In this week’s episode, sprocket888 celebrates the 260th weekly episode. This milestone denotes 5 years of continuously uninterrupted weekly releases of the Blockhead trader content. Along with this major milestone, sprocket888 discusses what is next for the channel. Looking back over the past five years, all the original goals have been achieved, and a new… Read More »Times are a-changin’: The end of the five-year run, what comes next?

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses some of his current market musings. He feels the market is at a fork in the road, and with mounting tensions in a few areas, it could uncoil in either an up or down direction. As the price action debates this, he is sitting on the sidelines, gathering some… Read More »Market Musings: Sprocket888 covers items he is focused on right now.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at a long-running covered call trade he has had going. This covered call, while a winner, has really felt like a loser. This is one of the drawbacks to a covered call. In some cases, the price of the underlying will rocket through your strike and never… Read More »Covered Calls: They can feel like losing, while you are winning.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 shares his thoughts on current market conditions and associated valuations. He has largely been on the sidelines in trading, based on his perception that the market is starting to look a bit ‘toppy’. He is doing a few things, and he shares his thoughts in this week’s episode. Join Blockhead… Read More »…what goes up…: Sprocket888’s perspective on the current market

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the fifth and final installment in the series, which focuses on tying together all the previous episodes. In this finale, sprocket888 demonstrates how he applied the previous episode’s topics to this retirement portfolio in a practical, tangible, real-world example. The most important part of… Read More »Bringing it all together: Investor Miniseries Episode 5.

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the fourth installment in the series and focuses on measuring the portfolio’s performance, both historically and in forecasts. This step of evaluation is crucial, whether you are managing your portfolio yourself or paying someone to do it for you. The principle here is to… Read More »Measure portfolio performance: Investor Miniseries Episode 4

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the third installment in the series and focuses on synthesizing the material from the first two episodes to begin discussing how to put the funds to work. The market is a large, diverse place with many investment options. However, if you start with a… Read More »Put the money to work: Investor Miniseries Episode 3

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the second installment in the series and is focused on risk. Risk is a key thing to understand. Two fundamental understandings are required. The first is: what are the risks associated with various financial products? The second is what tolerance you, as an investor,… Read More »Understanding Risk: Investor Miniseries Episode 2

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 kicks off a miniseries on investing. This is a 5-part miniseries focused not on the usual trading topics but on how to get started investing. Investing is a slower process for building wealth. This miniseries is aimed at people who have not yet started investing or have started but want… Read More »Just Get Started: Investor Miniseries Episode 1

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the theme from last week about the end of the 2025 trading year and the tax implications. In this episode, he dives into the details of what his plans are for 2026. He discusses both Mark-to-Market Accounting and Trader Tax Status explicitly. These two items are mutually exclusive and… Read More »The 2026 Plan: Sprocket888’s plan for 2026 and Taxes