Alright guys, I want to talk about how you can improve or increase your IQ. Now this is actually a very interesting topic because a lot of people don't know this and they assume that your IQ, when I say IQ I mean your intelligence quota, is something that's like set in stone and you can't change it. That's not actually true. You can, with a bit of work, you know doing the right things and eating and you know eating and drinking the right things and doing the right exercises, you can actually increase your IQ by about 20 to 50 points, which is actually quite a lot. You know that's going to make a bit of a difference, that's going to make a big difference actually in terms of how available your intelligence is, how available your mental capacity is to you. So there's a few ways I want to start by doing this and what I'll do is at the end I'll explain like the, I guess you could say the instant fixes, the things that you can do sort of now that are going to make a difference now. Okay but first I want to talk about the foundations because if you don't do this stuff, if you don't get the foundations right, you're going to miss the whole point here and it's really going to be something that's difficult for you. Okay so the first thing that you need to think about when you're trying to improve your IQ, you need to realise that firstly IQ is a bit of a flawed test. It doesn't really measure things like your emotional intelligence you know or your, there are certain levels of thinking and different abilities that you can have which don't necessarily correlate with a high IQ. So although a high IQ is something to boast about you know it makes your ego feel good if you can say that your score is higher than somebody else's, in terms of your available intelligence it doesn't make that much of a difference. That being said it's still important okay and these things that I'm going to show you these things are going to help you improve your overall intelligence not just your IQ although it will affect your IQ but everything. Okay so how well you can articulate yourself, how well you can bring memories and thoughts to mind when you need them. You know all of these different things it's going to help you with that okay it's going to help you with all of those different mental acuity related performance tasks. Things the way you need to use your brain in an in an effective way. So the first thing and believe it or not this is actually probably the most important thing is what you eat and when you eat it I should say. So there are two parts to this firstly what you eat let's just talk about that. The foods that you put into your body directly relate to how well you can use your brain and body.   You need to think about the foods that you're essentially just consuming on a daily basis that is going to make the biggest difference combined with the second thing that I'm going to talk about. I'm not going to lecture on you know the benefits of a vegan or plant-based diet because I think deep down we all sort of know that's the right thing to do. Not from a moral point of view but just from a health perspective we inherently know if you really think about it in a quiet room when your friends aren't there to laugh at you you know that a salad is healthier than a burger you know that pounding cheeseburgers and crisps and sugar and chocolate that is less healthy than eating a varied plant-based diet like you'd have to be pretty silly to really think that the junk food fast food diet is more healthy than a plant-based diet so we sort of already know that stuff you know but let's put the science and studies aside for a second you know that there is a certain type of food that you should be eating and a certain type of food that you probably shouldn't be eating just be honest with yourself you know it doesn't have to be you don't have to label it as some sort of diet or some sort of routine or a set of rules just consider what you genuinely think is the healthiest thing to eat and then just do that now of course you do need to research it to some degree because you might think genuinely that eating loads of chips and mayonnaise and sugar is healthy you might think that for some reason it gets like a bit of uh it gets into more of a confusing topic when you talk about things like fish eggs you know dairy these things there's always a debate around these things and until you really do the research and dive into it which takes a long time you're going to be you're going to be victim to things like myths and to things like to things like these fitness magazines saying that oh this one study shows that eggs are good for you and then next week they say oh this this study shows eggs are actually bad for you forget all that for a second just try and shift your focus in terms of what you're eating shift your focus from sugary fast food junk food to how can I eat a more healthy diet whether that's eating more vegetables you know eating more greens and fiber and grains and things like that just shift to that and just from that you're going to see a huge difference now there are other things related to that of course like you could be allergic to certain foods you know you could be intolerant to certain foods the only way of really knowing what you're gonna what's going to be the best thing for you to do is to get an allergy test get a comprehensive allergy test work out exactly what type of foods you're allergic to because there's a chance like say if you're allergic to wheat or gluten or something like this if you didn't know that and it was just like a minor allergy or a minor intolerance you could be eating the foods that are inflaming your body and your digestive system every day and you don't really notice it other than oh you feel a slight brain fog or you feel like you're slightly tired or less energetic and you can't focus on something right but until you actually do that allergy test you'll never be able to say oh it's because of this food I'm eating because unless it has like a really vital unless it has a really aggressive reaction in your body you're just going to ignore it and you're just going to assume that that is normal you're going to assume that that brain fog caused by whatever food is the normal state and you're just tired because that's who you are not true you shouldn't be feeling tired you shouldn't feel brain fog you should be feeling clear and alert almost all day that's something I really do believe you know if you don't feel like that then there's something wrong at some point you know whether that's with your diet you're sleeping your mindset your whatever it is but there is there is normally a cause to how you're feeling so if you're not feeling alert all day it's probably because of your diet and you know to go micro within that it's probably because of a certain type of food within your diet that you've been eating for a long time that you don't know you're allergic to or intolerant of so that's that's the food side of things right I almost forgot to say there's one very important thing about the foods you eat and that is this when you eat foods whatever the food is right you're going to get a surge of insulin this is your body's reaction to the sugar in the food most foods contain sugar okay of some degree when you eat these foods and your body reacts in this way you feel at least to some degree sluggish you feel slow you feel tired okay fatigued I would advise actually not eating anything and just getting all of your energy from water no I'm joking no what I would advise is not eating anything from when you wake up until about one or two in the afternoon this is known as intermittent fasting you've probably heard this on various other podcasts and things it's a very healthy and useful way of getting you've got to understand that when you eat a meal your digestive system activates you start digesting it you start feeling tired and feeling like you need to rest etc right but if you don't eat a meal your mental powers are pretty much doubled now I've tested this myself and I've I find that if I compare my mental performance before eating a meal to after eating a meal it's it's halved so what I would suggest to do is just don't eat anything from when you wake up until about one or two in the afternoon and then from then on from one or two p.m you can then eat until you go to bed or until you know dinner time whatever just having that mental energy in the morning is so so useful I like to do they say you do your best work within the first say six hours of waking up it's so true really is so true and that's why I like to wake up early between five and seven a.m sometimes it varies a bit depending on where I am but I like to wake up early and just do the hardest part of my day's work straight away without eating if you wake up and then you do a little routine and then you have breakfast by the time you start working your body's just starting to digest the food and your mental powers are just gone you know and I'm sure you've found this for yourself we're all familiar with how how bad that slump is in the middle of the day when you just finished lunch normally happens between two and three in the afternoon and your body's just digesting that big lunch you've had and you find that you can't focus on anything you can't work properly you can't concentrate and it's because firstly because of the food you are eating it probably isn't the best you know maybe it's not the healthiest food you could be eating but secondly even if it is there is always some degree of fatigue after eating a meal the bigger the meal the more the fatigue usually for that reason I like to at the very very most I will have a small smoothie in the morning just enough so that when I take my multivitamin I'm not going to feel nauseous because it's on an empty stomach that is it most and probably eight or nine times out of 10 probably eight or nine times out of 10 I don't even do that I just wait until lunchtime and that has given me so much mental energy like the work I've done and how much more productive I've been just by doing that