Hey folks!
If you’re new here: I sell options for income, mostly cash secured puts and covered calls, and I write up exactly what happened every month, wins and mistakes included. Subscribe if you want this landing in your inbox monthly, plus everything in between.
August split neatly in two. First two weeks: catsitting for some mates. Last two: road-tripping across northern Spain with my partner. If your version of Spain has only ever been Barcelona or Madrid, get yourselves out of the big cities and go find the real thing. North Spain is genuinely incredible. From the people and the food to nature the way of life. It all just needs to be experienced.
Somewhere in the middle of that trip, sitting in a cafe in Bilbao with a coffee, I put on five trades in about 45 minutes. That one sitting made roughly $2,800, which is close enough to the full cost of the road trip that I’m calling it covered. That’s what remote income actually looks like: a laptop, a coffee, and enough discipline to place the trades and put the phone back down.
August Trades
Thirteen trades went through the account in August altogether, $6,563 in total premium. Quick bit of housekeeping too: that PLTR covered call I got blown through on earnings last month? Sold it again in August. Checked the calendar first this time. No drama. Some lessons actually stick.
I post every trade like this live in the Alpha Desk, my options trading Discord. First 14 days free:
Right, a few trades from August.
August 28, 2026 SOXL – Cash Secured Put
Strike: $105 / Duration: 21 days / Premium: $630 / CoCR: 6% in 21 days (103% pa)
The first of five from that Bilbao cafe session. SOXL is a 3x leveraged semiconductor ETF, and 6% cash-on-cash in three weeks annualizes to triple digits.
August 28, 2026 BE (Bloom Energy) – Cash Secured Put
Strike $195 / Duration 21 days / Premium: $840 / CoCR: 4.3% in 21 days (80.8% pa)
Trade two from that same 45 minutes, and the biggest premium of the month. Bloom builds fuel cells for data centers, sitting right inside the AI infrastructure trade everyone’s chasing.
August 28, 2026 DRAM – Cash Secured Put
Strike $52.50 / Duration 21 days / Premium: $156 / CoCR: 2.97% in 21 days (51.3% pa)
Trade three from that batch, no headline required. 51.3% pa while everyone else was busy watching the bigger tickers.
August 19, 2026 PLTR – Covered Call
Strike: $195 / Duration: 30 days / Premium: $292 / CoCR: 2.1% pm (26% pa)
Last month’s PLTR mistake was the kick in the teeth I needed, a reminder not to get too comfortable and to keep my eye on the prize. This time I checked the earnings date first and kept the premium instead of losing my shares to it.
Want to see how I redeemed myself the rest of the month? The other trades are live in the Alpha Desk: Subscribe here
Proof This Works Beyond My Account
One member of the Discord put on five trades in a single day in August, after admitting she’d been “a little enthusiastic after not trading last week.” Fair enough. Across those five positions: $98,800 in cash deployed as collateral, $2,914 in premium collected, running roughly nine days out to expiry. Blended cash-on-cash return: 2.95% in a week and a half.
Annualizing that turns it into something ridiculous, so I’ll skip it. What matters is $2,914 landing in someone else’s account in nine days, running the exact process I write up every month.
Trader Tip
We sell Cash Secured Puts on red days.
Red days spike volatility, and volatility is exactly what premium is priced on. Everyone else is watching the ticker turn red and feeling sick. We’re watching the same screen and getting paid more to do the trade we were going to do anyway.
Why Only These Trades?
Not every trade needs its own paragraph. These four are the ones worth walking through: three straight from one coffee in Bilbao that covered half the road trip, and the PLTR earnings mistake I finally didn’t repeat.
Want to earn remote income from a road trip, or from anywhere else in the world? Want to grow your portfolio faster? Join the Alpha Desk, our options trading Discord, and see how others are trading. You’ll also be first to hear about my new options course for beginners, launching soon: bit.ly/4odUaei
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A process you actually follow beats a perfect market every time. Occasionally it also means checking a calendar before you sell a call.
Cheers
Andy
Peñiscola, Spain – Last day of the Road-trip!
Be an Adult. These are real trades from my own account. Options trading carries significant risk, including potential for substantial losses, and past results are no guarantee of future performance. This is not financial advice — do your own research or speak to a licensed professional before trading.