So this is a question I get periodically get in one form or another . . .

If the customized put writing strategy I've been publicly advocating since 2008 (aka The Sleep at Night High Yield Option Income Strategy) works so well, why not just trade it myself full time?

Why invest so much time and energy promoting and teaching it?

It's a legitimate question, but instead of typing up a new response every time a subscriber or site visitor asks me some form of the question, I decided to put together a comprehensive and totally transparent article dealing with the exact reasons why I teach vs. simply being a full time trader.

So here goes:

Why I Teach Option Trading vs. Trading Options Full Time Myself

Now what I'm "supposed" to say is something like I'm really successful and blessed and really enjoy giving back.

(Kind of like that interview question about your biggest weakness and you answer that you're a perfectionist and are too dedicated to your work.)

Legitimately helping others is definitely part of it, but there are actually several reasons why I've put all these resources together and set things up so I get compensated for it:

#1 - It's a great source of extra income

I don't know if this is a concept that originated from one specific personal finance figure, or if it's just something that a lot of people figured out on their own, but the more sources of income you have, the wealthier and more financially secure and stable you're going to be.

This is one of the best forms of diversification (just as following the managed money industry's self-serving advice of buying a "widely diversified basket of stocks" - i.e. mutual or index funds - is one of the worst).

#2 - Managing my trades and investments actually takes very little time

Honestly, I spend a lot more time writing about trades - the in depth weekly trade idea write ups, the weekly real world trade analysis articles, case studies. etc. inside The Leveraged Investing Club - than I ever do actually trading.

I try to come up with one solid trade idea each week (sometimes we stay on the sidelines with new trades like we - luckily - did, for example, ahead of the June 2016 Brexit vote, and as a result missed entering new trades during the big subsequent Friday/Monday sell off), but we still tend to keep trades going as long as possible.

I remember when one newer member at the time sent me a joking email chastising me because his trades were "too boring" and he had nothing to do.

I also run a small $5K-$6K portfolio for my grade schooler - it usually only has one or two trades going in it at any time, and it's extremely low maintenance - one year, as I recall, it was just repeatedly selling puts on KO around the $40 level.

#3 - Tirelessly teaching this makes me a better trader and investor

I also have another ulterior motive beyond having that extra source of income, and this is something I figured out early on and wisely continued on

By being totally immersed in the world of option trading - and by that I mean teaching and articulating and studying the trades vs. the actual logistics or mechanics of trading - I've become a much better trader and investor than I otherwise ever would have been.

To this day, this is still a growth process for me as well.

There's an incredible power and clarity that comes from basically being forced to write up trade ideas and to publicly analyze existing trades week after week after week.

I'm convinced that I never would have been able to come up with our whole 4 Stage Short Put Trade Repair Formula (which is now the basis of our entire trade management process) if I'd stayed in the corporate world and only studied and practiced options in my spare time.

Bottom line - I've gotten as much out of my own Lifetime Membership (lol - lifetime sentence?) as anyone else.

#4 - The Courses and Leveraged Investing Club are tremendous financial education resources for my son

This is probably another ulterior motive, but one of the other big personal benefits of having created and assembled a huge collection of quality resources like this is that I can provide my son with a super solid financial education foundation

At the moment, he's still on the young/immature side.

It was only last year that he was still laughing every time I used the term "naked puts" - but I'm crossing my fingers that, in time, easily and consistently making money in the stock market will start to rival video games in the fun department for him.

And when that day comes, he'll have a full scholarship to a first class stock market education.

#5 - There's probably an element of rebellion or revenge in my own psychology

I love Ben Graham's concept of Mr. Market, or the idea of personifying the stock market as an irrational business partner who every day offers to sell you his portion of the business or buy yours.

And he's the one who sets the price based on his current emotional-based views of the business.

Graham's point was we should use Mr. Market's irrationality to our advantage rather than getting sucked into it.

My version of Mr. Market is a little different.

Or a lot.

Total projection here, but I think he represents the absolute worst of human nature - arrogance, laziness, incompetence, conventionality, and above all, mediocrity.

The same sort of things I see in a lot of other institutions, especially the corporate world.

At the risk of falling down the rabbit hole of my own analogy here, I realize that Mr. Market is, by definition, all of us.

But, the primary or core part of Mr. Market, I would argue, is a neanderthalic blowhard trillionaire.

Institutions and institutional investors don't have an investing advantage at all - they have waaaay too much money to manage effectively for that - but they do have a marketing advantage over their own client base - and that's the source of their wealth - fees, not returns.

So we're actually taking money away from institutions who are taking away a whole lot more from their own client base.

And we're able to do this, not because we know more or have better connections, but because we're smarter in a different way.

We're willing to invest a little time and energy learning how something actually works so we have clarity that the passive (i.e. outsourcing) investing crowd is clueless about.

Cheapness of spirit - mediocrity - is death!

#6 - I also firmly believe in doing something with your life

There are all those stories and studies about people who retire, don't have or can't find a purpose, and then die shortly thereafter.

I vicariously know someone through my sister who inherited a ton of money from his mother and now has an incredibly meaningless life.

The only time he gets off the couch is to smoke or take his anti-depressants.

It's crazy, the choices some people make.

Another literary quote, this time from the poet Mary Oliver: "Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"

#7 - It's extremely cool to be doing what I love instead of doing what I can endure

During the school year, I drive my son to and from his charter school.

On the way back home in the mornings, there's a stretch of a highway I take where 95% of the traffic is oncoming - a massive, sad wall of bumper to bumper traffic all inching toward their daily fate.

I'm part of the 5% unencumbered traffic heading away from the hive (and getting much better gas mileage in the process).

#8 - I really do enjoy working with others

Way back in another lifetime, I had to choose whether I wanted to become a teacher.

I have an English/writing background, and I got a little taste of actual classroom experience.

Traditional classroom teaching definitely wasn't my thing - to me, I felt very, very outnumbered and out of control.

But I also tutored in the campus Writing Center - and that I absolutely loved.

Working with others on a one on one basis felt much more natural, and it was something I realized I was actually really good at.

Funny sometimes how things come back full circle.

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