70 Legit Ways to Make Extra Money (2021 Ultimate Guide)

I (28F) met my fiance (35M) on Tinder, back in 2017. After some failed dates, I met him, and the connection was just natural. We have similar tastes, thoughts, political views, future plans, etc. - all the importants: a match.
4 months after we started dating, we made our relationship a 'formal' thing (family introductions and such), and 6 months later we moved in together. I'm Latina, so my parents weren't very happy about me: 1. Dating over Tinder 2. Moving in with him before marriage
One time, while we were casually dating, I posted a photo on IG with some sexy song lyrics as caption. An uncle ss the post, sent to my mother saying how bad a parent she was for letting me 'expose' myself that way. This led to a very heated argument with my mother, where she insinuated my bf was not trustworthy bc we met online, and he's from out of town. After this, I decided to block/remove all family but parents and siblings off of social media.
Fast forward to 2020, my fiance and I proposed to each other, and we are planing a wedding for 50 people tops; considering COVID
I must say that we are doing great at our jobs, I even earn more than my fiance, so money for a bigger wedding is not an issue. So when I shared these plans with my mother, she flipped, of course. She gave me this speech about blood being thicker than water, about her expectations for what my wedding would be, how she had a small wedding herself and has since regretted it. Then she told me that if money was the issue, they (my parents) could pay for the extra people, but at least allow them to invite their siblings (20 extra people). We are alredy pushing it with 50 people, Covid restrictions and fines are stupidly high where I live, so 20 extra people is just a no-no.
Now, all this time since I moved out, my parents have not mentioned a word of it to their siblings. Yes, my aunts and uncles believe I still live home with my parents, and they (parents) have even asked me not to mention a word just so that 'nobody talks shit about our family'. Since I don't have any aunt, uncle, cousin on social media, IDGAF what they say. But my mother has been guilt-tripping me, saying how inconsiderate I'm being towards her, her family, her feelings, despite her keeping 'my secret'.
So, Reddit, AITA?
EDIT: Forgot to mention, we don't want a religious ceremony, since we do not follow religion, but my mother said she would not consider my marriage 'real' without it, so I'm considering giving in on that.

Started in helpdesk at age 25 in 2009. No college education and only high school diploma. Video gamer. Loved computers. Writing this not as a guide for what you need to do, but what worked and what was successful for me. I hope it helps someone.
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2009-2010 Helpdesk Tech 18$/hr
Loved what I was learning about AD and decided to dig in with Powershell. Learned the ins and outs of powershell and started to write my own tools to make my job easier: Password reset software, account lookup, pulling information from SCCM, the works. I'd ask the other guys on my team what they'd like to see or what would make their job easier and I'd find a way to make it happen. Did this for a year and promoted to helpdesk engineer. When the engineer position opened up I scheduled a meeting with my manager to make my intent clear.
2011-2012 Helpdesk Engineer 45k/yr
Here I was escalation for the techs. Continued to find ways to reduce tickets: self service password reset software, spearheaded windows 7 deployment, reviewed ticket logs, found ways to better leverage existing management tools. Lobbied for MSFT to come in and do some training with me on SCCM so I could learn the ins and outs of managing a larger userbase (~1000 employees). Constantly made contacts with the sysadmins, learned as much as I could about storage, virtualization, linux, etc. Asked for extra projects. Came in to work an hour early every day and left 1-2 hours after quitting time. Brainstormed ways to make a difference to the company I worked at to further reduce tickets or workloads from other teams. Scheduled a meeting with the sysadmin manager to make it clear to him that I was interested in being a sysadmin on his team, and asked him what I could do to be the obvious choice for a promotion. Within 2-3mo I was on the team. Got hands on experience with NetApp, 3PAR, & Linux. Originally they wanted me for storage and I was happy to oblige.
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2012-2015 Sysadmin 60k-85k/yr
Started out as storage admin at 60k as mentioned at the same company. Helped create volumes, raid groups, etc. Called all of our vendors and asked them to teach me as much about storage as they were willing. Went to a few classes for NetApp & 3PAR. Got certified in NetApp (7mode at the time). I started automating storage tasks with Powershell. Got everything automated to where projects that would normally take several hours or days were done in minutes. (FC Storage zoning, for example).
After a 6mo-year (my timelines are a little fuzzy, hard to remember) and getting this automated and refined, I started working more with the VMware team, learning as much as I could, worked with them on ways we could integrate with storage, I requested a few VMs with rights so I could learn more about VMware (note: this can be really hard in very large organizations where everything is highly controlled and silo'd). Did the same as before, pushed on it. One of the VMware guys quit. I immediately scheduled a meeting with the VMware team manager. I made it clear that I was interested in taking on the position, and that I had automated my previous role sufficiently to be able to handle both VMware and Storage tasks. Stated I didn't want a pay raise, but instead requested a VMware VCP training course. Did the same as before, find where things need to be efficient, find ways to save money for the company, find ways to learn more without your company needing to invest more. Eventually I was handling Backups, VMware, Storage, Load Balancers (F5), & Physical Compute. I did not take on or have interest in Network or Security.
After another year and a half of doing this I scheduled a meeting with the CTO. I explained that I was doing the job of five and that my salary was out of alignment, I kindly requested that he consider bringing my salary in to the ballpark of where a VMware/Storage administrator should be. He offered me 75k. I said 85k was more than fair, especially considering what I was doing for the company. He obliged.
Because I was handling so many different technologies on a day to day basis, I was also working with our vendors that sold us all of those projects. I learned as much as I could about as many different technologies as possible. Because I was responsible for what amounted to 5-10m of budget, because I had my hands in all parts of the org, had automated most of my tasks, I was involved in all technology purchases not related to Network or Security.
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2015-2017 Systems Engineer 110k/yr
1 year after the salary increase I applied to one of those vendors, or VARs (value added reseller). I gave the company I worked for a 3 month notice. They were unable to fill the position and contracted me back for 3 additional months while they proceeded to hire 4 people to replace me, I helped them interview. The new company asked me to move and laid me off after a total of 6 months of employment. I found a new job 3 days later and accepted. I worked for a very small outfit doing UCS/SRM deployment for 6 months and got a job at a local var.
Continued to learn and push. Learned as much as I could. Bought a home lab. Had my own VMware environment (with free licenses). Sold, implemented, and supported hardware from all sorts of verticals. Still managed to stay away from Networking & Security. If a client bought VEEAM, I would go get the same software I would be deploying for them and do it at home 3-4x before meeting up with the client. I looked like a pro to the client and I had only used the software the day prior.
Started bugging the AWS guy to teach me more. You're probably starting to see the pattern by now. He quit and we were going to lose our AWS partnership unless someone got a solutions architect associate certification within the next two weeks. I let my boss know that I would handle it, but I needed two weeks off to do it. Studied every day, 12 hours a day up until the test. Made my own AWS account and used my own credit card to get things going. Bought an online training course and pushed on it. Saved the partnership with AWS and they started giving me AWS projects to work on with clients.
2017-2020 Solutions EngineeArchitect 160k-190k
Managed services & private cloud organization reached out to me to help them sell their cloud. Note, this is all technical sales, NOT hard selling. My commission at the time was only about 20-30% of my pay. Agreed to sign on. After 2 years of always learning, pushing, and going after more I scheduled a meeting with the Director for Solutions Architecture to make my intent known. It was pretty funny actually, I've been doing so well (#1 across the company) that when I called him he said "Ah man, I was hoping you'd call me" and I said "Ah good, I'm sure you've been wanting me as a Solutions Architect and I'd be happy to work for you. Let me know when the first interview is." (note: I already knew the guy pretty well, heh, wasn't a cold meeting). Acted as Solutions Architect at around 190k for a year before I started to get incredibly bored. I was only helping to sell a single product. Set up kubernetes at home because it was a huge gap for the company and held trainings on containers. I did not like learning about products that I couldn't sell.
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2020 - Today Solutions Engineer 240k
Turned down a job at AWS as a Solutions Architect to work at a large VAR as a Solutions Engineer at the same pay. I did not want to be limited to only AWS. Yes, I realize how crazy a statement that can seem to some. The company I'm at is quite large, but not the behemoth that is AWS.
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The path is there ladies & gentleman. You have to want it so bad it hurts. So bad that you go home wondering how you can make a difference at work. You go to sleep excited to learn the next new thing tomorrow. So bad that you're not afraid to schedule a meeting with the CTO to tell him you want more out of your job. That you'd be willing to make less to learn more. That you want more pay because you have a track record showing that you've earned it. That when you start to realize your value you recognize it and move to a new company, expecting a high salary as a result. You can't make salary jumps like this by staying at the same company.
I worked hard for this, and you can too.
What's next? I'll keep pushing. I think I want to be CTO at a company someday. Not sure what that path looks like yet.
If this helps one person, it was worth the time to write it up.

