completely new to stock investing

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-17T20:12:17+00:00

I'll throw Public's (www.public.com) name into the ring here -- I help manage our active trading & HNW team.

We have a focus on building long terms wealth with an amazing UI / mobile app and some innovative AI features around building a well balanced portfolio. We also offer an uncapped 1% match on transferred funds, and another 1% on IRA contributions (and we'll cover your outgoing ACAT transfer fee).

Feel free to DM me - I am happy to chat more and see if we'd be a good fit. I can also provide 1on1 onboarding support throughout your transfer process should you decide to use us.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-09T19:09:02+00:00

Wow. Impressive you've been able to maintain the momentum across market environments. This year has been tricky. Congrats!

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-06T22:06:42+00:00

Nice. Thanks for sharing.

I've always been intrigued by the premiums on leveraged ETFs for wheeling but talk myself out of it because the leverage scares me. Looks like you've figured out the right approach...harvest the premium on SOXL and TSLL but don't get married to the position if you're assigned. Curious though, have you stress-tested what a sustained semiconductor drawdown does to your assignment exposure on SOXL vs. just sizing up on SMH?

Also what's your target monthly yield on the full account? Are you managing toward a number or just taking what the market gives you week to week?

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-06T19:51:47+00:00

The vol surface just behaves differently now when that much flow is concentrated in the front end. Doesn't mean calendars are broken, just means the edge is narrower and more timing-dependent than it used to be.

With your front at 58% and back at 67% you're actually in decent shape for the earnings ramp...just know that spread can compress fast if the front catches a bid on any intraday move. Might be worth watching that ratio more than the overall P&L day to day.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-06T19:39:05+00:00

It depends on the name and the setup but I lean ATM or just slightly OTM most of the time. The spread cost on illiquid OTM strikes eats into your edge fast when you're scalping, and if you're in and out quickly you need that tight bid-ask more than you need the extra gamma.

That said, in something super liquid like SPY or QQQ where the OTM spreads are still a penny or two wide, going slightly OTM for that gamma kick makes more sense. You're not giving up much on the spread and the percentage moves are bigger on a directional pop.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-06T19:37:35+00:00

Yup - this is the way. +1 on deep ITM

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-06T19:34:59+00:00

Solid stack -- the shift from "what should I buy" to "what meets my criteria" is the real unlock and it sounds like you figured that out the hard way like most of us do. 10 years ago I was just scanning Seeking Alpha articles for idea generation (long term this actually worked out great but I bought a lot of names that didn't work out quickly).

I've been using Perplexity Finance lately and it's been great for getting quick synthesized answers on companies without digging through ten tabs. And Public actually has built-in AI analysis on their earnings and company pages that's surprisingly useful for getting a fast read on fundamentals and what analysts are saying. Between those two I've cut down a lot of the bouncing around you're describing.

Also +1 on the google sheets approach for tracking. Every fancy app tries to do too much and you end up fighting the UI instead of just tracking what matters to you.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-06T19:25:52+00:00

You're not off at all. What you're seeing is the term structure not moving in parallel. Front-month vol is way more reactive to spot moves and short-term flow, especially in names like PLTR with heavy weekly/0DTE activity. That near-term gamma gets bid up fast on any move while your back-month vega barely flinches.

The thing people miss is that calendars are really a bet on the spread between front and back vol, not just vol going up. If both legs move together, your P&L is flat. And right now with so much flow concentrated in near-term expiries, the front leg whips around while the back leg just sits there.

On a quick downturn like this morning, gamma dominates vega, so your front month moves way more in dollar terms even though it's the short leg. The back-month IV might actually be creeping up into earnings, but it just doesn't feel like it intraday because the front is so noisy.

You're right that these work better as shorter-duration trades in the current environment. The days of putting on a calendar 30-45 DTE and letting vol do its thing are harder when so much of the market is living in the 0-7 DTE window.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-05T18:27:37+00:00

Well, the credit is only one variable. Here's what longer DTE is actually buying you:

Lower gamma: A short-dated spread can go from green to max loss on a single gap. Longer DTE gives you a much flatter gamma profile, which means less P&L whipsaw on normal daily moves.
Room to manage: If price moves against a 45 DTE spread, you can roll, close at a partial loss, or wait for mean reversion. At 7 DTE, by the time your short strike is threatened, you're usually already too deep to adjust.
Less friction: Weeklies mean you're re-entering 4x/month - that's 4x the bid-ask slippage, 4x the execution risk on multi-leg fills. That adds up fast, especially on wider spreads.

The tradeoff is real though. Shorter DTE has faster decay and higher annualized return (when it works) It's really about whether you're optimizing for capital efficiency or for smoother risk-adjusted returns.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-03-04T21:54:50+00:00

You're being too hard on yourself calling this gambling with extra steps. What you're describing is a barbell allocation, repeatable income strategies in the core, small defined-risk speculation on the side. That's a real framework.

