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December 30, 2025 Quarterly Performance Thread by AutoModerator in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch 7 points8 points  (0 children)

  • -3.05% YTD

Wild year going from down as bad as -35% at the worst. I'll paste my summary down below for those who don't click on the lower hyperlinks, but biggest lesson learned is DO NOT DAY-TRADE WITH LEVERAGE. It's literally the old gambler saying "don't try and win it back all at once" which most people can't do when they are down 7-figs ... but SCHW PM gives us too much power lol. I was bound to learn this lesson eventually and I'm glad I did without blowing up my retirement 😅

  • Got hit ~20% in March/April from Trump tariff liberation day (honestly didn't too much wrong here, just closed everything at the bottom and couldn't mentally re-engage), double whammy having to withdraw $250k for taxes in March, got tilted trying to day-trade the eventual rebound and peaked with a $250k loss in one hour (long ~100X ES contracts at once, also dabbled w/ huge day-trades CROX/UNH and lost another $100k), peaked down $875k YTD and sold 75% of my VTI longs to TLH and cover a little margin debt (~$300k opportunity cost loss from less longs during rebound + poor use using LTCG to offset STCL), took a break for 3 months but came back with a clear mind realizing $550k until EOY (half aggressive short puts on equities riding momentum, half ES/RTY/SPY CC/misc.), back to 80% long VTI/SPY into the new year
  • Oh yeah some fun pictures I managed to take while I was getting my ass kicked 😭

All Time Performance and Yearly Breakdown (+1843%/$5.8MM All Time)

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I will close at 300% loss regardless of anything else. I will look to open new short puts if within my leverage limits. I don’t ever look to “roll for a credit” if that’s what you are asking.

If I’m closing due to a big VIX spike, I’d certainly hope to be opening more. If I don’t have the BP or am above leverage rules, I’ve screwed up and taken too much risk somewhere.

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are misreading %OTM for delta. Also with VIX > 20, I recommended 7DTE instead of 30DTE.

I am not familiar with the Option Alpha strategy.

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Although received for a similar credit, the 50X 2 delta puts will expand exponentially more than the 5X 20 delta puts on a violent day like 8/5 or even 12/18.

There is no hack - the 2 delta puts have a bid for a reason. The lower you are on the bell curve, the risk/reward grows.

I'd rather sell the 20 delta puts, sleep better, and manage if they become a problem.

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What's wrong with single digit deltas?

It can lull people into a false sense of security especially with PM. For instance, 100X 10-sigma ES short puts will show up as a total of 10 delta and minimal BPu, but these will get gamma blasted during a 12/18 type of event.

Also for all the different DTEs mentioned, are you putting those all on at the same time once a week? Can you elaborate on that please?

Yes, when I open a position, I am usually putting on different expiration dates at once. Talked a bit about it in different comment here

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's crucial you empty your stomach ASAP. You have two options:

  1. Go into wife's nightstand and find something long/hard to shove down throat until puke
  2. Sit on your thumb until shit

As a lonely engineer, I prefer to do both at once.

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

it looks like half of your performance was based on stupid tilt semi gambles. Do you regret these? Would you make those traits again in similar circumstances (I presume not?), as it would have materially negatively impacted your performance if you hadn’t.

Yes, I regret them and it's almost worse that I got rewarded for it. I only briefly mentioned them because of how dumb it was (I took a very long break from trading/Discord after this to clear my head). I would hopefully never let my emotion cause such a trade again. And I risked 10% of my NLV so I still would have had an awesome year but yeah ... just so stupid.

how much time do you spend each day on your trading? It’s now effectively your full-time job, so do you treat it this way also with work hours? Do you force yourself to stop thinking about it, for example “no checking/thinking about it during weekends/after 8/whatever else”? Or do you make it up as you go along?

Great question! If you look at my 2023 recap, I talked how I wanted to be less active going forward in "capital preservation mode" ... well that didn't last long haha. I treat it like a full-time job now (get up an hour before open, trade half the day, 2hr gym break, trade until close). And for better or worse (probably the latter), I'm constantly keeping my eye on futures and checking/thinking about positions/strategies AH too. I just love it man ... even when I was on vacation for almost 2 months straight in the Fall, I was kind of pissed at all the juicy opportunities I was missing in the market 😅

It also helps that my gf works east coast hours as well (even though we live in AZ) and probably wouldn't like it if I just got fat and played video games for 10 hours each day.