is far far more important to me than feeling a little bit hungry during the morning and to be honest you don't once you've done it a few days you don't even notice it like you don't even feel like you need to have breakfast it's only in your mind next thing and this is something that I speak a lot about on my lucid dreaming channel is your sleep the way you sleep how often and with what quality makes a huge difference to how you feel and what energy you have during the day so and I'm just going to simplify this because this is going to be a huge video otherwise I'm going to simplify this we are essentially mammals okay we are mammals that operate in terms of biology and systems so the systems in our body specifically the hormonal systems associated with sleeping and waking up are known it's known as your circadian rhythm so when you when the sun rises in the morning and the light enters our retinas and shines on our bodies our bodies produce something called serotonin which is a hormone designed to wake you up give you energy and make you feel alive and give you the strength and energy you need to go about your day okay this is when the sun shines into you or onto you or into you conversely when it's dark when the sun goes down at night so you need to turn the lights on and all that stuff your body produces something called melatonin which is the sleep hormone the hormone of darkness when this is in your bloodstream you feel tired you feel like you want to sleep you feel like your system starts shutting down and you literally have less energy and you're able to focus less because your brain is starting to go to sleep this happens whether we like it or not this is who we are this is how we're coded as human beings this happens to all of us but what happens in modern civilization in today's society what happens when the sun goes down it gets dark we turn the light on and so what that's doing is that's keeping us in this awake state of course right we want to stay awake but it's making sure that the serotonin keeps being produced by our bodies and our bodies can't produce the melatonin which is essential for falling asleep right our bodies are designed to produce a certain level of melatonin when it gets dark and that's designed to peak up to a point here where you feel so tired that you fall asleep and when you do it right when you actually fall asleep in an in alignment with this system with a circadian rhythm you don't worry about things like insomnia you don't worry about things like not being able to fall asleep on time you know or taking hours to fall unheard of right when you do it properly when you're in line with that circadian rhythm as we should be as human beings and mammals there's no problem whatsoever you know unless you have a really unusual sleep disorder or something like this if you're in line with your circadian rhythm you will fall asleep immediately like as soon as you almost as soon as your head hits the pillow if you're in line with this this system and this process but most people aren't in line with that they just and you know for through no fault of their own we've been brought up in a society based around entertainment you know we get back from work at five we think oh well i've not had a very fun day i want to entertain myself i want to do something fun for the rest of the day and because it's already dark you think oh well i'll have to turn the light on i'll watch a film i'll go on my laptop i'll watch you know netflix or whatever but in the in the wild in nature that's not what would happen what would happen is the sun would go down your melatonin levels of rise you'll become so tired that you can't stay awake and you'd fall asleep simple as that that's you know what most unless you're nocturnal that's what animals do so bear that in mind okay if you if you have trouble sleeping just follow that one thing try and go to sleep when it's dark and wake up when it's when the sun rises okay now depending on what part of the world you live in that's going to be you know more or less difficult unless you're in somewhere like scandinavia or you know in the southern part of the world your it's going to be fine right you know the sun rises and sets at reasonable times you know unless you have to be at work at a certain time you know maybe you have to get up before the sun rises or you come home from work after the sun is set you can't it can't be perfect you can't be perfect with this thing especially in today's world but if you have the flexibility to decide when you wake up and go to sleep then follow the sun or at the very least okay if you can't do that if you through whatever reason if you can't do that just make sure that for two hours before you go to sleep you don't watch any screens you don't look at your phone you just do something else you know maybe relax play an instrument meditate have a bath well whatever it is just do something other than looking at something that's going to give blue light to your body now there are ways around this you can't if you have to look at your laptop or if you really want to you can download pro you can download programs like flux fl dot ux it's not a typo that is what the program is called you can find links in the description or just google it what that does is it takes the blue light out of the screen so that you aren't kept awake by the screen it looks like a red or sort of orange glow on the screen and it takes a bit of getting used to to be honest but if you do that you know you can use your laptop and you don't have to worry about things like blue light or you know serotonin and things like that so thirdly and this is bear in mind we're still talking about how to increase your IQ right so this does all affect it believe it or not in a huge huge huge way so the third thing is to do things that challenge you in every way you can imagine right so humans are built humans are built to seek comfort and avoid discomfort okay this is the premise of the limbic system the reptilian brain there's loads of different names for it and loads of different processes in terms but in a nutshell we we are wired as humans to avoid things that are uncomfortable for us now unfortunately we can only grow and get stronger by doing those uncomfortable things so at a certain point you have to say right well i'm going to push myself to do the uncomfortable thing in order to get stronger this is why we go to the gym this is why we exercise this is why we study things to learn and it's essentially how you're going to take your brain and create that adaptation response within it so when we subject ourselves you know body or mind to a stress the body or mind reacts by adapting so say if you lift a weight and it's slightly too heavy for you to manage comfortably next time you lift it your body will have grown stronger in order to adapt to that stress so you get stronger that's how that's how weightlifting works that's how you build muscle etc so with your mind it's sort of the same thing if you if every single day all you do is you know you file some paperwork at work for example come back watch netflix play a video game like there's there's no there's no stress on your brain really there's there's no there's nothing to cause you to need to have a higher IQ just like if you went to the gym and you never lifted any weights you wouldn't get stronger so you need to force your brain force yourself to do things that are mentally challenging every single day whether that's doing a puzzle doing riddle you know there are different brain training games you can do even even really small things that you think would just make no difference but things like brush your teeth with it with your opposite hand okay or use the mouse on your computer with the opposite hand try and train ambidexterity into your routine so you're not just relying on one hand you're relying on you're using both equally if you'll read if you're reading books which you should be try and read a little bit faster try and speed read and skim things try just constantly push your your mind on your body to do things more efficiently faster better whatever you want to call it and if you do that your brain will start adapting it will really will start adapting faster than you think so the last thing and this is what i probably assume most of you are looking for when you came to this video you wanted the instant fix because let's be honest we all do you know we're not very patient as as a species are we so the i guess you could say the instant fixes that you could do are there's a there's a mixture of things so firstly meditate every morning okay it's not as instant as you'd like but it's going to make a big difference the clarity and the stillness that you can bring to your mind secondly if you need to supplement what i would suggest you do is to take a good multivitamin and something like optineuro or mind lab pro so these the multivitamin goes without saying you need to have you know a good level of nutrients and vitamins in your body in order to do everything properly okay you need to have the right stuff in your body the other two i mentioned are actually what's known as neutropics these are smart drugs so these are actually a really exciting thing that you know i'm obsessed with this stuff you know i love finding out about these things and learning how they work and testing different neutropics and things like this if you've seen the film limitless you're familiar with them roughly how it works you take a drug or you know a neutropic and it enables your brain to fire on all circuits enables you to increase the level of mental energy that you have and there are different ones for different things different ones for like focus you know studying learning all sorts of different things the ones i like to take are purely based on the brain they are based on just increasing how well you can use your brain how fast you can think and how well you can access memories and that sort of thing right creativity so the ones i mentioned optineuro is a really really effective neutropic i actually have been using