Lemur Journal!

Where are you and where are you going?
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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Realized that both Rob Greenfield and Mark Boyle were both influenced by Mahatma Gandhi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi . Enough to make radical life changes.

Edit:

Mark Boyle's first book is free...Guess I'll be reading this as I have no books on me at the moment.
http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/archive/ ... yle%29.pdf

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Brand new text book was $140.00. Found an unused/unopened brand new textbook on Ebay for $80. Bought it. First time I bought a textbook ever related to my career...but here I am lol.

Reason is very simple and one that will definitely give me a short-term impact in the 2-5 year range. My career requires that one completes 40 CPEs every year (otherwise the algorithm will trigger and you'll get compliance emails or something and annoy someone in HR). So this program I'm involved in (textbook is the bible for this program) requires that active members complete 40 CPEs a year to maintain active membership....so 2 birds one stone. Secondly, competition is increasing in my niche. Despite having relevant experience, I'm finding my resume being passed up by not being part of the association. Hard to prove knowledge on experience alone. Need a certification I guess. Also this buys me an excuse for when they ask me what I've been up to the past 2-3 weeks not billing anything to clients....I'm studying for a certification...yo (in reality I can't stop drinking coffee and reading about ecological collapse :shock: ) Lastly, I do notice my weakness in my field is the institutional knowledge of managing government financials...I tended to lean on others for this in exchange for my knowledge on automating data systems. By reading this textbook, I might actually get some benefit to be more confident in the managerial aspects of things. Which is what my career is pushing me towards anyhow. I guess in short, I did take my career a little bit for granted. I had time to reflect during this 'bench' period.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Investors can now trade water futures
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/investin ... index.html

2Birds1Stone
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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I was beginning to wonder how the hunt for next project is going. Do you draw a full salary while benched?

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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@2Birds1Stone

Yes, luckily I do draw a full salary. One of the benefits of being part of a big organization is much more resources to pay benched consultants. I'm certain if I was in this same situation with a smaller org (like my last two employers), I would be unemployed already.

I have a project somewhat lined up but it isn't 100% certain. It is in the RFP stage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Request_for_proposal . If this falls through...I have a backup to apply through...if both fall through then I'm probably gonna job hop.

Edit: Just got an update our proposal won bid so looks like I'm going back to my old project soon. Probably by January. Good news. Still ironing out the details as to my role and for how long but that is good.

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Lemur
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This one is nice. Condenses all the ecological disasters in one large article with sources.
https://cache-baba.medium.com/the-futur ... ca6f7ab07b

Okay that is enough for today. :|

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Lemur
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Been a while since I've cooked Pinto Beans so found something simple:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2FtiXG9XHs

Edit: I modified above slightly. My makeup of the boiling water was an onion, 3 garlic gloves, 2 bay leaves, and 1 large jalapeno pepper. Smells great :D

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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How to Enjoy the End of the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WPB2u8EzL8

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Initiated position in QuantumScape. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/QS?p=QS&.tsrc=fin-srch

I could not shake off the itch of getting a little bit of capital in the EV battery market. I shaved off my positions in PEP and VISA (for small gains) to put $10k behind QS. Each of these stocks now represent equal weight in my portfolio.

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The definition of irony this morning is reading the Moneyless Manifesto by Mark Boyle in one tab and following Disney stock price in another tab.

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Geez. Contract got pushed back for funding approval till next week before holidays so I'll know then if I will have work or not beginning 2021. This means Lemur has not done any 9-5 work for 5 weeks total after the holidays are up. It has been a nice break but I did start doing some things with my time as opposed to worrying about billing work:

1.) Re-familiarizing myself with options; specifically looking at the Greeks. Started doing CSPs (Cash-Covered Puts) and CC's (Covered Calls) again. Learned how Delta can be used as a probability gauge for assignment and how important IV is for pursuing CSP opportunities.

2.) Studying for a professional certification.

3.) Reading the Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle; looking for perspectives from someone who has documented living outside the monetary system.

4.) Finding better understandings of EV market and EV battery market.

5.) Reading up again on preserving food. I did my first canning / pickling this year which went well. I have 2 mason jars right now with Cabbage and Carrot...taking my first stab at sauerkraut. Should be ready by Christmas Eve.

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Lemur
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Sold my whole stake in QS this morning just for it to go up 40% in the next 8 hours lol. At least my CSP I opened will be quick money and I’ll be ready to open the next one.

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Lemur
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QS continues to be ridiculous. My cash-secured put at $60 still did not close @ 50% due to lack of liquidity. Just going to sit on this one and let theta decay take care of it. I also rolled my PLTR puts out another week. Closed at 50% profit. Sold all the bonds in my tIRA and purchased a LEAP on AMD.

Funny...I bought this $235 MSFT Call a week before the COVID crash and it has been far out of the money since then but I never sold and just kept holding...if MSFT keeps trending up, I might be able to at least pull some intrinsic value out of it.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Should be enjoying a relaxing break; instead spending too much time worrying about the fact that I don't have my next contract lined up. Was supposed to be last Tuesday, but "government gonna government' so contract negotiations pushed back to Jan 8. Meanwhile, I'm hanging out on the bench...losing motivation. At least, I've used a lot of that time to catch up on reading books, studying options trading, etc. But an idle mind can be dangerous sometimes. I went out on a 1 hour jog just go clear my mind...great...but then I did my normal stress eating to break-even. Not good. I don't like my work but I definitely want to be doing something rather than nothing. I have PTO until 2021 that I am using.

