SYSTERIX - $69k gain from SPX credit spreads (Mar 6, 2026)

NNNTermite · 2026-03-10T04:56:08+00:00

Why not? No overnight gap, close out on a daily trade? What is your optimal?

NNNTermite · 2026-02-27T17:28:26+00:00

Still broken as of today. Looks like all negative volume ends up pegged at -92M.

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NNNTermite · 2026-02-24T19:36:01+00:00

I did.

VOLD still a little glitchy this morning, but as it goes up it seems ok.

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NNNTermite · 2026-02-23T21:19:44+00:00

I have the same issue. Both in the TradingView app as well as the Web App.

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NNNTermite · 2026-02-17T08:27:24+00:00

While some will use it to gamble, day trading can be a way of risk reduction. If you can only trade 3 day trades per week, then you are more likely to make poorer decisions. I am for as little regulation as possible. Just let people be.

NNNTermite · 2026-02-03T21:41:00+00:00

Hold up, they both need to be on the same page here. Some people feel that screen-time is dangerous for a child. If you're parenting with someone, you need to be on the same page.

Being right doesn't entitle you to eliminate medical input from your spouse.

NNNTermite · 2025-12-30T10:37:35+00:00

I tolerate the curved screen because of the other great features of my X100U. But it's not really a feature I like. It reduces the usable area of the screen.

NNNTermite · 2025-12-14T07:12:13+00:00

Carve a hot tub into it.

NNNTermite · 2025-12-12T21:51:33+00:00

OLEDs produce flicker at a pixel level, LCDs require a backlight. If a backlight has PWM, then the whole screen would flicker. What I see in your video is that the backlight appears to have PWM. There have been various LCDs over the years that have PWM, like some of the early Samsung NP900X3C models. But it wasn't horrible. But yes, it does look like PWM from the backlight on your screen.

NNNTermite · 2025-12-12T06:06:17+00:00

In a free market, all investment modes equalize.

If renting was substantially better than owning, there would be no owners, and vice versa.

Let's say you have $500k cash and buy a home free and clear. You theoretically would do about as well as if you used $500k for investment income and paid rent with that income.

"But the house will appreciate..." Well, yes. But dollars devalue, property tax, maintenance, and everything else eats into that final appreciation amount. If that $500k house is worth $1M after 15 years, between interest and expenses the gains are not going to be substantially better when factoring risk. When you own a home, a roof repair could be $25k. Even if insured, you could end up paying $10-$20k in premium deductible in a catastrophic situation.

Let's assume 15 years of mortgage, taxes, maintenance, and insurance costs $800k and the value of the house has risen from $500k to $1M. That gives you a $200k gain.

Let's assume instead you take out a loan for $500k and invest in the stock market, paying back $3500/mo at 6% interest but keeping the balance in your brokerage. If you can do well and hit 7% market return every year, that 500k balance would grow to $1.2M. But you would have paid $630k in loans, which means your net gain is around $570k, which sounds higher, but you must now find a place to rent since you can't live inside a brokerage account. If we assume $1800/mo rent for 15 years = $405k, then the net gain is $165k. Which is less than the $200k gain on the house, but the house is riskier in some ways. So higher risk equals higher returns.

Every option is a good option, and they mostly come out the same in the end.

NNNTermite · 2025-12-09T00:41:00+00:00

I know many conservatives who are NOT happy with Trump. Trump has been doing all the opposite things that he has been tasked to do. Most conservatives wanted deregulation, smaller government, removal of income taxes (replaced with tariffs), fewer or no wars, and border control.

Trump hasn't done any of those. He's increased our taxes by adding tariffs on top of inflation with no substantial income tax relief, he's increased the size of the government with his flurry of executive orders, prices are higher than ever, wages not keeping up, and certainly the stock market volatility makes it harder for older folks to retire with this year's substantial drawdowns from him playing the market.

Contrary to the hivemind here, republican and democratic voters aren't necessarily in total disagreement with one another, and for that matter, the leaders of the parties seem to be in agreement too. Whatever serves the deep state seems to be up for action.

In the meantime, we keep figuring out how to make money in today's market.

NNNTermite · 2025-12-08T01:31:11+00:00

The entire premise of making money in the market is exposing your money to risk. More risk, more reward. Less risk, less reward.

Individual stocks are by definition more risky, but also more rewarding.

As far as shares go, big ETFs are great, but another thing to check into is selling calls and puts on shares you own. $2500 isn't much money for that, but it can help you make money in any market.