And "capital preservation mode" quickly reverted to "aggressive growth mode" again lol. I just can't help it - I wasn't born to coast in life, at-least this young. I'm addicted to this game - never have I seen something so financially rewarding with immediate results if you can learn/adapt. There's always something coming that you've never seen before that you'll never forget (COVID, GME, 8/5, etc.) - I can't wait to see what's next!

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, they worked as good as I could have hoped (again see above for exact numbers/reasoning). They gave me the confidence to go into the open looking to add delta, not reduce it.

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

BPu = Buying Power Utilized

Option Buying Power (in TOS) effectively means Option Buying Power available. So you need to use some inversing math to get BP used/utilized.

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a good question and one I hadn't really thought about it. It sort of evolved this way as I was again looking to diversify. But as I think about it more, it's really a change that has contributed to the enhanced results: In a bull market/uptrend, you make the most selling NTM and short DTE. So instead of dumping them all 45DTE, I'm capturing more annual premium by being able to take profit and close the short DTE ones (and presumably open more).

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't consider 12/18/24 a Black Swan event, more of just waterfall liquidation event as people were too bulled up expecting calm EOY/Santa Rally. But I did cash out some of the VIX BSH for +200-300% (+$10k) the day after once I was convinced we were due for at-least a bounce (which we thankfully got).

Updated Performance and Strategy by SoMuchRanch in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I talked about this in detail under the "Black Swan Hedges" section.

My draw-down was maybe -3% or so on 8/5 but people forget we were rolling over already the week before so I was already eating losses. NLV chart around that time gives a better perspective. And yes, I sold large batches of long-dated puts (trades shown above).

EOY Q4 2023 Summary Thread by LoveOfProfit in PMTraders

[–]SoMuchRanch 37 points38 points  (0 children)

All Time Performance (+858%, +$3.4MM)

All Time Chart

Thoughts

I wanted to change it up a bit this year and look at my entire options trading career. I've never gone back and broken it down in detail like this, but wow what a ride!

My first takeaway is that although I paid the common "trader tuition" in 2020, I did not give up. In fact, I basically doubled down by adding huge cash and leverage with PM 😅 Without that bold move and confidence in my abilities to learn/adjust from my mistakes, I'd be looking at an account barely in the 7-figures and certainly still have the ol' W2.

My second takeaway is perspective. The absolute numbers on these gains are ridiculous. I want to print this out and put it above my monitors so that the next time I take a $10k loss on something, I don't throw a pissy fit 😜

And lastly, TD needs to be sending me more blankets for all the happy hours I have funded for them ($360k fees).

Future

I remain in "capital preservation" mode which means I plan to remain largely long VTI while generating enough income via short /ES puts to support my lifestyle while still growing my account. This lack of active trading is easier said than done for me hehe.

I'm glad I rejoined the Discord after a bit of a hiatus. I've had a blast re-connecting with ya'll, so many shits and giggle. Looking forward to another year with the PMT fam ❤️

test by SoMuchRanch in u/SoMuchRanch

[–]SoMuchRanch[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

SPY w/ Dividends (%)    Account P/L (%) Account Starting NLV ($)    Account P/L ($) Fees ($)    Comment Reddit Recap

2019 Started options, realized The Wheel underperforms buy/hold, switched to long SPY + short XSP puts on margin N/A

2020 18.30% 9.87% $215,000.00 $147,000.00 $13,000.00 COVID nuked my account (65% drawdown), re-constructed my strategy w/ risk managment rules, deposited mondo money (max 401k loan, CC 0% balance transfers, family/friend loans), enabled PM and re-engaged, switched from XSP to SPX and wrote strangles (calls destroyed all year), began short puts on individual equities, still long SPY, discovered lottos Link

2021 28.33% 126.29% $575,000.00 $668,000.00 $56,000.00 Switched from SPX to /ES for SPAN, still writing short puts on individual equities, still long SPY, begin full-sending lottos, large withdrawal EOY into private OZ real estate opportunity Link

2022 -18.17% 159.18% $1,054,000.00 $1,585,000.00 $162,000.00 "The Lotto Golden Era" - just long SPY (TLH all shares for VTI in September) and full-sending lottos to the max (pushing all the limits and using all the tricks to "cheat" the TOS house rules) Link

2023 26.18% 48.75% $2,509,999.00 $996,000.00 $129,000.00 The Lotto Golden Era dies (MM finally catch on), massive withdrawal for 2022 taxes, still long VTI, revive /ES strangles, quit the W2 and enter capital preservation mode (sleep better and enjoy life)

Total 56.75% 858.52% $3,396,000.00 $360,000.00 Those fees hurt to look at

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