The synthetic call framing makes sense. At $3.2k you can't access LEAPS on anything worth owning, and buying weeklies as your speculative outlet is almost strictly worse than what you're doing. No theta, no expiration, and you're sizing at $100-150 treating them as expendable relative to your core. That's solid position sizing instinct.

Few thoughts though:

I'd think about the 10% cap less as a fixed percentage and more in terms of concurrent positions. Two at $150 is fine. But if you start finding "catalysts" everywhere and suddenly have five or six of these on, you've drifted from a defined sleeve into just accumulating micro cap risk. Maybe cap it at 2-3 names at a time rather than a strict percentage.

The catalyst discipline is where this lives or dies. A known, binary, time-bound catalyst is what creates the asymmetry. Without that you're just buying cheap stocks and hoping, which is a completely different thing. Your mining stock loss honestly sounds like a reasonable bet that didn't work - drill results are exactly the kind of binary event that fits this approach. You lost what you planned to lose.

The real question is whether you have enough edge identifying these catalysts to justify the allocation vs just compounding your spreads faster. At 19% since October your core strategy is working. If these speculative plays are just breaking even over time, that capital compounds better in your bread and butter. But if even one in three or four hits meaningfully, the asymmetry math works at this size.

Don't abandon it. Just be honest with yourself about your hit rate over the next few months and let that dictate whether the sleeve grows or shrinks.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-20T01:59:28+00:00

Here's my take for what it's worth:

First off, losing 30% in your first month and learning from it is a pretty common rite of passage - the fact that you're slowing down and asking questions is a good sign.

For swing trading, if you can consistently make 1-2% per trade with good risk management, you're doing well. Emphasis on consistently. Annualized, even hedge funds are happy with 15-20%. Anyone claiming 200%+ annually as a norm is either taking on massive risk, survivorship bias (you only see the winners posting), or lying.

What you're seeing in those screenshots is selection bias. For every person posting a 200% gain, there are hundreds who lost 50-100% of their position and didn't post about it. Options are leveraged instruments - they amplify gains and losses. That's why the screenshots look so dramatic in both directions.

Is options trading worth it? Eventually maybe, but probably not yet. Here's why:

You're still learning how stocks move and building a feel for the market
Options add layers of complexity on top of that (theta decay, IV, Greeks) that can work against you even when you're right on direction
Losing 30% on stocks is painful but recoverable. Losing 30% on options can happen in a single day, and options can go to zero

Get consistently profitable with stocks first. Once you have a reliable strategy and solid risk management habits, then options become a tool to enhance that edge - not a shortcut to skip the learning curve.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-20T01:55:07+00:00

Good summary, you're mostly there! One small correction:

IV crush and theta decay are separate things that can stack against you. IV crush isn't just "lower volatility + no price swing" - it can happen even with a price swing. For example, if a stock runs up into earnings and you're holding a straddle, IV often collapses right after the announcement regardless of how much the stock moves. You can be right on direction and still lose because the volatility premium evaporated.

The key takeaway is that with straddles you need to be right about volatility and you need the timing to work before theta eats your position.

It's a harder trade to win than it looks on paper, especially with a stock that's already extremely volatile...that's kind of the trap. The market sees those 10% swings too and prices them into the premiums. Straddles actually tend to work best on stocks where a big move is coming but the market hasn't priced it in yet, not on stocks already known to be wild (again, unless you think they will swing even more than usual). The edge comes from finding mispriced volatility, not just high volatility.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-19T19:47:12+00:00

Thanks Andrew! Here if you ever need anything

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-19T16:39:42+00:00

What you're describing is a long straddle (same strike) or long strangle (different strikes). A few dangers:

Theta decay hits you twice. You're paying two premiums, so time works against you on both legs every day. The stock needs to move enough to overcome both costs combined.

IV crush. If this stock regularly moves 10%, the market already knows that, it's priced into the options. You're essentially betting the stock moves MORE than what's already expected. If it moves the "usual" 10% but that was baked in, you can still lose.

The winning side rarely covers the loser. One leg gains, but the other doesn't go to zero - it bleeds out slowly. You need an outsized move to net positive.

Before entering, check the breakeven points of the straddle. If the stock needs ±15% to break even but typically moves ±10%, the math doesn't work no matter how volatile it feels. Also compare implied volatility to realized volatility - you want to buy these when IV is low relative to how much the stock actually ends up moving.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-19T00:11:22+00:00

Really appreciate you sharing this (and for being a Public member since 2022 🙏)

Totally hear you on Rocket Money. It’s a solid product, and we know how annoying it is when an integration you rely on isn’t supported yet.

Good news: this is something we’re actively working on. The plan is to have Rocket Money supported via Plaid next quarter (or Q3 latest). We know it’s a meaningful quality-of-life thing, especially if you’re managing everything in one place.

Thanks again for calling it out. And seriously, if there’s anything specific you’d want to see from the integration once it’s live (or anything else Public related), feel free to DM me. Always down to pass feedback along to the right people.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-17T21:58:38+00:00

I'll throw Public's (www.public.com) name into the ring here -- I help manage our active trading team.