this one for a while it does it does contain caffeine but it's balanced out with eltheanine which for those of you who don't you probably don't care actually but if you for those who do care when you take caffeine you get those that boost of energy mental and physical but you also get those jitters right so you get shaky hands or whatever and then after a couple of hours you feel like you need another hit of caffeine whether that's to a coffee or a supplement or whatever when you balance it with eltheanine you eliminate those side effects and you make the effects of the caffeine last longer so eltheanine is should always be paired with caffeine in a in a new tropic anyway i'm not going to go too much into new tropics because that's another video but optineuro has groana extract which contains natural caffeine and it also contains eltheanine and a bunch of other stuff you know really really good ingredients basically it gives you a mental energy boost for about six hours and i can't fault it it's really good really effective they say you should take three capsules i just take one or two and yeah i've been using it for a while very good new tropic now mindlab pro is like the bigger version of that the better version it's slightly more expensive it doesn't contain caffeine but it doesn't need to because it's containing so many high power effective ingredients that you don't need the caffeine to get the mental boost and in all honesty it is probably healthier for you to not have the caffeine at all because when you ingest caffeine you you engage things like your dopamine system you become if you take it in the wrong way and if you don't cycle it you can become reliant on it i'm sure you're aware that people who abuse caffeine you know people who have coffee every single day they feel like they need coffee every single day in order to be human in order to actually do anything or be productive so don't get to that point you know don't abuse caffeine to the point where you you're reliant on it i never i would never suggest you become reliant on anything you know with new tropics i only supplement them when they add to what i'm already doing and where you want to have a strong foundation before you do anything like new tropics you want to have that really really strong foundation of good sleep good diet you know good mindset good habits meditation things like this when you've when you've got all of that and that's that's why i'm putting this stuff at the end of the video because when you've got all of that if you then take a new tropic it does incredible things for you you know like in the film limitless when they say it works better if you're already smart if you already have that foundation and then you take a new tropic huge results right a huge success but if you just come to the video or the article or wherever you're you know trying to get a new tropic if you just come online and you search for the limitless pill okay and you just assume that you can have all of these great results and all of this success without changing anything about your lifestyle you're not it's not going to work it's just not going to happen so and you might get a small boost from the caffeine but apart from that your mental powers they're going to be pretty much the same you know not much is going to change up there unless you have that foundation and then you supplement in the right way and it's a bigger picture type scenario that was a long video to make but that's how you can become limitless that is how you can increase your IQ your intelligence quota that's essentially if you do all of that stuff you will become smarter not just in terms of your IQ but your your entire persona and character will become a smarter one you know you'll be able to think faster you'll be able to learn better remember things more accurately and people will perceive you as being a clever person anyway if you are interested in those new tropics I mentioned there are links in the description I think you can get discounts on some of them that's it for now guys but remember don't try and look for the magic bullet or the you know the quick fix for your intelligence it's not there you know you might find a small short term boost but the real results are going to come from putting in the work building the habits building the foundations and then if you need to have like that cherry on the top go for something like a new tropic but don't rely on them done


Welcome back to the Trade Hacker Mindset Podcast. We have a special episode today with all three founders of Option Omega. Trading the markets can be difficult to master and seemingly just out of reach. Professional traders have a secret.  It requires the Trade Hacker Mindset. All right, welcome back guys. I've been looking forward to this episode. I have all three founders of Option Omega with me here. And the idea here for me that I want to cover, and this could go a lot of different ways, but I want to jump into kind of the origin of Option Omega. This isn't going to be something where we're going to be talking about a lot of feature requests. I know these guys get bombarded with those on a daily basis, so we'll leave that for the Discord. But I really want to jump into kind of the origin of Option Omega, how it came to be what it is today, maybe a little bit about what's next with Option Omega, and I want to jump into a little bit about each of your back stories of how you got started with your trading journey and all of that good stuff. So to start with, we've got Rusty, we've got Matt, and we've got Troy. I've done a couple of joint webinars for our community with Troy, so I kind of have interacted with him the most. I've done some interaction with Matt just via chat in our Discord, and I've had very little interaction with Rusty, so look forward to hearing more about Rusty and his journey. So with that, let's start with the story of Option Omega.  And any of you can jump in. Go ahead. I think Rusty is the perfect starter for that. So a lot of good things are going through pain and suffering, I feel like, and Option Omega is no different. The genesis of that would be Troy and I were trading options at the time. I guess we'll talk about that later. But there was a couple of trades that we had back-tested on a different product, and they did exceedingly well. These were extremely short-term trades, like too good to be true well. And so we traded them for a bit, and they did really well, until they did not, and then we had some pretty massive drawdowns. And we looked like, well, this is completely out of bounds, and the back-tested isn't that, and we kept poking and digging, and I can remember who found it, and we were like, wait a minute, this back-tester only has end-of-day data, and when you're doing one DTE option strategies, end-of-day data only is probably not good enough. It's going to hide some pretty massive drawdowns overnight, things like that. And so after we finished licking our wounds, we started talking like, surely we can just develop something for ourselves that can vet these kind of strategies in the future and hopefully save us a boatload of money. And so at the very beginning, it really was just a pet project between Troy and I, both being developers, where we downloaded the data and started messing around with it and iterating on it. It was like a little command-line utility at first, right? It was rarely, there was no front-end, there was nothing. And so sure enough, I ran that strategy. It was like a, I think it was like a 35 Delta, one DTE overnight condor, or something with like no stop-ball, or something ridiculous, right? It just, it just, it was terrible at the time. Anyway, and so sure enough, I ran it through this little program, and I was like, oh yeah, there's the drawdowns. There are the losses that we didn't see in the end of day-only data back-tester. And so that was sort of the beginning of Option Omega.  Do you get it from an exchange, or where does this one-minute data feed come from? So we have multiple sources for the different components. The options component comes from an Oprah data vendor, right? So, I mean, Oprah is really the one that does all the data for everybody, which is pretty crazy when you think about that single source. So that's who we get our data from. And we've poked around, we've looked at different providers that are on that Oprah vendor list, and they're all pretty similar on this one. Cool. Sorry to interrupt. Go ahead. No, you're good. No, no. So all that said, I think we just started thinking to ourselves, man, I think people might like this software. Like if we actually made it into a SaaS product, that people could just quickly and easily use. And that's where kind of Matt came in the picture. I mean, it's not the exact timeline, but his background being in business, and he and I going back to our college days, three of us started talking about formative business and being the software out there and seeing what kind of interest there was. Because we honestly had no idea, right? You just never know. So you sort of take a leap of faith and put the thing out there and if it succeeds, great. If it doesn't, onto the next thing. So that was the beginning of it. Cool. And so you guys just started kind of doing your own backtesting. And so what was the first point where you actually rolled it out for others to use? We had worked on it for a while and it coincided with the company that Rusty and I were working for. There was an acquisition and it got bought out. And so it was one of those fortuitous times in life where we're kind of sitting here saying, you know, Rusty and I really value working together. Devs, we developed a really deep friendship. So Dev work was a really joyful time together and all those things and we really wanted to keep going. And so rather than just try to go get another job, we said, well, let's just take a stab at this and it coincided right around the time. You guys have to correct me. I can't remember all the dates at this point, but basically like 2021, I think we really got pretty serious about it and started talking through it and testing it internally. And we launched officially in March of 2022 and that's where Matt is a genius. That's the joy of like working with these guys is I'm by far the dumbest of the three and that's precisely like where I want to be in my roles. I would love to be the dumbest of them.  