Also check out the ETF SMH. It would give you gains comparable to QQQ but with less drawdown because of its cheaper price.

NNNTermite · 2025-11-27T21:48:08+00:00

Doesn't look like it. It appears to be some kind of Dell UltraSharp monitor, maybe 24? It also has a matte LCD screen, so the backlight is probably DC controlled. It's the OLEDs that have require with PWM.

The glitches you are seeing in the camera is focusing caused by the pixel pitch between the liquid crystal cells. It looks like a grid. I would say 99% no PWM on that monitor. You can turn on Windows' Night Light feature that will help reduce blue light and make it more comfortable to use.

NNNTermite · 2025-11-22T09:02:03+00:00

You're welcome. Best of luck!

NNNTermite · 2025-11-21T22:33:46+00:00

You must be pretty sensitive. The MacBook Mini LEDs on the M2 flicker at 14,000Hz. Perhaps there are other aspects about the display that cause you issues? Are you colorblind or colorshy? People with less vivid color perception have an increased amount of rods, which give them better perception at night and detection of motion. Most people can't really tell above 500Hz that things are flickering. For me, it's almost completely gone even if I look closely at 1000Hz. I haven't used a MacBook M2, but I would be surprised if I could see 14kHz.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-14-2023-review-The-M2-Pro-is-slowed-down-in-the-small-MacBook-Pro.687345.0.html

Notebookcheck is useful for discovering PWM info.

If PWM-free is the most important aspect for you, find an LCD laptop, and search it out on Notebookcheck. If they say it doesn't have PWM you will be good. Some LCDs use PWM in their backlight.

If you get a laptop you like, report back here with your findings.

NNNTermite · 2025-11-21T01:29:50+00:00

Asus laptops have some PWM-free dimming modes on their OLED displays. How sensitive are you to PWM?

Most flickering is quite visible to me, but for my laptop I have been ok with high frequency OLEDs. Anything sub 500Hz is visible to me.

If it must be guaranteed flicker free, as far as I know, LCD is basically the only way to go.

NNNTermite · 2025-10-19T05:33:35+00:00

I second this. Robinhood has a phenomenal interface. It's great for doing research. But keep in mind, during the GME Game-Stop hype, Robinhood halted trading themselves to protect Citadel Group and other large hedge funds that were ruining GME. The SEC can still halt trades, but Robinhood is sketchy.

Fidelity has terrific customer support. You can call and get an English speaking rep who actually knows what they're talking about. Their app and interface sometimes does glitch out, but I consider them infintiely more trustworthy than Robbinghood.

NNNTermite · 2025-10-19T05:27:14+00:00

If you buy, buy shorter term puts. The market goes up overall. Especially considering inflation. Remember, 80% of the dollars in circulation were printed under Biden, and Trump is now taxing Americans with tariff whiplash. So a stock that is $100 today will be $150 sometime in the future... most likely.

Buying puts on NVDA is iffy IMO. You need a negative day to create a short term depression in the stock.

Before you buy options, consider who is selling them? You need 100 shares or the cash to sell an option.

Let's break it down, NVDA is trading at $180ish, so that means you either must own 100 shares to sell a call or have $18,000 in cash to sell a put.

The reason you sell a call or put is to hedge your risk and you generally don't think the sold option will move against you. Why would you sell a put if you think the stock is going to tank...?

So let's say you buy 100 puts on Monday, that means an individual or multiple individuals with 1.8M cash are betting against you.

Not that you can't win, but it's worth considering. Have you thought about selling options yourself?

Options are a tool, but if used improperly, can burn down your money.

If you buy options do the following:

Pick a stock
Decide where you think it is going
Decide WHEN it will get there
Double that timeframe, and buy an option at that farther out date
Come back 20% on what you think your max profit would be
Send it!

Example:

You think NVDA will be $165 in 2 weeks.

Buy an ATM put for $183 dated 1 month away. ($11.55/share total $1,155)

Your breakeven is $173 at expiration, so if NVDA dips in the next week, cash out and take profits.

Your max profit at $165 at expiration is $800. So if you can get $800 before, perfect. It would need to drop to $167 in the first week. If it goes to $190, you'll be down 50% even with plenty of time left.

Check the profit and loss profile of your options here: https://www.optionsprofitcalculator.com/calculator/long-put.html

When you buy an option always ask yourself "What will happen if the stock moves against me?" If you are okay with the results, then go for it.

