Blockhead Traders Weekly

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 celebrates the 260th weekly episode. This milestone denotes 5 years of continuously uninterrupted weekly releases of the Blockhead trader content. Along with this major milestone, sprocket888 discusses what is next for the channel. Looking back over the past five years, all the original goals have been achieved, and a new…  Read More » Time...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses some of his current market musings. He feels the market is at a fork in the road, and with mounting tensions in a few areas, it could uncoil in either an up or down direction. As the price action debates this, he is sitting on the sidelines, gathering some…  Read More » Market Musings: Sprocket888 covers items he is focused on rig...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at a long-running covered call trade he has had going. This covered call, while a winner, has really felt like a loser. This is one of the drawbacks to a covered call. In some cases, the price of the underlying will rocket through your strike and never…  Read More » Covered Calls: They can feel like losing, while you are winnin...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 shares his thoughts on current market conditions and associated valuations. He has largely been on the sidelines in trading, based on his perception that the market is starting to look a bit ‘toppy’. He is doing a few things, and he shares his thoughts in this week’s episode. Join Blockhead…  Read More » …what goes up…: Sp...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the fifth and final installment in the series, which focuses on tying together all the previous episodes. In this finale, sprocket888 demonstrates how he applied the previous episode’s topics to this retirement portfolio in a practical, tangible, real-world example. The most important part of…  R...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the fourth installment in the series and focuses on measuring the portfolio’s performance, both historically and in forecasts. This step of evaluation is crucial, whether you are managing your portfolio yourself or paying someone to do it for you. The principle here is to…  Read More » Measu...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the third installment in the series and focuses on synthesizing the material from the first two episodes to begin discussing how to put the funds to work. The market is a large, diverse place with many investment options. However, if you start with a…  Read More » Put the money to work: Investor M...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the investing miniseries. This is the second installment in the series and is focused on risk. Risk is a key thing to understand. Two fundamental understandings are required. The first is: what are the risks associated with various financial products? The second is what tolerance you, as an investor,…  Read More » Understanding Ri...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 kicks off a miniseries on investing. This is a 5-part miniseries focused not on the usual trading topics but on how to get started investing. Investing is a slower process for building wealth. This miniseries is aimed at people who have not yet started investing or have started but want…  Read More » Just Get Started: Investor Miniseries Ep...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the theme from last week about the end of the 2025 trading year and the tax implications. In this episode, he dives into the details of what his plans are for 2026. He discusses both Mark-to-Market Accounting and Trader Tax Status explicitly. These two items are mutually exclusive and…  Read More » The 2026 Plan: Sprocket888&#8217...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 continues the theme from last week about the end of the 2025 trading year and the tax implications. In this episode, he dives into the details of the position $CIEN. This position has a substantial unrealized loss. As the tax year concludes, sprocket888 discusses the implications of booking the loss…  Read More » Washing the harvest: Tax lo...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 discuss taxes and the considerations to keep in mind during the month of December. There is consideration to give throughout the year, but December is a critical time because it is the last month to book trades that will impact that tax year. This is something that sprocket888…  Read More » Taxes: Something to remember in Dec...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 does a quick run-through of some of the impacts of high volatility. In and of itself, volatility is neither good nor bad. Volatility is a measure of how much price swing potential is contained in the underlying being measured. It is essential to understand this mechanism as it can directly…  Read More » Volatility: Price, here in an instant...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. They discuss the recent rally in equities and offer their opinions on whether the man with a big red suit might be coming to town soon for a year-end rally. After that, each one talks about how their recent trading action has been going. Viperxl007 has…  Read More » Flow Trading: A new approach to trading for viperx...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 does a solo show, taking a look at some upcoming earnings. In keeping with the recent episode that discussed how to “Get paid for a limit order,” he takes a look at how to take advantage of a very volatile earnings announcement. The case in this episode concerns $GTLB, but…  Read More » Get paid to go long: Looking at $GTLB arou...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. They discuss the state of artificial intelligence and the potential impact on employment, the economy, and the market. They frame the discussion by first visiting centuries of technological innovation to remind the viewer that change is always feared, and that it never results in anything close…  Read More » Will AI...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses how selling PUTs to enter a long position is similar to adding sprinkles to your ice cream. One thing is for sure, you will never buy at the pure bottom when you enter a position. Considering this fact, this episode is dedicated to discussing an alternative long entry strategy.…  Read More » Always choose sprinkles: If you are goi...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses what a health savings account is and why everyone should have one. The health savings account, or HSA, is likely THE most tax-advantaged account that one can hold. The HSA is likely the first type of account that individuals should consider funding as they prepare for retirement. Sprocket888 begins…  Read More » Health Savings Acc...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 discusses a monster loss that he took on $FI. Every time you have an open position in the market, there exists the chance that a monster unexpected move will occur. There are many steps that you can take to reduce this probability, but you can never make it zero. This…  Read More » Not always sunshine & roses: A look at a monster loss i...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 discuss some thoughts around today’s Middle Class. The Middle Class rose to prominence after WWII and has taken on various characteristics over the years since then. The traders take a look at what is being redefined today around the Middle Class and share their thoughts and perspectives. One…  Read More » Today’s...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 take a beginner’s look at price action. Price action is a deceptively simple component of technical analysis. It seems simple, but it takes a good bit of practice to become more fluent in it. It is about looking at a chart and being able to spot high-level trends…  Read More » Price Action: An Intro to a foundational pa...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 and viperxl007 do a quick recap of their most recent trades. Viperxl007 has been building up his mechanics and took a shot at a lottery ticket. This did not really work out the way that he had hoped, but he was prepared and ready for the outcomes. Sprocket888 closes up…  Read More » Double Update: sprocket888 and viperxl007 cover their most...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 runs a solo show. This is a brief and straightforward episode where sprocket888 takes a look back at his four most recent trades. Two of these have been fully concluded, and the other two have only been opened so far. All four of these are earnings trades where sprocket888 is…  Read More » Update from sprocket888: Four most recent trades, a...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 is joined by viperxl007. Viper has been working on developing and practicing a mechanical approach that takes a daily trade on the $SPY. It has obvious objective entry and exit rules. As of the recording of this episode, viperxl007 has logged 31 of these trades, and it is starting to…  Read More » The Daily Chores: A detailed look into vipe...

In this week’s episode, sprocket888 takes a look at everyone’s favorite topic, taxes. When you are trading, nobody is looking out for you to make sure that you are paying the appropriate taxes. Neglecting this topic can lead to very steep tax bills and potentially hefty fines. Accounting for this is pretty straightforward. The only…  Read More » Taxes: Failing to plan,...