Theta Collector

Investing in tech, AI, and space. Collecting option premium along the way.

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

After freeing up some buying power by closing the shorter dated $NBIS backstop, I added a longer dated one on $HOOD: December 2027 $60 puts. Basically a cash grab here.

Sometimes I like to run a shorter and a longer dated backstop on my premium horses. Closing the NBIS position today gave me room for the new HOOD trade.

Also inspired by @TJTheWheelDeal stream today. He’s an absolute legend for being so transparent with the huge accounts he trades and passing on his knowledge.

I learned my approach to sell options from him, with a lot of self study to understand what he teaches and apply it to my own portfolio. Over time, I’ve managed to scale from 3 figures monthly to 5 figure months in realized premiums selling puts and calls.

Go check him out!

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Closed out the shorter dated $NBIS backstop today, capturing around 46% of the premium after 25 days.

The stock has been falling, but the puts barely moved and even got a little cheaper. That can happen when time decay and falling IV offset the stock move.

Besides the quick premium capture, the volatility setup was another reason to close.

NBIS still shows around 70% IV on IBKR, but its IV rank got very low.

IV is the volatility currently priced into the options. IV rank shows where that sits between its historical low and high, usually over the past year. So 70% can sound high while still being relatively low for NBIS.

That doesn’t mean IV has to rebound. But an IV expansion could hurt the book by making the short options more expensive to buy back, even without another drop in the stock.

With around 46% captured in just 25 days, I was happy to take the win and reduce some exposure here.

Leaving the longer dated backstop running.

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@_stockResearch Thanks!

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Q3 is in the books. A great quarter selling options, with $53k in realized profits. Really happy with the results

About 10% came from short term long calls. The remaining 90% came from selling options. Had some good runs on my premium horses $HOOD, $NBIS and $RKLB, with a few others contributing too

No CGT on stocks and options where I currently live, LET’S GO!

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@_stockResearch @DeepValueBagger @WealthyBeaver_ Pros and cons like everywhere, I guess. But it’s a good place to focus on your work, have peace of mind, and build wealth because of the low taxes and no rocks getting thrown in your way. I was living in the southern part, Bavaria

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@_stockResearch @DeepValueBagger @WealthyBeaver_ Yeah, German taxes are rough. Relocated to Cyprus last year for that reason. Stocks and options are 0% CGT here

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@Its_keith_d Nice stats, keep it going

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Added to my current $HOOD June backstop today as the stock came down a little over 3%, giving back yesterday’s gains after the summit

I think they’re doing a great job with these summits, especially the latest one and the releases they showed. They’re basically investing in their retail community

They’ve managed to build a very loyal retail base. Watching people cheer on the releases like they’re watching their favourite rockstar, it feels like they’ve created a cult following

And I think the new features and updates deserve that excitement. Some are already live, with more still coming. Pretty bullish on HOOD going forward

Besides that, just riding my shares. Realized option premiums so far this year have brought my premium adjusted entry down from around $80 to $11.49

No other moves today

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Opened starter tranches on new $HOOD $75 puts and $RKLB $45 puts

Went shorter dated on the RKLB backstop since I still have the longer dated one running

Will add to these and build them out if I get the chance

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@vinceisbullish Prost 🍺

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

I often mention letting theta do its work. But time passing is only one part of what moves an option’s price

Here’s a simple example using my 10 $RKLB April 2027 $45 puts, sold for $3.25. That’s $3,250 in opening premium before fees, not realized profit

Using the snapshot from when RKLB was around $70 and implied volatility was 74%, the Greeks for my short position were:

Delta: positive 0.133
Theta: positive 0.019
Vega: negative 0.119
Gamma: negative 0.00570

Each contract represents 100 shares. The dollar figures below are for all 10 contracts

Delta: A $1 rise would initially help my position by around $133. A $1 fall would hurt it by roughly the same amount

Theta: One day would help by around $19 if everything else stayed unchanged. That doesn’t mean $19 lands in my account every day

Vega: IV falling from 74% to 73% would help by around $119. Rising to 75% would hurt by around $119, even without the stock moving

Gamma: After a $1 fall in the stock, my sensitivity to the next $1 move would increase from roughly $133 to $139. The puts become more exposed to further downside

All figures are estimates, changing one factor at a time

So yes, time is helping. But a falling stock and rising IV can easily outweigh that. These numbers change throughout the trade, which is why I’m still managing the positions rather than just waiting

Delta is sensitivity to the stock price
Theta is the effect of time passing
Vega is sensitivity to implied volatility
Gamma is how delta changes as the stock moves

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@TJTheWheelDeal Just sold some June 75s yesterday, but I think the 80s will do just fine too

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Opened starter tranches on new $HOOD $75 puts and $RKLB $45 puts

Went shorter dated on the RKLB backstop since I still have the longer dated one running

Will add to these and build them out if I get the chance

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Premium book getting pretty small now after the recent buybacks

Had some good runs that I could close for a profit pretty quickly, and the $SOFI backstop is now out of the book too

Would love to reload on $HOOD, $RKLB and $NBIS, but haven't found the premiums I want for the bigger positions and backstops yet

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Premium book getting pretty small now after the recent buybacks

Had some good runs that I could close for a profit pretty quickly, and the $SOFI backstop is now out of the book too

Would love to reload on $HOOD, $RKLB and $NBIS, but haven't found the premiums I want for the bigger positions and backstops yet

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Bought back the $SOFI backstop today, realizing around 30% of the premium after holding it for 6 months alongside shares