Daughter - Gemma, 23.
Boyfriend - Jay, 22.
Jay has been living with my family for a couple of months. He is a very nice young fellow and treats my daughter like a queen, which definitely gets him some points in my book. However, I think it is safe for me to say that Jay hasn't had the easiest life. His mother left when he was little and his father treated him like dirt. Jay was kicked out of his home when he was 18. For the most part, he has been pretty open about the time after his father kicked him out. He got a job and managed to get a flat after sleeping on some friend's couches for a few months. However, being very vague when asked, he has said that he's had to do some things that he's not very proud of to earn some extra money. Well, last week, I found out what those things were.
Myself, my wife and Gemma all got an email with a link to a video. That video turned out to be an adult movie. An adult movie that Jay was "acting" in. Fortunately his face was not in the video but Jay has several scars on his torso, scars that were evident in the video. His voice was also particularly easy to recognise. I really didn't know what to think. My first thought was to confront Jay and ask him about it. To my surprise, he was very honest about the whole thing. He had been struggling with money back then and had done several amateur adult movies for some extra money. He also admitted to having online relationships with older men and women who would send him money in return for explicit images and videos, this was hinted at in the email but only the one link was sent.He says he is not proud of it but he did what he felt like he had to at the time to make some extra money. He told us he was careful to not show his face and avoided using his real name at all costs.
Now, you must understand that we come from what would be considered a more conservative family. My wife and I are more open and have nothing but respect for people who choose to work in the sex industry. That being said, a lot of our other relatives aren't as open to the idea. We also have three other children (19M, 15M and 14F) to think about. I do not want our children thinking that this is okay. We are raising them to be independent but if they need help then they are more than welcome to ask my wife and I. I'd rather my children weren't out there doing what Jay did for money. I have told Jay as much and requested he find somewhere else to stay. He is welcome to visit if he likes but I do not feel comfortable with him living with us, especially my children, at this point in time. They are still young and easily influenced.
My wife isn't happy and Gemma won't speak to me. I brought the matter up with a trusted family member and they completely understand where I'm coming from.
eta
The weather has been terrible here and has been knocking my internet off so apologies for my inactivity in the comments. I hear you reddit. I am a complete an utter asshole, this thread really is a bit of reality check. I genuinely can't believe how horribly I've acted towards my (hopefully) future son in law.
I have seen some confusion in the comments so I figured I'd clear this up whilst I am able to get online. I am not a practising Christian. I was raised in a Christian household, my children have been christened and we still attend church at Christmas, Easter etc. My family are completely fine with this arrangement. I have also not kicked Jay out. I gave him a month to find somewhere else to stay so he had time to make plans, though he has since been told that he does not have to leave. I was being unreasonable.
I had a talk with Jay lat night. I apologised for my behaviour towards him, even let him read this post and the comments. Jay is very thankful to all of you who offered words of support, he has said it made him feel slightly less ashamed of his past. We are still a bit awkward, as people sometimes are after a disagreement, but things are looking good. I have decided that down the line, if word does get out about Jay's past, I will stand by him. He is my daughter's partner, and he is like a son to me. If anyone doesn't like that then they can piss off. Thank you reddit for this major reality check. Thankfully things seem to have been fixed a little, I know it will probably take Jay a while to fully trust me again but I really hope that if/when he does, we'll be even closer because of it.
Also, for those asking, we are almost 100% sure at this point that Jay's cousin was the one who sent those emails. As is quite obvious in this post, Jay doesn't have a great family. His cousin is no exception. She is one of the very few people who knows about Jay's past and they have recently had a disagreement. I wouldn't put it past her to do something so unreasonable. The only reason I didn't explicitly say it was her is because we have no real proof connecting her to this.

Greeting Theta Gang boys and girls,
I hope you're well and not bankrupt after last week. I'm just now recovering mentally myself. I saw a few WSB converts and some newbies asking for tips, so here you go. V2 of my Options guide. I hope it helps.
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I spent a huge amount of time learning about options and tried to distill my knowledge down into a helpful guide. This should especially be useful for newbies and growing options traders.
While I feel I’m a successful trader, I'm not a guru and my advice is not meant to be gospel, but this will hopefully be a good starting point, teach you a lot, and make you a better trader. I plan to keep typing up more info from my notebook, expanding this guide, and posting it every couple months.
Any feedback or additions are appreciated
Per requests, I added details of good and bad trades I made. Some painful lessons learned are now included. I also tried to organize this better as it got longer.
Here's what I tell options beginners:
I would strongly recommend buying a beginner's options book and read it cover to cover. That helped me a lot.
I like this beginner book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GWSXX8U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_OxNDFb2GK9YW7
Helpful websites:

• Tasty Trade (TT) and Ally Invest have helpful articles and videos.
  • https://www.tastytrade.com/tt
  • https://www.youtube.com/c/tastytrade1/featured
• Ally training:
  • What is options trading? https://www.ally.com/do-it-right/investing/trading-options-for-beginners/?CP=EM2012111
  • Top 10 options mistakes: https://www.ally.com/do-it-right/investing/top-10-option-trading-mistakes/?CP=EM2012111
• 3 common option mistakes: https://us.etrade.com/knowledge/library/options/common-mistakes-options-traders-make
• Common options strategies: https://www.optionsbro.com/basic-options-strategies/
• Investopedia has tons of great investing info for stocks and options: https://www.investopedia.com/
• Kamikaze Cash Theta Gang Videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOweupE79XXiBaeH_xBpkUcYUsrAaKQen
• 20 rules of professional traders: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/active-trading/022715/20-rules-followed-professional-traders.asp

Don't trade until you understand:

• You can lose your entire contract value when buying.
• You can lose a lot of money when selling "naked", theoretically unlimited.
• How option expiration works.
• Theta (decay) and how it works. This is imperative since it's attrition when buying and a payout when selling. https://www.optionseducation.org/advancedconcepts/theta
• DTE: Days till expiration/expiry
• Options positions with respect to price:
  • ITM: In the money; strike is below stock value. Signif
  • ATM: At the money; strike is just at or above the stock value, often very highly traded. Can be very effective with moderate - long term expiry.
  • NTM: Near the money; strike is above the stock value, but fairly close. Slightly unofficial term.
  • OTM: Out of the money; price is at least a few strikes from the current stock price. I would say 10-30% over stock price.
  • Very OTM: Not a real definition, this is essentially a lottery ticket. Cheap, but almost certain to expire worthless unless there is explosive movement.
• Understand delta in general and how delta changes with ITM and OTM options.
• Understand all the greeks at a high level, as you get better understand them well. The greeks: https://www.optionsplaybook.com/options-introduction/option-greeks/
• IV, IV crush, and how IV affects pricing. In general, you want to sell when IV is high and buy when the IV is low. Increasing IV is good for held calls/puts. IV drop or crush is generally good for sellers.
• Selling options can be quite beneficial. Once you have a good general understanding, lookup thetagang . Kamikaze Cash has good youtube videos on most theta strategies (linked above). I personally believe selling options (especially cash secured) is much safer and can consistently make you profits. Θ Gang 4 life.
• FOMO and how to avoid chasing a dangerous trend. DO NOT CHASE FROM FOMO!
• What intrinsic and extrinsic value are. Know how they are affected by being exercised/assigned and how theta affects them.
• Understand that some of WSB recommendations are straight up high-risk gambling and factor in the information accordingly. Be careful with Meme stocks and the survivorship bias on YOLO plays. However, I love the sub and think it’s hilarious. It has a lot of valuable information / DD if you are comfortable with the “colorful” language. It’s also great if you like rocket ship emojis.

Basics / Mechanics

• Understand the 4 "main" option types. Buying or selling a call and buying or selling a put. Spreads and more complex multi-legged option strategies are based off these in some way (see below)
• You can sell calls with 100 shares of stock or if you own an underlying longer term option; see LEAPS and PMCCs later. Selling calls naked is incredibly risky and often requires Level 4 (very advanced) permissions and usually a lot of capital. I will literally never sell calls naked since I don't want to ruin my life and end up living in a dumpster eating saltine crackers.
• Puts can be sold/written cash covered (cash secured), which means you have the cash in your account to buy 100 shares. Your broker will put this money on hold until the trade is closed. Puts can be sold "naked" using Margin and Level 3 (with most brokers). Your broker will hold a percentage of cost of 100 shares (often 30-40%, 100% on meme stocks) allowing you to sell more puts. This increases your available capital/power as well as increasing risk.

General Tips and Ideas:

• Don't EVER leave (short) spreads open on expiration day, close them. (more details below)
• Start off trading very small. Slowly build up over weeks / months. You need to get accustomed to a fifty dollar swing a day, then a few hundred, then a few thousand. You need to ensure you don't get emotional (see below). I started trading options with 5k, then 25k, 50k, and later over 100k. I added my own funds over time and used my gains to build my account. Don’t go all in immediately, that’s dangerous and unwise.
• Especially as you build up the amount of money you have invested, keep it diversified among several stocks.
  • Don't go all in on one thing, ever. Be able to take a hit from one stock and not mortally wound your portfolio.
  • A company may be doing great, then there's a major product issue out of nowhere. If you are overexposed in one stock this can really hurt you.
  • I had to roll options I sold that were about to expire completely worthless because FDX's CEO changed and the stock took a hard dip.
• Don't trade emotionally. If you realize you are emotionally trading for vengeance, you should probably exit the trade and cool off for several days with that stock. Same if you get caught up in a wave of hysteria.
• Have a plan for every trade, ideally with entries / exits that are specific values, ranges, or a set condition. This helps remove emotions. This is super important for strong movements and high volatility (see later).
• Use an options profit calculator from your broker or an online one before entering a "new" trade, especially a complex multi legged trade: https://www.optionsprofitcalculator.com/
• “Rolling” an option: Closing your existing option and opening a similar one at different strike and/or expiration.
  • Rolling a call “Up” would be selling a call you own and buying a cheaper call at a higher strike.
  • Rolling a put “Down and out” closes your original one and buying or selling one at a lower strike at a longer expiry.
  • Better broker interfaces have a literal “Roll” button. I know E-trade does. You can manually do it by selecting relevant contract legs.
• If you have a losing trade, re-evaluate it. If your initial assumption is definitely incorrect, close it. Don't stay in losing trades forever and lose the entire value of the option over stubbornness. If you re-evaluate and you think your assumption was right, hold, potentially consider adding another cheaper option (or buy another call / put). Rolling out sold options can help here.
• Don't try to day trade, especially with options. It's statistically unlikely to be profitable. Day-trading with options introduces extra liquidity risks and is dangerous, especially with spreads.
• Try not to over-trade, you'll likely mis-time the market over time. When I get emotional I over trade, then lose additional money on wash sales. If you scale your entries into positions it should help alleviate your desire to exit positions when they turn badly against you. Whenever I buy calls I do it at larger increments after W almost made me loss my hair; luckily it eventually came back.
• NEVER enter a position on a stock you have no idea about, especially when you read about it online or heard about it from some rando.
• At market open options contracts are often volatile and inflated. Buying during this time can be more expensive. Options are usually cheaper mid-day, I read somewhere 2-3PM is cheapest. I’ve had success around 12-1PM EST after prices settle.
• Try wheeling on cheaper stocks once you get all fundamentals down.
• When selling puts if you are very bullish consider "doubling down"; note this is higher risk. Use the credit from your put sale to buy shares or a cheap call. This can be roughly inversed with puts, except I wouldn't ever recommend shorting shares.
• Learn from your mistakes. You can’t go back in time and beating yourself up (to a point) is useless. Make a physical &/or mental note of it so you don’t do it again. If you don’t learn from it, then beat yourself up so you won’t do it again.
• If you have friends that like to trade, I find it helpful to discuss strategies and planned plays. I talk openly with my close friends about my current holdings and planned trades, it helps keep me accountable. If I get a wide-eyed look, I might be doing something excessively risky or stupid. I’ve over-leveraged myself in calls twice and I knew I shouldn’t have done it both times. When I tell my friends what I did and I’m embarrassed, it exemplifies the face that I shouldn’t have done it in the first place. You will also get ideas for new strategies or plays from them. It’s good to stay versatile and use multiple strategies when appropriate. Beware of group think/echo chambers.
• I recommend NEVER telling someone what to buy/sell and when. I’ll tell people MY plays or what I like and why, but I will not encourage them to emulate what I do. Depending on the audience, I’ll tell them my exact positions along with my exit and entrance strategy. With closer friends I’ll offer my thoughts on their trades (if asked). If my friend is doing something really risky (one of my friends does some scary stuff) I may ask them if they want my advice, and provide it, especially if they overlooked a risk/event. I will not encourage someone to execute/enter a trade since it has a high potential for hurt feelings or animosity all around.
• Don’t fall in love with a stock. Just because something made you money before and you have high confidence in it doesn’t mean it will keep performing. I joke that FDX betrayed me when it started dipping and losing me money. I was over-confident of its bounce-back and sold too many puts too quickly. I’m in several losing trades because of it. However, I will keep good stocks in my rostetracking list or try different strategies or re-enter trades when they change their behavior.
• As you start to both buy and sell options and get more experience in general, you'll start seeing the two sides to every trade. You will likely start adjusting your strategies or trying new trades out because of this. Things will likely click one day. Most/all the greeks and options concepts will become almost second nature. For me this was when I could build an Iron Condor from scratch, which was a watershed moment involving a good understanding of many strategies.
• Understand Liquidity and volume.
  • Trading in low volume, low open interest contracts results in wide bid/ask spreads and difficulty having your contracts filled. Look at all the data for a contract, not just the strike and price.
  • Monthly Expiration dates typically have better liquidity.
  • Multi-legged trades (Common examples are 2-legged vertical spreads or 4-legged iron condors) have more difficulty being filled, especially on bad brokers like Robin Hood. Having very liquid options for all legs is extremely helpful in obtaining timely and well-priced fills, which maximize your potential profits.
• Time in market vs timing the market:
  • It is extremely difficult to time the market perfectly. If you wait for the perfect opportunity forever, history has proven you will miss out on gains. Keeping all your money out of the market has proven to be ineffective. Now if there is something serious happening with a stock/the market (like say a new pandemic), don’t go all in. I recommend entering incrementally at dips. If the stock has huge upside potential it may never go down, so it might make sense to partially enter at the current price.
  • IMIO selling puts is a great strategy to get into a stock you like, or at least make money off it. I think buying stock in lots of 100 is usually for suckers. Selling an ATM or ITM put (assuming the math works out) on a stock you were going to buy and hold is ALMOST free money.
  • I recommend keeping some cash available regardless. If you have a very large account or expect a downturn, hedging with indexes like QQQ, SPY, or VIX or calls/puts may be wise.
• Every trade can't be a winner. You will take some losses, you must get used to it. I don’t like having a realized loss of 1K or more on any trade. However, this will happen, especially with larger accounts.
  • As long as you win more often and beat the S&P that year I consider it okay. I’m kind of aggressive, so I consider 20%+ annually good. 30%+ annually is great. 40%+ and I’m dancing. After trading options I am almost baffled by my old belief that 5% annual returns (mostly from dividend ETFs) was “good”. That’s nothing to me now since I’m willing to take risks. Note: While lots of people danced in 2020, realize that’s an insane Bull Run year and is atypical.
  • Adhere to your own risk tolerance and never over-extend yourself, especially with margin use. Don’t make huge gambles leaving you uncomfortable. Only gamble with money you are willing to lose.
  • My personal strategy is to make safer gains for the year and then enter slightly riskier strategies using those gains. I can be slightly-moderately more aggressive and compound my gains. For me I often sell puts to make money, then when I see a big opportunity I’ll sell a put and buy an OTM or moderately ITM call.
• Understand it’s not safe to try and get rich overnight. However, once you hit big “steps” things may start to snowball. You can enter more positions and take more risks if you choose to.
  • For me this when I hit 50k, then 100k. I was able to balance low and moderate risk positions to more significantly grow my account. I’ll even do a high risk thing now and again because my gains can absorb it (assuming I have them).
  • I can’t wait to get to 250K, then 500K. I know it’ll take quite a long time, but I am confident I’ll eventually be able to have 500K and (hopefully) 1M in my non-401k trading account with gains and additions from my job. I can only imagine how “dangerous” I will be with that kind of capital.
• If you missed "the next big thing" like AAPL, TSLA, or the time machine I’m building in my basement. Don't get upset, learn from it. Adapt and become a better trader for next time.
  • Figure out why a company was so promising, before they mooned. Determine how you would have traded differently in hindsight. Apply those lessons to the next company you believe has long term growth prospects.
  • For me that's putting in 1-2.5k towards shares and/or buying LEAPS on it. Depending on my bullishness I may buy “cheap”, fairly far OTM calls. The far OTM options are sort of lottery tickets. If I'm right the (relatively) low cost will have explosive profits; if I'm wrong, they didn't cost that much so it's a calculated loss I’m willing to accept. For more serious bets I’ll buy ITM LEAPS to run PMCCs on. I also like to buy 1-2K in my 401k for very long-term plays.
• The stock market hates uncertainty, it seems to crave the status quo. A shakeup can potential tank a stock, even if it's nothing. With shares you can wait it out, but this can be problematic for options. If you see volatile/uncertain times ahead (politics, disease, manufacturing, earnings, etc.), you might want to reduce your overall portfolio risks or hedge.

Profit Retention / Loss Mitigation

• If selling options, it is a viable strategy to close early after a large gain with many DTE left until expiry. See TT videos / strategies on this.
• Don't hold options through earnings unless you literally want to gamble. I like playing on earnings run ups, but that can be risky.
• If you hold options through earnings, IV crush will happen immediately afterwards, devaluing the option. However, if the option is profitable enough, IV crush won’t matter, which will still make money for a call buyer. A sold put sufficiently far OTM will benefit from IV crush, even if the stock dips after slightly bad or lukewarm earnings.
• Don't throw good money after bad. Don't gamble on a recovery if your assumption appears to be wrong or the market is flat out tanking. If you are wrong and still believe in the company, wait twice as long as your original plan (wait for your 2nd entry point vs 1st) before adding to your position.
• Consider using stop losses to lock-in profits on rides up or sometimes use them to prevent losses. Note, stops can be easily triggered in volatile options. Now when I'm up a lot on calls (especially around earnings or large momentum run-ups) I always set stop losses. I have been burned too many times. In December 2020 I didn't set a SL on several thousand dollars of FDX calls I was already up on and I "lost" ~$5K of unrealized gains. If you're up big, don't get too greedy.
• A possible strategy if a stock is on a tear and you have multiple options open: Close some positions (I prefer to do this incrementally if the stock has momentum), but leave 1+ open in case the stock goes into outer space/the floor. Next, set a stop loss with a little buffer below its current movement / range so it doesn't get hit unless the stock falls hard. Finally, watch the stock closely and if it keeps rising, keep moving the stop loss up in little bits incrementally. This will let you keep more profits on a hot streak, but give some protection and secure more gains. It will also help eliminate FOMO if a stock exceeds your expectations.
• Have rules when to roll out, down & out, or up & out. I like TT’s roll at break even or at 1x loss and to always roll for a credit (or for me a very minor cost). Obviously these rules need some monitoring. Know your stocks, the news, and technicals so you don’t jump the gun.
  • If you roll early for a credit and you’re right, it’s not the end of the world. You’ll just need to hold longer, which will obviously tie up capital. Sometimes it’s better to tie up some money (especially if you aren’t paying interest) than eating a huge loss.
  • Rolling too late can be worse though. I currently have a very underwater FDX put I sold that is over 2x loss, rolling it does almost nothing unless you want to pay a debit or extend it extremely far out.
• On huge options gains, I strongly you recommend taking profits by rolling up/down or incrementally sell your contracts at several different prices (this is why having multiple contracts is nice).
  • Rolling up involves selling your initial call, then using a fraction of your proceeds to buy a cheaper, further OTM call with the same expiry; puts are inverse this. When rolling up I like to ensure the new option’s cost is 15-40% of my realized gains. I’ll buy a more or less expensive new optoin based on my convication to the stock and predicted movements. You can also roll up and out to get a further expiry and strike.
  • This is monumentally important if you are playing with incredibly high rising stocks or during a short squeeze.
  • Sad story time: I completely screwed up when I forgot to roll up, twice, during the GME gamma/short squeeze. I didn’t take my own advice; I didn’t have a real exit or transition plan and I got emotional. It all happened so fast and I was at work; the insanity of the run up and subsequent gamma squeeze caught me off guard. I should’ve clocked out and thought through the situation for 15-30 minutes to form an impromptu plan, then executed trade(s). My moderate risk tolerance coupled with my desire to take profits took over. When the stock partially cratered after a run up, I sold to retain gains. In the heat of the moment I thought the squeeze was squoze and it was going to plummet into the ground and I wasn’t being rational.
    • On 1x 4K call I would’ve made an additional 15-25K if I rolled up to a cheaper contract with some of my profits.
    • I know I missed out on significantly more with a 2nd call I had. Depending when I rolled it, it would likely have been an additional 25-50k in profits.
  • I talked about learning from your mistakes above. This mistake is branded into my brain due to the massive gains I missed out on by not rolling up. I’m furious with myself as I write this 1 week after the GME gamma squeeze, I’m a planner and I didn’t plan. If anything I own is significantly up ever again, I’m rolling up (or at least setting a stop loss). If necessary, I’ll roll up a trade multiple times to keep extracting profits.
  • Learn from my mistake so you don’t miss out on gains too. I strongly recommend rolling up when you are up big on a call / roll down when you are up big on a put. This enables you to take profits, stay in the game, and keep extracting more gains.
• If you trade a lot of options, talk to your broker about a discount. I was getting the standard $.50/contract with E-Trade, but I traded over 300 contracts a quarter and was able to get the fee reduced by over $.10 by just asking. I am now doing more spreads and condors, so once my volume gets very high, I’ll ask again.
• If you have a broker that isn’t great and you want to switch, leverage your current trading fees to the new broker. Tell them you’ll move over $### thousand if they beat your current options trading fee per contract.