But I'm the face guy and that's a double whammy for them because certainly not the prettiest face either.  And so he can talk more about that, but he just had a wealth of experience that Rusty and I did not have being kind of developers. And so he was able to help us, particularly in that like last half of 2021 and then the beginning of 2022 with launch, say, all right, what does it mean to actually own a SaaS business and go from there? So Matt, tell us about that. So you hook up with these two computer nerds that think they've got something cool and you say, oh yeah, we may have a business idea here. How does that go? Yeah, so I had a history with Rusty that goes back 20 years. We went to college together. So I've been in touch with Rusty. We're roommates. I mean, our families have been close for two decades now. And yeah, it was 2021. I came down and met Troy and the more, I'm the only non-developer. So they're both devs. And so the more they worked on it, it's like guys, this is if we find value in this, other people are going to find value in it as well. And I had a background in options, but nothing like we do in options Omega. I had started trading full-time basically in 2020, like the best slash worst time ever to start trading full-time, January of 2020.  And I was like, I'm just going to use this set bucket and see if I can make a go, which I think is how a lot of people kind of do it. And I kept it separate from retirement. There were yolos involved, but no risky yolos. They were managed yolos, right? And so I saw the power of options super early in COVID at the time with spy puts. And I remember, I can remember I had, Boeing was in like the 300s. And I don't know what Boeing's at today, but it got down around 100, right? And I remember I had like 310 Boeing puts.  So I've been playing with options for a couple years, but the style of trading that is really, really helpful for back testing, which is doing index options, I'm actually newer than both the guys at. So I, some of the more advanced trade setups and styles, I'm still getting my, my feet wet on iron ducks and, you know, some of the more advanced strategies, I'm still learning, which is awesome. And it's just been a great, it's been a great ride. I think one of the really kind of interesting big stories going on is that as a retail person who's not an institution, we have access to great tools now. And tools that just, if you talk to people who have been trading 10 or 15 years ago, they just, they would have loved to have access to the things we have now. Starting with, you know, brokers that you can trade on your phone and trade after hours in bed and, you know, all these things, but the visualization, the visualization, the testing, and some of these other kind of peripheral things really, really have helped empower just normal people who understand kind of how powerful options can be if you, if you learn it. So, yeah. And I, I agree, you know, and, you know, not only the technology, but the commissions are reduced now. You know, it always makes me laugh when, when people complain about a 50 cent per contract commission when, you know, just not too long ago, it was a couple bucks per contract. And, you know, it's, you know, so the things have changed in technology. And I mean, I've looked at a variety of institutional type trading platforms. And to be honest, the retail space has better technology in a lot of cases and more, you know, you can be more nimble. You have a lot more tools, a lot more access to things. And, and so, yeah, I agree 100%. That's a, it's, it's a pretty amazing time to be a trader these days. So what I want to do now is, so anything else, anybody else wants to add about Option Omega and kind of the, the start of jumping in? I'll give you a shout out. We were just talking about this today. Going down to Knoxville where we were resting on our arm. We had a little business retreat slash meeting. And so we, we were talking about just some stuff and I was reminded, I think Rusty reminded me, at the office, I kind of jumped into options first via a weird route. It was like, they seem to live, but like, I would, on the whiteboard, we would talk options, you know, during lunch break, we would get on the board and just start doing stuff. But I remember to this day, because every option trader has to learn patience and it's an ongoing thing and discipline and all of those things with options trading.  And so I subscribed to your classes and you really taught me a ton about options. And I remember you had an, I'll never forget it. You had a McDonald's call, long call spread, like just on McDonald's. I had never traded McDonald's. And that sucker just said, it was like a 60 day option or something great spread. And it just sat there and it didn't do anything. And I did all the things that all the retail traders do where I was just like, they don't know, he doesn't know this one, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like, sure enough, like 20, 30 days in, it just like banked. And I remember it like, oh, this is my discipline thing. Because even to this day, I don't know if I would have done it. So just shout out to like, you were very good just to do it always, but discipline, patience, that's options. That's cool. Well, I appreciate that. That's a, it's cool to see, you know, we, so navigation trading started in 2016. And it's just, it's so cool to see the cycle now of people, you know, maybe who are just starting trading when we first started and they, you know, took some of our courses and then they, you know, had the shiny object syndrome and wandered off and got all kinds of emails about thousands of percent returns. And then now they've made their way back because they understand that we, the way that we teach and, you know, actually provide realistic teaching about how to trade. So this is not a infomercial for you, but it might as well be. I mean, that's the other thing that we really appreciate about you is that you're very open about your monthly, yes, like trades and that, I mean, especially now working with educators all the time. That's so rare and it's so refreshing to see just someone who just says, hey, we lost on this trade. Oh, we lost three times in a row on this trade, you know, but still showing the P&L and obviously like people make their choices because it's like, well, you know what you're doing. You're consistent. You're all the things that a good trader should be. And so again, just shout out to navigation because they're just very, you guys are very upfront with everything. I appreciate that.  And for me, it was learning from all these educators who were just full of it. They just didn't show you what was really going on. And so you had these unrealist expectations. And so when I started navigation trading, that was my entire goal was like, I'm going to do it the anti-way of the industry. Yes, indeed. I appreciate that. Well, to that point about people being full of it, there was actually another impetus for the software. We wanted to create something because we knew there was a lot of bad signals out there and bad signal services and just a lot of sketchy people, a lot of sharks out there in the water. And so we wanted to create a tool where someone could say, okay, let's see if this is legit. Right, let's go back test it. They've been releasing a signal for the last, you know, five years where you can test that, right, on sdx or spy or the indices or whatever. And see if this person's actually making the returns they say they would make, you know, if you're going to pay and sign up for their services, you can go back and look at some of the trades that they're doing. And to me, that was a big motivation, you know, because, yeah, I've done that. I've gone down that route of someone comes and they have a newsletter and it's too good to be true and you're like, oh, but the sound's legit. They're good at talking. And so, yeah, I think it's nice to give people the tools to then basically check the BS, so to speak.  So when did you start first trading and then when did you first get into options? I think it was a little bit after Troy. What's funny is I actually, so I have been reading, I seem to have quite a bit for years since essentially the crash of 2008, right, the original bubble crash. And so, but I was reading more like a philosophical level, on markets and different things. And then when I started deadlifting because of him anyway, that's a whole, whole nother story. But then Troy got into the options part of he's like, wait a minute, wait a minute. This guy's talking about tail hedging and this stuff. So Troy was really interested. And he and I are pretty conferient people. If that's not clear by now. And so we were like, well, what's a way if everyone, if VIX is 12, what's, you know, what's a good way to hedge against that? Well, I think Troy bought VXX and you were doing a couple other things and an SPX put, cheap SPX puts and different things. And so he did it first and I was kind of watching. I don't know if we sat there and you had a position go like, I don't know, 60X, 100X with during the, with all McGuiden of, what was it? February 2018. And I'll never forget like just staring at your computer and I was like that, that was how much of a position and now it's what? It's like mad. It's kind of a terrible way to get an option. But you see the allure, you see the asymmetry, right? Which goes back to kind of the, to Webb's thing. And so that kind of hooked me first was finding a way to hedge my own long positions in my various investment accounts. And so that was my initial interest. And then I would say more in 2020, 2021 is when we started looking at how to do it for income. How to do like repeatable, you know, SPX trading, right? With