Transcription
All right, we're here with our client Les from Options Trading University. Les has been doing quite amazing. Um, I believe this is your your second month in the program going on second month.
>> Started my second month, correct?
>> Right. Going on second month and Les, you hit uh 59K in your first month. That's pretty pretty significant. Walk us through that. Like, have you had any experience options trading before?
>> I actually have not. I'd done, you know, the standard, you know, buy and hold and cost averaging and things of that nature. And, uh, you know, that, you know, that, you know, I had a 401k when I was in corporate America. Now I own my own couple of businesses. So, I I self-direct my own IRAs and things now. So, you know, I guess Ryan, I I'll be honest and say, you know, what really kind of happened for me is when we had a couple of crashes and I saw my 401k and my stocks just, you know, lose hundreds of thousands of dollars and it wasn't a good feeling, you know. So, I said, "Okay, I got to do something different here." And so, yeah, so I I didn't know anything about options. I knew, you know, buying and selling options. I had never done it, but I knew nothing. I had heard about cash secured puts and the wheel strategy, but it seemed like uh, you know, Chinese math to me. I I just didn't I didn't know I didn't know what they were talking about. It was so confusing. So, yeah.
>> For sure.
>> Yeah. You've been my introduction to to options, really.
>> Okay. What What kind of made you take that leap of faith to say, "Hey, I'm going to learn about this. I'm gonna >> just put in the effort to, you know, figure out what this is?"
>> Yeah, that is a great question. Um, I started watching some YouTube videos of different YouTubers. Uh, and it's so it's so funny because yours was kind of the last one I I stumbled upon and I literally watched videos probably for a couple of months and I was like, man, this this seems interesting. And then there's I guess there's a firm out in New York called SMB Capital, >> you know, a professional trading firm. I looked at a couple of their videos, but uh I just thought that what you what you had was very seemed like it you made it very simple and and clear and and I was like, "Huh?" And and to be honest, I just felt like you were really genuine. And uh not to say that the others weren't, but to me, I just had a better comfort level with with your videos. And I just watched probably 40 or 50 of your videos, and I was like, man, I I gotta I gotta do something different here. So.
>> I appreciate that.
>> Absolutely. Absolutely.
>> I appreciate that. So, cool. So, yeah. So, you had you experienced the crash. I'm sure you experienced many crashes, but that was kind of the turning point for you. Um, so, yeah, kind of give us the update of how is it going now? Like, are you do you feel like, >> wow, I'm a professional at this? Like, because it sure looks like it.
>> I don't. It's days like today that makes you know that you don't feel like a professional. But I think what I really like about it is, man, I I went through the training probably twice uh of the things that I I knew the wheel strategy, right? So I I didn't really spend a lot of time on I'll be honest, I didn't spend a lot of time on the spread options and and call bear and all that. I don't even know all the terminology, but I haven't I know there'll be a point in time when I need to get into that stuff, but I didn't want to confuse myself, you know, because it's just like learning options was tricky enough in itself. And I still don't know >> like I I struggle with certain parts of it as far as, you know, when you're trading a stock, you know, you buy it at 225 and you you're hoping it goes up to 250, right?
>> Well, with options, you could you buy it at 225, but then there's a strike price and then there's a price you get it for. So, I don't even know how to set a stop loss on the price because the price that you that you buy it for is different than the actual stock price. So, it's a little confusing. So, I I I got to still kind of learn all of that stuff.
>> But, I just follow you, man. I probably in in 75% of my my trades and and they've worked out well. Now, I have I you know, because I because of when I started, you already had your portfolio kind of already intact. So, I couldn't go one for one, which would have been great, but >> I just kind of applied what I already knew >> um about reading charts and different things, Bollinger bands and things like that, and I kind of did my own things as well. And then I did a few LEAPS as well that kind of helped me kind of boost the number up a little bit. And uh, yeah, man, it's been it's been fantastic, man. I can't I mean, I've been telling everybody about it.
>> I appreciate that.
>> I appreciate that. Yeah. No, we see you active in the group, the Discord, you know, loves your post. Um, how are you liking the Discord? How is that for you?