Trade Planning & Position Management Tips

• As you gain experience, start monitoring what kind of Delta, OTM, DTE, etc. you are most profitable with. Use it in your future trades. You'll often see the tasty trade 30-45DTE .3 Delta strategy for selling.
• Before entering a trade, look at rough technicals like resistances and supports to consider your relevant strikes as well as entry/exit points. Look at upcoming earnings & dividend dates as well as stock/market news.
• Consider staggering strikes and expirations for safety and diversity; it’s nice to avoid assignment on 3 puts at once because you used the same strike for all 3.
• Incrementally enter positions on large rises/falls. One of my favor strategies is to buy dips after over reactions. By doing this slowly in large price "steps" it helps combat FOMO and helps you avoid getting slaughtered.
  • This will also help you avoid "chasing a falling knife". It also ties into having a plan.
  • I set alerts at several predetermined prices and I REALLY try not to enter new trades unless I hit my preset points. It makes me less emotional and usually more effective.
• Don't buy far expiration options with poor liquidity for shorter term plays. I bought 1x GME 1-year+ LEAPS call before the 2021 short squeeze. That was stupid, I should've bought 2-3x 60-120 day calls to have better liquidity. I also paper-handed it and missed out on my lambo.
• If selling options, consider rolling (for a credit) to avoid assignment when it makes sense / meets your plan. Rolling closer to expiration can be a valid strategy to get theta on your side. On the flip side, if the stock moons or plummets it could've been better to roll before it got crazy deep ITM. See rolling “rules” above.
• Covered Calls:
  • If a stock has a large movement range, I think it can be worthwhile to wait to open a CC after the last one is closed/expires. I have been more successful waiting for another opportunity vs. opening one immediately on the Monday after the second the last one expires.
  • Consider selling covered calls at all time highs/peaks. If you sell a CC and the stock dips significantly, and you think it’s temporary, you can buy to close your CC for a quick profit, then reopen it later.
  • If you own Meme stocks, selling covered calls runs the risk of missing out on large gains. On these stocks I typically only sell them further OTM than I normally would or not at all. If I do sell CC on a Meme stock I try to ensure I have 25-100 other shares that won’t be called away.

-Advanced Beginner-
Spreads

• Spreads (with 2 legs) are neat because they manipulate how delta and theta act. It caps your gains and losses, but you can profit with less stock movement. Try several spreads on a P/L calculator to see for yourself.
• Spreads usually require margin trading.
• Spreads allow you to define max losses (assuming you close before expiration day) and use less capital.
  • Experienced traders will open many spreads at identical/similar strikes to heavily profit off movement. Spreads can make you/lose you a lot of money if you are right.
  • For example. I could make a $200 premium off a $500 risk trade, max loss would be $300. This is much more effective capital utilization than a naked or cash secured put, however it does not have the same downside protection or “wheel” potential as a sold put. Higher risk, higher reward.
• Vertical Debit spreads: I think of these like mini calls/puts. I personally don’t use them unless calls are outrageously expensive or the break even is absurdly high, but there’s nothing wrong with them. A call debit spread will lower your breakeven and overall cost vs just a call. You can do clever things like making a positive theta call spread if you’re creative. I like doing this since I hate losing money to theta.
• Vertical Credit spreads:
  • Very good theta strategy to define downside/upside risks.
  • A put credit spread is bullish and allows you to bet on upward movement with less capital and defined losses.
  • A call credit spread is a bearish strategy that allows you to bet on downward movement. These are very cool since they allow you to sell calls without selling naked calls, which can ruin you financially. I see selling these as better than buying puts since it’s so much easier to be profitable; to be redundant, Θ rocks.
  • https://www.schwab.com/resource-centeinsights/content/reducing-risk-with-credit-spread-options-strategy-0
• I repeat this on purpose: Don't EVER leave short spreads open on expiration day, close them. If you don't close, they better be VERY far from the strike on a non-volatile stock. In after hours a stock can jump/dip below your strike and be exercised without the other leg to protect you. This can lead to massive, life ruining losses. This is not an exaggeration, google this and be scared. It happened to a fair number of people with TSLA. Video explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtVFj9nRRDo&t=315s
• Short Straddle:

Trading Mechanics, Taxes, Market Manipulation

• Learn about wash sale rules. They suck and are very easy to activate with options. This will eliminate your ability to write off losses. Over trading can easily cause wash sales. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/washsalerule.asp
• Short attacks:
  • Learn to recognize these sketchy attacks by hedges/firms. They manipulate the market, it’s been documented countless times. A common one is rapid short selling, which pushes the price down.
  • Short Ladder attacks:
    • https://www.google.com/amp/s/seekingalpha.com/amp/instablog/11442671-gerald-klein/3096735-anatomy-of-a-short-attack
    • Some people say short ladder attacks don't exist. I've seen some very strange stock nosedives off low volume, so I tend to think they do.
  • If you plan well enough and the market doesn’t give up on the stock you may be able to use it as a great opportunity to buy the dip.
• Cramer explains how he intentionally manipulated the market when he ran a hedge fund years ago. Multiple links to the video are below since this video gets pulled often, Cramer / The street never wanted this to go public.
  • Reuters article: https://www.reuters.com/article/cramer-interview-idUKN2036292620070320
  • httpss://youtu.be/r07Gg92YjOI
  • https://youtu.be/VMuEis3byY4
  • https://youtu.be/JEzsfPmh894
  • https://youtu.be/QFfjX8dW-QQ
  • Due to this video I don’t fully trust Cramer. His show can give you stock ideas to buy (or inverse), but you never know where his true loyalties lie.
• Plan for taxes if you are up big. You may need to over withhold or contribute to taxes quarterly depending on your situation. https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc306

-Intermediate / Advanced Strategies (work in progress)-
You’ll notice many of these strategies inverse one another.
Options Strategy Finder
This website is great for learning about new strategies, you’ll see many links to it below.
https://www.theoptionsguide.com/option-trading-strategies.aspx
Short Strangle / Straddle

• Both of these strategies profit from little price movement. I recommend using a P/L calculator to determine BE, profit, etc.
• A straddle sells (or buys) two options at the same expiry and strike.
• A strangle sells (or buys) two options at same expiry with different strikes.
• Both these strategies involved selling a Call and a Put for a credit. Straddle uses ATM legs, strangle uses OTM legs.
• Limited max profits and unlimited risk. Due to the unlimited risk, I am not a fan. However, many people like these a lot.
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/short-strangle.aspx
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/short-straddle.aspx

Iron Condor and Iron Butterflies

• These strategies profit from neutral or mostly neutral stock movement. They receive a credit to open and benefit from theta decay. If your stock is range bound, these may be a good choice.
• These are both 4 "legged" trades, so you will have 4 trading fees to enter or exit the trade. A lower cost or zero cost broker shines here. However, “bad” free brokers will give you poor fills, which may not be worth the discount.
• Condors and butterflies have "wings" which are your purchased puts and calls. The wider the wing the higher the max profit/risk. The condor body can be riskier and skinny with a narrow high profit range or wider for a much greater chance of success with lower payout.
• An iron condor is built by combining a put credit spread and a call credit spread with the same expiry.
• An iron condor can be thought of as a modified short strangle with limited risk, and therefore a bit less profit. I prefer defined limited risk.
• The butterfly is similar except instead of a plateau it has a sharp peak. My personal mental note is that a condor looks more like a strangle with wings, while a butterfly looks like a straddle with wings.
• Pay attention to earnings dates when you open these, I have forgotten to check before and it led to bad trades.
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/iron-condor.aspx
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/iron-butterfly.aspx

Long Condor (Debit Call Condor)

• The debit version of an Iron Condor. You expect the price to stay inside your defined range. This strategy profits from neutral or mostly neutral stock movement. I’ve never tried this, Iron Condors make more sense to me.
• Limited risk / limited reward.
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/condor.aspx

Short Condor (Credit Call Condor)

• Inverse of an Iron Condor. You expect the price to go OUTSIDE your defined range. These are useful when you expect significant price movement. Credit to open.
• Limited risk / limited reward.
• Can be harder to set up. I want to try these, haven’t yet.
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/short-condor.aspx

Reverse Iron Condor

• Inverse of an Iron Condor. You expect the price to go OUTSIDE your defined range. These are useful when you expect significant price movement. Debit to open.
• Limited risk / limited reward.
• https://www.theoptionsguide.com/reverse-iron-condor.aspx