dependable, repeatable trades with high discipline instead of these once every three year, you know, asymmetrical bets. And so that's, that's sort of the path that I took. And that's what started the companies that we were, we were doing some of those income option trades and they're terrible. So I was tired of losing money to bad strategies. And where was your, where did your learning case take place? Were you watching tasty trade? Did you have somebody else you were kind of following or what was your, how did you? I took some of your classes. I took classes from Dan Sheridan. Shout out to Dan Sheridan. Also a very honest, forthright person. Doesn't get enough respect. He's amazing. And then tasty work stuff as well. Like you're saying, watch the videos. They have a lot of good documentation out there. So respect for them as well. I think those are the big three now. So what was your, what was your first, do you, do you have a memory of like a turning point in your trading or, you know, just kind of clicked. You had that aha light bulb moment. Yeah. So it was totally like a having the right mindset thing. Right. So there's a term and software development without getting too geeky and putting everyone to sleep instantly where the industry pivoted before software was hosted on these very bespoke computers and servers and people treated them like pets, right? You didn't want them to ever crash and you had to manage all the widow's updates. Now, like option omega and most cloud based services, it's on a whole fleet of servers out in the cloud. And if a server goes down or dies, another one pops up instantly. And so the term is at all not pets. So apologies to any vegans in the audience.  You're not naming them. And so the same thing applies to trading, I think, right? So you're putting the trades on every day and multiple trades, hopefully at a variety of positions.  It goes against you. Then you just put, you know, you just get rid of it. It's not your pet. You don't need to name it. You're not going to get out of shape. It goes down and then you put the next trade on, right?  So that was a big turning point for me in my trading. What about, what about the flip side of that? What was a, what was a big blunder? What was a big mistake that you learned a lot from and you don't have to give a dollar amount or anything like that. But in a specific trade that comes to mind. Yeah. So at one point I was doing some pretty low delta. Zero DTE credit spreads, right? So for anyone who hates getting gamma, this is a story for you. So it's like the end of day and you just watch it approaching your short strike all day.  I had like emergency stops, but I had my own stops in my head that I would do and then you talk yourself out of it. Like it'll mean revert like this level. This is like, there's market make a game. There's like all these reasons you have, right? This price action, it's going to revert. So you just talk yourself out of, out of that stop. And then it keeps going. They're like, well, you just double down on it. Like, well, definitely.  Like the market never does this.  And so the end of the day at 345 gamma is very cruel. I'll just say that. So then you're trying to get out of this position. That's really gone against you in the, and it's very spreading and it's just not fun for anybody. And then I just remember sitting out on my patty on this happening. I could clearly remember like even like the type of way it was like hot and I was sweaty. It was like everything was going against that day. And I was so bent out of shape at the end of it, but only at myself because I knew. I knew that I had the right system in place, but I chose to ignore it and chose to talk myself out of it. So that was that was probably one of my biggest blunders. It was, it was a bad day. And so today what are your favorite strategies?  What's your what's kind of your bread and butter? I since I hate gamma or getting gamma, I should say. I enjoy calendars of all sorts, double calendar, single calendars. I love them. They're a short term, long term, middle term calendars that work. And so that's pretty, I trade probably 90% calendars these days. I just love them. They are probably the, I think the most advanced trade out there because of the way that those different X-rays work. Having to know like the term structure of whatever underlying your trading, it's really tough to do. And I certainly have not mastered it, but I love the challenge of getting better and better at that because it's, but I think spreads are easy, right? Selling a credit spread is pretty straightforward, right? If it's into the money, how the money, you know, you're going to make the money or lose the money, but with a calendar, there are times you lose money. You're like, I have no idea why. I mean, and you like that. Yeah. I like the challenge of it. It's a whole brain kind of challenge. It's very creative. And so, um, yeah, I'm a calendar guy. And so how many on average, how many positions do you have on at any given time, typically? Uh, probably between five to 10 active calendars at any time, double calendars mostly. Yeah. Cool. Good stuff. I love it. It's, it's, it's, it's just, it's, I love hearing, uh, people's kind of trading journey where they came from, where they're at now, what they like to focus on, what they gravitate to. Cause it's just, it's, it's so, it's like a snowflake, right? Nobody knows the same. Everybody's just a little bit different. It's true. Matt, what about you? Tell us a little bit about your trading journey. Yeah. So I mean, my background, Troy always asks everybody when we have people on our, uh, podcast, he always, or his cigar lounge, he always asks people what their favorite Greek is. And my favorite Greek has to be Delta because my trading journey really, you know, I started right before COVID.  And there was a time, this in my opinion is not true today, where wall street bets actually had really good content before it kind of exploded into what it is today, which is basically unusable. And there were like, I, I have texts talking to people in January of 2020 about COVID. Like, hey, this might, this might actually be something and whatnot. And I had bought just a couple spy puts because I was brand new at trading. I didn't even know what spx was. And I saw those spy puts go parabolic, you know, and, um, I ended up all the money I made on those puts. I ended up losing because I bought more puts. So I learned about ball crush. And I started learning about Greeks the hard way. Um, the other thing I did in 2020 that really sealed the deal for me with options is in the end of the month in March, 2020, I found 20 blue chip companies, all different sectors, McDonald's steel dynamics, Pfizer, like just a random assortment companies. And I bought the longest leap I could buy on every single one of them. An even amount. Put leaps. Call leaps calls. Okay. So I had, I had hedged myself inadvertently because I had all these spy puts and I remember I lost a significant amount of money spy to 12 puts. Um, and you know, spx got down, I don't know, 2300 Maybe I don't remember exactly it never got down to my Puts. But those calls went, some of them went six, seven X because I had bought leaps. I had bought some of them were 20, 21, some of them were 2022 leaps. And so I saw in kind of in real time that unfortunately Mr. Market is the best way to learn a lot of these Lessons. So in 2020 I learned some bad lessons and I also Learned some good lessons. And up until we started optional mega and I got super Heavy into index testing. I did mostly fundamental trading. So I was involved in me main mainy a little bit with GameStop and did pretty well on GameStop.  So, um, and then during the bull market of 2021 I was Just long a bunch of undervalued companies and i Saw like i mean i bought leaps on new core when it was $55 and it's over 150, right? You know, i don't have them anymore, but i think it's Over 150 now. I mean, and so you can see how powerful options are. Now to rusty's point, i learned about income from Options instead of buying a position, waiting a long time Or yoloing a zero d t and waiting a short time. Backtesting really has helped me personally understand these Trade setups and at the end of the day, one of the Lessons i feel like is the market is going to Disappoint you on a short term basis. Like whatever you think you can have you can think About the news you can think about gamma levels You're going to be right some of the time you're going to be Wrong some of the time and that's for me that's where Backtesting has been valuable because i'm trying to get less And less emotional about the positions which is hard. It's hard for me because i come from a background of being Like hey, i'm going to and i still i still do a lot of Single stock trading totally separate from options trading. I look at these companies feel like they're undervalued Listen to the calls read the filings you get really Invested in a single company that's a totally different as Almost not useful when you're trying to trade an option on qqq Or an spx credit spread or whatever and it's kind of a Different mindset and that's been something i've been really Learning lately is the kind of trading that a lot of retail Traders are gravitating towards with trading these very Mechanical strategies that they understand very well that's a That's a completely different style of thinking about companies And what their future is and what nvidia is going to do or What these you know minority report apple pro goggles or Whatever impact that's going to have on the p e that's a Totally different thing so like rusty was saying he doesn't Name his pets sounds like you name your pets i'm trying Not to i'm trying not to i mean i'm still long my biggest Gainer for the year was an international oil company that Nobody in the us trades and the companies for x in the last Six months and i had the longest leaps i could have on and i'm Out of it now but i mean those kind of positions it's hard Not to get attached it's hard not to get attached when you See new core go from $50 