>> I think it's great, man. I I I uh >> you know, I was I was a little I've been in Discords before and and they didn't operate quite the same way, you know. Um, but for me, it's always about my education comes first, right? So, you know, I I went to went I graduated high school, went to college, graduated college, got a master's degree in business. So I believe I'm a I'm a a instrument rated private pilot. I have a CDL class A. I can I can drive anything except a train. So I you know I got my own boat that's a 40-footer that I can navigate. So I I love education, man. I just love learning new things and and putting all that stuff in my toolkit. So when I saw this, I was just like, "Wow." So, so, so as far as the uh the Discord, I was like, man, this Discord is different for me because, you know, a lot of times you have a lot of experts come into Discord and I I do this, I do this, I do this, and yours is more streamlined than me and people really help each other.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's key, right? Um, now do now we have people you you gonna always have people that come in right away. They don't go through the training. They got a lot of questions, you know, and you know, and and hopefully they'll understand like, you know, hey, this is a process, right?
>> You know, you got to crawl, you got to walk, then you can run, and then you can eventually fly. But they want to go from crawling to flying, you know, and you know, as as Nichi tells us, you know, you got to first learn how to crawl and walk before you can fly. So, yeah. So, but I love the community. I've met some great people. Richard and I talk, you know, um Jason, he's a he's a great guy. Riad, you know, uh,
>> you know, there's a lot of ones that I kind of gravitate to and I kind of listen to and I kind of, hey, man, what are you doing? Kind of, you know, you can kind of bounce things off of each other. What are you doing? Because I, you know, I want to get to that 100K one day. And so, but I know it's going to take practice and really understanding what I'm doing. So, I it's been fantastic for me, man. I promise you.
>> Nice. Well, you're not far off the 100K month. I think that's that that'll be around the corner for you. So.
>> Well, I hope so. I hope so. But, you know, it's really and Ryan, really, it's not about that for me. It's really about the learning process, right?
>> Yeah.
>> It's about >> I want to be able to do if if Ryan takes buys 10 supercars and goes and lives on his own island one day, I want to be able to say, I can still do this >> and be successful even if Ryan's not here.
>> Yeah. So that's my mentality and I would think that should be everybody's mentality is learn a skill >> that you can teach to your kids that you can teach to your grandkids that you can teach so that they could do the same thing cuz I feel like at 75 if I'm if I'm able-bodied and still have my right mind I could still be doing this >> even even if it's at a smaller scale you know I can still be making some some nice income every month and it doesn't take a lot of my time. That's what I really love about it. It's not staring at a computer all day, you know what I mean? So.
>> Yes. Yes. And like you said, it's a skill set that you can do when you're 75, 85, like keep your mind sharp, which is fun.
>> Absolutely.
>> Um, and another thing you said too, like that I connect with so deeply is it's it's about the education, like the learning, like that's >> what excited me most about options when I first got into it a long time ago.
>> Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I don't know if you can see my shirt. from that. That's a quote from Nelson Mandela, but it says, >> "I never lose. >> I either win or I learn."
>> Right.
>> 100%.
>> So, so that's that's just the way I live my life, man. It's just like if you're not learning, what are you doing?
>> You can always the name of the game.
>> My philosophy is you never stop learning and you never stop teaching.
>> Those two things and and life will be okay.
>> Yeah, I 100% agree. That's that's a great quote. That's a great quote.
>> Yeah, I love it.
>> That's awesome. So, okay. So there was another thing there that you said it doesn't take up too much time because I know I mean you run multiple businesses you're extremely busy guy like how much time does it take for you?
>> I probably spend to be honest at you know early on I was spending a little bit more time because I was more kind of in a learning phase and trying to see what others were doing and things like that. So I was probably spending about two to three hours a day at that time when I first joined early uh July or late June. Yeah.
>> Now it's probably five or six hours a week, you know, like really like engaged. Like I love the fact that I can I can walk away. I can go to the gym. I can go for a walk. I can walk the dog and I don't have to panic about, oh, I'm in this this trade and if it goes against me, I'm going to lose all this money.
>> That that's a thing of the past, man. You know, I mean, that's the beauty of the model of the of the wheel, you know? It's just like
>> I don't worry about it. on red days like today what what I'm I'm probably down 35k >> on a red day and I used to be down 200k on a red day you know so I'm just like it feels like I'm not even down you know so
>> yeah that's the crazy part to to bring that up too because when the crash happened the tariff crash the QQQ went down 25 yeah I believe 25% and max drawdown on my account being in the high risk stuff >> was 16% Right. So it was like, oh, I get to participate, make more upside, but also have less volatility in the portfolio. Like this is I don't know why not more people are talking about this strategy.
