đ° Make Your Own Machine Part 4: What Is a Covered Call? (Plain English Edition)
Alright, now weâre getting to the good stuff.
Youâve got a brokerage account. Youâve bought your first stock (maybe even RUM). Youâre feeling like a grown-up investor.
Now itâs time to do something that most investors never do:
Make money from your stock every single week â without selling it.
Welcome to the magical world of covered calls.
đ ď¸ So Whatâs a Covered Call?
Hereâs the simplest version:
A covered call is when you ârent outâ your stock to someone else, and they pay you for the privilege.
Youâre not giving up your shares (unless they hit a certain price), and you get paid just for agreeing to sell them if that happens.
Itâs like this:
âHey, Iâll let you maybe buy my stock from me for $10 next week â but only if it hits that price. Pay me $15 upfront just for the option.â
If the stock never hits $10? You keep your shares and the $15.
If it does? You sell it for $10 and still keep the $15.
Either way, you win.
đ§ Real-World Analogy: Cheese and Rent
Imagine you own a block of cheese (just go with it).
Your neighbor says:
âHey, I might want to buy your cheese next Friday for $10. But Iâm not sure yet. Hereâs $1 just for the option.â
If cheese never hits $10, you keep it â plus the dollar.
If cheese shoots to $12, he can buy it from you for $10 â but you still keep the dollar.
That $1 is your premium. Thatâs the covered call income.
Now replace âcheeseâ with RUM stock and boom â thatâs what weâre doing.
đ§ Why Itâs Called a âCovered Callâ
Letâs break it down:
Call option = a contract giving someone the option (not obligation) to buy your shares at a set price.
Covered = you already own the shares youâre selling the option on.
Itâs safe. Itâs conservative. Itâs not some naked YOLO gamble. Youâre the landlord, not the tenant.
đ¸ Why This Is Awesome
Hereâs what makes covered calls perfect for normal people like you and me:
You get paid weekly or monthly, even if the stock doesnât move.
You reduce your cost basis (youâre getting paid back over time).
You can reinvest the premium to buy more shares.
Youâre not betting â youâre managing risk and building ownership.
This is the heart of the FIRE Engine â weâre stacking shares and making weekly income to grow our position over time.
𧎠Example: Letâs Say You Own 100 Shares of RUM
RUM is trading at $7.80.
You sell a $9 call that expires next Friday.
You get $15 in premium up front.
What happens next?
Scenario
Outcome
RUM stays under $9
You keep your shares + the $15
RUM hits $9+
You sell your shares at $9 (profit!) + keep the $15
Either way, that $15 is yours no matter what.
đ§ Bottom Line
A covered call lets you rent out your stock for weekly income. Youâre not day-trading. Youâre not gambling. Youâre building a passive income engine â one share, one premium at a time.
đ Up Next: [Post 5: How Covered Calls Actually Make You Money (with Real Numbers)] Want to see this strategy in action? Check out my weekly FIRE Engine updates.
Could Judas Possibly Have Been the Disciple Who Loved Jesus the Most?
When we think of Judas Iscariot, we usually think of one word: betrayal. His name has become synonymous with treachery, a byword for backstabbing. But what if weâve been missing something? What if Judas wasnât driven by hatred or greed? What if, instead, his story is one of sorrowful love and tragic misunderstanding?
And what if â just possibly â Judas was one of the disciples who loved Jesus most?
The Word âBetrayalâ Might Be Misleading
Our English Bibles say Judas “betrayed” Jesus. But the word used in the original Greek isnât quite as loaded as we make it.
The Greek word is ĎÎąĎιδίδĎΟΚ (paradidomi), which literally means to hand over, deliver, or give into custody.
Itâs the same word used elsewhere when Jesus is handed over to Pilate, when Paul is handed over to Roman guards, and when prisoners are transferred.
The word does not inherently mean treachery or hatred. It simply means that Judas delivered Jesus into the custody of those who would condemn Him.
If the Gospel writers wanted to make Judasâ act clearly malicious, they had other words available â like ĎĎοδίδĎΟΚ (prodidomi), which carries the connotation of treacherous betrayal. But they chose not to use that word. They consistently stuck with paradidomi.
That choice might not be accidental.
Judasâ Position at the Table
At the Last Supper, we get another small but important clue.
John 13 describes Jesus dipping a piece of bread and handing it directly to Judas. In Jewish custom, this was an act of honor, not insult. For Jesus to dip and personally hand food to Judas means that Judas was seated close â likely at Jesusâ left, the place of a guest of honor.
