Greetings from Kakheti! This weekend, we’ve come to Tsinandali together with some of our CauLingo team members for the annual Tsinandali Festival. September is probably one of the best times to visit this part of Georgia — grape harvesting season, beautiful landscapes, music, wine, and that special Kakheti atmosphere. Simply awesome.
Now back to the portfolio. As of September 4, 2026, our stock portfolio closed at $13,973, marking a 1.95% increase week over week. Ahh, $14K is so close — we can practically feel it!
This week in the portfolio was a bit of a thriller, with most of the action once again concentrated around NVDA and NFLX.
NVDA remained volatile following its latest earnings report. The underlying business numbers were exceptional — quarterly revenue reached $96.2 billion, up 106% year over year, while Data Center revenue climbed 117% to $89 billion. Nevertheless, strong numbers do not necessarily mean a straight line higher for the stock, and the post-earnings price action was uncomfortable enough that I decided to act proactively rather than wait.
I rolled our NVDA bull put position forward and currently hold the September 11 $210/$195 bull put credit spread. With NVDA recovering strongly during the week, the spread has moved back into a considerably more comfortable position. For now, the important level is straightforward: as long as NVDA remains comfortably above the $210 short strike, time decay should increasingly work in our favor.
The bigger drama, however, came from NFLX. The stock continued grinding higher and our bear call spread became increasingly challenged, forcing another adjustment to the strategy.
I rolled the NFLX bear call spread up and further out in time, and we now hold the November 20 $85/$105 bear call spread. At the same time, I started accumulating actual NFLX shares as a partial hedge against further upside.
NFLX was trading around the low-$80s at the end of the week, meaning the $85 short call is still out of the money, but not by much. This makes NFLX probably the most important position to watch over the coming weeks. Another sustained move higher could quickly put the short call under renewed pressure.
That adjustment, of course, comes with a cost. The original plan was to reduce margin debt to zero before making any larger new purchases, but managing the NFLX position required taking on some additional margin.
Still, I started small and bought only 5 NFLX shares — enough to sleep about 5% better this week.
The current idea is to gradually, potentially weekly, add another 5 NFLX shares while the short call remains challenged. If NFLX moves lower and the pressure disappears, there is no need to mechanically continue buying. If it continues higher, however, gradually building the underlying position gives us another tool for managing the spread and potentially transitioning toward a covered-call structure over time.
The portfolio is now up 34.41% year to date, comfortably ahead of both the S&P 500 (+12.62%) and NVDA (+23.89%). As NFLX is starting to take a larger position in our portfolio, we’ll begin tracking its performance separately as well. At the moment, the NFLX position is down -11.46% YTD.
Current Options Positions
- NVDA SEP 11, 2026 210/195 Bull Put Credit Spread
- BAC SEP 18, 2026 60/55 Bull Put Credit Spread
- ARCC SEP 18, 2026 16 Cash-Secured Put
- HEL STERV SEP 18, 2026 8.5 Cash-Secured Put (EUR)
- BMY OCT 16, 2026 57.5/52.5 Bull Put Credit Spread
- NFLX NOV 20, 2026 85/105 Bear Call Spread
- LHA FRA DEC 18, 2026 7 Cash-Secured Put (EUR)
- NVDA JUN 17, 2027 $125 Covered Call
- NFLX DEC 17, 2027 64 Cash-Secured Put
Away from NVDA and NFLX, the shorter-dated September positions remain relatively straightforward for now. BAC continues to trade around the low-$60s, keeping the $60/$55 bull put spread close enough to the short strike to deserve attention as the September 18 expiration approaches. Higher interest-rate expectations can be supportive for bank net-interest income, although a sharp risk-off move in the broader market could still pressure financial stocks.
ARCC remains primarily an income position. The company declared another $0.48 quarterly dividend following its latest results, and the $16 cash-secured put remains a position where assignment would not necessarily be an undesirable outcome if the investment thesis remains intact.
Lufthansa is also worth watching. The shares were trading around €7.7 at the end of the week, comfortably above our €7 December cash-secured put. Airline demand remains supportive, although fuel prices and geopolitical developments remain obvious risks for the sector.
BMY has performed strongly recently, which has helped our $57.50/$52.50 October bull put spread. However, pharmaceutical stocks can move quickly on clinical-trial news, so this remains a position where company-specific headlines matter at least as much as the broader market.
Options Income and Margin
Total options premium collected this week reached $117.
Because of the growing NFLX position, all options premium generated this week, together with the additional margin debt, was invested exclusively in NFLX shares.
The current margin balance has therefore increased slightly to −$2,773. At the current weekly premium generation of around $117, it would theoretically take roughly 24 weeks to eliminate the margin debt — assuming premium generation remained constant and none of it was reinvested into additional shares.
In reality, neither assumption is likely to hold every week. Premium income will fluctuate with volatility and available opportunities, while some of the income may continue to be directed toward building the NFLX hedge. For now, I am comfortable with the temporary increase in margin, but I do not want it to become a permanent source of portfolio growth.
What We Are Watching Next Week
Looking ahead to next week, the immediate focus remains the NVDA $210/$195 bull put spread expiring September 11. NVDA has regained momentum after the initial post-earnings volatility, but with only one week remaining until expiration, even a relatively short-lived selloff can significantly change the spread’s risk profile.
The other major position to watch is the NFLX $85/$105 bear call spread expiring November 20. NFLX finished the week only a few dollars below the $85 short strike, meaning another strong week could once again make the position uncomfortable. Unlike NVDA, however, there is still plenty of time until expiration, giving us more flexibility to manage the trade rather than forcing an immediate decision.
Macro conditions may add another layer of volatility. A stronger-than-expected August U.S. jobs report pushed Treasury yields higher and increased expectations that the Federal Reserve may need to keep monetary policy tighter. The next important macro event comes with the August CPI report on September 11 — the same day our NVDA spread expires — followed by the Federal Reserve meeting on September 16.
That makes September 11 particularly interesting for the portfolio. We effectively have an NVDA expiration and a potentially market-moving inflation report arriving on the same day.
If any position comes under renewed pressure, the plan remains to roll forward where it makes economic sense — ideally for a net credit — rather than react emotionally to short-term price moves. Assignment is also an acceptable outcome for selected positions. In the case of NVDA or NFLX, owning more of the underlying could eventually open the next chapter of the strategy: generating additional income through covered calls.
For now, the portfolio remains in good shape. The $14,000 milestone is within touching distance, but with both NVDA and NFLX capable of making large moves in a very short period of time, protecting what we have already built remains more important than forcing the portfolio across an arbitrary round number.
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