>> Oh, absolutely, man. And and I put I think I might have put it in the in the Discord. Uh
>> yeah,
>> six months or six months when I was actually had a regular trading account and regular stocks and then my first month with your program. And you can see like all the money that had been won and lost just by holding stocks versus your program. And it was like night and day,
>> you know? I was just like, "Wow." So yeah, man. I mean, like, for example,
>> I had before I got with you, I had like 3,000 shares of Palantir. I had a couple thousand, 2,200 shares of Nvidia, you know, I had sh I had a lot of shares and a lot of things. And so imagine those shares today, even with our drawdown today,
>> you know, you lose, you know, I don't know what was it, 30 points on on Palantir and, you know, you got a couple thousand shares of that, you know, that's 60 grand right there, you know, that's double what I've already that was in one stock. So I'm just like, man, this is all right.
>> I don't panic anymore, you know?
>> Yeah. Yeah. Hey, that's the point. That's the point too is like to not have to it's it's this strategy really fits a lifestyle. It's like you get to enjoy you get to participate but you don't have to worry >> so much because it's a hybrid between >> yeah if I get assigned the shares I'll hold it but >> you know I also generate the income. So
>> that's right that's right and and it's and there's something comforting in knowing that you can go in and pull out income anytime you want. You can take three months off and and and go on vacation, but when you come back, you can say, "You know what? I probably I'm gonna go ahead and go in the market and grab me 60 or 70K this month." And you can do it. And it's not like it's, you know, it's not like it's hard to do, you know?
>> Yeah.
>> So, that's what excites me is like, man, I can It's like printing money for real. I mean, when you think about it, it really is.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I to my friends and they're like, wait a minute, what? like 100K in six weeks. Like wait like are you selling drugs? Like what are you doing? No, that's that's just the strategy. That's the wheel strategy. I sent them all to your videos and say go watch Ryan. He'll he'll he'll put you on game on on how we do this.
>> 100%. What um what was your because I we had we had some clients also like you that had a lot of shares. a lot of shares of Amazon, lot maybe they worked at a specific company.
>> How did you part ways with those shares and say, "Hey, I'm going to sell covered calls, let these shares get called away and not hold on to them like, you know what I mean? Like, how did you part ways?"
>> Yeah, I started phasing out once I started watching your videos. Um, and you know, I had them for, you know, a little bit so I I bought them low and so I was in profit. So, I just started taking taking some of the profit out on them. One of them that I'm still holding and and I thought I was going to get out of it about two weeks ago and then it and then it crashed was SMCI.
>> Oh, okay.
>> I have 2,000 shares of that.
>> Wow.
>> And uh and I was right probably six days from expiration. I I did cover calls on them and it was getting close and I was up on them. I was just like, "Okay, this is going to be great. I can get out of these things." And then it flushes >> and so I'm just like, "Oh." So, I'm like down like 25K on them right now. So, but yeah, I just started selling them uh because I didn't now and I don't know if I did the right thing or not. I didn't want to keep like a 100 shares of this, 100 shares of this. I know some people do that so they can run covered calls. I didn't really understand that at the time, but I just know I wanted to >> get into the program as quickly as possible and really start utilizing my capital to do exactly what you were doing because I think we had kind of similar capital,
>> you know, so I was like, man, you know, and and and I felt like you were real conservative, too,
>> because you have a group, you want people to do well, you don't want to take a bunch of risk, you know, and things like that. And uh because for your program to be successful, you have to be successful, you know, and uh and I said, you know,
>> if Ryan is conservative and he's doing on the average of 45% a month, uh, you know, on a year,
>> it's like, man, I if I'm if I'm cons if I and I'm just trying to do 30. I said, if I can just do 30%. That's great for me, you know? And I'm here. I am I've done like 10 or 11% in the first six weeks. It's like I'm like, "Man, this is I've already kind of matched the S&P, you know, in the first."
>> So, I'm just like the rest of the year is gravy, you know? Yep. I mean, if I only do, you know, 2% a month from here, I'm I'm pretty good. I've hit my goal.
>> Yeah. 100%.
>> Yeah. And that's that's another thing, too. Like you said, I actually am more conservative. I I play it safer. There's some guys in the group. Yeah. Jason. I mean, those guys are hitting six, seven, eight, 10% a month.
>> Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. And it works for them, you know. Yeah. And everybody's different. Everybody has a different risk level. But I like your approach because,
>> you know, you you you believe in safety first, you know what I mean? So, and that's good for especially new people that just haven't been around. I like the fact that you have a smaller account for people with the smaller accounts and you help them through. And just the transparency. I mean, that's that's the key for me. I mean, you show everything, you know, and
>> everything.
>> And a lot of people don't show everything, you know.
