InvestingWithBrandon

All the people posting “omg the market is going to be so red tomorrow” are the same retail investors that get excited when it’s green.
NEVER EVER LET EMOTIONS COME IN TO INVESTMENT DECISIONS.
The market will always be volatile.
There will be bumps in the road.
Stop looking at your feet.
Focus on the big picture.
Companies will continue to grow profits.
Allocate to the good ones at good valuations.
Do 1+ year options.
Then be patient and watch everyone panic.
I’m here to make money.
I’m sure you are too.
Stick to the plan.
Keep emotions in check.
This changes nothing with Iran.

Your HORRIBLE strike price is why you get smoked with options...
(how to fix it right now)
Most retail investors sell puts with a strike price 5% ish below the current market price to "build a margin of safety"
They usually do this with monthly contracts.
Here's the BIG problem.
5% is not a good enough margin of safety, especially with a 1 month contract where you have no tailwinds of growth behind you.
(as EPS climbs, the stock will follow that up)
The solution is to sell 1+ year puts.
You can pick a strike price 20% below the money, get great premium, build a MUCH better margin of safety, ha

The BIGGEST hack with selling portfolio secured puts is that you can technically make an unlimited ROI.
(not kidding)
Roll with me on this one, it will BLOW YOUR MIND!
So selling puts is a bullish strategy.
That's why I would never want to sell "cash secured puts", I sell "portfolios secured puts."
(cash sits there and does nothing, but portfolio secured works for you being invested)
Ok.
So when I sell portfolio secured puts and collect say $20k for example, I take that cash flow and buy $20k in shares of the company I am bullish on. (same one I am selling puts on)
I usually sell 1 year contra

THE STOCK MARKET WILL MAKE YOU WANT TO DO THE WRONG THING AT THE WORST TIME.
(this crushes most people)
When stocks are expensive and ripping, you feel like buying everything. (usually more risky)
When stocks are cheap and everyone is scared, you feel like selling everything. (usually a better deal)
When a great stock goes sideways, you feel like replacing it. (a big upside move could be close)
When your plan is finally about to work, you mess it up...
The market is not just testing your research/thesis.
It is testing your patience, discipline, & emotions.
Most people do not lose because they

The last 3 years of the stock market have been abnormal.
NASDAQ up 112% in 3 years.
Every dip was a V-shaped recovery.
Every option strategy worked.
Everyone was a genius...
Guess what.
That's not how markets always work.
We will get 40% crashes.
We will have volatility.
We will have bad things happen.
You need to ensure the strategy/companies you buy can handle the storms.
Cause if not... you are only as good as the bull market lasting & 1 crash away from being reset...
Please don't do that with your hard earned money.

"I just want steady monthly cashflow from my options."
That one desire is quietly keeping people poor.
Because cashflow and total return are not the same thing, and chasing the first one constantly wrecks the second.
Look at the YieldMax crowd.
Two years in, bragging they finally got their money back, while the index they could've just held is up 40% and their share price got smoked.
I don't optimize for a number every month.
I build total return over years and pull cash when I actually need it.
Stop thinking you are doing something productive with monthly with BS cash flow at the HUGE cost of

Let's put real numbers on this.
Say you've got $100k sitting in VOO and 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 between

Walk into a bank with $100k.
Buy a CD, collect your 4%.
Then ask to ALSO use that same $100k as a down payment on a rental property...
They'll laugh you out the building.
"You can't have your money in two places at once."
But that's exactly what I do every single month.
My shares (VOO/Q) sit there compounding ~11% a year.
Those SAME shares secure the puts I sell for another ~15%.
Same money. Two returns. Never on margin. Ratios always in check.
That's how 10% quietly becomes 25%.
And 25% is the difference between $1M and $61M over time.
Portfolio secured puts will change your life.

There's a guy at every job.
35 years in. Knows everything. And still can't actually afford to walk away.
He did it all "right."
Maxed the 401k.
Never missed a day.
Waited on a pension that got smaller every year they renegotiated it.
That used to genuinely scare me.
The idea of giving up 40 years for a maybe.
So I quit waiting for permission to retire and started building income/growth I actually controlled.
Selling puts. Stacking shares. Reinvesting all of it in quality companies.
I'm not claiming I am 10x smarter than that guy.
I just refused to bet my whole life on a finish line someone els

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