The Road to Financial Freedom
Financial Freedom Score 👉
Joined October 2014
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$SOFI BULLS WATCH THIS, YOU MIGHT BUY MORE SHARES
youtu.be/SC0VPY9f6Xc?is=6QYU…
Chart battle. Same setup, two names.
$IREN closed at $26.25, down 9.0% today. RSI is 33.7 and price is sitting in the bottom half of its Bollinger Bands.
$CIFR closed at $8.10, down 8.7% today. RSI is 28.0, also bottom half of the bands, and even more oversold.
Both are flashing the exact setup I screen for on red days with the Wheel Strategy. Beaten down, oversold, and fear pumping up the put premiums.
Same setup, which one are you selling puts on, and why?
A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap:
Wall Street ($SPY $QQQ $DIA)
The three day win streak ended, but this was not a broad selloff. The S&P 500 closed around 7,694, down 0.38%, with $SPY at $769.36. The Nasdaq finished down 1.4%, with $QQQ at $715.34, down 1.42%. The Dow fell 0.37%, with $DIA at $522.73, dragged by Caterpillar dropping more than 9%. Underneath, the average stock did fine. Small caps rose, $IWM at $284.01, up 0.97%, and low volatility crushed high beta, $SPLV up 1.67% while $SPHB was flat, down 0.01%. One mega cap earnings miss did most of the index damage.
Bonds ($TLT $SPY)
Yields eased today. The 10 year yield fell to 4.99% and the 30 year fell to 5.33%. September PCE inflation came in a little cooler than expected, which helped bonds, even after third quarter GDP beat forecasts at 3.4% growth versus 3.1% expected. Traders still see about an 80% chance the Fed hikes in December after yesterday's hold came with two votes in favor of a hike right now.
Energy ($XLE $USO)
WTI crude closed at $102.79, basically flat, up 0.01%. Brent closed at $111.36, down 3.43%. Oil held over $100, but the panic bid faded after a report that Vice President Vance sent a letter to Iran's security chief in hopes of restarting peace negotiations. Supply risk is still the story, peace talks are now the counterweight.
Alphabet got crushed
$GOOGL closed at $283.82, down 12.64%, on pace for one of its worst days ever. Third quarter revenue of $127.58 billion came in just under the $127.97 billion estimate, EPS of $2.12 missed the $3.01 estimate, and free cash flow was negative $9.07 billion. Google Cloud revenue jumped 103% to $30.7 billion, but investors focused on the cost of the AI buildout, not the growth.
Marvell and the AI chips rolled over
$MRVL closed at $218.34, down 13.24%, after Bloomberg reported Marvell is in advanced talks to acquire optical maker Lumentum. The chip complex followed it down, with the semiconductor ETF $SOXX down 1.5% and the memory ETF down 4% after jumping 7% yesterday. On our focus list, $IREN closed at $26.25, down 8.98%, and $CIFR closed at $8.10, down 8.68%, while $TE was the bright spot at $2.86, up 8.75%.
Earnings movers were everywhere
ServiceNow $NOW plunged about 27% after its report. On the green side, Chipotle $CMG jumped nearly 9%, Eli Lilly $LLY added more than 6%, Merck $MRK gained about 4%, eBay $EBAY rose almost 3%, and Shell $SHEL advanced 2.4%. DoorDash $DASH gained 5.6% on news it is buying Instacart for $17 billion in cash and stock, while Instacart $CART fell 2.2%.
Big Tech ($NVDA $AAPL $AMZN $META)
A split day outside of Alphabet. $META closed at $624.52, up 1.96%, and $AAPL closed at $348.91, up 1.48%. $NVDA closed at $213.66, down 0.80%, and $TSLA closed at $403.30, down 0.23%. $AMZN closed at $243.79, down 4.25%, selling off into its own earnings report after the close tonight. Microsoft edged lower even though cloud demand drove strong results.
Crypto ($MSTR $COIN $HOOD)
Bitcoin closed at $78,560, down 3.33%, giving back the run to $81,700 from earlier in the week and losing the $80,000 level. $MSTR closed at $141.62, down 2.44%. $COIN closed at $160.59, down 1.07%. Crypto traded like a risk asset today, down right alongside the Nasdaq.
