Luke | Investing

I put $31,040 into $BABA calls. I'm currently down almost $6,000. And I still think this could become one of my best trades. Here's why. Alibaba isn't just a Chinese e-commerce company anymore. It's also building a major cloud and AI business. My thesis is that investors are underestimating what that business could eventually be worth. I bought 10 June 2028 $115 calls. I'm betting on three things: Alibaba Cloud continues growing. AI becomes a meaningful earnings contributor. The market eventually assigns Alibaba a higher valuation. But there's a reason the stock trades at a discount. China risk is real. Competition is real. And AI growth doesn't automatically translate into shareholder returns. That's why I bought time. I don't need BABA to rally next week. I need the business to execute over the next 20 months. Would you rather own $BABA at today's valuation or pay a premium for an American tech company?

My portfolio is up roughly 26% YTD. And several of my recent investments are losing money. $IREN shares: -$9,691 $BABA calls: -$5,790 $AVGO calls: -$1,725 Meanwhile, my $UBER calls are up $2,940. I'm sharing the losers for the same reason I shared my $67,000 META win. You can't judge an investing strategy by only looking at the winners. I'm still bullish on these businesses, but being bullish doesn't mean I'm guaranteed to be right. I have to keep checking whether the fundamentals support the original thesis. The foundation remains $QQQ. The individual positions are where I'm taking additional risk. Road to $1M continues. I'll keep showing the wins and losses.

I put $30,150 into $UBER calls because I think Wall Street is getting the robotaxi threat wrong. Everyone is talking about Waymo and $TSLA replacing Uber. Meanwhile, Uber is still growing, generating cash, and operating a massive transportation network. I bought 30 January 2028 $80 calls. My thesis isn't that autonomous vehicles will fail. It's that Uber could benefit from autonomous vehicles rather than be destroyed by them. If robotaxis become widespread, somebody still needs to connect riders with available vehicles. Uber already has the customers. The question is whether Waymo and Tesla need Uber more than Uber needs them. I'm betting the market is underestimating Uber's position. Am I missing something?

Someone just paid me $849 to potentially buy 100 shares of $AVGO. Here's the trade: Sold 1 AVGO $335 put Expiration: November 27 Premium collected: $849 If assigned, my effective cost is $326.51 per share. And I'm comfortable owning Broadcom at that price. I've already been building a position in long-dated AVGO calls. Why? I believe AI infrastructure demand is going to keep growing, and Broadcom is one of the companies positioned to benefit. I'm not trying to predict tomorrow's price. I'm looking for opportunities to own quality businesses at prices I like. If AVGO stays above $335 through expiration, I keep the premium. If I'm assigned, I buy 100 shares at $335. Either way, the important part is deciding what I'm willing to pay BEFORE looking at the premium. That's how I sell puts.

$IREN might be sitting on something bigger than most people realize. The Information reports a multiyear AI cloud deal with Anthropic. Microsoft, NVIDIA, and potentially Anthropic on the customer list. I’ve been accumulating shares around a $39 average. My thesis is simple: AI needs infrastructure, computing power, and electricity. IREN is positioning itself to supply all three. Still holding and building my position.

My $BABA calls clawed back $4,050 this week. Monday: -$8,460 (-27.3%). Now: -$4,410 (-14.2%). $BABA ripped 5.3% Friday to $111.30, China limiting sell orders plus Jefferies Buy with a $192 target and 50%+ FY28 cloud growth. I held at the lows on one thesis: AI-cloud re-rating, not e-commerce. 615 days of runway left. Where's your line between patience and denial?

What stock is everyone dead wrong about right now?

My 5 guardrails that keep my options account alive: 1. Short put within 5% of strike = assignment risk. Strike minus premium = your real basis. 2. Premium decayed 75%+ = buy it back. Don't get greedy holding for the last 20%. (sometimes I buy back sooner) 3. Long call down 50%+ = thesis check. Hold through pain only if the data supports it. Never let one drift to zero silently. 4. 21 days to expiry = decide now. Exit or roll. No hoping. 5. Earnings within 7 days on a short put = know your event risk before it knows you. Rules don't make you money. They keep you from giving it back. Which guardrail do you break most often?

I own 30 $UBER Jan 2028 $80 calls. Here's the actual thesis. Bought Sept 28 @ $10.05 ($30,150). Stock was $68, washed out, everyone calling it a melting ice cube. The bet: $UBER is a FCF compounder in disguise, not a cash-burning startup. The market prices the past. I'm positioned to Jan 2028 because the rerate takes time. Catalysts stacking: $2.3B ezCater deal, Pony.ai robotaxi tests in London within weeks, Citizens reaffirmed $100 PT. +$3,540 (+11.7%) after Friday. My exit plan is ~$80 on the stock. What am I missing on $UBER?