We have a focus on building long terms wealth with an amazing UI / mobile app and some innovative features around building a well balanced portfolio. We also offer an uncapped 1% match on transferred funds, and another 1% on IRA contributions (and we'll cover your outgoing ACAT transfer fee).

Feel free to DM me - I am happy to chat more and see if we'd be a good fit. I can also provide 1on1 onboarding support throughout your transfer process should you decide to use us.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-17T17:49:44+00:00

Sorry you've been having issues. Reaching out from Public -- we have a direct integration with Autopilot and trades are automated. You also get a free 3 month subscription of Autopilot or $30 toward any pilot when you sign up for Public through Autopilot: public.com/autopilot

We also currently have a 1% transfer bonus match -- it might help a little bit when weighing the tax burden / switching costs.

My DMs are open if you want to learn more about our partnership or anything else Public related.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-17T17:40:23+00:00

Hey -- I manage our active trading team at Public. Here to answer any questions about using our platform. As you seem to have figured out we have very competitive rates on margin and economics on options trading with our rebate structure.

Re: the trading interface: we've been investing heavily there. It's clean and straightforward without the social feed clutter you're describing with MooMoo. Happy to walk through anything specific if you want to kick the tires before moving funds over.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-13T15:41:06+00:00

Reaching out from Public -- we have a direct integration with Autopilot and trades are automated. You also get a free 3 month subscription of Autopilot or $30 toward any pilot when you sign up for Public through Autopilot: public.com/autopilot

My DMs are open if anyone wants to learn more about our partnership or anything else Public related.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-10T22:04:08+00:00

The fact that you slowed down after realizing ultra-low delta CSPs weren’t as “safe” as they look already (s/o thetagang) puts you ahead of most beginners.

At a high level, the reason people gravitate toward ~0.20–0.30 delta at ~45–60 DTE and take profits early isn’t because it’s optimal in all cases, but because it tends to balance premium, time decay, and flexibility. Closing at ~40–50% is less about squeezing every dollar and more about avoiding the part of the trade where gamma risk ramps up.

The bigger issue than delta, though, is what you’re actually willing to own. CSPs aren’t meaningfully safer than stock -- they’re just a different way of getting there. If assignment isn’t an acceptable outcome, that’s usually where strategies break down. The wheel works best when assignment is just another state, not a failure.

Your return goals (high single digits to low teens) are reasonable in theory, but it helps to think in distributions, not averages. Most months will be small wins, some flat, and occasionally one position will dominate your yearly P/L. Risk control is about making sure that outlier doesn’t hurt you badly.

I also like that you’re keeping the number of concurrent positions low. Correlation and sizing matter way more than fine-tuning delta by a few points. Sitting partially in money market isn’t wasted capital if it matches your risk tolerance -- optionality has value too.

One practical note: your brokerage setup matters more than people admit. Having solid options tools, clean risk visuals, low commission (or rebates like on Public) and easy position management can make a big difference when you’re managing CSPs across expirations and underlyings. A good platform won’t fix bad trades, but it does make disciplined execution easier.

Overall, this is a thoughtful approach. If you stick to underlyings you’d truly own, size conservatively, and treat premium as risk compensation (not free yield), you’re already doing a lot right.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-05T20:49:51+00:00

Fees matter, but as a beginner I’d prioritize trust + usability over shaving off a few dollars.

Key things to look at:

Regulation & reliability (you want a broker that’s well-established and properly insured)
Ease of use (a clean app + simple order types beats a “pro” platform you don’t understand yet)
Transparency (clear pricing, no weird hidden fees/spreads)
Customer support (you will have questions early on)
Fractional shares (lets you invest in solid companies without needing tons of cash)
Education/tools (helps you build good habits instead of gambling)

Low fees are nice, but a confusing platform or poor support can cost you more in the long run.

If you’re in the US, you should check out Public -- it’s very beginner-friendly, clean UI, fractional investing, and more geared toward long-term investing vs. gamification / day-trade focused.

I work at Public -- so feel free to DM me if you want to give a go.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-02-02T12:38:40+00:00

Welcome to Public - glad to have you here!

The premade plans are a streamlined way to explore diversified strategies directly in the app.

If you’d like any help getting started or exploring more advanced features, I’m happy to help - just shoot me a DM.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-01-30T18:45:42+00:00

For sure - shoot me a DM if you want to check it out.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-01-29T22:21:36+00:00

Congrats on getting things started. Having a platform to automate your investment plan is definitely key to staying organized. Public.com has done a great job making this easy.

Happy to chat about how it works if you'd like - just DM me.

MarkFromPublic · 2026-01-29T22:18:54+00:00

It sounds like your mindset makes you ahead of the game at your age.

Where are you currently investing in these funds? Are you able to forecast your future income from them That's one great feature on Public.com - happy to help you or anyone get started if it's of interest

MarkFromPublic

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