🎁Episode 4 | "There's No Free Lunch": An Accounting Firm Owner——Mr. Seah's Road to 2 Gold Bricks

Hi, tigers🐯

The Road to a Million Dollars is an in-depth interview series by the Tiger Community, featuring outstanding investors from its "Million Dollar" honors program.

The "Million Dollar" honors program is not about the size of one's assets — it recognizes the investing ability an investor consistently demonstrates in real markets. Within a designated calendar year, every US$100,000 in investment gains unlocks one Tiger Gold Brick, up to a maximum of nine; Upon reaching US$1,000,000 in gains, the investor receives the exclusive "Premium" Million-Dollar Milestone.

Every investor on the road to a million dollars has their own method and their own answers. Some are still finding their way in the market; others have already built a mature investment system. But what truly deserves to be seen is how they understand opportunities, make judgments, and manage risk.

Through the real experiences and reflections of these outstanding investors, The Road to a Million Dollars hopes to inspire fellow Tigers to find an investment path of their own.

"Emotions are what hurt trading most."

If you remember one line from this conversation, let it be this one.

Meet Lucas Seah — a 38-year-old who runs an accounting firm in downtown Singapore. Before we even pressed record, both of us admitted we were a little nervous. "It's just a free talk," we told each other — and within minutes, the man across the screen was calmly explaining how he earned two Gold Bricks in 2026, with peak cumulative gains above US$200,000. And This year, his maximum drawdown was only 11%.

Here's what makes his story worth your next five minutes: he does nothing fancy. No day-trading on hot tips, no leveraged all-ins, no screen-glued marathons. He picks mega-cap companies, sells cash-secured puts 30 to 45 days out — and then walks away. He watches the market until 10 p.m. or midnight, and every trading group chat on his phone stays muted. "I check them only when I want to," he laughs. "Otherwise — don't disturb me."

If you've ever held a losing position and crossed your fingers, or chased a 50% return and wondered why it felt so stressful, pull up a chair. This one's for you.

Full Article Guideline🎁：

• Mr. Lucas Seah Profile

• Meet Mr. Seah: The Accounting Boss Who'd Rather Be "Boring"

• The Playbook: Sell Puts on Companies You'd Actually Own

• Scars First: The REIT Loss That Taught Him Everything

• The Returns Question: Why 10+ to 20+% Beats Chasing 50%

• What He Sees Next: Midterms, AI, and One Tiny SpaceX Bz

• 3 Pieces of Advice (and Why Tiger Is His Home Base)

• Closing thoughts: The "Boring" Premium Machine

Mr. Lucas Seah Profile

Part 1: Meet Mr. Seah: The Accounting Boss Who'd Rather Be "Boring"

Every great investor has an origin story. His starts with a spreadsheet and a scar.

Q1: You run an accounting firm in Singapore. When did you first put money into U.S. stocks?

Mr. Seah:

I'm between 35 and 40, based in Singapore, and I run an accounting firm — I'm a business owner. I started investing in U.S. stocks around 2018, using other platforms back then.

Does my accounting background help? Somehow, yes — it gives you the fundamentals. But a lot of things you can't learn just from theory. You need practical experience; you need to get burned a little at the start of your trading journey.

As you learn, you tend to read more and research more. That's where you really start honing your skills and deciding which strategy suits you. You do a lot of reading and researching, trial and error — maybe you try small first, and eventually you'll get the strategy right.

Q2: Let's cut to the fun part — you've already earned 2 Gold Bricks this year, with peak gains above US$200,000. How did you actually pull that off?

Mr. Seah:

My approach is selling cash-secured puts — CSPs. But on quality companies.

Instead of chasing premium, I sell puts on quality companies at a strike price where I would be happy to own the stock. That's really the whole edge.

Notice what he just did: one sentence, no jargon explosion. But if you're new to options, that sentence hides an entire discipline — so let's unpack it.

Part 2: The Playbook: Sell Puts on Companies You'd Actually Own

Here's the part most people skip: the mechanics. Mr. Seah walks us through them like he's reading a shopping list.

Q3: Walk us through the exact playbook — expiry, delta, position sizes, and what you watch.

Mr. Seah:

I don't do super short-term. Some people do daily or weekly expiry — I don't touch those. Mine is always 30 to 45 days, and the delta I typically use is 0.1 to 0.3.