Peter had to motion across the table to John (the disciple whom Jesus loved) to ask Jesus who the betrayer was.
John leaned against Jesusâ chest to quietly ask the question.
Jesus then handed the morsel to Judas â directly, without having to reach far.
This means Judas was seated next to Jesus. He wasnât cast off to the side. He wasnât being shamed. He was close â physically, and perhaps relationally.
What If Judas Wasn’t the Villain We Think?
What if Judas was deeply loyal to Jesus â but weak, like the rest of the disciples? What if Jesus, knowing Judas’ personal struggles and reputation, chose him because only Judas could realistically carry out what prophecy required?
Judas handled the groupâs money (John 12:6). He may have had flaws, perhaps even greed. But so did Peter with his pride. So did Thomas with his doubt.
The religious leaders needed someone on the inside. Judasâ public reputation might have made him believable to them in a way Peter or John never could have been.
Perhaps Judas wasnât driven by personal gain. Perhaps he reluctantly stepped into the role Jesus needed him to fill â not because he wanted to, but because someone had to.
When Jesus said at the table, “One of you will hand me over”, the disciples didnât point fingers at Judas. They all asked, “Is it I?” This suggests no one thought Judas was the obvious betrayer.
The Kiss of Sorrow
When Judas led the guards to arrest Jesus, he didnât simply point and say âthatâs Him.â Instead, he identified Jesus with a kiss.
In first-century Jewish culture, a kiss on the cheek between a student and a rabbi was a sign of affection, respect, and personal connection.
It was not a symbol of hatred or venom.
The kiss may have been Judasâ way of saying, “I love you, and I don’t want to do this.”
Matthew 26:50 is haunting:
Jesus said to him, âFriend, do what you came for.â
The word Jesus uses here is áźĎÎąáżĎÎľ (hetaire), meaning companion or comrade. Even in that moment, Jesus doesn’t call Judas âenemy.â
Judasâ Collapse of Grief
After the arrest, Judas doesnât celebrate. He doesnât collect his silver and disappear into a life of luxury. Instead:
He tries to give the money back (Matthew 27:3-5).
He confesses openly, âI have sinned, for I have handed over innocent blood.â
And ultimately, overwhelmed with grief, he takes his own life.
This isnât the behavior of a cold-hearted villain. This is the behavior of a man crushed by unbearable sorrow.
Perhaps Judas believed, like many Jews at the time, that the Messiah would not â could not â die. Perhaps he assumed that Jesus would escape or prevail. But when he saw Jesus condemned, he may have believed not only that he had failed, but that he had delivered his beloved teacher to death.
Could Judas Have Loved Jesus the Most?
Itâs a provocative question. Weâll never fully know this side of eternity. But:
He was trusted enough to handle the group’s finances.
He was close enough to sit beside Jesus at the Last Supper.
He was emotionally devastated after Jesus’ arrest.
Even at the arrest, Jesus still called him âfriend.â
If nothing else, Judas’ story may not be one of simple villainy, but of tragic weakness, sorrow, and profound misunderstanding.
The other disciples also failed Jesus that night. Peter denied Him. The others ran away. Only John remained at the cross. The difference with Judas is that his failure cost him the emotional ability to go on living.
A Tragic Mystery
This is not to excuse what Judas did â nor is it for us to speculate about his ultimate fate. Thatâs for God alone. But it is worth seeing Judas not as a one-dimensional villain, but as a broken man caught in something far bigger than he understood.
Even in his failure, Judas was part of a divine plan that none of the disciples fully comprehended until after the resurrection.
The cross had to happen. The Scriptures had to be fulfilled. And someone had to hand over the Son of Man.
In the end, Judas’ story is not simply about betrayal. It’s about the deep tragedy of a man who may have loved his Rabbi so much â and yet misunderstood Him so completely.
đ Sometimes, the greatest tragedies arenât caused by hatred â but by love mixed with human weakness.
(Optional Author’s Note or Sidebar: You could add)
This isnât a new theory. Early church fathers like Origen and Clement debated Judas’ role as more complicated than outright hatred. The Greek text itself supports a softer reading of his “betrayal” as a necessary “handing over.” While church tradition often sees Judas as the ultimate traitor, there may be far more tragedy â and humanity â in his story than we have allowed ourselves to see.
A Tragic Mystery â Or Tragic Obedience
This is not to suggest that Judas acted out of selfish wickedness. Nor is it to imply that he stumbled accidentally into failure. Quite the opposite.
