Premium Junkies · Episode 18
THE MODEL ACCOUNT
Today we open a different book — the business account, ending in 27. $1.5M, one design idea, and a report card the $19M family office couldn't match. This is the blueprint for how we build accounts from now on.
Wheelers Academy · Live twice daily · Mon Wed Fri
The Format
01
Portfolio Reviews
your accounts, on screen
02
Live Trading
the family office, in real time
03
Teaching Segment
the model account — ending in 27
04
Fix My Trade
today's submission from the mailbag
Segments 01 · 02
PORTFOLIO REVIEWS & LIVE TRADING
Accounts on screen. Chains open. We collect before we teach.
Segment 03 · Teaching Segment
THE CLEAN BOOK
The design in one sentence: extremely long one or two stocks, everything else a distant backstop making easy theta, firepower armed for the melt-up — and the meltdown handles itself, because you just cut contracts. Let's see if the numbers agree.
The Model Account · At a Glance · Sept 23 close
Account ending in 27 — the whole book on one card
Net liq
$1,500,235
14 positions · 8 underlyings
BPR used
$453,927 · 30.3%
inside the tasty band — with $1.09M of excess
Cash
$1,542,766
more cash than net liq — the premium came in and STAYED
Extrinsic working
$529,105
35% of net liq in decaying rent
Delta exposure
~$1.43M · 0.95× NL
vs 5.7× on the family office at its peak — THIS is the headline
Short-put notional
$5.68M
3.8× NL of promises — all long-dated
Short-call notional
$2.04M
the MU ladder
Read the third tile twice: this account carries almost exactly 1× its net liq in market exposure. Unlevered delta, 30% buying power, a third of the book in pure rent. The family office is a warship. This is a sailboat that pays its own slip fees.
The Model Account · Piece 1 · The Long Core
Extremely long one name — MU — with a ladder for rent
| Leg | Qty | Strike · expiry | Total notional | BPR | Extrinsic / sh | Ext total | Job |
|---|
| MU shares | +400 | $911.76 avg · spot $1,072.62 | $429,050 | margin | — | — | the core · +$64K open |
| Rung 1 | −4 | $1,600 · Nov 20 '26 | $640,000 | $0 · covered | $11.97 | $4,790 | deliver at +49% — a designed win |
| Rung 2 | −4 | $1,700 · Dec 18 '26 | $680,000 | upper rung | $16.30 | $6,520 | covered by cash (next slide) |
| Rung 3 | −4 | $1,800 · Feb 19 '27 | $720,000 | upper rung | $31.60 | $12,640 | covered by cash (next slide) |
| ENPH starter | +1,500 sh · −20 P $35 Dec '26 | $36.61 avg · spot $33.04 | $119,560 | put-secured | $3.54 | $7,080 | phase 1 of a planned lifecycle: accumulate → rent hard → deliver → retreat to the ring |
One conviction name doing the heavy lifting, rungs 49–68% above the market, and a second core being accumulated the honest way — paid to build it. Note what's absent: no rung anywhere near the money, nothing to manage on a normal green week.
The Model Account · Piece 2 · The Distant Ring
Seven backstops, out in the distance, making easy theta
| Underlying | Qty · strike · expiry | DTE | Distance OTM | Total notional | Extrinsic total |
|---|
| MU | −40 P $500 · Sep '27 | 359 | 53% | $2,000,000 | $75,300 |
| PLTR | −80 P $110 · Dec '27 | 450 | 43% | $880,000 | $73,000 |
| NBIS | −25 P $100 + −25 P $150 · Mar '27 | 177 | 56% / 34% | $625,000 | $49,000 |
| CLSK | −500 P $10 · Jan '28 | 485 | 31% | $500,000 | $121,750 |
| MSTR | −100 P $50 · Sep '27 | 359 | 69% | $500,000 | $27,900 |
| SPCX | −50 P $100 · Sep '27 | 359 | 32% | $500,000 | $41,125 |
| SOFI | −400 P $15 · Dec '27 | 450 | 9% — read the label slide | $600,000 | $110,000 |
Every ring strike is a price we'd celebrate owning at — MSTR at $50, MU at $500, PLTR at $110. The distance IS the risk management: nothing here goes intrinsic without a crash we've been paid ~$500K to wait for.
The Model Account · The Honest Slide
Two promises don't match the blueprint — on purpose. Say so.
SOFI −400 P $15 · only 9% OTM
Four hundred contracts, 40,000 shares of promise, a dollar and a half from the money — not "distance," and we don't pretend it is. It's an accumulation agreement: totally comfortable taking ownership at $15 down the road, $110K collected to wait for a $12.48 effective entry. And the agreement has a renegotiation clause: on a complete SOFI breakdown, we don't get stubborn at $15 — we kick the can a year out and walk the strike DOWN to $14, $13, even $12, most likely for a credit, and take assignment down there. With 450 days on the clock and rolls that pay us, the entry price is a negotiation, not a vow. Comfortable at $15 ≠ married to $15 — the market's behavior at the time makes the call.
ENPH — a position with a WHOLE LIFECYCLE planned
Phase 1 · ACCUMULATE: the $35 puts (ITM today) keep adding shares — assignment brings 2,000 more at $30.41 effective. Phase 2 · RENT HARD: once built, sell aggressive covered calls wanting the shares called away — delivery is the exit, at a profit, on schedule. Phase 3 · RETREAT TO THE RING: shares gone, the position becomes a distant backstop put, collecting easy theta until the next cycle. (The family office runs ENPH the opposite way — 100K shares, high rungs, no puts — because its job is the 2032 bag. Different account, different mission, and saying so out loud is the doctrine.)