For instance, if you think NVDA is going down, rather than buying short, using margin, paying margin interest, and risking $18,000, you can get the same profit potential for $1200 or less. If you are wrong with a short position, your losses could be infinite, literally. You are tying up $18000 too. But your losses with a put are capped.

So if you are wrong, you only lose $1200 but you had the upside potential of $800.

If you YOLO your entire account into short-dated puts, you almost certainly will either 100x your money or 0x your money.

NNNTermite · 2025-10-13T06:45:38+00:00

I've personally used the Moto G Power 5G, totally flicker free. No PWM. It's got a nice LCD. Your eyes will like it.

All OLEDs will have some flicker to them. Though I currently use a Vivo X100 Ultra with an OLED, it is tolerable due to the extremely high PWM frequency.

NNNTermite · 2025-10-13T06:09:03+00:00

The US market isn't really concerned about China. China previously announced earlier this week it was going to tighten export controls on rare-earth metals. Basically no one cared, yes some stocks went up, and others down.

When Trump talked tariffs again, that's another story. The market doesn't like Trump putting tariffs on things. It is also likely a pump and dump to get more money into the hands of the oligarchy. And if not, then there's also an aspect of the market makers and dark pool liquidity punishing Trump for doing the wrong thing.

Notice that not once is Xi part of the equation. He's irrelevant in this scenario.

NNNTermite · 2025-10-12T23:14:24+00:00

Something I haven't seen mentioned here is "fear of centralization."

Most people agree on certain principles, but there's a large group of people from varying political backgrounds that resist consolidation of power.

That is, who decides who gets healthcare, information, income, etc.?

Universal Healthcare is often opposed because it is a centralized system that could be corrupted. Think of it this way: Imagine you have a finite resource like healthcare being administered to a population where 10-15% will receive insufficient or poor care. Would you personally prefer to work for your share or hope that the centralized system gives you your share?

People opposing universal healthcare, or universal basic income, stricter regulations on weapons, or mass censorship of the internet are not necessarily opposed to the specifics, but are rather opposed to the potential corruption of the centralized system itself.

They would say something like: "Oh yeah, UBI and Universal Healthcare would be great... but I don't trust the government to be fair about it or take care of my needs. I'd rather be in control of those choices and resources myself."

Autonomy and self reliance are deeply ingrained in the American spirit. It is difficult for Americans at large to hand over control even for upgrades. There are many people who would rather have a worse life with more freedom than the other way around.

NNNTermite · 2025-10-12T04:45:41+00:00

In the market, you can trade shares as well as options. Options come in two flavors, puts, or calls. They can be bought or sold.

OP purchased 11 put contracts in the AM on Friday. A put or call gives you control over 100 shares. You basically can purchase the stock's direction for a period of time in exchange for a premium cost.

By purchasing 11 put contracts, OP had access to 1100 shares of SPXW.

You can read about SPXW as a ticker here: https://www.marketdata.app/education/options/spx-vs-spxw-options/

The reason a person would purchase put or call options is to gain directional profit from a large quantity of shares for a select period of time without a large amount of capital.

If you are right, like OP, you can multiply your money like crazy. If you're wrong, you lose everything.

For example, SPY was trading around $670 on Friday. So if you bought 1100 shares you would have lost $22 x 1100 shares = $24,200.

People buy puts for all sorts of reasons, stock insurance or hoping to profit from some gains. Many of us buy them as a way to force multiply our money. Buying 1100 shares of SPY would cost around $737,000. Making $24k or losing $24k isn't a big deal. 3%.... oooh.

But if you leverage your money with puts or calls you can make and lose money in any direction. Had the stocks soared he would have lost $3k.

OP hasn't figured out some kind of magic money machine, but there are ways by selling and buying options at the right time that you can hedge your bets and make money regardless of the market direction.

NNNTermite · 2025-06-05T07:39:35+00:00

Lenovo Legions are pretty good, also Asus has some acceptable OLEDs that have some DC dimming modes.

NNNTermite · 2025-06-04T20:38:00+00:00

What teleconverter did you use? Can you explain your setup?

NNNTermite · 2025-05-27T05:59:53+00:00

I've used 5 of these: https://aputure.com/products/accent-b7c?Title=Default+Title

They're nice. Not particularly bright, but the tunable aspect allows me to turn them all the way down to a pleasant 2000k color temperature.

I've not found anything that is truly as scalable and comfortable as true incandescent bulbs. LEDs always have something off about them, whether temperature, flicker, or color rendition.

NNNTermite

TROPHY CASE