LEAPs

• LEAP Options are options that are long term with many DTE, often over a year until expiration. LEAP calls are great for long term growth plays (downtrends with LEAP puts) or simply when you really like a company and can't afford 100 shares. LEAPs (or any "longer term" option) enables you to sell a PMCC or PMCP (below)

PMCC / PMCP

• PMCC or PMCP are poor man's covered call (or poor man's covered puts). They are diagonal options often used with purchased LEAPs. You sell a shorter DTE call/put with a further OTM strike than your purchased call/put. For PMCC/PMCPs it is often recommended to recoup your extrinsic value as soon as possible, some recommend with your first call CC or put sale, to ensure you are positive if the option is assigned early. These have a lot of moving parts and strategies. If you buy a barely ITM call/put and sell a nearby strike call/put you run the risk of the purchased option getting "blown by" on large stock movement and ending up with a very negative losing trade. Keeping your purchased LEAP deeper ITM should protect you. Check your initial PMCC using an options calculation to make sure you don't screw up.
• I'm currently tinkering with these myself. So far I like .7-.9 delta call LEAPS with 30-45 DTE calls on my CC. The goal is to hold the LEAP long term, potentially until expiration, and constantly sell calls/puts on it that expire worthless. Typically the call/put is rolled up and out or down and out if it's going to be assigned, unless you don't want your LEAP anymore.
• Some people look at these many sold CC or puts as profits, I look at them as lowering my cost basis until it's zero (or even negative). I have a page in my notebook I write each CC on my NIO LEAP (I Meme stock sometimes). I find it satisfying to slowly see the cost of the original option disappear. When I originally wrote this I had ~2 years left on it and it's 9-10% paid for; that doesn't even count the actual gains the LEAP has.
• TT states this is considered an IV play, which I partially agree with. You want to buy these during low IV times since an IV drop will hurt your LEAP value. I look at them more as a way to sell calls/puts on a high IV company with a lot of price movement and potential upside/downside.

Advanced Orders

• Guide to several order types: https://us.etrade.com/knowledge/events/webinars/order-types-from-basic-to-advanced-07162019
• One Triggers Other (OTO):
  • Good brokers will allow you to set these up, some will require a desktop to do it. This lets you link one action to another. In programming think of it like an if-then. You’ll tie a buy/sell to another buy/sell
  • Setting trailing stops on options is very chaotic since their price movement can be drastic due to volatility. I prefer to set my trailing stop to a stock.
  • What I like to do is set a trailing stop on a stock (or just link it to a stock price drop) and have it sell 1 share I own. Then it immediately executes a market order to sell my call. I’ve had good luck doing this with incredibly volatile plays were stop losses aren’t effective. I’ll often have an order saved and ready saved for when a strong run up starts. When my price alerts start blowing up my phone, I’ll immediately hit execute to turn it on.

​
Disclaimer:
I’m not a financial adviser, I'm actually an engineer. I’m not telling you to invest in a specific stock/option or even use a specific strategy. I’ve outlined and more extensively elaborated on what I personally like. You should test several strategies and find what works best for you.
I'm just a guy who trades (mainly options) part-time for financial gain and fun. I don't claim to be some investing savant.

I’m going to try to keep this brief.
Here’s some background info:
My husband is going to be unemployed again starting next month. We can survive on my income alone, but it’ll be an adjustment. Anyway, I knew Christmas was going to be hard this year. We both have big families, and we have multiple children. I had created a budget and was determined to stick to it. Which I did! But even if we stuck to the budget, things would be a little tight.
So I’m venting to my husband about how stressed I was about finances, and he offered to pick up some odd jobs for extra cash. I’m like, that would be awesome because I was concerned we’d need to dig into our emergency savings just to be able to make rent for January, and have groceries.
So over the course of three days, he brings in about $200 from doing odd jobs. He decides he’s going to use this money to buy himself a nice gift (the total actually came out to way more than $200, but he found a way to do monthly payments of $200 so he thinks that means it’s all good). I told him I was rly disappointed he did that, and we’ve been arguing about it ever since. He says I have no right to tell him how to spend his money that he earned.
I feel like that statement was hurtful, because I’ve been our main support for our family for years. Not once have I ever said, “you know what, I deserve something nice” and decided to buy that instead of paying our rent or buying food for the house. He said it’s offensive that I feel like I can just tell him how to spend “his money” since he never tells me how to spend money. I told him it’s because I don’t think of the money I earn as “mine” I think of it as ours, and I don’t make bad financial discussions, so there’s never been a need for him to tell me how to spend it right.
What makes it worse, is just last year he purchased an automobile without consulting me. We had no practical use for it. It was just to look cool. He also didn’t qualify initially, so he submitted my drivers license, social security number, and pay stubs. And basically bought this automobile under my name. He totaled it in less than six months, totally forgot he still owed them money, and my credit tanked because I was the only one on the title. He has a clear pattern of making poor and impulsive financial decisions.
I get that this was work he did beyond his normal 40 hours of work. So maybe that’s where I’m on the fence. But when he’s been unemployed before, I’ve had to take on additional work above my usual 40 hours to make ends meet, which went to the household.
We’re talking to each other now, but still icy. He thinks I’ve disrespected him.
AITA?
Tldr: my husband picked up some extra work while we were struggling financially. He decided to spend it on himself instead of contributing it to the household.
Edit: wow didn’t expect this to get this many responses. Thanks all for weighing in.
Wanted to clarify a few things: it was an online car purchase. All their interactions were over the phone/email I think? I know the dealership he purchased from was like a six hour drive away. We were in the process of trying to qualify for an apartment (lol surprise but we didnt qualify anywhere at the time) so I had financial statements and pay stubs organized and easy to access.
People keep asking me why I haven’t left him yet. It’s because he does have other redeeming qualities. At this point, I rly think it’s more of a mental illness thing than him trying to be malicious. We almost went to therapy after the car thing because I was ready to leave him at that point but got turned off by how expensive it was. He has since shown remorse for it and agrees that it was not cool to do.
Also I hate when people are clearly nta but post in here. I have a mental illness and get rly triggered by financial stress. When I told my mom about this situation, she said that it was just my illness skewing my perspective and that it prbly hurts his feelings that I’m moving up so quickly at work. I do get feedback from others that I can be insensitive, and wanted to see if maybe that’s what was happening here.

As I write this, I'm having a hard time keeping my shit together. I've always known I got paid less, but I had no idea just how much less and I'm currently torn between crying and screaming at the moment, so I apologize in advance for any grammatical issues/being all over the place with this. I just need to vent.
Background: I work in a male dominated industry. It's for a non-profit organization, so I knew when taking this job, I would be paid a "bit" less than I would in the government or private equivalent in my field, but it's feel-good work where I know I'm making a difference so I decided it would be worth it.
I am the sole earner in my household while my partner is in school, so money is tight. To add to that I have an injury in my back that has been costing me hundreds of dollars to try to fix- because my job does not offer any benefits. I can't work effectively because of the pain I'm in- but to take time off to heal comes directly out of my vacation or banked time- and I only am entitled to ½ paid sick day per month. The stress of all of this has been taking over my life. I cannot sleep, my eating is screwed, and it's affecting my interpersonal relationships. Honestly, I thought that this was part of the price I decided to pay for my decision to work at this organization.
The situation
Today, when working with a coworker (and someone i consider a friend now) I finally decided to ask him what he earns at this organization. Turns out I make nearly half of what he makes yearly.
For. The. Same. Job.
To be exact, he makes 1.6x the amount I do, which is huge cosidering the situation. He was shocked, I was shocked, and I have spent the day trying to figure out where to go from here. I went home early (partially because of my back pain and partially to figure some shit out and scream into the abyss).
I do not want to say that I work harder than my coworkers, but on top of regular duties that we share- I am always the one who takes on extra. I manage the organization's social media, website, mailing lists, public outreach/education and handle technical support and training to both staff and clients because I am good at it. I am constantly looking and applying for grants to help the organization, and I regularly take work home with me, I always answer texts calls and emails from clients on my off time. I also feel like I'm expected to be the one to work weekends if someone needs to, or at least I'm the only one they ask.
This is probably my fault. I always offer to, but I'm a do-er and I always want to please and show I'm doing a "good job" or that I'm worthy of being here. They always tell me how good I'm doing so I guess I thought if I kept doing "good" someday that would translate to better pay?
My coworker and I have almost the exact education (if any I have a bit more in terms of continuing ed and extra courses to beef up my resume), it's true he's older and has more years in the industry, but not much more, and not nearly enough to justify making that much more than me for the same position. There were red flags, I should have known. My partner (who has less education AND experience than me) was hired on as a contractor and made significantly more than my hourly wage for one small project, but I just brushed it off thinking that "obviously contractor wages are higher than salary staff".
I'm gutted. I trusted this organization, I put so much faith in them and I worked my ass off for them. My manager is a woman and I trusted her. No matter how bad I thought it was I can honestly say I never imagined the wage disparity would be so big.
Am I overreacting... honestly? Am I an idiot for not noticing and saying something sooner?
Maybe I was too trusting. I ignored my gut, and the red flags. I was also scared about losing this job and not being able to supp myself or my partner. Upon learning this... My partner is angry, my coworker is angry, my friends I have told are angry. I just don't know just how angry I should be. Part of me wants to quit right now but I know they would be screwed without me and I care so much about the work we do, and for the organization as a whole. I just feel like my trusting nature and passion for this work has blinded me- and has allowed me to be taken advantage of.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if this is a matter of my age, experience, or because Im a woman in this field, but this feels so wrong and I don't know where to go from here.
TL/DR; I Found out I'm getting paid nearly half the salary of a male co-worker in the same position, with the same education as me. Don't know where to go from here and I'm looking for advice.
Edit: Thank you all for the advice on this, I don't check this app very often and it's hard to reply to everything but I genuinely appreciate hearing others experiences and advice. It means so much to hear your experiences. I'm genuinely a bit uncomfortable that this is getting so much attention because I'm usually not very active on Reddit (or online in general so I don't really know internet/reddit etiquette yet)