to $130 you know like it's tough Versus when you're trading an s p x calendar and you have a Back test that says okay once my call once my short call gets Violated or once my call side gets violated by ten points i Need to close it and then you don't close it and then it Gets violated by 15 points and then 20 points and then 30 Points and then you close it for a lot less money That's mr market teaching a lesson and i'm i'm still learning Lessons every day steve so what what percentage of your trading Is is kind of that longer duration leaps individual stocks Versus short duration index option trading i think about Them in totally separate buckets so i have a bucket for I have a spreadsheet person i have a spreadsheet that Has all my individual trades and i have a totally separate Tab that is my s p x trading and most of my all pretty much all Of my back tested trades most of them i do on s p x i will Occasionally do a q q q or a spy if i want to test something But it's nearly all s p x so i just have them in totally Separate buckets so last year my s p x trading carried Everything else so this year it's much more even so it's Been a it's been a you know i've heard a lot of people say this Has been a very challenging environment to trade for s p x Because it seems like it sometimes in the beginning part Of the year the vix was maybe a little overpriced and then You look at where the vix is now or 14 15 16 vix and Every week it seems like we have a day that has a percent Of move or you know maybe even a little more and it's like Man this is tricky so some of those positions i'm not a big Condor person dealt as my dealt as my favorite greek thanks to Gme gamma is my least favorite greek thanks to zero day Condors it's it's tough out there you know and some of These some of the risk reward on these trades are are Tough when you look at the inner day moves so it's it's Send everybody back to the back testing table so this I think yeah as as of this recording which is Tuesday June 6th i was looking at vix on our live stream towards The end of the day and it came down to 14 the 14 Handle looking back on the charts last time that happened Was pre covid in 20 february 2020 i know and that That seems kind of wild considering some of the I'm not a macro expert this is not financial advice Just some guy but you look at the world the geopolitical Situation the financial situation and feels a little Bit low you know feels feels like maybe vix is a little Lower than it could be and then you look at some of these Inner day moves and if you have positions on that get Blown out when you have these candles from nowhere come Out or a trend day that just keeps going it's it's Tough so on your shorter shorter term trades are you You're still primarily more of a delta guy in other words You're being more directional like credit spreads or i do Some credit spreads delta is my favorite greek but i trade Mostly calendars as well so right now i've got i can tell You i've got seven calendars on and then some just some Credit spreads as well so and i you know i i trade Short term i trade short term trades that i hold Overnight so there's nights when i try not to check the Phone and look at what futures are doing because i've got you Know i've got trading at scale and that's part of the game Is you know managing your risk and managing how much you Have on and some of these big moves it's it's you know i Don't want to get too deep into calendars but i think About them i've been taught to think of them as a ten a Double calendar so you've got two poles and a calendar will Win every time if you can get the cold the poles in the right Spot so it's how wide how narrow and and of course that's That's the whole that's the whole trick right there right Very cool Troy McNeil yes sir you're on the you're on The hot hot seat so i didn't realize this until we were Doing a joint webinar but you're a you're a pastor of a Church is that correct i am yeah yeah i've passed For about ten years eleven years actually so that's you Know you don't mean it's too many actually you know what What's funny is the the pastor of the church that i go to Loves trading that's we've we've had we've had sessions Together where he's you know we sit down and and He's trying to learn some of the navigation trading and he's Probably his favorite congregant so it's just it's Interesting i never would have thought the the pastor and the Trading thing would have mixed but that's awesome yeah No that's that's what's funny that dan shared and go Star church so it's a similar situation where i have to Mentally go into breakfast saying this is not a trading Session but he loves trading so inevitably we talk trading That's awesome so i i i've heard a little bit about Your your background obviously and so some of our Community has as well but tell us a little bit more about Your kind of trading journey and when did you actually start Trading options yeah no i think i i started trading Around twenty eighteen maybe twenty seven to late twenty Seventeen and i started almost exclusively with the Idea of tel hedging and the worst thing happened to me And i was like bomb again was like one of my first trades And so that worked out very well for me and then i went Down the route of saying options are easy so you're Asking them like their worst trade and their favorite Trade i'm trying to like i have a list of fifty worse Trades that you know i keep on my backyard i went Through the you know i went through the journey like I've traded everything i've traded any type of option That you can trade i've traded it and that's more it's to You know the good side of that would be because i like to Learn and i like to try new things and i like to just Breath of knowledge is important to me in this industry And so there's that but then also i'm a degenerate Gameboy i mean i really am so i just it's addicting And i love the idea of just trading in general and so I've gone through the full gambit of stuff and it's part Around twenty nineteen twenty eighteen twenty nineteen I started to shift into income trading and i i too Love calendars like i'm kind of all in on calendars I thought calendars give you so many so many More ways to make money than just a spread or Directional spread and so i was trying to think Of someone asked me what my favorite Greek would be Probably be vega but you know gamma shortly behind And so i've done a lot of calendars last year Was like calendar mania we just did calendars all the time But i've really just i've just done a lot of dumb Things and smart things to the years and tried it all And how active are you how many positions Do you typically have on at any given time We were just talking about this i mean when i say I get addicted to trading one of the things last year And coinciding was we started this business and i would Just sit in front of my screen just eighteen hours a day I mean it was just ridiculous like the kids go to bed i would Trade more you know i would trade futures i would do all of it And this year i kind of had during the years actually My wife and i went on vacation towards the end of last year And sat there and had some time to think and i was like Vicks was already in december starting to make its descent A little bit and i think i'm perhaps the most Contrary and which isn't good these other two guys But i have just i think i maybe were trading options A little bit before them where i think at least with Income resty mat you can correct me if i'm wrong like I don't think you guys have traded a fourteen fix environment You might have i don't remember Not with this kind of trades that we're doing today Yeah so i've traded when vicks is eleven before And so going into this year i just i really Enjoyed the macro trading stuff and i've realized that Just my personality i really income trading While i love it it's just not my favorite i get anxious About it i spend too much time on it and things like that So i've started shifting the last couple of months to really Just going back to kind of my first love which is teleaging And so i'm kind of right now just sitting here and Working on option to make it a lot thinking through trades Which is fun because it's still i get to scratch my itch Of thinking through trading you know on income stuff Without necessarily playing right now and so if we get Down to like a twelve vicks i'll probably start loading The old gun up a little bit more but for right now i'm Kind of just enjoying enjoying watching the slow descent From twenty to i think it's thirteen ninety five At close so yeah vicks to me is i've kind of Learned to just having gone through this this you Know seventeen to twenty twenty seventeen to twenty twenty Like i'm just not interested as much in playing The game at this point partly just because i don't have to And so i just i'm back to like the research phase of my life If that makes sense very cool well real quick too i And one thing i wanted to hit on with with each of you Before we until we can do kind of a little bit of a rapid fire Roundtable here but Troy what what what are some of your Favorite things to do outside of trading well pasturing Takes up a lot of my time which i'm thankful for We had a meet we met again like till like five or six Eastern yesterday and this morning we had breakfast And i was like what you guys what you do last night And i had to go out like forty five minutes to meet with A couple of just that's just kind of what i do at night Is i meet with a lot of people and so i enjoy it i love it It's an honor to do it but that keeps me pretty busy And then i have two children that are autistic So a lot of my world revolves around my house And taking my son driving a lot he loves driving So we spend a lot of time in kitchen for Tennessee Very cool what about you Rusty what do you do Outside of trading and programming So i love to do anything that doesn't involve a computer I enjoy going for hikes walks Troy and i have been fly fishing he also likes to fly Fish he didn't say that but here in East Tennessee There's a lot of beautiful places to fly fish I love