Gold and Silver ($GLD $SLV)
$GLD closed at $368.57, down 1.32%, with gold futures slipping to around $4,041 an ounce. $SLV closed at $47.28, down 3.63%. Metals pulled back with yields still near 5% and the cooler PCE print taking some urgency out of the fear trade, but gold is still holding the $4,000 line.
Alphabet fell 12%, the Nasdaq fell 1.4%, and small caps still closed green. Is this just one bad earnings report, or is the market finally done paying any price for AI spending?
📈 YOUR DAILY STOCK MARKET RECAP
The employer match is the best return in retirement saving, and it is not even close.
Put in $100 a month and many plans add another $100 right on top. That is a 100% return on day one, before the market does anything. No stock pick has to be right for that money to show up.
Here is why skipping it is so expensive. That $200 a month, hypothetical at 8%, not a forecast, grows to about $298,072 in 30 years. Your part is only $36,000 out of pocket over that whole time. The match and the growth do the heavy lifting, but only if you actually claim it.
That is why the order matters in my system. Fund enough to get the full match first, before extra money goes anywhere else. Automate it from the paycheck so you never have to decide each month.
Are you getting your full employer match right now, or is some of it still sitting on the table?
The growth seat in my monthly buy is $QQQ.
QQQ holds large tech and growth companies, so it swings harder than a broad core fund. That is exactly why I dollar cost average into it instead of trying to time it.
Buying the same dollar amount every month means a red month buys more shares and a green month buys fewer. You stop guessing tops and bottoms and just keep adding.
The math, hypothetical at 8%, not a forecast: $300 a month for 30 years is $108,000 put in. Compounded monthly at 8%, that becomes $447,108.
That is the habit doing the heavy lifting, not a perfect entry.
Keep it automatic on payday, fund the Roth first, and let the amount stay boring.
What is your monthly buy into growth right now, and what would you raise it by?
Education only. Not financial advice.
This is crazy.
Someone is willing to pay me $250 to buy $IREN at $25 by January 2027.
It's called a cash-secured put, and here's how it works:
$IREN is trading around $27.10 right now, down about 6% today with RSI at 35. It has been beaten down hard from its highs and people are watching it closely. You sell the $25 put expiring January 15, 2027 and collect $250 in premium up front.
That means you agree to buy 100 shares at $25 if it is below $25 at expiration. You set aside $2,500 in cash to secure it, which is why it is called cash-secured.
One of two things happens:
1. It stays above $25, the put expires worthless, and you keep the $250. That is a 10.0% return on the $2,500 secured in 78 days, about 46.8% annualized.
2. It drops below $25, you buy 100 shares at $25, and the $2.50 per share premium brings your real cost basis to $22.50. That is about 17.0% below today's price.
The risk is real. If $IREN fell to $19, about 30% below today, you would be down about $350 on the shares after the premium. Someone who bought 100 shares today at $27.10 would be down about $810 at that same price.
Heads up, $IREN reports earnings on November 5, 2026, well before this put expires, so a big move either way is possible.
Not financial advice. I share these for education.
Would you sell this put, or is $IREN a falling knife here?
$GOOGL is getting crushed today, down about 12% after earnings missed.
EPS came in at $2.12 vs $3.02 expected and sales missed too, with negative free cash flow of $9.07B as AI spending keeps climbing. Bears say the spend has outrun the payoff.
Bulls have a real counter. Google Cloud grew 103% to $30.7B. That is not a broken business, that is an expensive one.
RSI is now 22.9 and our Wheel Strategy signal is flashing CSP territory. Premium is rich on a day like this, but catching a falling knife is still catching a falling knife.
Is this an overreaction you would sell puts into, or does the AI bill keep $GOOGL falling?
BREAKING: Alphabet stock, $GOOGL, falls over -13% after posting weaker than expected earnings, now on track for its biggest post-earnings drop on record.
The stock has now erased -$520 billion in market cap today.
$NBIS was the biggest mover on my list, closing up 7% at $182.34 as AI infrastructure names bounced back from a brutal October slide. Fresh data center financing helped the rebound, but premarket this morning tells a different story, with the group falling after Microsoft's spending came in lighter than expected.
That is the whiplash with these names right now. RSI is sitting near 45, right in the middle, so my Wheel rules say no chase here. Green day rules would mean selling calls into strength if I owned it, not buying the rip.
