Option Trader Interview #8 EasyDividend

Following Christopher on his journey to Financial Independence is interesting. He already made a first nice step: working less to have more time to do what he likes. Kudos for that!

Hello folks, My name is Christopher. You can call me Chri. At easydividend.net I write about financial independence, dividend growth investing and trading options. I am from Austria and 24 years old. My main goal is to retire as early as possible. If I work as hard as I can before I think I will reach that goal close to my 30^th birthday. I want to travel a lot, want experience adventures and expeditions. I do not need much to live, but I want to build my dream home one day.

How did you get an interest in option trading?

At first I was only investing in dividend growth stocks. It felt good, but I thought it will take too long to increase my passive income drastically. So I was looking for ways to create more money. My plan was to take the money and aggressively invest it in dividend stocks. Accidentally I came to trading options by reading many websites. The possibilities looked excellent.

What actions did you take to learn on option trading?

I was drawn into the spell. I was reading everything I could find. I looked every single video on YouTube multiple times, just because I wanted to know everything about it. Now the learning process is part of my day

What is your goal/ambition?

As I said before my goal is to retire as early as possible. I dont want to live a life like all those peoples who complain a life long about their jobs. I want to travel as long and as wide as I could. I want to work on my own goals. In the meantime a small goal became reality. Since august 2016 I am only working part-time at my job. Trading options makes it possible. This is a really big thing for me. So I can work on my blog and my next projects. This will be a website for beginners at trading options in Austria and Germany.

How do you describe your style? Did this evolve over time?

My style is very easy to explain. I am looking for dividend growth stocks, for instance the dividend aristocrats. The end goal is a huge passive income stream trough my dividends. So I sell Puts on stocks I want to buy. If I will be exercised, I can buy the shares at a lower price than before. If the share price is above my strike Price at expiration date, I can keep the premium. I am trying to set the strike price, so that I can make 1 percent yield in 4 weeks through the premium. At first I was only buying stocks, but with options is the perfect investing strategy for me. If I have to buy the 100 shares I sell covered Calls on it till I get assigned again.

How much time do you spend on trading options?

It depends. Sometimes I don’t even take a look at the portfolio, because I know that nothing can happen to me. Mostly I need a few minutes to half an hour, if I am looking for new stocks to trade.

How do you deal with the risk that comes with option trading?

In my opinion there is less risk in options trading than in buy and hold stocks without selling options. You can get a lower entry price for your stocks and if the option expires out of the money you get a nice premium. Of course only when used properly. Someone who don’t understand selling options, there might be a huge risk.

What tools/sites/blogs/podcasts do you read on option trading?

I read many articles about trading options. Your blog is of course one of that. The boys and girls from tastytrade are making a very good job. I can learn every day from them. Kirk from Optionalpha.com is good teacher too.

What is the size of your option trading account?

I dont use play money like you. I try to get the best out of my whole portfolio. I would say a quarter to half of my portfolio are long-term dividend growth stocks. The other part is cash and the stocks if I get exercised. In this case I will sell covered calls on the stocks till I have to sell the stocks again. My whole account size is something about 59.000 €. But I have to say that there are a few thousand dollars I don’t own. My brother borrowed me some money to make more absolute returns.

Where do you get inspiration for trades?

I read a lot. If someone posts an article about an undervalued dividend growth stock I look at the stock. I want to find out if I can get a good premium in the next 4 weeks. If this is the case, I look at the fundamentals. Is there to less dividend yield, too much Pay-out-Ratio or something else I will wait for the next stock.

How do you track your trades and P&L? Where can we follow your results?

My trades, profit and loss are tracked by my broker. I can easily find out how many trades I have done months ago, how much I earned and so on. Once a month I post two different articles on my blog. In the first I write my personal income for the month. In the second article I post a list from several bloggers and their income. I call it the community edition.

What is the worst trade ever you did?

The worst trade I ever did was selling a put on a stock I didn’t know much about it. It was Seagate Technology. I was blinded by an attractive dividend yield. At a closer look I found out that the Payout-ratio was above 100 percent. Very bad. Two days after selling the put, the company announced earnings. The stock fell 20 percent. But with trading options you can get rid of the stock even if it takes a little time.

What is the best trade ever you did?

I am sorry, but I think I cannot answer this question. I don’t want to make the best trade of my life or something like that. I am interested in making a steady and rising income stream out of my hard working money. Every trade that brings more money to me is the best trade I ever did 😉 .

Where/how can we follow your progress?

You can follow my thoughts and progress at my blog. It’s called easydividend.net. I will be very happy if someone will take a look. The blog is written in German, but I placed a translate button in the right sidebar. I hope this will help.
I am very thankful for every new idea from you readers.
Thanks ambertree for interviewing me. I love to be part of it.

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