reading books I'm a huge book nerd love history So those are my big stitches and then of course Spending time with my family i have a couple teenage kids now Married so i play a lot of board games with the kids And card games again anything off the computer that i can do Is just kind of nice to balance that out because By the way starting on the screen all day gets a little old after twenty something years Sure what about you Matt what passions do you have Outside of trading and programming and business Two kids as well so that's a lot of the time there and then I play guitar a little bit when i have time How old are your kids i have a twelve and a seven So they're both boys both I've been muting myself whenever i'm not talking because they're getting ready To go swimming and it sounds like a herd of elephants downstairs And there's only two of them so between them I just play a little music and try to read when i have Time away from option omega or trading What do you do Steve i'm interested in You do stuff all the time with navigation So what do you do for fun So i've got two boys as well They're age thirteen and eleven And i coached my thirteen year old baseball team So from january first through the middle of july It is baseball baseball baseball every weekend there's a tournament We've got practice three days a week on top of that And so i really don't have time for much else other than that This year was the first year that i was kind of like Man do i want to do this again but he's got one more year after this And then he's off to high school so i gotta finish it I think i'd regret it if i bailed at this point That pretty much consumes my life and then outside of that We live on a house that sits on a property Of almost seventy acres and so we've got chickens And billers and ponds and the fish in them So we like to hang out and just do stuff around the house When we have a minute of free time Is that arrow head stadium behind you on the wall That's the home of the chiefs, the super bowl Kansas City chiefs Where's the best barbecue joint in Kansas City Best barbecue joint in Kansas City in my humble opinion It's on this in Kansas City if you can imagine but there's one called Q39 That was what i was looking for I've heard this from other people so haha Which is pretty amazing because they are a fairly new barbecue place in Kansas City And when they popped up i was like really another barbecue place In Kansas City come on but they quickly became my favorite Gates and Arthur Bryant are kind of the old school Famous ones, jack stack is a big one but yeah Q39 has got my nod Yeah, you guys are in Kansas City My treat Q39 I'm really hungry now I want to end it with one last thing related to option Omega, what's coming with option omega I don't want to make this a feature request kind of a conversation Like i said you get bombarded with those but anything that you want to share With the community or the listeners about where you see option omega going In the near future and maybe in the distant future as well Well we just came out with apple and tesla which for us Was a big move going into equities but Feel good about that so that gives us a lot of work To do with people who have never traded indexes but they have Traded liquid stocks and so that will keep us busy For a while of just teaching and educating and getting people like you Who trade these stocks involved in that and so That's definitely going to keep us busy but then there's always things On the road map we get asked a lot about a lot of different things All the time so resty can speak to that as he's A chief developer yeah i think i mean there's a lot Of popularity right now around zero dte credit spreads obviously We all know that and so just anything we can continue to do To support that so looking at things like intraminet stops Because right now our resolution is one minute data which is pretty dang good But you could certainly get even better with stops Usually people don't want intraminet profit targets because The price will bounce all over the place it doesn't mean you actually get filled right Limitation about testing something a simulation is not a live market But people do want like intraminet stops they want Maybe more like tronched entries a lot of people are doing like mechanical Tronched entries on things and so we're definitely looking at like VWAP is a signal a lot of people use for trading Difficult because spx doesn't have volume right and it's a volume based indicator Then you have to try to tie it to something whether that's CFD's Or ES or something and then anyway that one's a little bit tricky Like toss doesn't support it for example or taste it works out of the box You can't see a spx VWAP on their charting And so but we want to try to do as many of those Intra day and zero day really short term Strategy support features as we can like we just did Intra day EMAs right different like crossovers and things like that and that's been A hit so trade re-entering Throughout the day you know if you get stopped out put it on again after five minutes things like that so We'll probably continue in that direction that's where most of the requests are Awesome anything else long term Or anything else you want to share about where option omega is going any Anything I mean we it's a huge industry and now we get all asked All the time about could we trade these tests on a bot Things like that and so we don't know what the future is going to hold but we're paying attention to that And talking about it and all those things so botting is different Than back testing so that'd be something that would be new to us But it's an exciting time in the options market like you said earlier Retail is kind of at the forefront of all these tools right now And so we definitely want to be a part of that through the process And so we're trying to think through that as well What about have you all had any conversations with brokers Around just tying the option omega platform Into a broker so somebody could run a pack test say hey I like this And you know send it to like a trader or some type of broker Have you had those kind of conversations? If a broker wants to reach out to us and And do that we will spend the first month in Kansas City That's our promise to you we will just vacation in Kansas City afterwards We do think that that's probably we are probably heading in that direction Inevitably in some ways just because brokers we Think we provide a valuable service and I think brokers From what I've seen and the brief interactions I've had do as well And so we don't know what the future is going to hold with that but It's an exciting time and then brokers themselves are kind of consolidating In some ways you know I'm a sharp up to you And so who knows what it's going to look like but that's definitely to us It makes complete sense you know cool well guys it's been great I really appreciate your time I know our community at navigation Trading is gone you know pretty hog wild with the option omega Backtesting tool and so it's just been awesome to get to know you guys Get to understand kind of why why it is what it is and where you guys Came from I think that's pretty cool and will provide a lot of value And a lot of people will kind of help better understand Kind of where you guys are going and why it is what it is so that's good stuff So just so you know we appreciate you keep doing what you're doing We love everything about it we appreciate you Steve you guys have been Awesome great educator and you run a fantastic Service so it's an honor to get to partner with you this way Absolutely awesome thanks guys thank you Hope this was helpful look forward to seeing you in the next episode And as always feel free to check us out at community.navigationtrading.com We have a vibrant community of awesome traders always trying to help each other So we look forward to seeing you on the inside cheers


Welcome to Toffy TV. Before we begin this video, I was sponsored by one football. He had to keep you up to date with the latest transfer rumours like Nick will have lost his leaving everything. All the scores, stats from things like the whale cutting the cobra America. It's all free. Dan will be a click the link. Pedd is back. Coffee was a bit cold. I didn't make you feel about half an hour ago. Practically a frappuccino. Well there you go. There's no froth in the trot. You have that? Or is it just the cold? The frappuccino is cold. I don't have any of this kind of coffee. If we have a coffee, it's just a coffee. I like what I like. If I want coffee, I'm having coffee. Granules. Listen, you're back with the fresh trim after your break. It's all good. Nicola Blassage once again. It seems we've done a few with Easter about this season. Going to do something lads. No, no, but keep the sponsors happy. Because it's been going on. The story's been ongoing from about January, hasn't it? Do you think you might want to leave? I think possibly there's an option that he wants to go. I think we thought he was going to go and then I think Paul's just done something a while ago saying that they're actually considering keeping him in the squadwit on your curi. But now it looks like both of them are getting bombed out. First and foremost, are you bothered if last hit goes? I think that's the first question. No, because I think I haven't watched them the season before last. I know he did play out of position. I think that's been a major problem is that when he did play he was always played wide and I don't think he's got the pace to play wide in the way. He could definitely play as an inverted sort of winger, because if you've got the full backs to go past them. But the way we play, I don't think he can play that system. He could definitely play where Sigurdson plays. I do believe that's his position. So would that be sad? Well in a way it would be sad because he's definitely got talent and he's definitely the future for somebody. Now I think if we were possibly Chelsea or a Man City we could look at it and do something creative with the transfer. Maybe we're not in the