The model's real rule isn't "every put is distant." It's "every promise wears a label — and the label can graduate." DISTANCE → ACCUMULATION → DELIVERY → back to DISTANCE: the wheel, written in labels. Five ring puts are pure theta today; SOFI and ENPH are accumulation agreements sized to the cash that answers them; and ENPH already has its whole graduation path scheduled. Mixing labels up is how sellers surprise themselves. Writing the NEXT label down in advance is how they never do.
The Model Account · Scenario 1 · Melt-Up
The firepower is armed — and it actually covers the bill
Uncovered upper rungs
8 MU calls
rungs 2–3 · 800 shares of obligation at $1,700/$1,800
Cost to cover-and-deliver all of it
~$1.40M
buy 800 MU near the strikes, deliver, keep every credit
Cash on hand
$1.54M
the bill is pre-funded, with $140K to spare
Run the ripper scenario to its worst case: MU doubles, every rung goes in the money. Rung 1 delivers the 400 shares we hold at $1,600 — +$275K over basis plus credits, a designed win. Rungs 2 and 3 get covered with cash and delivered, or cut per the Ripper Protocol. Either way, this account's melt-up is an inconvenience, not an event — because the firepower was sized to the promise BEFORE the promise was sold. That's the discipline the 890K-share family-office number doesn't have yet.
The Model Account · Scenario 2 · Melt-Down
"That one's easy — you just cut contracts." The numbers agree, mostly.
Why down is the comfortable side
- Delta is ~1× net liq: a −20% correlated tape costs roughly −$285K on exposure — against $529K of rent decaying in, and $1.09M of maintenance excess.
- The ring is 31–69% OTM with 359–485 days on every clock: time to roll, trim, or cut any put long before it's forced. Distance plus DTE = runway.
- And the accumulation labels get their wish: SOFI at $12.48 effective, ENPH at $30.41, cash standing by.
The honest tail
- Full assignment on everything is $5.68M of stock vs $1.5M of net liq. The distance makes that a true crash scenario (−50%+), but at −50% roughly $2.9M of it activates at once — SOFI, ENPH, CLSK, SPCX, PLTR, the $150 NBIS.
- The answer isn't cash — it's the calendar: 12–16 months of DTE to roll down and out, plus the cut-contracts option while marks are still all extrinsic.
- Correlation is still one thesis wearing eight tickers. Cleaner ≠ diversified. Same F as the big house — smaller font.
The Model Account · Graded by the Same Rubric as Episode 14
The report card the family office failed — this account passes
| Subject | Tasty's band | Family Office (Ep 14) | Ending in 27 | Grade |
|---|
| Buying-power usage | 25–50% | 55.7% | 30.3% | PASS |
| Directional leverage | near 1× · modest tilt | 5.7× NL | 0.95× NL | PASS |
| Theta / net liq | 0.1–0.2%/day | 0.27% | ~0.07–0.11% (pull live) | PASS |
| Sizing per name | ≤5–7% NL | 4 names over | largest complex well inside | PASS |
| Correlation | uncorrelated | one trade, 11 tickers | one thesis, 8 tickers | FAIL — honestly, both books |
| Mechanics | liquid · planned | PASS | every leg labeled & laddered | PASS |
Five of six. The family office fails the income-trader rubric on purpose — it's a campaign with a mission. But when we build a NEW account with no mission debt and no history? It comes out looking like this. That tells you which shape the hands build when the head starts clean.
The Model Account · The Rules to Replicate
The clean-book blueprint — five rules
1
Be extremely long one or two names you'd bet the account on — with a ladder above them whose first rung is share-covered and whose upper rungs are CASH-covered before they're sold.
2
Everything else is a distant backstop — 30%+ out of the money, a year+ of DTE, at strikes you'd celebrate. Easy theta, no ceremony.
3
Every promise wears a label — DISTANCE (pure rent, cut freely) or ACCUMULATION (assignment welcome, sized to cash). Never confuse them, never let one drift into the other unnamed.
4
Keep delta near 1× and BP near 30% — the melt-down becomes an income event, the margin math stays boring, and the oxygen tank stays full. Firepower armed ≥ the uncovered rung bill, always.
Rule 5 is the quiet one: this book needs almost no decisions. Nothing near the money, nothing expiring soon, nothing unlabeled. The family office earns more and demands more. The model account just… compounds. That's what we're building from now on — and it's what most of the room should build FIRST.
Segment 04
FIX MY TRADE
Today's submission is loading from the mailbag — four questions ready: original objective · OK with any outcome · net credit or debit · fix or band-aid.
Premium Junkies · Episode 18
BUILD IT CLEAN
One core. A distant ring. Labels on every promise. Firepower that matches the bill. Strikes that negotiate, calendars that wait, cash that answers. Ultimately, the name of the game is flexibility. Collect 2 Capture.
Educational content only, not financial advice. Options involve substantial risk, including assignment and total loss of premium. Figures are our family's own, from live account data as of the September 23, 2026 close (account referenced only by its last two digits); theta estimate is approximate — live values pulled on stream. Positions may change at any time. Fix My Trade figures come from submitters' own statements. No performance or income is promised or implied.
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