Wealth Building With Options

Finding quality trade ideas for the Wheel Strategy is essential—but where do you actually get them? In this episode, Dan Passarelli breaks down the best (and worst) sources for finding wheel trade candidates. From trade idea services and investment clubs to news media and DIY analysis, Dan explores the pros and cons of each approach and shares what really works for covered calls and cash-secured puts.

Dan also discusses why boring,...

In this episode of Wealth Building with Options, Dan sits down with James Kostulias, Head of Trading Services at Schwab—where he oversees the end-to-end trading experience for clients at a firm averaging over 7 million trades per day for three consecutive quarters.

From Schwab’s latest Q4 Trader Sentiment Survey to the dramatic evolution from “options are too risky” to “options as risk management tools,” James shares an insider’s v...

Why Traders Lie to Themselves — and How to Stop

When it comes to covered calls and cash-secured puts, most traders tell themselves comforting half-truths: “I’d be fine owning the stock if it drops.” “I’d be fine selling my shares if they get called away.” But when those scenarios actually happen—when a stock gaps lower or rallies far past a strike—those same traders often panic, blame the market, and forget the plan they swore th...

Episode 38: The Objective of My Affliction

95% of traders lose money. Not because they're not smart—but because they're missing something fundamental.

In this episode:

• What if most traders are making the same mistake with every single trade?
• What's the simple two-word framework that changes everything?
• Why don't even experienced traders unde...

Summary: Dan Passarelli sits down with coach John Kmiecik to unpack why smart traders still struggle with losses, risk, and variance—and how to reframe decisions using Prospect Theory. They cover loss aversion, the disposition effect, myopic loss aversion, “house money” mental accounting, and practical coaching tactics (like multiple exits and portfolio-level thinking) to build discipline. Dan also corrects a note from last week: n...

In this episode, Dan Passarelli explores how biology and psychology quietly influence every trading decision—often more than logic or data. Through a story that begins in the Chicago trading pits and leads all the way to a conference in Hong Kong, Dan recounts his unexpected encounter with John Coates, a former Goldman Sachs trader turned neuroscientist and author of The Hour Between Dog and Wolf.

That mee...

Have you ever "felt" something was off in the market—before you could explain why? In early 2021, Dan noticed unusual behavior across several stocks; days later, the Archegos Capital blow-up surfaced. It wasn't clairvoyance—it was his subconscious processing patterns his conscious mind hadn't connected yet. In this episode, Dan explores how biology and psychology shape trading decisions: why fear and overconfidence sneak in even wh...

What If You Could Turn a Losing Trade Into a Winner—Without Taking the Loss?

Most covered call and cash-secured put traders hit a wall when their trades go against them. The stock blows through their strike price, they're staring at a loss, and panic sets in. But what if there was a way to defer that loss, improve your odds, and keep your original credit intact?

Enter the net-zero roll—the technique that separates winning traders f...

In this episode of Wealth Building with Options, Dan Passarelli dives deep into the motivations behind trading the wheel strategy—and why understanding them can make or break your results.

Dan begins with a mistake he sees all too often: traders push strikes too far away from the stock price, "running and hiding" instead of sticking to their true objective—getting assigned—which undermines their entire strategy. From there, he lays...

Most wheel traders obsess over single trades and miss the bigger picture. In this episode, Dan Passarelli shares the mindset shift that changed his covered call and cash-secured put trading: manage in cycles, not one-offs.

Using a powerful casino/blackjack analogy, Dan reveals why even professional card counters can lose money for six months straight despite having an edge—and how "how you play" determines your actual results, not ...

In this episode of Wealth Building with Options, host Dan Passarelli dives into one of the most powerful – and often overlooked – forces shaping trading decisions: the endowment effect. This behavioral economics concept explains why we tend to overvalue what we already own, and why that bias can hold traders and investors back from making better choices.

Drawing on research from Richard Thaler and examples ranging from coffee mugs ...

Dan sits down with longtime market maker Kevin “Lex” Luthringshausen to demystify how options markets actually work behind the scenes. They cover dealer/market-maker behavior, why hedging is the real “edge,” how dispersion trading works, and what payment for order flow (PFOF) really is—and why it matters for retail traders. The conversation finishes with practical guidance for covered calls, cash-secured puts, and the “poor man’s c...

Options trading is all about choice—and in this episode, Dan Passarelli breaks down why those choices create real value for investors. From adjusting strikes to rolling trades, Dan dives deep into how flexibility and decision-making in the Wheel Strategy can drive long-term profitability.

He also shares personal reflections about family milestones, the importance of practical education, and how trading truth (not oversimplified tex...

In this episode of Wealth Building with Options, host Dan Passarelli dives deep into one of the most popular and misunderstood strategies in options trading: the Wheel Strategy. Drawing inspiration from a (possibly misattributed) Yogi Berra quote — “In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is” — Dan explores how the wheel works in real life, why some traders fail with it, and how to use it...

In this episode of Wealth Building with Options, Dan Passarelli opens with a hilarious rant about Hulu's "double dipping" business model—charging subscribers AND showing ads—which becomes the perfect metaphor for today's topic: covered strangles and covered straddles. These underused strategies allow options traders to "double dip" by collecting premium from both calls and puts, creating excellent opportunities for wealth builders ...

A candid conversation with one of the options industry’s most influential figures, tracing the explosive growth of the options market, the evolution of strategies like covered calls and cash-secured puts, and what’s ahead for global adoption.

• From 1983 to 2025: Andy shares how a fractions test in the Chicago Board of Trade building launched his 40-year career with CBOE Global Markets.
...

In this episode, Dan explores the strategic rationale behind trading long-term buy-writes, even when they offer lower theta compared to shorter-term options. While conventional wisdom might suggest optimizing for higher theta, Dan lays out a compelling case for why going long may actually lead to more consistent, reliable results—especially when thinking like an investor rather than a trader.

• Read more