Monday, September 29, 2025 -- $406,877.86 (+$26,038.21, +6.84%)

Monday, September 29, 2025 -- $406,877.86 (+$26,038.21, +6.84%)

If you last looked at the portfolio on Tuesday, four market days ago, you would notice that the portfolio has dropped a small amount, about 0.60%, since then.  But time has a way of smoothing out the bumps in portfolios, and in life.  This has actually been a wild ride.

In two days, the portfolio dropped about 10.4% and then went up 10.9%.  That it is still down is just how math works--the 10.4% drop applied to a larger portfolio and the 10.9% increase to a smaller portfolio so even though it increased, percentage-wise, more than it decreased, it is still down.  For a more intuitive understanding, consider if you have $100 and it were to increase 50% and then decrease 50%, you would have $75 (you can also switch the order and have it decrease first with the same result), so be aware that examining just percentage changes and not also portfolio values could be a little misleading.

Today, I used more of the available margin to take a short position in what can be viewed as the world's largest meme stock--TSLA.  While it is a trillion dollar company and makes real products, its valuation is extremely high, currently sporting a trailing-twelve-months (TTM) PE ratio of 265, and Tesla is famous for its dramatic price swings, often divorced from fundamentals.  Since it appears even more expensive now, having increased more than 30% in the past month and 65% in the past six months, I purchased 4 TSLA $460 puts expiring on October 10th for $25.70 per share, for a total price paid of $10,280.  If I hold them through their expiration, I will lose my entire investment if TSLA closes at or above $460 on that date, and will only make money if it closes below $434.30, though I don't think I will hold it through the expiration date.  You can see my trade below.





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