My 2025 Options Trading Notes

This post is my 2025 option trading notes. I made 183 option trades and $50,579.94 in 2025.

Here is the breakdown of my strategies and results:

2025	No of Trades	Income
Credit Spread	34	6,431.45
Sell Cash Secured Put	33	3,617.15
Sell Covered Call	62	13,241.77
Buy Call	16	23,862.21
Sell Poor Man Covered Call	36	3,427.36
Total	183	50,579.94

Credit Spreads (CS)

Year	No of trades	Credit Spreads	Buy Puts	Total Income
2025	34	(3,148.40)	9,579.85	6,431.45

At the beginning of the year, I was following the Options with Davis CS strategy: Buy 45 to 60 DTE options and close at 21DTE regardless of profit or loss.

I made a total of 34 credit spread trades. My win rate was about 0.76. But I had 8 losses that created a total loss of ($3,148.40). I know that in the long run, I would be profitable. However, I find it hard to ignore my feelings and follow through on closing with losses.

I realized that I hate losing. It affects me more than I like it to. It is hard to shake the emotions, and it increased my chance of revenge trading. It took an early assignment to show me how I can eliminate the possibility of closing a losing credit spread.

Cash secured credit spread

I call this modified strategy the cash-secured credit spread strategy. In short, I will enter a trade as usual but close with the following:

1. Exit with profit: close with 50% profit.
2. Expire worthless.
3. Get assigned. This means I must have the cash to pay for the sell put assignment. If the sell put assignment is early, I will close the buy put leg immediately for a profit. If not, let it expire.

Example: TSLA

• Trade: 50DTE put credit spread, strikes $365/$350
• Premium collected: $465
• SHORT put assigned 1 week early
• LONG put closed for $9,579.85 profit
• Total premium: $465 + $9,579.85 = $10,044.85
• Outcome: Owned 100 TSLA shares at $365 per share.

At the end of 2025, TSLA was trading at around $440. I am sitting on an unrealized profit of $7,500

From cash-secured credit spread to cash-secured put

This credit spread strategy can also be modified into a cash-secured put strategy as an earning season strategy. A week or 2 before earning results, volatility tends to spike and selling options fetch higher premiums. However, the price can go either way after the earning results is known. A credit spread is a good strategy to capitalize on the volatility. If the share price rises, I let the trade expires. If the share price goes down, I close the buy put leg for a profit and keep the sell put leg until expiration.

Sell Puts (SP)

Year	No of trades	Total Income	Win rate
2025	33	3,617.15	100%

My strategy for selling puts is to only trade stocks of great companies that I really want to own and that are undervalued. This is important because closing a losing trade is not an exit. I will wait for assignment.

The underlying share price should not be more than $60 because I have limited capital. Any expiration date is possible, but I lean towards 30 to 37 days. Exit is only expiration or assignment. I refuse to close at a loss. The assigned stocks will be put to work in a wheel strategy.

I did roll some of my put options if I can get a decent credit at a lower price. I typically roll out to the next 30DTE.

In 2025, I sold a total of 33 puts and collected $3,617.15. I had 5 assignments: 3 INTC and 2 SOFI.

Covered Calls (SC)

Year	No of trades	Total Income	Win rate
2025	62	13,241.77	100%

I usually use covered calls on stocks that I do not intend to keep long term. It is also the second part of a wheel strategy.

I like to sell call options with 30 days to expiration. The strike price must be above my purchase price and above the current trading price. I will exit with 50% profit or hold till expiration especially if the price is a safe distance from the strike price. Again, I will rather a stock be called away. I will not close a losing trade.

I roll calls quite frequently. When the price touches the strike price, I like to roll the option further out at the same strike or higher if I can get a good credit.

2025 is a good year for covered calls. I made a total of 62 trades and collected $13,241.77 with 3 trades exercised.

LEAP Calls (BC)

Year	No of trades	Total Income	Win rate
2025	16	23,862.21	81%

Buying LEAP calls is the game changer for me. A few good trades can be very profitable. The trick is identifying fundamentally good companies with good growth potential.

I used to choose the longest expiry. Now I tend to choose the one before it. It allows me to roll the LEAP out if the price gap up. It is important to roll or close when there are 90 to 180 DTE left. I have not found a way to eliminate 100% loss for this strategy. The best I could do is to choose a strike price where intrinsic value is higher than extrinsic value. If you want to know the science behind it, watch this video: https://youtu.be/XGXVPId_0vM

LEAP calls do require some patience.

Example: Google

The market reacted to Moody’s announcement on the downgrade of the US credit rating to AA from AAA. I saw an opportunity to buy a 606DTE LEAP call on Google for $5,190. Intrinsic value $3,654 | extrinsic value $1605 | IV 34.25%. The plan is to sell covered calls while waiting for the call to grow in value. Close at 30%.

• Trade: 606DTE LEAP call, strike $130.00
• Underlying price: $164.55
• Premium paid: $5, 190.00
• Intrinsic value: 3,654.00 Extrinsic value: $1,605
• Implied volatility: 34.25%
• Sold for $14,180 after 164 days
• Profit: $14,180-$5,190 = $8,990.00

LEAP calls suit me as I am still new to using technical signals to find good entry points. LEAP calls allow time to work in my favour.

I made 16 trades and collected $23,862.21 making an average of $1,491 per trade.

My LEAP call positions also allow me to sell poor man’s covered calls, making additional income while I wait for my LEAP calls to work out.

Poor Man Covered Calls (PMCC)

Year	No of trades	Total Income	Win rate
2025	33	3,127.36	92%

The PMCC is basically a covered call where the cover is a LEAP call instead of actual shares.

If the LEAP is profitable, the strike price can be set above the market price. If the LEAP is not profitable, I will use the option price calculator to find a strike price where the LEAP is breakeven or profitable. It takes a bit of work to calculate the strike price and so I seldom do this when the LEAP calls are not profitable yet. I always try to choose an expiry week with the highest IV. Moomoo displays this data prominently at the Option Chains. Exits could be:

• Close with 50% profit
• Hold till expiration if the market price is a safe distance below the strike price.
• Roll to a higher strike price for a reasonable profit.

The weakness of this strategy is that the PMCC caps the profitability of the LEAP call.

There is room for improvement for this strategy.

My Moomoo 2025 Annual Investment Report

Make a Goal

My goal for 2025 was “To the Moon!“. Made in jest because I did not know Moomoo is going to remind me. I am pleased that I have a more concrete goal for 2026. It is for my trading income to “To match my salary.”