Price didn't really get anywhere since then, and I wanted to reduce some long delta on the position. Also trimmed 25% of the shares over the past few weeks. Now sitting on the remaining 1.2k shares

Would reload another backstop if we actually go below $15 here. If we go higher, I'm fine too while the shares appreciate in value

Either way, great company, but not the best pick for 2026 so far. Starting to feel like the capital could do more elsewhere

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Bought back all 20 $RKLB March 2027 $45 puts today, capturing roughly 45% of the premium after a month

I wanted to clean up the options book. At the mark I was looking at, waiting to reach 50% meant roughly another $470 while keeping $90k in put assignment notional open. I took the win and didn't roll

The original January 2028 $50 backstop is still running, and I still own 1,400 shares and some June 2027 $90 calls

With the VIX below 15, the premiums at the strikes I'm interested in aren't fat enough to open a replacement right away. I'll look at another shorter dated trade if the price and premium make sense

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Added March 2027 $45 puts to my $RKLB backstop campaign today

They have less time than the existing $50 and $60 puts. If all goes as planned, I’ll roll them up and out over time and eventually combine everything at the $60 strike

The current short options book has raised about $75k in portfolio cash through opening premiums

Got some management plans in mind, but they depend on what the stocks want to do next. Until then, theta is doing the work

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Bought back the $HOOD $75 short puts at today's open, capturing around 40% of the premium after 10 days

Was thinking about selling some calls afterwards, but the premiums at my preferred strike weren't fat enough

For now, no open premium trades on HOOD. Just the shares, with an adjusted cost basis now below $20 from around $80 thanks to realized premiums over the past few months

No other moves. Letting the other backstop trades run

That brings me to around $15.5k realized for September and almost $50k in realized premiums from selling options in Q3 so far

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Added to the new $HOOD backstop today

I intentionally started small last week to leave some dry powder to add at better premiums. The selloff after the Fed rate hike gave me that opportunity

Current premium book:
Put assignment notional: $530k
Open premium: $65k
Current maintenance margin: $73k

Open premium is 12.3% of assignment notional and 89.0% of current maintenance margin

Other positions unchanged. Let's see where we go from here

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

Seeing more and more people talking about a correction being due. This ranges from "just a correction" to "a big crash is coming" and "I'm heavy in cash now."

I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm not convinced things will play out the way so many people expect. Reading these comments, I think some are spending too much time on the macro.

When you're looking for red flags, you'll always find enough to build a case for an incoming correction. That case can be convincing and based on facts, but how often did the correction actually happen when those analyses expected it?

Some observations that might be missing from the discussion:

The Iran war has been going on since late February. You could still have bought the January or February S&P 500 highs and be in profit today.

The Fed started raising rates while the market was expecting cuts at the beginning of the year. Since the hike, markets are up so far.

The 10 year yield is around 5%, at 4.96% as of writing this. Its historical mean since 1953 is 5.52%, and the median is 4.72%. That doesn't make higher yields irrelevant, but it adds some context.

Historically, the best month in a midterm year has been October, with an average S&P 500 return of around 3%. November comes second at 2.7%.

The Fear & Greed Index is sitting at 29, in fear territory and close to extreme fear.

Maybe we will correct, crash or whatever you expect and want to call it. Those historical numbers don't rule that out.

But spending too much time waiting for it can keep you from taking opportunities while markets trade higher. The correction you're waiting for may not happen when you expect, or at the prices you're hoping for.

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

I've never owned a single $NBIS share or bought calls on it

Still realized over $18k in the past 90 days selling low delta puts and calls. The volatility and high IV have given me plenty of opportunities to collect premium

Rinse and repeat on NBIS alongside the other stocks I run campaigns on

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

@TJTheWheelDeal Nice! I’m also in with $100 puts. Basically rinse and repeat on NBIS for the past few months

[Theta Collector @CollectsTheta]

I currently run my premium campaigns on 4 to 5 stocks. That's enough for me. I don't need to watch 20 companies to find setups

Before selling puts, I want a solid research foundation and several quarters of following the business closely. It has to be a company I have conviction in, where I already own shares or would want to

I look for decent premiums during pullbacks, preferably with implied volatility around 50% to 60% or higher. But the premium has to make sense for the risk and time involved. I also want enough excess liquidity left to manage the book if things move against me

For regular trades, I usually look at 30 to 45 days to expiration. My backstops are further out, roughly 6 months or more, at much lower deltas and usually with more contracts. I build those in tranches rather than opening the full position at once

I don't really wheel these stocks. I buy and sell shares when they reach my preferred levels. Assignment isn't the goal, even though it remains possible

I sell puts more often than calls because my underlying view is bullish. Calls usually come after an overextended move, with strikes well above the share price to leave room to manage

When a position gets challenged, I try to manage it before the strike gets hit. I'll take a loss on the existing option and look to roll for a net credit at a better strike if the new trade still makes sense. That loss stays part of the result

I usually close after capturing around 70% of the premium. I'll also close at around 50% if more than half the original time to expiration remains. Sometimes I'll take 30% or more after just a few days if the stock has made a quick move in my favor

It depends on the stock's movement and the levels I'm watching on the chart. After a quick rally, I sometimes roll puts up or out, capturing part of the premium and opening a new position if the strike, expiration and fresh premium make sense

I track it as a campaign per stock, including the closes, rolls and losses along the way

Same few companies, rinse and repeat when the setup is there. Letting theta do its work while I manage the positions