I hold 10-plus open positions mixing actual stocks and options, plus one to three covered calls. Roughly 95% of the stocks I touch are mega-caps, not small-cap names. Some people call it "boring" — not as volatile, the premium isn't as exciting — but mega-cap to me is safer.

On the technical side, I look at moving averages, RSI, MACD, and sometimes gamma exposure just to see the ceiling wall. I also have a Bloomberg subscription. If a stock has run up too high, I won't chase premium — I'd rather roll to another counter.

Ask yourself the question he asks every time: would I be happy to own this stock at this price? If the answer is no, the trade doesn't happen — no matter how juicy the premium looks.

Q4: Which sectors and companies do you actually bet on this year?

Mr. Seah:

Currently it's U.S. stocks — they're interesting, a bit volatile. This year I'm focused on consumer staples, AI-related stocks, the Magnificent Seven, semiconductors, and data centers.

Even though this is an options strategy, I still pick good, solid stocks based on fundamentals. I like Coca-Cola a lot — the fundamentals are very strong and the share price has always been increasing. Most of the stocks I hold are already earning money; I try not to touch loss-making stocks.

Q5: Show us your winning trades. Your screenshots name Micron, Microsoft and NVIDIA as your top three.

Mr. Seah:

For this year, the two M's — Micron and Microsoft.

Early in the year, Micron was around US$300–400. I rode the wave from the start of the year all the way toward the US$1,000 ceiling — currently it sits around US$800–900 — collecting premiums along the way.

For Microsoft, I was assigned at about US$400-plus. I was happy to be assigned, and the stock is now at US$500-plus, so I'm sitting on capital gains as well. I collect the premium and I'm sitting on capital gains.

His Tiger account screenshots break down like this — worth a close look, because none of these numbers came from one lucky swing:

Part 3: Scars First: The REIT Loss That Taught Him Everything

Before the Gold Bricks, there was a scar. And he'll tell you — the scar taught him more than the wins ever did.

Q6: Every investor has war wounds. What was your most painful loss?

Mr. Seah:

Yes, before options I actually started with Singapore local stocks. Around 2018 I was very into Singapore REITs — I bought them for the distribution yields.

When the Fed raised interest rates, prices fell, and the capital losses far outweighed the distributions I had collected. REITs are very interest-sensitive.

The lesson learned: holding alone isn't a strategy. You must be willing to cut losses when the fundamentals weaken, rather than hold indefinitely. That experience left a lot of scars — but I learned from it.

Q7: So how do you stay calm when a position moves against you? This year your max drawdown was only 11%.

Mr. Seah:

To be honest, after some time you can condition your mentality to be as emotionless as possible. I feel that emotions are what hurt trading most — the fear, the greed. Once you put emotions into trading, it usually backfires very fast.

When a position moves against me, I simply go back to one question: is this still a good company? Are the fundamentals still strong? Are the financials still backing the price? If yes, I stay the course — I roll the options, or if the strike price is right, I simply get assigned. Because as history always shows, good quality stocks always recover stronger.

This year, my maximum drawdown was only 11%. I've seen many people with much higher drawdowns in the Trade to Win community — I know mine is okay.

That "one question" habit is worth stealing. Next time a red day shakes you, ask it before you touch your sell button.

Part 4: The Returns Question: Why 10+ to 20+% Beats Chasing 50%

Let's be honest — most of us open a trading app dreaming of the 50% year. Mr. Seah has a different answer, and it's the one that kept him in the game.

Q8: What returns do you actually target? You mentioned 10%–20%, with 23% last year.

Mr. Seah:

My general range is 10+ to 20+ percent. Last year I did 23%.

I don't give myself too much pressure. I know some people can do 30-something, 40-something percent — but their risk must be equally high. Trading is simple: low risk, low return; high risk, high return. There's no free lunch. So if you chase 30%, 40%, 50%, your risk must be very high.

Most importantly, we try to manage risk and the drawdown — preserving capital as much as we can. If there's capital, you can do things; if there's no capital, there's no opinion.

Read that last line again. If there's capital, you can do things. His Gold Bricks didn't come from swinging for the fences — they came from never running out of chances.

Part 5: What He Sees Next: Midterms, AI, and One Tiny SpaceX Bet

Now for the forward-looking stuff — the election, the sectors, and the one exception to his own rule.

Q9: With the U.S. midterm elections near and markets jumping around, what's your outlook?

Mr. Seah:

Historically, markets are volatile in the run-up month to U.S. midterm elections — corrections are quite normal. But there's a study showing more than 90% of the time, after U.S. midterm elections, stocks have consistently gone up.