Times like these always make me run excel scenarios and all that good stuff. Looking at my brokerage $175k...realizing that 2% returns a month can generate $3,500 ...just enough to cover all of our expenses, short-term capital gains taxes, and added health insurance (from now having a job anymore) for family. :idea:

Seems ... possible...with very good day-trading skills / options trading.

But that would be 24% a year annual returns. Certainly not feasible without repeated risks...and on a long-term basis; just a few bad trades and my ROI requirements go up each month... No such thing as a free lunch after all.

What has been fun is thinking about how I would go about implementing this.

I guess what I would do is use all of my capital and just sell cash-covered puts on one good stock with medium-high IV I would not mind being assigned if it happens. Perhaps Apple would fit the bill perfectly. Could sell at the 0.30 delta maybe?

With one stock, this would be very easy to monitor progress....but risk would be high. In practice, would probably split this up between several good stocks...(good in this meaning something I would not mind getting assigned). And close out 50% in profits and collect premiums randomly as 'buy to close' triggers. If assigned, I would immediately start selling covered calls at the 20 to 30 delta. Repeat the process. This is 'running the wheel'. Could even consider buying LEAPS on the stocks just assigned and using that capital to cover the short legs (Poor Man's Covered Call).

A simple example with just Apple:

Current Stock Price: $130.96
AAPL 01/22/2021 $126 PUT
Value: $1.95
Delta: -0.30
1 contract ties up $12,600 and generates $195 in premium.
With $175,000 in capital; I could afford 13 contracts (rounded down)
Selling 13 CSPs would generate $2,535 in premium.
Not enough

Lets try the -40 delta.

AAPL 01/22/2021 $129 PUT
Value: $3.09
Delta: -0.40
1 contract ties up $12,900 and generates $309 in premium
With 175,000 in capital; I could afford 13 contracts (rounded down)
Selling 13 CSP would generate $4,017 dollars
More then enough, and if I sell to close at 50% profit, I would have some leftover premium to even build on principle in my portfolio. But then I would lose half my premium closing out the option and I would have to open another one immediately to get more premium.

Anyways that scenario was fun but just another thought I had...which is duh obvious to most readers here...who says I need to have just one income source to implement a life away from the 9-5 grind?

Maybe...

Job 1: I do options day-trading to generate a more realistic 0.50%-1% return a month ($875 to $1750)
Job 2: Odd jobs on weekends to get cash (For instance, the local nursery needed weekend help for a Christmas sale)
Job 3: Some sort of online freelance work
Job 4: A part-time consulting gig instead of full-time consulting gig.

Sort of a hustling lifestyle I guess. Something I've never done before.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Years spent on this forum but I never clicked into this thread but I'm glad I did:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4130

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Got one of those Anova Pressure Cookers for the holidays. This thing is awesome. Should have gotten one of these a long time ago. I can measure out 2000 calories worth of whatever combination of foods and have all I need for a day. The efficiency and speed of the cooking is incredible. Dried Pinto beans & rice took about 45 minutes (30 minutes for the cooking , and 15 minutes for the pressure to build / pressure release.) Cleaning should not take more than 5 minutes or so.

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Re: Lemur Journal!

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I tried to look up the pressure cooker from Anova and only stuff regarding the sous vide machine shows up.

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Weird I have been using Anova and Instant Pot interchangeably. I have the 8-qt size.

It’s this https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Pot-Mult ... B00FLYWNYQ

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Lemur
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Re: Lemur Journal!

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Sister purchased a home about 30 more minutes south of where we currently live (south being further away from the city / central business hub). We will be moving as well and renting the basement for a flat $1200 rate that includes rent, electricity, water, trash, and internet. Combined, this represents lower than the market rate in the area but an exchange of me maintaining the landscaping and planting...both things I don't mind doing.

Financially...I do not believe my sister was ready to purchase a home (or even should for that matter but that is a difference of opinion) and I'm slightly irked my words of caution were basically ignored. Oh well...not my life. Someone said a long time ago in my journal I need to stop trying to play hero.

My concern is once remote work is over, I'm going to be even further from work so it is very likely we will be moving twice next year depending on my job unless I figure out a different path. Ideally, living in the basement will keep my savings rate high...if I could find work in the local area for similar salary...some how some way that would be the best case.

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Lemur
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- Rolled out a Apple covered call from $140 strike price to $150 strike price at a small debit to rescue my shares. It was a small price to pay luckily as the former option was theta decayed well.

- Bought more shares in AMD. Now own 400 shares. Added another covered call to continue to lower my cost basis in the LEAP.

- Keeping my eye on PLTR. I sold 10 puts on the $25 strike for mid January. The underlying took a tumble recently and is barely hanging above $25.00. Good chance I will get assigned.

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