As an avid reader of this wonderful forum, you have certainly come across my thread describing my first steps and experiences in options trading: My Option Odyssey: Personal Experiences, Numbers, and the Path Forward after Year One
After 1,000 days, I decided to quit. Perhaps you will find it beneficial to know my reasons for doing so. Just listen to the following conversation.
Larix, were you unhappy with the returns? No, not at all. At the beginning of 2023, I started with a dedicated options account of about $50,000. I am concluding my journey with a total return of $39,500 (see the table below). So, 80% return in under three years. In Swiss Francs, this corresponds to an IRR of 25% per annum. During the same period, my broad and boring ETF portfolio earned only 6.6% per year in CHF. I’m very happy with the return of the options.
| Ticker | # contracts | Premium | Stock price | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA | 32 | 5’754.48 | 4’320.55 | 10’075.03 |
| AMD | 28 | 3’559.94 | 4’399.50 | 7’959.44 |
| GOOG | 33 | 3’300.61 | 1’238.00 | 4’538.61 |
| IWM | 32 | 4’448.15 | -54.90 | 4’393.25 |
| TSLA | 18 | 3’056.77 | 250.00 | 3’306.77 |
| UNH | 11 | 2’472.86 | 750.00 | 3’222.86 |
| MSFT | 8 | 1’384.96 | 0.00 | 1’384.96 |
| KO | 12 | 857.03 | 464.50 | 1’321.53 |
| CRM | 7 | 1’257.89 | 0.00 | 1’257.89 |
| AMZN | 5 | 578.73 | 0.00 | 578.73 |
| NVO | 2 | 399.74 | 0.00 | 399.74 |
| QQQ | 2 | 236.82 | 0.00 | 236.82 |
| AZN | 4 | 162.80 | 0.00 | 162.80 |
| V | 1 | 143.60 | 0.00 | 143.60 |
| SONY | 6 | 328.83 | -200.00 | 128.83 |
| AMAT | 1 | 114.90 | 0.00 | 114.90 |
| MU | 1 | 107.88 | 0.00 | 107.88 |
| ABBV | 1 | 99.94 | 0.00 | 99.94 |
| SPY | 1 | 40.62 | 0.00 | 40.62 |
| TOTAL | 205 | 28’306.55 | 11’167.65 | 39’474.20 |
Couldn’t you stomach the risk and volatility, then? No, not at all. I went through a long and painful period when NVDA and AMD were down 30–40% in early 2025. At that time, I owned 400 shares of these stocks and didn’t have any more capital to continue selling cash-secured puts. I couldn’t sell any meaningful covered calls either. So, I waited patiently for these two stocks to recover, which they did in a big way in the summer of 2025. After all, NVDA and AMD have been my two most productive underlying assets.
Was it too complicated? No, not at all. Options trading may seem complicated, and there are indeed very advanced and complex strategies. Simply selling cash-secured puts and covered calls, as I did, is pretty straightforward. After the first couple of contracts, I quickly got the hang of it and continued to trade only on the IBKR mobile app. I never had any technical issues or difficulties.
Did it take too much time? Now, we’re getting closer … The actual trading doesn’t take much time once you have a solid watchlist of your preferred underlying assets. I had around 15–20. I used to trade on Mondays for contracts two or three weeks out. In theory, one hour per week would have been enough to implement this strategy.
So, what was the problem? Instead of letting the options run, I developed a complicated algorithm to optimize closing contracts before expiration that required daily monitoring. I spent hours following my tickers and experienced mood swings according to market movements. One Friday night, I spent two hours watching to see if a stock would be assigned or not. I decided that things had spun out of control and that I was developing unhealthy habits. My decision to quit options trading was like pulling the emergency brake on an uncontrollable train.
How do you feel now? Better. I deleted my entire watchlist. I no longer care whether NVDA or TSLA is up or down by 3% for the day. I still spend too much time on the IBKR app, but I’m confident that focusing only on my base strategy of keeping my ETF portfolio at around 45% of my net worth will calm me down and allow me to focus on what’s important in life.