>> And you tell it like it is. When it's good, it's good. When it's, hey, when we might have to wait a couple of weeks on this one,
>> that's what we have to do. But you always seem to be able to manage us out of something if we get in trouble or something's not going your way. Now, we we got, you know, we're always going to have people that want to buck the system or or want to do their own thing and want to go against the grain. And I think that's the time when people really get in trouble. Then they're like, "Help, help." You know, like, "Hey, CoreWeave, don't trade Core. Don't run a wheel strategy on CoreWeave." People do it.
>> Yeah.
>> And then it's like, "Ryan, how do I get out of this?" You know, it's like, "Well, you get out of it by not getting in it, you know, kind of thing." So, but you do a great job of that. I don't know how you keep up with it all, man. But I I just want to say thank you for for the teachings and the learnings, and I'm I'm here for the long haul on this one, man.
>> Yeah, I appreciate it, Les. All the feedback and and like you said, Yeah. There there's you know some people most people I would say sticking to the process some you know going a little higher risk. I do want to Did you like how I changed that one channel to it says now it's ideas not approved channel.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw that I was looking for the other one. I was like wait where did the channel go? And I said oh you changed the name on it. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So that that's the first thing I asked someone that's like oh I I got into Core. What do I do now? And I said, "Oh, did you were you in the ideas not approved channel?"
>> Exactly. Exactly. And sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.
>> Sometimes it does.
>> But I think if you have a strategy and it's a proven strategy, why why change it? That's that's just my opinion, you know? Like if it's working, why change it?
>> Yeah. And I think we have the same mindset on that because it's like if you look out five, 10 years and you're compounding at 30, 40, 50% a year.
>> Yeah. I've done that calculator probably 20 times already and I was like, "Okay, let's just do this."
>> And and I got a little screenshot for myself to remind myself >> like, and now I'm I'm not even at a percentage now. I'm at a I'm at a number. I'm like, you know, if I can if I can do 50,000 a month >> and I feel like I can do that pretty pretty easily with the capital that I have. I'm like, that's 600k a year.
>> Yeah.
>> I mean, that's a lot of money. And that's really kind of conservative,
>> you know, to me, you know, so I'm just thinking like and that >> now if I get some LEAPS and stuff in there, you know, of course that'll boost up, but yeah, I think you can do you could do a lot with with with that type of capital.
>> For sure. For sure. What's the uh do you have any long-term goals with it with the trading or just growing the capital as much as possible?
>> Yeah, growing the capital. Um, my wife and I will probably be moving. We live in Virginia right now helping my daughter and her husband with our first grandbaby. So, um, we're going to be we're going to be moving back to Austin probably to retire. We spent about eight years in Austin um when we first started out.
>> Cool.
>> Um, so the idea is to really kind of in the next couple of years see if I can double this capital,
>> you know, so you know, so I'll have extra, you know, just extra money to to put down on a house and, you know, and and not use the capital that I already have,
>> you know, so really want to be able to retire, put a nice backyard in, swimming pool kind of a, you know, type of thing and just kind of live life and just, you know, even when we get to that retirement age when we can start drawing coming out of our IRA and stuff. We We got enough money that we can just, hey, not work don't worry about the taxes. We made enough. Let's let's let's just live life, you know? That's really my long-term goal. And and I got the 10-year plan like like you have.
>> You're a lot younger than I am, but in 10 years, I'll be 65 and I feel like I'll still be doing this.
>> Yeah. Yeah. For sure. We're doing it.
>> I'm in my right mind, you know.
>> Same. Same. Told my wife that. I'm doing this until I Hey, 100. if I live to 100.
>> Literally, me and my daughter, me and my oldest daughter, she's 32. We were just talking about this last night. She's like, "Dad, you got to teach me what you're doing, you know." And I said, "I will." You know, and uh because she's never traded anything. So, for the people that have it, it's going to be extra, you know, they don't know anything about charts, anything about anything. So,
>> stocks. Yeah.
>> Yeah. But yeah, but I said, "Hey, even if even if you only have a $25,000 account, you can still make money. Build it up." Because I can't remember who it was. I think it was a guy you interviewed before. I think he said he started with like 30,000 in few months he almost doubled >> his capital. I was just like man that's where they where do they do that you like that's crazy.
>> Yeah. Two people actually and Thiago. Aniago. Yeah. Yeah.
>> Yeah. So that's that's the story that I told her about. I was like yeah these guys are really knocking it out of the park.
>> Nice. Nice.