Alright gents, gather around for my adderall infused dissertation on why im JACKED-TO-THE-TITS on this beaut. Now I know there are many valuable DDs on CRSR over there on wallstreetbets, but I decided to give my own opinion for the fuck of it.
Lets get some of the boring stuff out of the way first: (taken from their quarterly report ending sept 30 2020 which can be found on under "SEC filing" on the investor relations page of CRSRs website)

• Net revenue was $457.1 million, an increase of 60.7% year-over-year. Gamer and creator peripherals segment net revenue was $161.6 million, an increase of 128.8% year-over-year. Gaming components and systems segment net revenue was $295.5 million, an increase of 38.3% year-over-year
• Gross profit was $127.9 million, an increase of 112.4% year-over-year, with gross margin of 28.0%, an improvement of 680 basis points year-over-year. Gamer and creator peripherals segment gross profit was $60.0 million, an increase of 200.8% year-over-year. Gaming components and systems segment gross profit was $67.9 million, an increase of 68.7% year-over-year.
• Operating income was $49.7 million, an increase of 353.6% year-over-year, Adjusted operating income was $61.4 million, an increase of 193.7% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA was $63.7 million, an increase of 184.9% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.9%
• Adjusted net income was $48.5 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, an increase of 384.0% year-over-year compared to adjusted net income of $10.0 million, or $0.13 per diluted share.
• As of September 30, 2020, we had cash and restricted cash of $120.1 million, $48.0 million capacity under our revolving credit facility and total long-term debt of $370.1 million
• Cash flow from operations was $24.7 million, compared to a use of cash in operations of $2.1 million in the same period a year ago, bringing the 2020 nine month cash flow from operations to $100.3 million.

These numbers make me fucking wet. COVID was a huge accelerator for this company but I believe there are other catalysts that contributed and will continue to contribute to their growth in the future. REMEMBER these numbers are from June - September. They dont include the 4th quarter of 2020, nor do they include the numbers from the initial lockdown where we saw a lot of people really settling in to the new life of quarantine (and upgrading or buying their first computers) YES they do have some debt, but they recently did a public offering which raised 118.6m of which 86.6m was used to pay off debt. A statement from the quarterly filing :"We plan to continue to utilize our strong cash flow to further reduce our debt"
CRSR also announced the release of new products that will be for sale in OCTOBER of 2020. We will see how well they did in this upcoming earnings on the 9th. BUT, I am an amazon seller and can help get a general idea of how well they sold in Q4 through amazon. For other retailors I did my normal ground DD and traveled to a couple best buys and microcenters in my area to see the stock.
Before I get started I feel I need to explain some things: When an item is listed on amazon, it is given a "rank" which shows where the product is relative to other products in the same category. For example a rank of "1" means that product FLIES off the shelf, were as a ranked of 5m MIGHT sell 1 a month. Its used as a general guideline for amazon sellers to determine how products are doing. You can gather this information by scrolling down on an amazon page till you see the "sales rank #" or if you participate in retail arbitrage and that whole monster you can use a paid software called keepa.
SOME OF THE NEW PRODUCTS RELEASED

1. Cooling systems: e H100i ELITE CAPELLIX, H115i ELITE CAPELLIX, and H150i ELITE CAPELLIX. These bad bois were sold out fucking everywhere. Great reviews checking multiple sites. Sales rank of 43 under cooling systems on amazon. They're moving this product FAST AND IN QUANITIES. Plus we all know how much we love our color changing shit.
2. VENGEANCE i7200 Series: Pretty beast computer, it isn't sold on amazon and I actually didn't check the stocks of this guy in retail stores. So I cant really comment on this one.
3. Corsair K100 RGB Keyboard: Low stock in retail stores, this thing is moving on amazon and seems to be doing pretty well on other online retailors.
4. KATAR PRO WIRELESS Gaming Mouse: This one was interesting. There were more on the shelves than their other mice, but I attribute this to it not being a MMO mouse (lack of side buttons for those non gamers) but never the less showed strong competition on amazon with its Logitech counterparts ( it hovered around 1k sales rank from late October to current)
5. Corsair MP400 Gen3 PCIe x4 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive: New SSD, almost all of their SSDs have done well in the past. Mainly positive reviews with an extremely high review count.
6. K60 RGB PRO Keyboard: Another keyboard, following the same trend line as the previous keyboard states (#3) sales for this keyboard however were decent (22k sales rank) until December hit, then it exploded (1k sales rank)
7. HS60 HAPTIC Headset: I can personally attest to the quality of corsair headsets and cooling equipment, this shit is fantastic. They're durable for when you throw them and give far better audio and mic quality then their Logitech counterparts.
8. CORSAIR HS75 XB WIRELESS: I bolded this one for a reason. This one wasn't very well received. Although there are a lot of youtube videos and other promoters saying how good it was, customers seemed to have encountered a lot of problems with it. (wouldn't work after a certain amount of time, weird functionality, etc.) BUT THIS IS A POSITIVE in my eyes. Things dont make sense when every product a company releases is fire, and this one sure seems that it wasn't. It does show however that a predominantly computer focused company is expanding into the console market. With talks of future consoles being able to be "upgraded", I believe they are making the move to further their growth within the console space at the perfect time. Of course there are gonna be a few road bumps.

That is quite of bit of products to release in such a short time span, but a perfect amount to release before the most profitable time of the year. They also announced their acquisition of EPCOM (5million downloads on the apple app store), Game sensei, the leading gaming coaching platform. They also announced a partnership deal with PIPELINE a leading streamer mentorship platform (I didn't even know this existed but did some digging and I like it). This leads me to my next point.
GAMING ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE EVEN AFTER THE PANDEMIC IS OVER.
Pro esports and streaming was already gaining a lot of steam pre pandemic, after the pandemic I still see a lot of growth for esports and gaming as a whole. To add, a lot of people try to emulate their favorite streamer or pro players (just like in traditional sports) people WILL BUY the gear that they are using just like people buy whatever it is that traditional sports players wear.
Streamers they sponsor
Teams they sponsor
I like these, a lot. They're biggest team the ROX tigers competes in multiple esports and has a huge fan following (20m). They also sponsor some pretty famous streamers (summit1g - the guy who basically started streaming, Voyboy - a ex pro league streamer that is still very involved with the community and Bajheera - big World of Warcraft player). What I LOVE about this that its not so focused on just NA alone. Example : ROX is a Korean team, showing that they are not only trying to grow their brand within the Americas, but worldwide as well.
THEY'RE GOING TO SMOKE THEIR EARNINGS
Corsair has a 41.9% share of the PC component market with an addressable market of 36B, they report a peripheriral market share of 18.9%. This is the smoke. This company has a LOT of room to grow and new areas to expand into. As shown above they keep producing new products within their main sector that are doing very well, while also expanding into other markets (consoles) Corsairs market cap sits at a steady 4B, while its primary competitor (LOGI) sits at a nice 19B market cap. Corsair can easily hit a 10B marketcap at its current growth. I firmly believe this company is far undervalued, but we will see just how undervalued after their earnings on the 8th.
If we take a look at estimates they are low (which does make me believe there might be a after earnings sell off because the estimates are so weak - everyone could be predicting a earnings beat). Last quarter they reported a EPS of 0.54 when 0.32 was estimated, yet for this quarter -including q4 of last year- the estimate sits at 0.46. Rev estimates sit at 555.27m on the high side for this quarter, they did 457m last quarter. Do they really expect me to believe that they are only gonna make an extra 100m compared to their last quarter which didn't have the Christmas in it?
With all the new product launches and lingering sales from previous products, I think they're gonna murder every estimate.
Now this is just my extremely bullish position and that im very fond of this company, love and use their products. I think they:

1. Clear 600m Rev for the quarter
2. Substantially decrease debt
3. Provide great guidance

Last thoughts before I get to how im playing this. There's some other DDs (I'll have to find them and add them to this post) that touches on how good their streaming gear and software is that also shares the same bullish standpoint that I do (I didn't include this in the DD because I personally haven't looked into as the others DDs are sufficient for my confirmation bias).
Anyways, currently im running a covered strangle. Im more of a thetagang player so you'll see a lot of that aspect if I ever post again.
Positions: Sold 5 x 35p 2/19 Sold 5 x 50c 3/19 500 commons at 43$.
BuT WhY ThE PuTs If Ur So BuLlIsH
Obviously for the freemium. I LOVE this stock at 35-40 and would buy as much as I could afford. I really like this stock at 40-45, and I kinda like it above 50. But to me this isn't a earnings play, I see substantial growth for this company over the current year. I plan to easily 2-3x my money over the next 2-3 years.
Sadly, this is my first DD, so rip away.
Edit: this isn’t financial advice, just my opinion on why I like it. Also if your going to buy calls make sure you have a strong understanding of IV