Judas may have done exactly what his Rabbi required of him.
Someone had to hand over the Son of Man. The Scriptures had to be fulfilled. The appointed hour had come. And when Jesus identified Judas as the one to whom the cup would be given, Judas obeyed.
He led the guards where they needed to go.
He identified Jesus with a kiss â a sign of both recognition and sorrow.
And even as Jesus was arrested, Judas may have still held onto the hope that this would turn out differently â that his Rabbi would somehow overcome.
But as the events unfolded and Jesus was condemned to die, Judas could no longer bear the weight of his obedience. The horror of seeing his Rabbi taken away, crucified, and seemingly defeated overwhelmed him. Not because he had failed â but because, in the deepest sense, he had obeyed â and he did not yet understand how the story would end.
Not His Ultimate Fate
What became of Judas’ soul is a question only God Himself can answer. It is not for us to know. But what we can say is this:
Judas did not act out of hatred.
Judas may have loved Jesus deeply.
Judas obeyed â even unto a task that shattered him.
Sometimes the greatest tragedies are not born from rebellion, but from obedience to something that is larger than the human heart can comprehend.
In the end, Judas’ story may not be about failure. It may be about love, obedience, and the unbearable cost of playing the role that his Rabbi required.
(Authorâs Note)
This view has echoes in some of the most ancient conversations of the early Church. The Greek text itself gives room for this reading. And while the Western tradition tends to flatten Judas into the role of simple betrayer, the text â and the table where Judas sat next to his Rabbi â may hint at something much heavier, much more tragic, and much more human.
Summary Sentence
Judas didnât stumble into failure. He walked into obedience â and could not bear the weight of what obedience required.
Why Iâm Not Worried Even Though RUM Dropped This Week (Thanks to the Greeks)
June 13th
Letâs cut straight to it: RUM is down this week. The stock price slid from $8.92 to $8.65 â and if you just looked at the share price, you might think:
âUh oh â isnât that bad? Arenât you losing money?â
Nope. Iâm not sweating at all. In fact, Iâm right on plan.
đ The Big Secret Nobody Tells You: The Greeks Run This Machine
Most people in my page are familiar with stock prices going up and down â but once you get into options, thereâs an entirely different world operating behind the scenes called The Greeks. They sound complicated at first, but theyâre actually your best friends once you learn what they mean. The Greeks are simply mathematical formulas that explain how your options contracts behave as time, price, and volatility change.
Hereâs the quick cheat sheet:
Delta: how much your option changes as the stock price moves.
Gamma: how fast Delta changes (kind of like Deltaâs momentum).
Theta: how much value your option loses every day due to time passing.
Vega: how much your option reacts to changes in volatility.
Rho: how much your option reacts to changes in interest rates (we almost never care about this one in covered calls).
đ° Letâs Focus on Theta â My Favorite Greek
Theta is your best friend when you’re running a covered call machine like I am.
Theta = Time Decay.
Every single day that passes, my open contracts lose value just because time is ticking.
Even if the stock does nothing â or even drops a bit â Theta keeps grinding away at my open positions, paying me slowly and steadily.
đŹ Letâs Apply It to My Current RUM Position
Right now Iâve got:
A $9 call expiring 7/18.
An $8 call expiring 10/17.
When I sold these calls, I was paid upfront premium (that sweet, sweet option income). Every day, even if the stock price wiggles around, Theta is quietly eroding the remaining value of these contracts.
This week:
RUM dropped from $8.92 to $8.65.
Normally youâd think thatâs bad. But…
My $9 call actually lost value â it dropped from $0.85 to $0.68.
Thatâs Theta working.
The contract is worth less now because there’s less time left for it to be profitable for the person who bought it from me.
đ Why a Drop in Stock Price Didnât Hurt Me
If you only owned the stock, you’d care a lot more about short-term drops. But because I’m running a covered call machine:
The premium I collected softens any drops.
My cost basis keeps falling as I stack income.
Theta keeps grinding my contracts down â even if the stock goes sideways or down slightly.
My adjusted cost basis right now is down to about $6.37/share thanks to premiums I’ve already collected.
So even with the price sitting at $8.65 right now, I’m sitting on a very healthy cushion.
đ The Game Plan: Letting It Ride (For Now)
Because Theta is still doing its thing, I have no reason to panic or react emotionally:
My July $9 call has over 50% of its premium already burned off.