position to do that. We've seen Man City go back and look like they're going to buy a player that they sold last summer because they put a buyback clause in them. Now I'd like to see something similar with Wassage, but at the moment I wouldn't be too unhappy if he wanted to leave because I don't think he's happy. Yeah I mean he played 12 games for us in the Premier League and obviously the big thing for him was he bought them after the Europa League games and then the manager he bought them was sacked then two months later and you know we resolved it though. He's done better in Europe. He's played 25 games in the league for Moscow and scored five goals which isn't bad for a man of field player. He's got three and six in Europe for them. He had two and six in Europe for Everton so that little slightly slower type of football seems to suit him. I agree with you when he played wide for us. I think it was only one one game he started and that was a Huddersfield and he played wide right but at the time when he played because he played off the left a few times he had like Cucamarty in the behind him and things and he wasn't one to go bombing on was he let's be honest. So I think his best position is centrally but you know Marko Silver had a look at him last summer and then put him out on loan. He was one of the four that was told to train away from the team for whatever reason. And he's gone to Moscow and he seems to have done alright. He got in the Russian team of the year as well. I think he was joint highest rated player in the team as well. He was actually alongside Manny Fernandez in the team. I don't know whether that tells you about the league because he was a player we should have bought ten years ago. I think for us I think he's one of these players that you want a quick resolution. You don't want to be messing about with his future. I think he's been very vocal about it. Well through his agents has been very vocal. Do you know what? I've got no problem with the kid. He wants to play football. He doesn't want to sit on the bench somewhere. He wants to play football. Obviously he doesn't see a career path at Evan. He sees it somewhere else. If he's playing for CSK in Moscow and he's an integral part of their team and that helps him get him to move. We've heard rumors or suggestions of teams like Inter Milan. They've got a big Croatian group there. They've had changes in managers so those links might have disappeared. But I'm sure there will be teams in Europe because you just mentioned it before. His style seems to suit more of a continental type of football. It is a little bit slower. It's a little bit more thought out. He probably has a lot more time on the board than he does in the Premier League. I think that was his big problem. If you look at someone like him and someone like Klassen you can almost put them in a pair. They're the kind of player that almost need a second to compose themselves or to find a feat in the Premier League. Because they're not, they weren't physically, have that physical stature or didn't want that physical stature. We've had players at Evan that liked to pina, that liked to make art at it, that came into Evan and Evan looked. A few people looked at them and thought these aren't going to last. And then they laid the Premier League. Take the first knock and once you've took the first knock then you get your time. These are the kind of players who wanted that first touch. Fy na, that's an example of that. Isn't he has the season went on? Definitely, definitely. They're the example. He and like to Klassen, they failed I think at Evan because when that first touch came in, they first hit sorry, they weren't prepared for it. They didn't know how to protect the ball. And the thing in Europe, he doesn't have to worry about that. You can get to the ball, you get to that as a free pick and then start looking about. But the problem is, the higher you go up, the higher you want to go from football, that is going to come into it. If you want to play Champions League football regularly, a good team. Or like that hitting might come, but you know someone is closing you down to stop you finding that pass. Maybe you just need a couple of years more development. Like you said, we bought them quite fresh when we had a decent game. It was brilliant against these other decent games against this. I'd like to see Evan start thinking differently. I'd like to see him look in and say, well you know what, the likes of him, the likes of Ykuroo. They can have a couple of years away and then we look at it and go, do we want to buy them back? Get first refusal, get a buy back clause in there. Would you consider just loaning them again for another 12 months and looking to develop them somewhere? Cos I think if he goes, I've seen one of the things that they have, he goes to CSKA in Moscow, the fees, like around, well reported around 12 million quid and it's like 21 and we bought them for 10 and you know that other clubs would sell them for 20. What if we sold them for 12, right, to them and we got a buy back for 12? Then at least, right, if he was good, right, if he was a good player, if he'd done well, we could get them back and sell them. That's what Barcelona done with De La Feu. It's what, I mean I've seen some really interesting ones this week. See, Jochevic who's gone to Real Madrid. His transfer was incredible. The way they'd done it. I've seen a couple of others this week. The kid who scored for Colombia, he did something similar. He went to China and then he went to Valencia. He had them on loan and then the minute he was in Valencia up to Real, one of them, and the minute someone got an interest, they got them in cheap and then sold them on for more expensive to Mexico. So there's a lot of clever ways to do these. I think that would be a good way to look at it and say, well you know what, 12 million quid, okay, we get first refusal, but if we don't want them, then we'll put a 25% sell-on fee, whatever, just be clever about it. If you're going to let players go, we've got potential, just be clever. That's all I want everything to do and I think we're starting to think like that. I think that's the way city, the way Chelsea certainly look at things when people leave Liverpool. There's always this inflated tax on those players. So we've got to start thinking a little bit differently and if you are going to let players like this go, make sure it's worth our while in the long term whether it be financially or we get a chance to get the player back. He's a player who's got loads of talent, obviously. I think he's probably, when you look at him, he needs a position. I don't know whether himself, he'd want to come back and sit on our bench. Because to take cigars and out, you'd have to replace him with someone who's ready to do that job because of the goals, cigars and scores. He's proved in that position, centrally, that he can do okay, doesn't well against Real Madrid, but yeah, maybe it is the case you're looking and thinking, well, all right, if we're not going to loan him again to someone in Europe. If everything don't feel like in 12 months time they're going to use them, then you may as well sell them, but you're right for some kind of loan. What you've got to laugh though is, and I don't think the kids probably have felt like this, is you've got to have a clear path for it. John Joe Kenny's gone to Chelsea. No-one's saying, oh well that's done in all this.  It's whether Evan said that to him when he left the club or whether they just went, we don't need you and we want you to come find your own club. It's what he was told and I think that will have gone a long way. He has been messed about. He's had us for a year and he played under three different managers. It's difficult for a young lad who just wants to play football.  Newcastle have been linked with them as well. No-one's saying, I mean loan him to Newcastle. No-one's even loan him to Newcastle. If you were going to keep him, if you wanted to keep him, you could loan him to Newcastle to see how he developed in the Premier League. But if you're going to sell him abroad, you've been linked with some Italian clubs as well, so we'll see. If Moscow think they've got an opportunity, his agent said there's no deal being done but they're in talks with Evan and Moscow. It'll be a shame on one hand because he's quite clearly got a lot of talent in 21. You're thinking, we're trying to build a young team, aren't we? But I suppose if the manager and Marcel Brands don't think he's going to be able to play in their style, then there's no point keeping players around when you can get money and get them off the way. He's built up beef for his own development as a footballer. What's the point in stockpile and the way Chelsea do? You're right. Let's see if we can do some smarter deals with these players and go either a sell-on or a buy-back close. If you have that buy-back close, all it does is it guarantees you, doesn't it? It gives you that safety net to go on. He's actually really good. We've got face-refusal on him. Let's bring him back. We'll have to see, but it looks like things are stepping up. I think things will step up now as we move towards the end of due and contracts. Of course. People want to know where they're going to be coming back to pre-season. Can I just say one thing? Can I just apologise for not being Andy? Can I just apologise for not knowing everything? I'm sorry. You don't need to. You know about this player. I just feel bad. I just feel like I'm a little bit redundant. It's all part of the mix. Everything's part of the mix. I apologise. Part of the mix. That's what it's about. No, we'll have to wait and see. Let us know what you think in the comments section below about Nicola Blassage. Would you keep him or are you happy for him to move on? Do you agree with Perth? Would you like to see a buy-back clause or a sell-on? The sell-on should be in any way to be honest given how old he is, but would you like a buy-back clause in there as well? Let us know in the comments section below. Thanks for watching. See you later.