InvestingWithBrandon

How I retired at 31 selling portfolio secured puts.
Not cash secured puts.
Not covered calls.
Not spreads.
This exact system.
Step 1. Evaluate the macro first.
Overall market valuation. Economic picture. PE ratio. Interest rates. Ect...
Step 2. Find a quality company at a good price.
EPS growing. Moat. Pricing power.
Trading at or below intrinsic value.
Stock below the EPS growth line.
Step 3. Sell 1-2 year portfolio secured put.
Not cash secured.
10% below an already undervalued price.
Base portfolio is the collateral.
Zero margin interest. Zero cash sitting idle. Ratios & risk managed to be

The cost of waiting just 5 years to start investing.
Same $1,000 per month. Same 10% ROI. Same 25 years.
Start now: $1.3M
Wait 5 years: $762K
Cost of waiting: $546K gone forever.
"Once I pay off my car I will start investing."
That 5 year delay just cost you over half a million dollars.
Now flip it to 20% ROI with the options layer.
10% ROI over 25 years: $1.2M
20% ROI over 25 years: $5.7M
Same contributions. Same time horizon.
Compounding does the rest.
You only have to get rich once.
Start now.
Every year you wait is compounding that is gone forever.
There is no catching up.

Analysis paralysis could cost you more than a bad trade.
At some point you have to pull the trigger.
Waiting for the perfect setup:
You are never going to get a perfect entry.
You will always wish you bought slightly cheaper.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
Not starting is the biggest risk:
Staying in your day job until 70 is riskier than making an imperfect trade on a quality company at a fair price.
What actually matters:
Buy quality companies at good prices.
Keep ratios in check.
Stay in the game.
Make more than you lose.
Beat the S&P.
That is the whole thing.
You will never know everything.
Sta

The easiest way to know if the market is cheap or expensive.
One number. Free. Updated every week.
Go to Google.
Type "S&P 500 PE ratio Yardeni."
Click the first result.
Here is how to read it.
PE above 20-22:
Market is a little expensive. Future returns likely muted. De-risk a little. Less bullish options. Keep powder dry.
PE around 17-19:
Historical average. Fair value. Keep building the base portfolio & allocating options on ultra compelling setups.
PE below 14:
Market is cheap. Deploy capital. Sell portfolio secured puts. Buy calls. Keep ratios in check.
PE ratio is not the end all be all

Bull markets last 9.1 years on average.
Bear markets last 1.4 years on average.
Since 1926. Let that sink in.
Average bull market: +476% cumulative return.
Average bear market: -41% cumulative loss.
What this means for how I invest:
The bulls win in the long run. That is a 100 year fact.
Bear markets are shorter and shallower on average.
So I stay invested.
I add during bear markets.
I never panic sell.
I keep ratios in check so I can always survive the dip.
The bet I make every single day:
America goes up over time.
If I am wrong about that we have bigger problems than our portfolio.

Here is exactly what returns to expect from this strategy I do.
Most people set expectations too high or too low. Here is the honest math.
Base portfolio target: ~10% per year.
Historical S&P 500 average. Some years 50%. Some years -50%. Zoom out.
Options layer target: ~15% per year on top.
Only when undervalued. Quality companies. Long duration. Ratios in check.
Combined total target: ~25% per year.
My actual 10 year CAGR: 25.89%. Beat S&P (15%) and Nasdaq (18%).
The critical warning.
If you go from $100 to $50 that is a 50% drop.
To get back to $100 from $50 you need a 100% gain.
Never get w

Most people think bull markets and bear markets are random.
They usually are not.
The market follows EPS up and to the right in the long run.
When it gets stretched too far above the line — it snaps back.
When it gets stretched too far below the line — it snaps back up.
That is it. That is the whole game.
1999 — market was 24-25x PE.
Way above the line. Crashed 50%.
2022 — market stretched above the line.
Fell 35%.
Right now — market is a little above the line. Future returns will likely be below trend.
You do not have to call the exact top.
You do not have to call the exact bottom.
You just

Nobody talks about the 9-5 trap honestly.
Here it is.
Your boss pays you just enough so you do not quit.
You work just enough so you do not get fired.
That is the whole relationship in one sentence.
There is a ceiling on every salary.
You cannot negotiate your way to $10M.
You cannot work hard enough to get there.
There are only 24 hours in a day.
With stocks & options there is no ceiling.
You want to make 10x more?
Add a zero behind the trade.
Same amount of time.
Same amount of work.
10x the position.
(of course do in reason and keep ratios in check. My point is it's no more work)
The goa

Option Greeks tell you almost nothing useful.
Delta. Theta. Gamma. Vega. Rho.
Here is what delta actually factors in:
Historical volatility.
Time left in contract.
Interest rates.
Directionality.
Here is what delta does NOT factor in:
EPS growth rate.
Revenue trajectory.
Whether the company has a moat.
Whether the market is a bubble.
Whether competition is about to eat the company alive.
You are looking through a microscope at 4 things.
Missing the whole picture.
Warren Buffett probably does not even know what delta is.
He just buys good companies at good prices and is patient.
Delta tells you

