Suzy admitted in our email exchanges how it’s one of those things that only makes sense once you start doing it. Although I started to understand some of the theories, I had trouble picturing them in action. Colleagues at work would ask about the ‘Options Trading For Dummies’ book I had on my desk. Once I felt I knew just enough to ask some not completely retarded questions, I emailed Suzy.įor the next two years, I read through some pretty heavy and dry material while taking extensive notes. I spent a few months reading up on it to understand some basic concepts. All I could think of were the words ‘I trade options for a living’ as I furrowed my eyebrows for the rest of the night.Īnd then I went back to my button-pushing existence the next day.īut this thing about options trading kept tugging at me in the back of my mind. He tried to explain the gist of it, but it was way over my head. My face resembled a deer in headlights doing a Derek Zoolander impression. He responded by saying, ‘I trade options for a living.’ I was both excited and curious to see what he was up to.Īfter the usual formalities and a beer in, I asked him. I had completely lost touch with him ever since he left the industry a few years prior to this meeting. While at work one day, Suzy reached out, saying he was in Hong Kong with his family (where I was working at the time) and wanted to catch up for a beer. For the purpose of this post, I’m going to refer to him as Suzy.
#TRADING OPTIONS HOW TO#
The guy that mentored and taught me how to trade stocks in the first place. In this story, it was a chance meeting with my first boss in the financial industry. I love reflecting on significant life changes you can pinpoint to a single event - that so-called fork in the road. I’m gonna see if I can learn this options trading thing.Īnd a year after trying it out, I’ve made $29,753. Not surprisingly, I didn’t end up applying for grad school…īut I said f*ck it. People were shocked when they found I worked in finance. When I took the GMAT exams to apply for grad school, I scored in the top ten percentile for verbal (Yaaaay English Lit Class!) but the bottom ten for math.
Trading options was something I considered for people with insane levels of intelligence. But I couldn’t figure out what my side hustle superpower could be until I stumbled upon options trading. I read success stories of people starting a side hustle that allowed them to quit their job. Not surprisingly, I GOT SICK of pushing the damn buttons.Īnd I fantasized about making money from home instead. I even wore a necktie once in a while to feel important while doing it. I got exceptionally talented at this button-pushing thing.
I’d then get lots of orders to sell and would push a different set of buttons. I’d get lots of orders to buy shares, and I’d push the buttons to execute. In my previous life, my job was to trade stocks for large institutions. I reward him with a tummy tickle and he laughs. My one-year-old is next to me, clapping his hands and drooling while standing in his walker.
#TRADING OPTIONS FULL#
That’s my profit from trading stock options for a full year.Ĭonsidering my annual living costs are around $40,000, that’s REAL money.