Fundamentals are still there; the volatility is sometimes just noise. The most important thing is to stay calm, stay objective, and seek a discount — when prices fall, it may be a good time to enter.

Over the next few years, I still look at data centers, energy, semiconductors — and now robotics and AI. Demand for those goods and services is still there.

Q10: You said you avoid loss-making stocks — yet you hold SpaceX for the long run. Why the exception?

Mr. Seah:

By right, I'm not supposed to touch a loss-making stock — but SpaceX is a bit different. I only hold a small position; it's a tiny "play."

Starlink, I think, has very strong potential — and the space sector as a whole I find interesting.

His reasoning fits his whole personality: while nearly everything else on his screen collects premium from profitable giants, SpaceX is one calibrated, tiny ticket on the next decade's infrastructure — a global satellite-internet network already building real subscription revenue, plus a launch position few competitors can replicate. Small size, big theme — and it never touches his core capital. He even keeps crypto far away: "That one I don't touch."

Part 6: 3 Pieces of Advice (and Why Tiger Is His Home Base)

We close with two things that matter most to readers: what to do if you're starting out — and which app he trusts with the money.

Q11: You've been on both sides — the REIT loss and the Gold Bricks. What's the one piece of advice you'd give a new investor?

Mr. Seah:

Don't wait. Start small — with money you feel you can afford to lose — and try different strategies. You expose yourself to the options that are out there, you learn from the results, you refine as you go, and then you build the strategy that suits your own risk level.

Everyone's risk profile is different. Some people can take high risk, some can't. Only by reading and trying will you know what kind of risk profile you have.

Q12: You've held multiple brokerage accounts over the years — why does Tiger remain your main one now?

Mr. Seah:

I've used a few platforms before, but mainly I'm focusing on Tiger now — because I'm happy with you guys.

For quick research, I use Tiger AI: when I want quick answers, it summarizes and gives very concise results. I also joined the Trade to Win community team — a 10-member group — where I can benchmark my own drawdown against other traders.

During the interview we also walked through Cash Booster — no deposit required, you can buy stocks and ETFs with authorized buying power, with slightly higher commissions — and he plans to explore it. Going forward, Mr. Seah will settle into the Tiger Community as a content contributor, guest speaker and livestream host, and will join Tiger's flagship annual TTX event at Suntec City.

Closing thoughts: The "Boring" Premium Machine

There's a quiet paradox in Mr. Seah's story.

Perhaps the greatest lesson of his 2 Gold Bricks isn't about options at all. It's this:

Preserve capital, manage drawdowns, and don't chase what you don't understand. The premium will keep flowing — and the million-dollar road, for him, is just one disciplined year at a time.

He calls his own strategy boring — mega-caps, 30-to-45-day puts, 0.1-to-0.3 delta, no daily gambles — yet it has quietly delivered 2 Gold Bricks and a US$200K+ year.

He doesn't chase 30% or 50% returns, yet his system compounds steadily: 10+%–20+% a year, 23% last year, an 11% max drawdown that most aggressive traders would envy.

He got burned once — by Singapore REITs in 2018 — and that single lesson shaped everything that followed: holding alone isn't a strategy; cut losses when fundamentals weaken; only sell puts at prices you'd happily own forever.

Three trades illustrate the machine: Micron, where he rode the wave from US$300–400 toward US$1,000 collecting premium after premium; Microsoft, where being "assigned" near US$400 became US$500+ share price plus years of premium; and NVIDIA, where 61 transactions quietly built a four-figure profit.

His method is learnable, repeatable, and deliberately unglamorous: pick companies you'd own anyway, sell puts at happy prices, roll when uncertain — and above all, be a robot, not a human, when the market shakes.

🎁Join the discussion

Now it's your turn. Which part of Mr. Seah's playbook resonates most with you?

Selling cash-secured puts on mega-caps at a strike you'd happily own? Treating assignment as "buying at a discount" instead of a mistake? Or staying muted and emotionless like a robot when the market swings?

And be honest: are you chasing the 50% year — or quietly aiming for the 10+ to 20+% that lets you sleep at night? Drop your answer in the comments, and tell us about a scar of your own that taught you more than any win ever did!

Disclaimer:This article is compiled from an interview with the guest. The views expressed represent only the guest's personal opinions and do not constitute investment advice. Any judgment involving individual stocks, industries, or investment instruments should be independently researched in light of your own circumstances.