>> What would you tell someone that's new to this? Yeah. like your daughter kind of maybe on the edge or just doesn't really know kind of where to start. Where would what would you tell them? Um
>> um I would I would well I would tell them be before they join, you know, just watch your videos.
>> Just just watch your videos, spend some time with them, you know, make sure that this is something that they want to do, but once they join to really get into the education,
>> you know, don't skip that part, you know, because it's and I know it's hard, right? I mean, you see all these people posting all these great results and you're like, man, I want to get. It's like going to the casino and you can't get on the black jack table because you're too young, you know, you're seeing people making all this money and you want to get on, but you can't, right? So,
>> yeah,
>> I just think that part is so important and people just skip over that part and glaze over it. You know, I was chatting with someone in the in the in the Discord uh and he was saying that, you know, what you know, what was this and what was that? I was like, "Hey, you know, it might be helpful if you, you know, if you go and you kind of watch some of these videos because those are what really what helped us, you know, and and I think once people do that, they'll get a better understanding." But it's hard to come in cold turkey. You don't you've never done this before and now you're in this Discord with all these people posting all this stuff and the wealth of information that's going through your your head is just like overwhelming. You about to like short circuit or something, you know?
>> So, that that's what I would I mean,
>> I would say, "Hey, do your homework. I did my homework. I looked at different ones. I watched videos of different ones. Uh and and I and it and it led me right to you and that's where, you know, that's where I was most comfortable, you know. So,
>> yeah. Well, I'm glad I'm glad I'm glad that I could help and uh I'm glad that you've learned a lot, you know, from
>> and you know, one other thing, Ryan, that I like about your Discord is is so diverse. you know, we have people from all walks of life, you know, we got people, you know, from all cultures, you know, and and I haven't seen one person that wasn't willing to help somebody else,
>> you know, and sometimes you don't and like I said, I've been in other Discords. You don't always get that.
>> So, that's refreshing, you know, and they take the time and they're not just like, you know, just like you take the time to answer all the questions, they take the time if you ask them a question, they'll they'll help you out if they could if they if they can. And it's just we're it's just beautiful, man. I love it.
>> Yeah, I would say that too. Like it's we've attracted so many awesome people, like-minded people. And it's like it's not just,
>> you know, students here. It's like we're a community and and we're going to be doing this together for the next who knows, right? 30, 40, 50 years.
>> Exactly. Exactly. But it doesn't it won't do anyone any good if they come into your community, not learn, and then
>> Yeah.
>> you decide, hey, I really don't want to do this anymore.
>> And now they've just wasted a lot of time and money, you know, because now they might be losing trades and doing things that they're, you know, they're not I just because I listen to everything that you say and and how you determine what you're going to do and you know, because that's important to me when you say, "Hey," and you explain you do a great job of explaining, "Hey, this is the reason why I sold these and I and I I went to the same strike price, the same date because of X, Y, and Z." That's what I love because in my mind I'm saying, "Okay, I can understand his reasoning behind it, right?"
>> Yeah.
>> It's not You're not just putting out a number and said, "This is what I just did." You're explaining yourself.
>> Yeah.
>> So that people can visualize.
>> Wow. And I know that I'm getting better because >> on certain trades I've done the same thing that you've done almost verbatim, but I did it a day or two earlier. So, we might have been at different percentages on on profit,
>> but I but I'm like, okay,
>> we're thinking the same now.
>> Right. Right. Right. So, that that made me feel proud of myself because I'm like, wow. Like, he went he did the same thing I did. I just did it a little bit earlier.
>> So, I know I'm on the right track anyway, you know? So, yeah, I use your spreadsheet. That spreadsheet's amazing. Uh I mean, you you just cover everything from A to Z, man. I I I don't I don't know what else someone else would need to be honest with you.
>> Well, I appreciate all the feedback Les and Yeah. And it shows, you know, you learn before you earn >> and you you went through the the modules, everything twice, you said. Y >> and now you're absolutely crushing it. One of the top traders in the group. So, you know.
>> Yeah. Well, I appreciate I'm I'm still learning, man. And I'm learning from everybody else. And I and I'm humble enough to say I'm I don't know everything. Don't you know if you ask me something, if I can help you, I will. But I'm not trying to be the smartest person in the room. I'm just trying to learn what I can,
>> you know.
>> Well,
>> I appreciate you sharing everything Les and I'm sure I'm sure we'll do a followup uh later on to see how you, you know, how the progress has been.
>> Oh, I'll keep posting.
>> Awesome.
>> Awesome.
>> Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate your time, man.
>> Appreciate it. Okay.