Plan the trade, trade the plan.
I certainly hope no one is reading this post who hasn't read "Stupid Option Tricks - The Salvage Play," from our Strategy Section, where we discuss the joys of scaling in, doubling down and rolling positions (and the Members Chat beneath that article is a collection of all sorts of strategy discussions). These are all just tools that MUST be in your tool-belt BEFORE you begin to actually try to play with options as long-term investments. As our friendbuddypal Sun Tzu reminds us:
It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle. - Sun Tzu
This virtual Income Virtual Portfolio is ALL about trade planning. Our last major update was on May 14th, the Saturday before expirations but we had a bit of a dip this month so I just want to review our positions so we are prepared for expirations next week and to calm those people down who do not know themselves or their enemies (whoever you sold short contracts to) well enough to face this particular battle without trepidation. Our goal in this virtual portfolio is very simple, to draw a $4,000 monthly income from a $500,000 retirement account without eating into the principle.
As it's the middle of the week, we're going to dispense with the chit-chat and get to the meat of the positions. There are updates from Member Chat that are collected in the comment section below the May 14th update in case you want to know where a position originated (in case you missed it) and those all have links to the trade idea in its original context.
