Hi Tigers,

Welcome to our Interview with @Bonta , a senior project manager in Singapore.

Bonta shares his investment journey from options trading to consistent income through option selling, highlighting his experience with $Alibaba(BABA)$ , and his approach to stock selection, risk control, and option strategy deployment, all encapsulated in the slogan: "Sleep, chill and collect eggs."

Check out Bonta's Trading Sparks account. Click on Bonta to subscribe to his real-time trading information and receive his trading signal.

https://ttm.financial/J/starInvestor?uuid=4109646601429430

1. Briefly introduce yourself

Hi fellow tigers, Bonta here, I am honored to be invited to share my investment journey.

I am currently in my early 40s and proud to be a father last year. Still waiting to get a tiger plushie for my daughter.

Career wise, I am in Senior Project Management role for a construction company that's based in Singapore.

Perhaps, that will explain why, in my posts, there's some Phua Chu Kang language mixed inside somehow.

2. Share your personal investment growth experience, and how you made your first bucket of gold in the market?

My investment journey started more than 15 years ago..

I started off with attending paid option course in my university days, and learnt how to buy options.

Needless to say, there's no happy ending there..

I decided to not depend on them and went to learn myself . I started to understand the other side of the coin. Option selling. It worked if not for the imba commission costs for options then, which was went up to around USD15-18 per transaction then.

To be fair, I had just started work then, and decided to stop options for a while as its not productive.

It is only when my friend recommended Tiger to me, that I realized that option commission had dropped significantly.

What that wasn't viable then, became possible.

I tried option selling again and instead of finding a bucket of gold.

I found a goose that lays golden eggs.

3. From your trading share orders, it seems that you mainly trade options. Why did you choose options as your main trading category?

Option sellers have higher probability of success and time works for us instead of against us.

Higher probability of success:

Conventional stocks can move in 5 ways, Strong bull, weak bull, sideways, weak bear and strong bear.

Money can typically be made only from 2 out of 5 movements. Strong bull and weak bull if you buy stocks.

For short sellers, it is even worse, only 1 out of 5 movements, Strong bear. Small bear may not cover the cost of interest incurred.

When we sell options, money can be made from 4 out of 5 movements.

When we sell call options, money can be made from Strong bear, weak bear, side ways and weak bull.

When we sell put options, money can be made from Srong Bull, weak bull, side ways and weak bear,

By design, option sellers have better odds of making money.

Time works for option sellers:

Option sellers have time decay on their side, as time passes the contract losses value.

This time property of options, when utilized can create income streams.

4. What is the most impressive investment experience you have had?

My option selling strategy was made to go up significant ups and downs last year due to $Alibaba(BABA)$ .

The rallies are quick and fierce, the plunges are fast and scary.

I had to keep on adapting to the conditions, testing my knowledge of options. Before that experience, I was basically doing simple wheel strategy.

During the alibaba swings, I was forced to learn various types of rolling, adjustments/centering and spreads.

Till date, Alibaba has earned more than USD 40,000 through options and its still giving me golden eggs till date.

Perhaps it isn't as flashy as x100 x1000 gains, but I value consistency more than big gains which are difficult to repeat.

5. How do you select stocks and control risks?

Blue chips

A key rule for option sellers is to only sell options on stocks that you want to own.

The reason is that shit happens and there's always the chance that we will end up owning the stock.

Hence, my short strangles and short puts are for stocks that I will want to own.

If its a short term play, I will use vertical spreads or iron condors.

Stocks that I select are mostly blue chips like $Alibaba(BABA)$ , $Amazon.com(AMZN)$ , $Apple(AAPL)$ etc.

Blue chips are good for option sellers as there's higher liquidity for options which reduces the spread.

6. How do you pick various elements of options?

I will decide during entry, whether am i Bullish, bearish or neutral and deploy the corresponding option strategy.

To put it simply, Entry will usually be 45-50 days time and strike price based on delta 15-20.

Strike price to double check against support and resistance prices.

Check historical Volatility vs IV. If there's no volatility premium, i will usually sit it out and observe.

7. What is your follow-up trading plan? What are the key directions you pay attention to?

Wait or adjust the position timely

After entering position, just sleep and wait.

1) In the event that nothing happens

Most of the time with delta 15, there is high chance that nothing will happen (i.e. touch strike price).

In the event that nothing happens, I will usually take profit once i hit 50% or when option reaches 21 days.

When option reaches 21 days, I will either close for profit or will roll it until it has 45-50 days of time value.

2) In the event that strike price is touched, decide on how strong is the momentum.

If the momentum is strong and there is premium for diagonal roll (extend time and away from the money), I will take the roll increasing my defense while collecting premiums.

If diagonal roll is not viable or the momentum isn’t that strong, I will do a horizontal roll for extra premiums.

If momentum is not strong, then just chill and wait for reversal.

8. If you were to use one sentence as a slogan to get people to subscribe to your Trading Sparks account, what would it be?

Sleep, chill and collect eggs.

Welcome to follow @Bonta and subscribe to the Trading Sparks account!

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