What I’m Crunching — May 10, 2026

Book I'm Reading

Extreme Ownership

I’m continuing through this one as our leadership team at church works through it together. These last couple of chapters have been slow. The narrative of the war stories didn’t really draw me in this week, but that’s OK. The leadership lessons within are valuable. Figuring out how to apply the principles in my areas of leadership responsibility is the fun challenge.

Substack I'm Reading

The Running of the Bulltards

I’ve finished reading through all of James’ historical Substack posts going back to September 2022. He’s helped me reach a new understanding of markets and, honestly, a new understanding of myself.

Here are several rules of operating in financial markets that I’ve distilled and am applying since reading his work:

  1. ENTRY & POSITION RULES
    1. Wait for a name to be above the moving averages on the weekly chart before you put on a long-term position.
    2. No more than 10% of the book on any one trade.
    3. Always sell puts to enter a position — let the stock come to you. Consider selling at the 200 DMA.
  2. CHARTING RULES
    1. The moving averages are truth. For daily use the EMA, for weekly use the SMA.
    2. “Buy what is being bought” don’t “buy what I think is a good stock or good value.”
    3. When a name is below the 8 ema, it’s a do not touch until it reclaims it, remember you don’t want to be in weakness as a long.
    4. Key EMAs/SMAs: 8/10/21 EMA, 50/100/200 DMA, and 50/200 SMA.
    5. Below 8 EMA = short-term weakness. Watch the 21 EMA — if it breaks down, get out.
    6. Golden cross (50 SMA crosses 200 SMA upward) = buy signal. When a stock breaks its 200 day average, while most think that’s the time to buy a name, that’s actually the worst time to buy. Wait for the 8 and 21 ema to settle down and for the name to reclaim those first.
  3. OPTIONS FLOW RULES
    1. Watch for large caps with repeated bullish activity.
    2. Pay extra attention to the odd trades expiring in short timeframes.
    3. Watch for put sales — those are levels of interest for potential longs.
    4. VIX at 30+ = place your longs and let normalization occur.
    5. Put sellers are wrong at a much lower clip. Lots of sold puts at the money = likely OK to go long.
  4. RISK REVERSALS
    1. ALWAYS PUT TRADES ON FOR A CREDIT.
    2. Bullish: sell puts lower (200 DMA?) to finance calls higher.
    3. Bearish: sell calls higher (above resistance or previous highs) to finance puts lower.

And here are 10 rules to survive from one of his best posts:

  1. When the market drops below the 21-day EMA, the short-term uptrend is over — stop fighting it and abandon short-term long trades.
  2. Equities will always be saved because the entire economy depends on the wealth effect; short-term pain never kills long-term positions.
  3. Falling in love with a stock ignores reality — cut winners when technicals turn bearish and avoid unnecessary drawdowns.
  4. Greed destroys traders; take big profits on overheated names at peak RSI instead of watching them collapse.
  5. Selling puts to fund call purchases is a cheat code: it turns potential losses into breakeven or profitable trades and forces disciplined entry levels.
  6. Option flow reveals what smart money is actually doing in real time — follow it, not lagging 13-F filings.
  7. Sell puts only at key support levels like gap fills or volume pockets so you either collect premium or get assigned on your terms.
  8. Leverage is not the enemy — use it intelligently with hedges and accept occasional losses as tuition.
  9. Markets never crash without first breaking major long-term uptrends, so stop panicking until that actually happens.
  10. A strong trading community with real professionals is the ultimate edge — use it relentlessly for ideas, structure, and accountability.

On Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s short-term strength continues. We are toying with that 21-week level; if it closes above that, it’s a good signal to go long. If it closes below it, there’s a greater chance it’ll roll over.

Tweets I'm Reading

 

 

 

 

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