I stared at the patch of damp in the corner of my rented office. It was easier to focus on than the grieving mother in the seat just opposite.
“You were supposed to bring her home.”
I blinked back a tear and inhaled deeply. I knew what I was about to say might seem cruel, heartless in fact, but it was quite the opposite.
“Mrs Fortmason, I never promise to bring a missing person home, in fact it’s very rare that that’s a possibility at all. I promise to find out what happened to them. Your daughter was killed.”
She stared back at me, eyes filled with anger and sadness. No one wants to be told their loved one is dead.
I’m not made of stone; I knew it wasn’t a satisfying answer. Nonetheless it was the truth, accepting it was going to save her from a lifetime of extra pain, although I’m sure the truth would provide that anyway.
“I want details. How am I supposed to just take your word for it?” There was an arrogance in her tone I didn’t like.
I cringed, remembering the murky waters that Chloe Fortmason had plunged into and the creatures that were there to greet her. How she risked everything for a midnight swim.
I wanted to spare her mother the nightmares she would suffer after learning about the fate her child had met.
“You came to me because I investigate cases like your daughter’s... cases that involve elements that aren’t human. I’m telling you, Chloe is dead. You don’t need to know any more than that.”
“I paid a lot of money Amelia. I want details or I’ll hire someone else.” She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sniffled defiantly, as if it were some kind of threat.
I rolled my eyes. It was tiresome. I understood how devastating it was to lose a loved one, trust me, I really did. But Mrs Fortmason’s entitled attitude was beginning to piss me off.
“There is no one else, you know that. You don’t need to hire someone else because the job is done.” I opened my desk drawer and pulled out the charm bracelet that Chloe was wearing when she disappeared.
It was rusted a little from years in the ocean but it was unmistakably hers. It was a piece of proof that I’d hoped I could hand over without explanation as to where it came from.
I watched Mrs Fortmason’s expression change as she realised what it was and exactly what it meant.
“Where did you get that? Please Amelia. I know some people wouldn’t want to know... but I do. I have to know.”
She took the bracelet and sobbed. I pushed the box of tissues between us a little closer to her and sighed. I felt sorry for her but I got the distinct feeling that nothing I said was going to satisfy.
It never did in my line of work.
“Chloe was killed by sirens. She never left the beach that night. Your daughter was drunk and she jumped into the water after all her friends had gone to sleep. Fully clothed in the pitch dark.
“I don’t know why she did that. But I know I got incredibly wet getting that back for you and my life was in real danger. Sirens are nasty creatures, as your daughter came to realise when she swam into their territory.” I cleared my throat, holding back the urge to elaborate further.
Be nice, Amelia, be nice.
“How do you know she didn’t drop it in there? She could still be out there somewhere...” she responded, disregarding everything I was telling her.
I started to tune her out, feeling the annoyance building inside me. I tried desperately to search for a pleasant way to frame her daughters death but it didn’t exist and I was feeling particularly irritated.
Her words of doubt buzzed like a fly that just wouldn’t leave.
“They gave me the bracelet back still attached to your daughter’s bony, rotted hand and then used it to pull me in. It was remarkably well preserved for how long she’d been in the water.
“They’d repurposed her skull into an accessory, similar to a handbag, being used to hold all the shiny things they’d collected from their victims.
“Apparently Chloe wasn’t the only human stupid enough to end up in their home. It was decorated with bones, way more more than make up just one small girl.
“That’s a lot for someone to see while holding their breath isn’t it? If I hadn’t stabbed the siren dragging me I’d have died down there. Is that enough detail?
“You paid me a lot of money. I did my job. I told you when you hired me that justice is not my department. You wanted answers and I got them. Accept it and parent your other children.” I hissed.
“That’s not...”
“I kept Chloe’s hand. Do you want it?”
That last part was a bluff and for a moment I wondered if I’d taken things too far, but it was effective.
Speechless, the mother shook her head and stumbled to her feet, backing towards the door.
I know I sounded cold. I felt it as Mrs Fortmason got up and left my office in hysterics. Not half as cold as I’d felt in the water after being dragged in by a vicious sea monster, mind you.
I sounded like a stone cold bitch, but I was honestly trying to be kind.
I’d visited the grieving mothers home when I first took the case. It was littered with back-page newspaper clippings that archived the meagre local media attention the case received, and photographs of her missing daughter.
The house was a dusty, macabre monument to Chloe.
It irked me. I know it shouldn’t, I know most people fall into the same pit of despair that Mrs Fortmason did when faced with a missing child. A piece of them just gone with no explanation, their whole world.
But Chloe wasn’t her whole world. Mrs Fortmason had three other children, children she’d neglected and ignored in her decade long search.
Her husband moved out of their home with the kids six years after Chloe disappeared, citing her relentless obsession costing them their family life.
His wife was so busy searching for a ghost that she’d forgotten about the living.
I could relate but I couldn’t sympathise. It sounds hypocritical to condemn an obsession that I personally share, but I didn’t leave anyone behind in my pursuit.
It was fucking sad. All of my cases were. Every lost person is a tragedy.
I thought about the sirens; their long, slender, scaled bodies topped with the head and shoulders of beautiful women, clawed arms extending from the water, accompanied by an otherworldly song. It was a sight that most wouldn’t consider possible.
What child obsessed with fairytale books would’ve thought mermaids would be so dangerous?
What self respecting adult would believe in monsters at all?
What are monsters? Creatures that are commonly written off as stories, conjured by the minds of overly imaginative children or the mentally ill. Maybe you think I’m mentally ill too. I certainly wish I were young enough to be an overly imaginative child.
I wish I imagined Chloe’s rotten hand.
I didn’t believe in monsters either. Not at first anyway. Nor do most of my clients when we initially meet.
I stumbled on the dark underworld that harbours them while searching for my own lost loved one, the only person I’d not been able to find.
My childhood sweetheart, Valerie, who disappeared when we were sixteen years old.
After years of immersing myself in the world of unsolved disappearances, unsuccessfully looking for answers on her, I started to investigate other cases. I earned a reputation in the online amateur detective circles as someone who was determined and relentless.
I started accepting payment for my services, like some sort of unregistered PI.
I still remember the first, a young teenaged boy named Kai who had disappeared at a party, featuring underaged drinking and popular kids who he didn’t fit in with. I’d thought it was so obvious.
Bullying, a prank gone wrong, a coverup... solved.
I hadn’t expected that he’d been willingly bitten by a vampire that night. Who would? That he’d thrown his whole life away to fit in with the other little monsters.
My investigation lead me to a rural house that Kai had been spotted going in and out of a few years after he disappeared. When I arrived I was greeted by a girl no older than twenty or so, Kai and a few other kids in a room in the background.
They were huddled around a corpse, suckling on puncture points all over it, draining every sip of blood they could. It was grotesque. Vile.
It took me some time to believe it, I thought the fangs may have been filed down or capped but it was impossible. Kai hadn’t aged a day, despite disappearing more than twenty years prior.
The kids came towards me, bloodlust in their eyes. I was lost, terrified and thought I was about to die. Until I shouted the name of Kai’s brother, who had hired me.
The fanged boy shed real tears as he remembered the life he left behind. He provided me with his T-shirt and asked that I told his brother that he died. He couldn’t go back and he wanted people to stop searching.
I respected his wishes.
After that it was as if I’d turned over a rock that had been pressed against the ground, hiding all the creepy crawlies for an eternity.
I saw monsters everywhere. Every case lead me to something new. Sometimes a recognisable creature; something that lived in the nightmares of the collective humankind. Other times the monsters were different, creatures that not even your wildest nightmare could create.
I’d come a long way since Kai. By time I was faced with those sirens and that hand, I knew exactly what to expect.
It had been fifteen years since Valerie disappeared. Chloe’s case marked the three hundredth missing person that I’d successfully found and even more monster encounters that I’d survived, alone.
It should’ve been a victory but it wasn’t.
I was battered. My body was covered in bruises and scars from my battle with the sirens. I was tired, weak and had cases piling up. Things were starting to get on top of me; that was probably why I’d bitten so hard at Mrs Fortmason.
I needed someone who would help pull me out of the water next time. I couldn’t continue as a one woman band. I needed an assistant and I’d been scouting mystery forums for some time.
Defeated and exhausted, I locked up the office and headed to a nearby bar that I frequented. Everyone needs a way to unwind and that was mine; every bad day, every battle wound and every kid ripped apart by the monster that really did live in their closet lead me there.
It wasn’t the alcohol or the music that enticed me. It was the prospect of yet another pretty girl as lonely as I was. Desperate to forget their troubles for one night. Women were my poison.
And tonight’s poison was beautiful.
She was on her own and I thought I’d struck gold. Her eyes lingered on mine from across the bar as she adjusted her figure hugging black dress. She was sophisticated looking, with long, dark blonde hair that cascaded down her back and wicked green eyes that mesmerised me even from a distance.
When she approached I felt my heart racing. I tried to mentally prepare a smooth opening line but I didn’t need to.
“Olive. Would you like a drink?”
Her voice was smooth and I tried to conceal my goofy grin. I’d picked up plenty of women in plenty of bars but something about her was throwing me off kilter. It was as if the rest of the room behind her had disappeared from focus.
I pushed my pint glass to the side, pretending it belonged the the man next to me and racking my brains for a classier drink that I’d be able to stomach.
“Am..Amelia.” I answered, unable to take my eyes away from her. “Double vodka and coke please.”
Olive nodded towards the blurred out bar and smiled sweetly as the landlady asked for her order. I felt slightly dizzy, drunk even, but I’d barely sipped the drink I started with.
“We’ll take two beers.” She told the barkeep, in that smooth voice.
I started to protest but she held a slender finger to her lips. Her nails were manicured perfectly into long, black, pointed claws. I realised that I was struggling to breathe, like she’d knocked all the air from me.
Something was seriously wrong.
“There’s no need Amelia. No point hiding who you are with me, I already know exactly who you are.” Her tone was seductive but dangerous, not dissimilar to the sirens song.
“What do you want?” I stuttered, trying to turn my head but I couldn’t. It was like she had me cable tied with her eyes alone.
“This is more about what you want, Amelia. You want me... that’s for sure. But I’m sure you’d drop me in a pit of lava if it meant you could have Valerie.” She chuckled, plump lips framing her perfect smile.
I went from dizzy to sick. I could feel the excitement spreading across every inch of my face, I couldn’t conceal it. Fifteen years without a single lead and now this. It confirmed the suspicion I’d harboured for years.
Valerie was taken.
“Where is she?” I spat, still unable to prize my neck from its position.
“That’s the issue, Amelia. You need to stop looking. You’re getting noticed by allllll the wrong people and trust me, you don’t want to go down this road any further.”
The excitement dropped. Unable to move I started to panic on the spot. The people that worked in industries adjacent to mine weren’t renowned for their friendliness.
I was frightened, genuinely frightened.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Olive. And I’m trying to help you. You can take it or leave it but if you continue down this path you will regret it. Stop looking for Valerie. She’s gone.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat. Olive was stunning, a beautiful monster. I wondered what she was, who she was. I tried to speak but I couldn’t, my mouth wouldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. I realised I had no power at all.
“She was right though, you are really very pretty.”
Olive leaned in, her perfumed, spiced scent filling my nostrils and the very ends of her hair resting in my lap. She placed a black clawed hand on my cheek and blinked her piercing green eyes. Her lips touched mine and I felt my heart stop for a moment.
It was more than just an attraction. Olive was a real enchantress.
Leaving me static in my chair she pulled away and got up slowly, landing gracefully on her black heeled shoes. I stayed there, still, until she stepped out of the bar door and the hold was broken. I shook my head and took a few laboured breaths.
“Wow, I’m surprised you let that one get away.” The landlady joked, now back in focus, as she noted my dumbstruck expression.
I laughed it off and left the bar, searching for Olive along the street but she was long gone.
At home, I tried to piece together what she’d said. ”She was right though...” did that mean Valerie? Did that mean that she was alive... that she sent Olive. I replayed the warning in my mind, knowing it only served to stoke my curiosity.
I also thought about how much the lack of control scared me.
Just like it had in the murky waters, retrieving Chloe Fortmasons bracelet. Just like it had in Kai’s vampire commune, trying to avoid being eaten. I couldn’t keep doing this alone.
I needed someone.
Sweating, I dialled the number of a boy I’d been corresponding with online. An online sleuth meticulous in his research. I’d spoken to him about how I’d considered an assistant before and he seemed keen.
I’d put off hiring, struggling to work out a way of breaking the human perception that monsters aren’t real in an interview. It was still a risk, he still might laugh his way out of the office, but I couldn’t waste anymore time.
If there was even a slim chance Valerie was alive then suddenly my survival mattered more than it ever had before.
“Hello.”
“Daniel, it’s Amelia. The job is yours if you want it.”
TCC
case 2

