value, at a strike 10% under, with the premium already collected. FINE.
"The market could crash!" ...my ratios are sized so a 50%+ crash can't force a single sale. & crashes make my next premiums fatter. FINE.
"Your collateral is at risk!" ...my collateral is $VOO & $Q & Elite single companies. If those go to zero permanently, money itself has bigger problems. FINE.
"You cap your upside!" ...no, that's covered calls. My base is uncapped & my LEAPs are uncapped. The portfolio secured p

Retail investor: My wife & I keep fighting about investing. She thinks anything beyond index funds is gambling. I want to do more. It's becoming a real thing.
Me: Honestly? You're both right & you're arguing past each other.
Retail investor: How are we both right?
Me: She's right that MOST of what's beyond index funds IS gambling... 0DTE, meme stocks, weeklies. Her instinct is protecting your family from exactly the stuff that torches accounts. That instinct is an asset.
Retail investor: & I'm right because...?
Me: Because there's a version of "more" that isn't gambling. Buying great companies

If I could ask every options trader one interview question, it would be this:
"What is your collateral doing right now?"
The cash secured put crowd answers "sitting there." Tens of thousands of dollars, benched for months if not years, earning nothing, waiting for a potential assignment.
My answer: "compounding." My collateral is $VOO + $Q + ELITE single companies & it grows 10 to 20% a year on average & secures every put I sell at the same time. This is the portfolio secured put.
No cash drag. No opportunity cost. No margin interest. Ratios in check to be fine in deep crashes.
The whole diffe

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

Imagine a guy who knocks on your door every single day offering to buy your house.
Monday: "I'll give you $500k!"
Tuesday: "Actually... $430k."
Wednesday: "MARKET'S CRASHING. $350k, final offer!"
Thursday: "Never mind. $520k."
Same house. Nothing changed. He's just manic.
You'd never let that lunatic decide what your house is worth...
But that's EXACTLY what people do with stocks.
The price on your screen is just Mr. Market's mood that day... not what the company is worth.
The earnings decide what it's worth. His panic prices are just offers.
& when he shows up terrified offering me a great co

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 like CSP. 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.

Retail investor: I've sold at the bottom 3 times now. 2022, the April 2025, & again this spring. I know better & I keep doing it. What is wrong with me?
Me: Nothing's wrong with you. Something's wrong with your setup. Those are different problems.
Retail investor: No, it's me. I panic every time. I've read all the "stay calm" stuff & it doesn't work.
Me: Because calm isn't a decision, it's a byproduct. Tell me what you were holding each time you sold.
Retail investor: Mostly stuff I'd bought on the way up... hype names, things people were talking about.
Me: There it is. You panic sold because

If you sell covered calls, there's one number in your account you've never calculated. I'll warn you now... you're not gonna like it.
Go find every position you've had called away in the last few years.
Now look up what those shares are worth TODAY.
Subtract what you got paid at your strike. Then subtract all the little premiums you collected along the way.
That number... the gap... is what the "income" actually cost you.
For most people running covered calls on great companies, it's tens of thousands. Sometimes six figures. All traded away for premiums that felt like free money at the time.
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