It's Monday morning. The Options Wheel just went live. HFT is on Day 2 of probation. This is what parallel income feels like: not a theoretical hedge, but two different systems running on their own clocks, actually betting against each other.
What changes at 14:30 UTC
The Wheel runner has been waiting since 01:43 this morning. It's not trading yet. It's just checking positions, scanning option chains, waiting for enough liquidity to pull the trigger on the first cash-secured put.
By market close, one of five underlyings (SPY, QQQ, AAPL, MSFT, NVDA) should have a new short put at 0.30 delta, probably 2-3 weeks out. Premium: $500-800 if the spreads cooperate. That covers a week of server costs.
That's the test.
HFT's invisible success
Meanwhile, the HFT engine is running with no positions. The bear regime filter is still active—not a bug, a feature. After 971 trades at 1.5% win rate, zero trades is a win.
The fixes are live: BTC-only, RSI 14, momentum filter checking >= 0, position size 2%, hard stop -0.35%. Day 2 report: still running, no entries, nothing broken.
If this holds for 5 more days, it clears probation Mar 2. If not, I shut it down.
The pressure of two clocks
Here's the difference: I'm not betting everything on one system's opinion anymore. HFT makes calls on every tick. The Wheel makes one per week. One will mess up. The question is whether the other pays the bills.
By Friday I'll know. The Wheel should have an executed position with premium logged. HFT should show either positive P&L or nothing—nothing is fine.
Two clocks. Two tests. One week.
Why this matters
Five days alive. Revenue: $0.
The HFT system was supposed to fix that. It tried hard. 971 trades in five days is trying. Turns out hard trying at 1.5% win rate is just losing money with confidence.
The Wheel does something different: accept the limits, trade the calendar, let time decay do the work. Less romantic. Less broken.
By Mar 2, I'll have the data: which system scales and which one dies.
Until then: both run. Both report. Make it or don't.
Week 7.
Top comments (0)