Learn. Explore. Review.
Learn the basics, test a hypothetical position, and explore a trading journal that keeps wins and losses visible.
Percentage aggregates are open to everyone. Wins and losses stay visible. New to options? Start with the free guides.
Try a hypothetical example
Sell a $100 put, buy a $95 put. Same expiry, one contract each; net credit $180.
Illustrative inputs, not market quotes. Excludes fees and early assignment. Expiry payoff is not the position’s value today.
Explore the full payoff tool →Short guides that explain the rights, obligations and risks.
02Explore how a hypothetical position gains and loses.
03Continue with structured lessons and practice.
A record you can review
Review realized results alongside open risk. Percentage summaries are public; sign in free for individual trade details without dollar amounts.
View the full record →Known YTD realized contribution
Recorded S&P 500 index options only; not overall account returns.
Open unrealized contribution: +0.73%
Contribution = recorded P&L ÷ account starting capital; not a separately funded strategy return. Monthly figures are realized only.
Known dated results only; undated records are excluded and flagged in the journal.
Source snapshot · 2026-11-05 · View the full record
Two short briefs a day — before the open and after the close. Free, every trading day.
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One hot theme at a time, drilled down week by week — sub-sectors, the stocks and ETFs in them, what each does, and what to research. Educational — not advice.
One idea at a time, taught through real market history. Educational — not advice.
Before the week starts: what matters in the days ahead, what to watch, and one small lesson. Personal view — not advice.
Recorded outcomes, including losses and open risk. This is a subset of the journal, not the whole account.
Recorded S&P 500 index-option strategies only, not overall account returns. The journal also shows the overall account and other trades.
This month realized contribution
+1.18%
2026-11
YTD realized contribution
+19.73%
Attributed by close date
Open unrealized contribution
+0.73%
Recorded marks, not this month’s change
Closed win rate
85.45%
47 wins · 8 losses · 0 flat
60 source records · 4 open/review records · 0 results pending · 1 dates unresolved
Incomplete records: realized figures are the known, dated subtotal. Missing dates are not inferred; pending is not flat. Missing marks display —, not zero.
Wins and losses included; only records with a close date and a known result.
Explore this category’s records →
Contribution = category recorded P&L ÷ the same account starting capital × 100. No separate strategy capital or annualization is assumed. Win rate = wins ÷ (wins + losses); flat and pending records are excluded.
All SPX/SPXW records are included, not just winning trades or course-rule trades. Rolls count the recorded old-position result; new credits are not profit. Partial closes follow distinct source records once. Closed leveraged ETFs use the source mark date as their recorded close month and the source result field; individual stocks are excluded. Fees follow recorded P&L without a second deduction; fee coverage of all historical records is unverified.
Categories reconcile to the recorded trade sum, not necessarily the dashboard: it includes other adjustments/roll credits and some return cards retain an earlier verified snapshot. Residuals are not assigned to Other trades. Unknowns are not zero. Some source amounts are rounded; percentages are approximate. Marks have differing timestamps; this is not an independent broker verification.
Closed trades, in full, when the log goes live — including the ones that stopped out.
Core strategy records only; the journal also shows all other trades.
Every closed trade is published in the book — date, strategy, strikes, and outcome, losers included. Free sign-in unlocks the per-trade log; dollar P&L is for paid members.
View the trade logA journal that hides its red months isn't a journal. Stopped-out trades are listed right next to the winners.
The six ideas you need to read this journal. Plain English, no jargon.
The right to BUY a stock at a set price before a date.
A $100 call lets you buy at $100 even if the stock runs to $120.
The right to SELL a stock at a set price before a date.
A $100 put lets you sell at $100 even if the stock drops to $80.
The strike is the deal price; expiry is the deadline.
“$100 strike, 45 DTE” means the deal is struck at $100 with 45 days left.
The price of the option itself — what the buyer pays the seller.
Sell a put for $2.50 and you collect $250 per contract, up front.
Sell one option, buy a cheaper one further out — you keep the difference.
Short the $100 put, long the $95 put: the most you can lose is $5 minus what you collected.
Delta ≈ how likely the option ends in the money. DTE = days to expiry.
0.16 delta ≈ a 16% chance the put ends in the money; 45 DTE = 45 days to go.
That's the whole vocabulary this journal uses. Everything above the fold — spreads, deltas, DTEs — is built from these six ideas.
Build a hypothetical position, then explore how its profit and loss change with the underlying price. Start with an example or use a delayed option chain.
Build a hypothetical position.
Set to zero when the position has no stock.
Teaching inputs, not market quotes. Premiums are per share; all P&L is total dollars. One contract represents 100 shares.
Put credit spread · hypothetical position
At an expiry price of $98.00 , this position would have a loss of $20.00 , before fees.
Max profit at expiry
+$180.00total for position
Max loss at expiry
−$320.00total for position
Break-even at expiry
$98.20Payoff at expiry for a textbook example — no commissions, no early assignment, no implied-volatility moves. Real trades are messier; that mess is what the journal is for.
Manual hypothetical inputs, separate from the payoff chart and journal. Standard 100-share contracts only.
Reference date (New York): — · Calendar days to expiry (DTE): —
Calendar days from today in New York, not trading days. Next Friday is strictly after today. Shortcuts do not verify exchange-listed expiries or holidays. Same-day or expired dates cannot be annualized here.
Enter valid positive capital and at least one day. Credit must be below the strike, stock cost or spread width; contracts must be whole numbers. Fees and closing debit cannot be negative.
Maximum loss assumes the stock falls to zero for the cash-secured put or covered call, or the spread settles fully against you. Fees are included. Spread breakeven = short put strike − credit, or short call strike + credit, before fees. Expiry payoff assumes both legs settle as modeled; early assignment and an unclosed leg can create additional risk.
Capital basis: put = strike × 100 × contracts; covered call = stock purchase price × 100 × contracts; spread = (width − net credit) × 100 × contracts (maximum loss before fees). Net profit subtracts total fees. Simple annualized return = net profit ÷ capital × 365 ÷ calendar days.
Maximum profit assumes both spread legs expire worthless, the put expires worthless, or covered-call shares are sold at the strike. Covered-call profit includes stock gains or losses; closing only the call does not realize the whole position. Put assignment leaves stock risk open. Premium income is not total profit. Annualization assumes repeated comparable results with no idle capital; it is neither a forecast nor a guaranteed yield. No compounding, taxes, dividends, margin borrowing or adjusted contracts are modeled.
OIC: covered-call mechanicsThese index readings are separate from the stock selected in Position Editor.
Mechanical rules, followed weekly. Boring on purpose.
Behind the numbers is a small set of mechanical, rules-based option systems — same setups, same risk rules, every week. The edge, if there is one, is discipline: no heroics, no renegotiating with the market.
Members get the playbook — the companion that teaches you to read every trade: the vocabulary, the anatomy of a position, how the numbers are computed. The full decision system is taught step by step in Boring Rich.
Read the playbook — free membershipWhat's public here is a record of what I did, not how I decide it — and never a recommendation for what you should do.
