Here’s an even more extreme example of how this works even in a beyond ridiculous up market. In my daughter’s account I started with one contract on April 15th. This was just after the market bottomed and had gapped up above the 50 day moving average. Since then SPX has gone up another 10 percent in 6 weeks. So how did one contract do?
Here’s the actual numbers:
Building positions:
01 added in Apr 2026
Lots of roll ups (5 total) eventually getting everything to 7500 strike in 2030 expiration.
Total Cost to this point:
89,030.00
Total credit to close LEAP:
72,500.00
Loss on LEAPS:
-16,530.00
Total premium received:
37,896.00
===================
Total gain:
21,366.00
===================
Not bad considering how awful my entry timing was. VIX was still a little high and obviously I never imagined a run up like we’ve had. BUT STILL GREAT RETURNS (208 percent annualized). Crazy when you consider this is about as bad as it can get fighting an up move.
Options Bistro 