My October $8 call has plenty of time â itâs slightly in the money right now, but nothing dangerous.
As long as I stay patient, both contracts are slowly paying me just for sitting here.
Iâll roll or adjust if the numbers tell me to. But for now? The machine is doing exactly what itâs supposed to do.
đ§ The Takeaway for My Followers:
This is why I keep saying:
Covered calls are a business, not a gamble.
If you understand Theta, you stop fearing little price dips.
The stock can bounce around all it wants â I get paid every day for simply holding my shares and renting them out.
This is the power of building a system where time is working for you, not against you.
đ´ââ ď¸ The RUMble Machine Is Green
â Shares stacking â Premiums stacking â Time decay working â No cash sitting idle â Patience paying off
đ If you want to keep following as I build this machine into my long-term passive income engine, stick around. Iâll keep dropping real-time updates as we scale it step by step.
If youâre following my F.I.R.E. Engine strategy, I recommend starting with Robinhood for a few reasons:
Itâs dead simple to use
You can sell covered calls directly in the app
You get a free stock when you sign up with my link
Itâs what I use, and Iâll be walking through screenshots and examples using it throughout this series. So unless you already have a favorite, just start here and keep it easy.
Mere Christianity, LA, and the Danger of Loving “Humanity”
âIf you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials âfor the sake of humanity,â and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man.â â C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 3, “The Cardinal Virtues”
We are living through a moment that C.S. Lewis warned about long before most of us were born. His words â written not for politics but for the human heart â now echo through the streets of Los Angeles, through the debate over immigration, and through the growing divide in how Americans understand compassion itself.
At the center of this crisis is one simple question:
Do we love real people â or do we love the idea of âHumanityâ so much that we forget the actual humans standing in front of us?
The False Compassion That Always Fails
The modern Left insists it is motivated by compassion. The slogans sound noble:
âNo human is illegal.â
âSanctuary for all.â
âJustice for the oppressed.â
But slogans donât feed families. They donât protect neighborhoods. They donât secure borders. And they donât uphold the rule of law that keeps real, flesh-and-blood people safe.
When you strip away the bumper stickers, what remains is a pattern of lawlessness justified by abstract love for “Humanity.” Itâs not rooted in personal responsibility for actual citizens, legal immigrants, or the families watching their cities decay.
This is what Lewis meant when he warned that loving âHumanityâ in the abstract â while ignoring justice â turns men into monsters. In pursuit of utopia, real people suffer.
What Trump Is Trying to Do (Whether You Like Him or Not)
Contrary to what critics shout daily, Trump’s position â and that of many like him â isnât rooted in hatred. Itâs rooted in ordered compassion.
Secure borders arenât cruel â theyâre how you create a nation where both citizens and legal immigrants thrive.
Deporting those who break the law isn’t heartless â itâs respecting the sacrifices made by legal immigrants who followed the rules.
Enforcing laws doesnât tear families apart â it protects communities from the collapse of law and order that always harms the poorest first.
Preserving the rule of law is what keeps the mob from replacing the government.
Justice creates the space where compassion can actually function.
Without it, you’re not left with mercy. You’re left with chaos. And eventually, with tyranny.
History Screams the Warning
What weâre witnessing isnât new. The human heart has tried this before. And every time, it ends the same way.
đŽđš Rome (Late Republic)
Rome let its borders weaken and its politics collapse into mob rule.
Populist leaders bribed the masses with promises they couldnât keep.
Eventually, order collapsed and dictators like Caesar and Augustus rose â crushing freedom to restore stability.
đŤđˇ The French Revolution
The Revolution began with soaring ideals: âLiberty, Equality, Fraternity.â
But without justice, those ideals produced the Reign of Terror â mass executions in the name of âthe people.â
It ended with Napoleonâs iron fist.
đŠđŞ Weimar Germany
Weak leadership allowed lawlessness, riots, and border failures.
Economic and social collapse paved the way for Hitler, who promised âorder at any cost.â
The world paid dearly.
đťđŞ Venezuela
Populist leaders promised endless compassion for the poor.
Lawlessness and corruption destroyed the economy.
Today, Venezuelans starve while the government clings to power.
The pattern is always the same:
First, the breakdown of law is tolerated in the name of compassion. Then comes collapse. Finally, tyrants emerge to ârestore orderâ â at the cost of liberty.
If Trump (or Any Leader) Does Nothing
If leaders do what the Left demands â ignore borders, legalize lawlessness, tolerate riots â the future is already written.