I put $30,150 into $UBER calls while everyone was worried about robotaxis. The stock had been getting beaten down. Waymo. Tesla. Autonomous vehicles supposedly destroying Uber’s business. But I wasn’t seeing the same deterioration in the actual business. So on September 28, I bought: 30x $UBER $80 calls January 2028 expiration $30,150 invested I didn’t buy full size because I thought the stock could keep falling. Today UBER is back above $71. My calls are finally green. +$3,240 (+10.75%). I’m not celebrating a 10% gain. These are long-dated calls, and my thesis has barely had time to play out. I’m betting the market is overestimating how quickly autonomous vehicles will disrupt Uber. Could I be wrong? Absolutely. But if the business keeps growing while the market slowly realizes the disruption may take longer than expected, there’s a lot more upside to this trade. Still holding. Is the market underestimating Uber, or am I underestimating Waymo?

I made $33,000 my first full year out of college. Last month, my investment portfolio increased by roughly $98,000. That still feels ridiculous to type. In 2016, I worked an entire year to earn $33K. Now my portfolio can move that much in a few trading days. But here’s what people don’t see. At 25, I had about $15K invested. I spent years increasing my income, saving and buying more investments. There wasn’t some magical stock that made me rich. I kept adding money. Eventually, the portfolio got big enough that the market started doing more of the heavy lifting. And that’s the part of building wealth nobody can rush. The first $100K was hard. The next $100K came faster. Now I’m past $800K and working toward $1M. I’m not saying every month will look like September. It won’t. Some months I’ll lose money. But this is why I believe building your income and investing consistently matters so much. At first, you’re building the portfolio. Eventually, the portfolio starts building itself.

Someone just paid me $1,143 on $30K of collateral to buy $HOOD at $100 per share. Stock is $108 and washing out on the Cathie Wood trim. My strike sits 7% below, and the yield is about 46% annualized. Who else is selling premium into the red?

$UBER does $10B+ in free cash flow a year and trades at ~15x that number. FCF yield is 6.8% vs 4.5% for the S&P 500 median. The market is pricing a business that prints cash like it's shrinking. FCF is the gravity of the stock. Price follows it up and to the right. My Jan 2028 $80 calls just need time.

I’ve realized $146,232 trading options this year. And no, I didn’t start the year with some secret strategy. I made mistakes. Took losses. Changed how I trade. And eventually found a framework that started working consistently. Here are the 7 rules behind the $146K 👇

My $BABA calls are down over $8,000 so far. Here's the full options book: $BABA Jun 2028 $115 calls x10: $22,580 (-27.3%). The pain point. Class-action deadline Monday, reassess after. $AVGO Jun 2027 $380 calls x7: $32,326 (-0.7%) $UBER Jan 2028 $80 calls x30: $29,850 (-1.0%) Short $RDDT Dec $130 puts x5: +17.3% decayed Short $IREN Oct 30 $38 puts x5: +21.5% Week: +$710 realized. 2026: $91,108. Scalp streak: 4-for-4. $BABA gets my eyes Monday. The rest is working.

Someone asked me how I invest. My answer is much more boring than my options trades. Mostly I just buy $QQQ I don't trade it. I don't wait for the perfect entry. I don't sell because I think a correction is coming. I buy it every month. That's basically it. When I get paid, part of my income goes into my investment account. Most months, I buy more QQQ. If the market falls hard, I may buy more aggressively. Then I leave it alone. My goal isn't to outperform QQQ with this money. My goal is to let it compound for 15, 20, 30+ years. The options trades you see me post are built around this foundation, not instead of it. Today I have $500K+ in QQQ. But I didn't start with $500K. At 25, my entire investment portfolio was only around $15K. That's the part I wish more new investors understood: You don't need $500K to start investing. You need to start building the first $1,000. Then $10,000. Then $100,000. The exciting stuff can come later. Build the foundation first

Often the best trade you can make is doing nothing!

6 minutes. +35%. Bought 5 $HOOD $115 calls for $1,220. Sold them 6 minutes later for $1,650. +$430. No long-term thesis. No diamond hands. Just an intraday setup that worked and an exit when it gave me the move. Not every trade needs to become an investment, and size accordingly based on risk.

September results: Realized options profit: +$78,974 This was one of my best months ever. But most of the options profit came from one trade: $META: +$67,000 That’s important. I didn’t make $79K by perfectly trading every move. I found one setup I really liked, sized it meaningfully, gave it time, and eventually took the gain. The rest came from a mix of puts, other long calls and smaller trades. There were losers too. Meanwhile, the boring part of the portfolio stayed boring: $QQQ stayed invested. I kept adding when appropriate. I didn’t try to trade every macro headline. And after the META win, I actually reduced risk instead of immediately trying to recreate it. That’s probably the part I’m happiest with. Road to $1M continues October starts tomorrow

4x buying power is useful. Using 4x buying power is a completely different conversation. I use portfolio margin to sell puts while keeping my $QQQ invested. But I deliberately cap my exposure well below what my broker will allow. Your broker’s risk limit should never be your risk management strategy