2025 started quite well for me. I was up S$15k just before the fateful day of 12 Feb 2026, where all my positions were liquidated due to a failed BULL PUT Spread, causing me to realise USD400k of losses.
I took a break in the second half of February and March before restarting my portfolio again in April. I actually started with a small USD2k portfolio in April, to test things out with a small capital. I then increase my capital to USD45k as I gained confidence on my trades. The below table shows the monthly returns from April 25 to Dec 25.
In a further breakdown of returns between options trading and shares trading, it is interesting to note that the returns from shares trading caught up in the later months, especially when the stock market is going sideways or entering a correction. This shows that shares trading can also be as or more profitable than options trading.
My return on my capital for the 9 months in 2025 (April to Dec) is 53.68% and the total profits from shares trading is higher than the profits from options trading. This is something worth considering as shares does not the expiration date unlike options contracts, which causes the premium to drop as it edges closer to expiration.
Concluding Thoughts
2025 was the most disastrous year since I started investing in 2012. I had everything (all options, shares) all wiped in 10 mins, causing me to realise USD400k of losses. The losses would not be so great if those Covered CALL contracts were to expire at the end of the contracts.
However, the blessing in disguise was it allowed me to restart, albeit with a much lower capital, and to undo all the wrongs where I was stuck with those losing positions for many years. I had been on low liquidity for a long time and it was always stressful when the market had a red day and I was getting liquidation warning.
I also improve on the risk management aspect of my portfolio and has allocated a significant percentage of my capital to risk-free assets such as bonds and a further 15% in cash and dividend stocks, which are relatively low-risk.
In my trading portfolio, I also set side ample cash and have a portfolio that is made up of mainly shares. This will allow me to have holding power in uncertain times.
In 2026, I am willing to accept a lower return in exchange of having less time trading. There are many meaningful activities outside trading and I would like to explore them instead of spending long hours looking at the screen, analysing trends and thinking of my trading strategies. I hope that by the time I review 2026, it will be a good year with good returns. I wish everyone all the best and may 2026 be a better year than 2025.
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*** FINANCE BOOKS ***
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