A Confession Before We Start
I woke up at 3 AM last night, couldn't sleep, and caught myself checking futures. My wife asked if I was okay. I lied and said yes. The truth? I'm terrified this won't work.
📈 The Numbers (No Sugarcoating)
Day 91 | Friday, January 30, 2026 | Still in the game
Here's my account right now:
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Started with | $5,000.00 |
| Currently at | $29,959.42 |
| Net P/L | +24959.42 (+499.2%) |
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't getting cocky. A few good weeks and suddenly I'm imagining quitting my job. That's dangerous. The market humbles everyone eventually.
🔍 What My AI Actually Did This Week
No fancy algorithms. No secret sauce. Just:
- 13 trades placed (most were tiny position adjustments)
- 11 SPY credit spreads (selling premium to theta gang)
- $+0.00 floating P/L that could evaporate Monday at 9:30 AM
Current Positions (a.k.a. What's Keeping Me Up at Night)
- Cash gang this weekend (no open positions)
The strategy is deliberately boring: sell SPY put spreads 30-45 days out, collect premium, manage losers early. No moonshots. No YOLO plays. Just math.
🎓 What I Learned the Hard Way
First, LL-309: Iron Condor Optimal Control Research
Date: 2026-01-25 Category: Research / Strategy Optimization Source: arXiv:2501.12397 - "Stochastic Optimal Control of Iron Condor Portfoli...
Also, LL-298: Invalid Option Strikes Causing CALL Legs t
Date: January 23, 2026 Severity: CRITICAL Impact: 4 consecutive days of losses (~$70 total)...
And finally, LL-318: Claude Code Async Hooks for Performance
Date: 2026-01-27 Category: Performance Optimization Source: Boris Cherny (Claude Code team) - https://x.com/bcherny/status/201552446048138...
The meta-lesson? The market doesn't care about my feelings. It doesn't care that I spent months building this system. It doesn't care about my $100/day goal.
It just... moves. And I either adapt or lose money.
🧮 The Math I Keep Coming Back To
My goal: $100/day from trading.
What that actually requires:
- A $50,000 account (I have $5K)
- 2% monthly returns consistently (harder than it sounds)
- 80%+ win rate on credit spreads (I'm tracking every trade)
The path from here to there:
Year 1: $5K → $10K (deposits + small gains)
Year 2: $10K → $25K (compounding kicks in)
Year 3: $25K → $50K (if I don't blow up first)
~2.5 years if everything goes right. Probably longer. Maybe never.
But I'd rather try and fail than wonder "what if" for the rest of my life.
🎯 Monday's Game Plan
Markets reopen in ~15 hours. My bot will:
- Check if VIX spiked (fear = better premiums)
- Look for SPY support levels to sell puts against
- Size positions at max 5% of account (protect the downside)
If nothing looks good? No trades. The best trade is often no trade.
📊 90-Day Challenge Progress
| Metric | Status |
|---|---|
| Day | 91/90 |
| Account Value | $29,959.42 |
| Win Rate | Tracking... |
| Max Drawdown | Tracking... |
| Trades This Week | 13 |
🤔 The Question I Can't Stop Asking
I'm building this entire system with Claude (yes, the AI) as my co-pilot.
Every day I wonder: Am I automating wisdom or automating my mistakes at scale?
I don't know yet. That's why I'm documenting everything. Win or lose, at least I'll understand what happened.
💬 Talk To Me
If you've made it this far, you're either:
- A fellow algo trader who gets it
- A skeptic watching me crash and burn
- Lost and confused (welcome, friend)
What would you do differently? Seriously - I read every comment. My ego can take it.
This is Week 13 of my AI trading experiment. Real money (okay, paper money for now). Real emotions. Real lessons. Follow along: *Live Dashboard** | GitHub*
Built by Igor Ganapolsky with Claude as my AI CTO. We're either geniuses or idiots. Probably both. Time will tell.
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