InvestingWithBrandon

Retail investor: This is the dot com bubble all over again. I’m not selling puts or buying calls into this.
Me: How are the valuations now?
Retail investor: The market is at all time highs, that’s all I need to know.
Me: In March 2000 the Nasdaq 100 traded around 100x forward earnings.
Retail investor: & now?
Me: About 22x.
Retail investor: ...that’s not even close.
Me: Right... Of course the market will experience volatility, but just saying the market is at ATHs does not mean much... ESPECIALLY since earnings growth has been at a similar pace as the market going up.
Retail investor: so would

Retail investor: I got destroyed selling weekly puts on $Q in April 2025.
Me: What happened?
Retail investor: Tariffs... & I kept selling them right below the market price. Every week it dropped more.
Me: Q fell about 23% in 7 weeks from the February high.
Retail investor: yeah & I kept rolling & getting assigned.
Me: Then what?
Retail investor: by then I was scared so I sold everything.
Me: Within a month of the April 8th low, Q was up 17%.
Retail investor: ...don’t remind me.
Me: That’s weeklies for you... no time to recover, so you end up selling at the bottom. With a 2 year put, April 2025

I just realized $73,038 in profit on $META.
5 long duration portfolio secured puts
3 long duration calls.
All expiring in 2028.
Sold Puts: +$31,215
Bought Calls: +$41,822
Was it smooth? No. META closed at $539 on July 30th, below my $550 strike.
Did I panic? No. I had over 2 years on the clock.
Short duration options would’ve had most sweating that dip with days or weeks left. Long duration gave the thesis time to play out & the company time to grow into its value.
This is the power of having a SOLID thesis & trades that actually give it time to play out.
Also... for everyone that says theta d

Most people would tell me to take profits on some of my $NVDA calls.
I’m up $16,766. That’s +56%.
I honestly didn’t even know the % until I pulled up this screenshot.
Because the % doesn’t matter...
You're probably thinking... BRANDON YOU ARE CRAZY!
Listen...
Options are just a way to MAGNIFY a stock I’m already bullish on. That’s it. The call isn’t the trade. NVDA is the trade.
So the only question I ask is: is NVDA still compelling enough to magnify?
Are earnings still growing? Is the price still reasonable compared to where fair value is?
If yes, I keep magnifying it. If no, I close it... w

I don't day trade... 99% of them lose. (see chart below)
I don't sell covered calls... they cap the exact upside.
I don't sell cash secured puts... I'm not parking six figures in dead cash.
I don't touch weeklies... nobody knows what a stock does in 5 days.
I don't run spreads... I'm not paying to bet against my own trade.
I don't watch screens all day.
Here's what I actually do:
Build a base of $VOO + $Q
+ Elite companies that I hold for the long run.
Sell 1+ year portfolio secured puts on great companies below fair value, secured by that base.
Premium buys more shares. Shares secure bigger p

DON'T COMPLICATE IT...
Buying shares
Selling 1+ year portfolio secured puts
Buying 1+ year calls
Keeping ratios in check to be find in deep crashes
When a great company is trading below fair value is the BEST way to make money in the stock market.

I started buying $Q in January 2019.
Here's what those shares look like today.
Every lot here up between 236% to 362%.
I didn't sell in the COVID crash.
I didn't sell when Q fell 36% in 2022.
Every single lot says Long Term. Not one share sold. Not one dollar of tax paid on these gains.
& these shares aren't just sitting there. They're the collateral behind the portfolio secured puts I sell every month. They compound AND they work a second job.
Doing nothing is the hardest skill in this game. It's also the one that pays the most.

Retail investor: My coworker says the market is a bubble & he's been in cash for 3 years waiting for it to pop.
Me: How's that working for him?
Retail investor: Honestly he seems stressed every time we talk about it.
Me: Look at that chart. Find every moment somebody called a bubble. 2013, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2023. 2025. All of them.
Retail investor: They're all way below where it is now.
Me: & every one of those people felt smart for a few months & wrong ever since...
Retail investor: So bubbles aren't real?
Me: They're real. In 2000 the nasdaq $Q was down 75%, 13 years to break even. That was

I retired at 31 doing this.
Step 1. Build your base.
$40k $VOO. $40k $Q. $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

Monthly puts vs 2 year puts.
The math that ends the 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.
To match my $20,000 you need to hit 20 trades in a row.
But here is the problem.
As the market recovers from the dip each monthly put becomes less compelling.
Less undervalued. Less premium. Less margin of safety.
You are forcing trades as the opportunity shrinks.
Meanwhile I deployed $20k at peak fear.
Took that premium. Bought LEAPS.
Bought shares.
Done.
One trade at the right time beats 20 trades at the

The ABSOLUTE worst day in ALL history to buy the Nasdaq $Q was March 27, 2000.
$117.75 a share. The very top of the dot com bubble.
By October 2002 it was $20.06. Down 82%.
It took about 15 years just to get back to even... & that's WITH dividends reinvested.
But if you bought that exact day & did nothing, today it's around $740. About 7x your money with dividends.
Now the person who bought in October 2002 at $20... that's about 37x on price alone.
Same fund. The only thing that changed was the price paid.
That's why I don't buy just because something is going up. I want great companies/ETFs t

Retail investor: If we get another 2022 I'm going to cash. That year broke me... BAD.
Me: Look at that chart. Down over 36%. Now tell me what you did.
Retail investor: Held as long as I could, sold near the bottom, got back in way higher.
Me: So the market took a temporary 36% dip & your reaction made it permanent... You sold when it went on sale...
Retail investor: I know. It still eats at me inside.
Me: Here's my 2022. Same chart. I sold 1+ year portfolio secured puts the whole way down while premiums were the fattest they'd been in years. Collected the cash flow and reinvested in back in to