Are you trading the bounce in these AI names, or waiting for the next real red day to sell puts?
A TON OF THINGS HAPPENED IN THE STOCK MARKET TODAY. Here's a full recap:
Wall Street ($SPY $QQQ $DIA)
Third straight green day for all three big indexes. The S&P 500 closed at 7,743.98, up 0.28%, with $SPY at $772.31, up 0.34%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 26,549.85, up 0.27%, with $QQQ at $725.61, up 0.60%. The Dow closed at 52,475.10, up 0.19%, with $DIA at $524.68, up 0.27%. Small caps led, $IWM at $281.29, up 0.40%. High beta beat low vol by a wide margin again, $SPHB jumped 1.58% while $SPLV slipped 0.42%. The Fed held, and buyers stayed in control.
Bonds ($TLT $SPY)
The Fed held rates steady at 3.75% to 4% in a 10 to 2 vote, with two policymakers wanting a hike right now. The 10 year yield rose to 5.05% and the 30 year rose to 5.36%, and the yield curve steepened after Chair Warsh stressed price stability in his press conference. Translation, the Fed paused, but it did not close the door on another hike before year end.
Energy ($XLE $USO)
WTI crude closed at $101.97, up 2.07%. Brent closed at $110.52, down 2.95% on the futures close. Oil stayed over $100 after Houthi rebels claimed a missile strike on Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery, the kingdom's largest at 550,000 barrels a day. Saudi officials have not confirmed damage, but traders are keeping a big risk premium in crude.
Vertiv was the earnings rocket
$VRT surged after a huge third quarter. Net sales grew 61%, diluted EPS grew 91%, organic orders grew over 100%, and the company raised its full year 2026 guidance across every key metric. AI data centers need power and cooling, and Vertiv keeps printing the proof.
AI infrastructure stayed hot
$NBIS led our focus list, closing at $182.34, up 6.96%. $IREN closed at $28.84, up 5.10%, and $CIFR closed at $8.87, up 4.60%. $TE closed at $2.63, up 6.91%, and $HIMS closed at $29.32, up 5.01%. The money keeps rotating into the buildout names even when the mega caps rest.
Wendy's got a takeover bid
$WEN surged 15% after Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management offered to buy the chain for more than $1.4 billion in cash. On the ugly side, $FFIV crashed about 20% and $ENPH fell about 16% on a rough earnings day for both.
Big Tech ($NVDA $AAPL $AMZN $META)
Mostly red, and that made the green indexes more impressive. $NVDA closed at $215.38, down 1.17%. $AAPL closed at $343.83, down 0.94%. $META closed at $612.49, down 1.24%. $TSLA closed at $404.22, down 0.80%. $AMZN was the exception, closing at $254.60, up 0.59%, ahead of its earnings Thursday. After the close, Microsoft jumped about 6% and Alphabet dropped about 10% in after hours trading on their results, so tomorrow opens with that fight.
Crypto ($MSTR $COIN $HOOD)
Bitcoin closed around $81,202, up 0.49%, holding above $81,000. $MSTR closed at $145.16, up 2.66%. $COIN closed at $162.32, up 0.76%. $HOOD went the other way, down 5.75% after its earnings came in short of Wall Street estimates.
Gold and Silver ($GLD $SLV)
$GLD closed at $373.51, up 0.33%, with gold futures around $4,080 an ounce. $SLV closed at $49.06, down 0.20%. Gold holding over $4,000 with the 10 year at 5.05% is still one of the loudest fear signals in this market.
The Fed paused, oil is still over $100, and now Microsoft and Alphabet just split hard after hours. Does Big Tech earnings power this market higher, or is Alphabet's drop the warning sign?
📈 YOUR DAILY STOCK MARKET RECAP
Pay yourself first is not a slogan. It is the whole retirement system.
Most people save what is left after spending. That is backwards. The money that is left is usually zero.
What changed it for me was simple. An automatic transfer leaves my account the day after payday, before I can touch it, before any stock pick or bill debate.
Start small enough that you do not cancel it. Even $300 a month, hypothetical at 8%, not a forecast, compounds to about $447,108 over 30 years. You only put in $108,000 of that. Time and consistency did the rest.
Automate it once. Then let boring do the heavy lifting.
Do you pay yourself first on payday, or do you save what is left at the end of the month?