Cities will continue to burn.
Lawlessness will spread and harden.
Economic and social systems will fracture.
Vigilantism will rise to fill the power vacuum.
Eventually, Americans will cry out for order â and someone will answer that call. But what they offer may not be freedom.
The Bible saw it long before Lewis did:
âBecause sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.â â Ecclesiastes 8:11
Mercy without justice is not mercy. Itâs the seedbed of evil.
The Arguments Youâll Hear â And Why They Fail
1ď¸âŁ âYouâre exaggerating. This isnât Rome or Nazi Germany.â
No one said it is â yet.
History doesnât repeat, but it does rhyme.
Every failed nation said, âThat canât happen here.â Until it did.
2ď¸âŁ âDeportations are cruel. Youâre breaking up families.â
Enforcing law isnât cruelty â itâs stability.
Real cruelty is incentivizing people to break laws, risk their lives, and then abandoning them when the system collapses.
3ď¸âŁ âTrumpâs just a racist.â
This is an attack on motive, not policy.
Every nation has borders. Enforcing them isnât hate â itâs responsible leadership.
4ď¸âŁ âThe system is broken; sometimes you have to break laws to expose injustice.â
True civil disobedience accepts consequences for breaking unjust laws.
What we see today is not protest â itâs anarchy enabled by cowardly leaders who refuse to enforce any laws at all.
5ď¸âŁ âJesus taught us to love and welcome the stranger.â
Yes â with wisdom, order, and justice.
Even ancient Israel had strict borders and immigration laws.
Romans 13 teaches that government exists to enforce law â not erase it.
Lewisâs Warning Has Come to Our Doorstep
Lewis wasnât writing about immigration. He was writing about human nature. He understood what few today still grasp:
âLove is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved personâs ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.â
Sometimes, the loving thing is the hard thing.
The Simplest Summary
The Left says: “We must have compassion, even if it destroys justice.”
The Right says (or should say): “True compassion cannot exist without justice.”
Loving Humanity without justice leads to cruelty. Loving humans with justice allows mercy to thrive. Lewis warned us. History confirms it. And America is standing right on the edge.
đ¸ Make Your Own Machine Part 3: How to Buy a Stock (Without Screwing It Up)
So youâve got your shiny new brokerage account (hopefully through Robinhood, because hey, free stock).
Now comes the moment of truth:
âHow do I actually buy a stock without accidentally spending my rent money?â
Letâs walk through it.
đ Step 1: Fund Your Account
Before you buy anything, you need to deposit money into your brokerage account.
In Robinhood, just:
Tap the little person icon in the bottom right
Hit âTransfersâ
Link your bank and move money over
đĄ Pro Tip: Start small. Youâre not trying to YOLO your life savings into penny stocks. Even $25 is enough to get your feet wet.
đ Step 2: Search for the Stock
In the app, use the search bar and type in something like:
RUM (thatâs Rumble, the company I use for my covered call strategy)
Youâll see the company page pop up with a chart, price, stats â ignore most of that for now. Weâre keeping it simple.
𧞠Step 3: Pick Your Order Type
When you tap âBuy,â Robinhood will ask you how you want to buy.
Hereâs the difference:
đ˘ Market Order (Default)
Buys at the current price, instantly
Fast, simple
Might fill a few cents higher or lower depending on market movement
đľ Limit Order
You choose the max price youâre willing to pay
Only buys if the stock hits that price
Good if you want more control or if the price is jumping around
For beginners: Use Market Order unless youâre specifically trying to time an entry. Itâs fine. Youâre not day trading â youâre building.
đď¸ Step 4: Choose How Many Shares
Stocks are sold by the share.
If RUM is trading at $7.50 and you want 1 share, thatâll cost you $7.50.
Want 10 shares? $75.
Robinhood also lets you buy fractional shares, so you could just invest $5 if thatâs all youâve got.
Pick your number. Confirm the trade. Boom â you now own part of a real company.
đ Step 5: Chill. Youâre an Owner Now.
Congrats. Youâre officially an investor.
You donât need to stare at the app all day. You donât need to panic when it moves up or down. Youâre not here to trade â youâre here to build.
And soon, youâll learn how to make money from your stock every week by renting it out. Yep. Thatâs where the FIRE Engine gets fired up.
đ§ Bottom Line
Buying a stock is as simple as transferring money, tapping a few buttons, and not freaking out.
Youâre not trying to predict the future. Youâre building ownership, one share at a time.