I tracked 5 options strategies over 10 years.
Here is how they ranked.
D tier — Covered calls.
Bullish with one hand. Bearish with the other.
You cap your upside on the exact companies you love most.
NVIDIA went up 10x. Covered call sellers missed most of it.
C tier — Cash secured puts.
Right idea. Wrong execution.
All that cash sitting there doing nothing while you are bullish.
B tier — Buying puts.
Hard to be consistently right on timing AND direction.
Theta eats you alive while you wait to be right.
A tier — Buying long duration calls.
Works well when cheap. Still requires timing.
S tier —

If a 7% dip from ATH when valuations were high to start is shocking you... You need to re assess your investment philosophies.
Take a mental note of all the X accounts posting crazy high beta stocks last year that are now down 75%+
I never forget.
Be an investor, not a speculator.

Price is what you pay.
Value is what you get.
If I sold you a pen for $5,000 that just writes like a normal pen you would say no.
But people do this with stocks every day.
They see a great company.
They buy it no matter what the price is.
Then wonder why it drops 40% after they buy.
A great company at a terrible price is a bad investment.
A great company at a fair price is a good investment.
A great company at a cheap price is where real money is made.
That is why I check intrinsic value before every single trade.
Not because the company is bad.
Because even great things can be overpriced.

Most retail investors doing monthly puts think they are beating me.
Here is the math that ends that argument.
Market gets cheap.
I sell one 2 year put.
Collect $20,000.
You sell monthly puts on the same company.
$1,000 per month average.
You make money in the up months.
You lose in the volatile months.
You have to sell at the top when it is not compelling.
After 8 months you made $8,000.
I made $20,000 in one trade when the market was cheap.
Took the premium.
Bought shares.
Bought calls.
Sat back.
4 months later the market rebounded.
I closed the 2 year puts at 75% profit.
I held them for

94% win rate on my options trades over 10 years.
Here is exactly how.
When the market is expensive:
I de-risk.
Close sold puts.
Take profits on calls.
Maybe buy bonds.
Keep assignment value under 50%.
Let the herd chase calls at the top.
When the market is cheap:
I sell 2 year portfolio secured puts for top dollar.
Everyone is panicking and buying puts
I sell them those puts.
I take the premium and buy shares + calls.
Assignment value goes to 65%+
The herd buys puts for top dollar near bottoms.
I sell the puts for top dollar dear the bottoms.
(max premium received at compelling time)
The d

Retail investors pick strike prices completely wrong.
They open the options chain.
They look at delta.
0.32 delta.
32% chance it goes in the money.
"I'll take those odds."
Here is the HUGE problem...
Delta does not factor in:
EPS growth rate.
Revenue trajectory.
Whether the company has a moat.
Whether the market is a bubble.
Whether the Fed is about to hike.
It factors in 4 things and calls it a "probability" but excludes so much of the true needle mover stuff...
Here is how I pick strike prices.
Market/stock is cheap.
Moat/pricing power/competitive advantage/good valuation.
I sell puts 10%

Most investors love dividends.
I prefer share buybacks.
Here is why.
Company has $100 total earnings.
100 shares outstanding.
EPS = $1 per share.
Company buys back 10% of shares.
Now 90 shares outstanding.
Same $100 in earnings.
EPS = $1.11 per share.
That is a 10% boost in EPS without growing revenue by a single dollar.
EPS goes up.
Share price follows.
Always does in the long term.
& the best part?
You pay zero taxes on share price appreciation until you sell.
Dividends hit your tax bill every single quarter whether you spend them or not.
Apple buys back billions in stock every year.
Tha

FOMO is how most people blow up their account.
Your friend tells you about a hot stock at $100.
Day 2: $105.
Day 3: $110.
Day 4: $115.
Day 5: You cannot take it anymore. You buy at $125.
The second you buy...it drops.
This happens to almost every new investor.
Here is the thing about how stocks actually move...
The more a stock stretches above the EPS growth line the more it wants to snap back down.
(reversion to the mean)
When everyone is chasing a stock higher there is no one left to buy.
When there is no one left to buy...it falls.
FOMO is not a strategy.
It is the market taking money fro

Fundamental analysis vs technical analysis.
Technical:
Chart patterns.
Fibonacci.
Moving averages.
RSI.
Bollinger Bands.
Fundamental: revenue.
EPS.
Moat.
Pricing power.
Valuation.
I use fundamentals. Here is why.
Any chart at any given time can be made to look bullish or bearish.
That is not analysis. That is interpretation.
But if a company grows earnings 20% per year for 10 years, the stock follows.
Not because of a chart pattern.
Because profits drive share price. Always have. Always will.
When I look at a company I pretend I am buying the whole thing.
Would you buy an entire busin