I am 33 years old make $101,975, live in Baltimore, MD and work as a Systems Engineer. My husband is an Electronics Engineer, he earns $94,200 a year. Combined salary - $196,175
Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: ~85K combined for me. My employer contributes 10%, I contribute 8%. I also put 50$ in a Roth IRA every paycheck. Husband (P) has ~75K total. His employer ended their 8% contribution thanks to COVID Edit - He just received an email this week that it will be resuming in March, yaaaay! He also contributes $100 a month to an IRA. So ~160K Total.
Equity: We have ~45K in home equity. We bought our house about 4 years ago, and thanks to grants we were able to afford the down payment of the house (we got about $17K in grants)
Savings account balance: We have $40K saved. We are saving up for our next house, so we are trying to build our cash savings.
Checking account balance: I try to keep at least $500 in my account just in case
Credit card debt: None:. I use a CC for most of my purchases but pay off the balance every month. P does the same.
Student loan debt: I graduated with about 33K in student debt. I paid this off somewhat aggressively, then was able to pay off the final lump sum with money I received when my grandmother passed away. P also graduated with around 30K in loans, and paid it off before we were dating.
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: Both my husband and I both only very recently started making as much as we do now. My first salary out of college was 30K as a software tester, and P's salary was $29K. We changed jobs and even moved across the country twice growing our career. When we moved to Baltimore a little over 5 years ago, I was making 49K and P was an hourly employee with no benefits, but earned around 52K a year. I was able to switch from a software tester to a systems engineer a couple of years ago, and that is when my salary began to really increase. I received a 10% raise this year and a promotion, which bumped me over the 100K mark. P's salary increased a bit when he became a full time employee with benefits. His job here in Baltimore was a really challenging transition for him, but he really stepped up and his hard work definitely payed off.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: I get paid biweekly, each paycheck is 2257.20, my monthly is usually 4514,40, except for the two months where I get an extra paycheck. P's monthly take home is 5400. Our combined monthly take home is usually 9,914
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: $2240 P pays this.
Daycare: $2200 I pay this!
Donations: Monthly $10 to local NPR. We donate randomly to other organizations throughout the year.
Electric: Usually ~200 in winter, closer to 100 in summer. I pay this.
Wifi/Cable: $120 P pays this.
Cellphone: $128 P Pays this.
Subscriptions Netflix - 12 Hulu - 12 Baltimore Sun - 14 Neighborhood association - 23 (P and I split these)
Pet expenses: We just had to put down one of our cats, who did have considerable expenses at the end of her life, including medication that cost $50 a month, and special medicated food. We still have two cats, but they are all healthy and have no extra expenses for now.
Car insurance: $250
workout classes: I take aerial silks and trapeze, the cost works out to be ~120 a month. It's an expensive hobby but it gives me so much joy.
Section 4: Money Diary
Day 1 - Tuesday
5:30 am - I have a 16 month old (T) who wakes me up at 5:30am. We got a bit of snow on Sunday, and expect his daycare to have a late start today, but T has a runny nose so I have a sneaking suspicion he will be home with us all day today. I give him milk and play with him until it's time to wake up my husband (P). We take turns waking up with T because we both hate mornings.
7 am - P is up, and we give T some sort of food
8:30 am - we agree T cannot go to daycare, so we decide to split the day watching T so we can both work some. I work in the morning, so I bring my laptop downstairs so I can check my email while we get the real breakfast ready. P makes pancakes for himself and T, and he also makes tea for me and coffee for himself. I have a piece of toast with my tea.
9 am - I go upstairs to our spare bedroom which we have converted to be an office thanks to COVID. I try my best to focus on work in the morning. I work on some reports and get some files organized and ready for analysis. At some point in the middle of this I get dressed, wash my face and brush my teeth. Days with T home can get chaotic and my self care often gets dropped.
12:30 pm - P and T ran out and picked up lunch while I was working - we all feast on tacos (T eats an entire chicken taco). $28.14 We normally cook lunch but thanks to the snow and having T home we are mostly out of food.
1 pm - P leaves for work (he cannot do most of his work remotely so he has to go in). T goes down for a nap, and I try to make the house less chaotic, also get a little more work down. T wakes up around 3 and we play for the rest of the afternoon.
5 pm - P is home, we make flatbread pizza with red peppers for T. T has gotten super picky and pizza is one of the few ways he eats any veggies these days, so it's a common offering. P and I have instant ramen for ourselves, with lots of veggies added in from the fridge (we really need groceries).
8 pm - T is asleep, P and I clean up a little, then I video chat some friends of mine for an hour. I remember to order bread, which is delivered on Fridays to the liquor store a couple of blocks from my house. Suddenly it's 10pm and bedtime. $9
Daily Total: 31.14
Day 2 - Wednesday
7:10 am - I am woken up by T running into the bedroom. It was my turn to sleep in a little, never thought how much I would appreciate an after 7am wakeup. P and I discuss T's runny nose. T has no fever or other symptoms, but we play it safe and decide to keep him home one more day. Ugh. T gets as breakfast bar for his first breakfast today.
8:30 am - I make T eggs for 2nd breakfast, get ready for another half day of work (I am working in the morning again).
10 am - I am trying to pay attention to meetings but it is hard. T is clearly fussy and tired of being stuck in the house. He has been cold and miserable when he is brought outside though. Everyone is frustrated and grumpy.
12 pm - I give up on work early, heat up Trader Joe's chicken tikka for lunch. P also heats up a frozen Trader Joe's meal. We heat up some leftover flatbread pizza for T, but he refuses it. He eats yogurt and all of the chicken from my meal. Thanks kid. I start putting together an order from the grocery store (we only do curbside pickup because of COVID). It's going to be a larger order because it's been longer than usual since we have gotten groceries.
5 pm - P gets home with takeout. P gets a veggie burger, I get meatballs, we get spaghetti for T. We offer T some of our meals, he refuses everything except the spaghetti. $47.53
7:45 pm - T is in bed, I log back into work. A coworker send me some documentation to review, I do that and also start going through files and gathering data. While I work P makes pumpkin bread!!
9:15 pm - I log off for the night. I play Just Dance on the switch and dance around alone in my living room for a half hour to get some sort of exercise in.
Daily Total: 47.53
Day 3 - Thursday
6:10 am - Woken up by T. It's after 6 - yay! I watch T closely, we are hoping to take him to daycare today. His runny nose is still around but seems better.
7 am - T gets some of P's pumpkin bread for breakfast. P is up and we decide to take T to daycare today. We run around throwing everting T needs in a bag, de-ice our 2nd car as P has a dentist appointment at 8 and we haven't used that car since the snow storm.
7:45 am- the whole family somehow makes it out the door. T gets very excited to see he is going back to daycare. He was definitely tired of staying home too. I drop off T and and head back home for an actual full day of work
8:15 am - check email from my kitchen while I make tea. P stops back home after the dentist, makes coffee to bring to work and feeds the cats.
11:45 am - I make the last hello fresh meal I have that has been sitting in the back of the fridge getting sad. It's grilling cheese with veggies and couscous. P shows up around 12:15 and we eat together (he eats the other portion). I started getting hello fresh irregularly in November, to help with my sanity thanks to COVID. [Note - P works just a few minutes from our house, so he has been coming home for lunch every day during COVID times]
1 pm - P heads back to work, I go back upstairs to my "office". The rest of my work day is filled with meetings, screensharing covid life, and writing some code.
4:45 pm - I wrap up work and head out to pick up T. His face lights up when he sees me.
5:15 pm - P makes bean and cheese quesadillas for T and himself. I have half of a Trader Joe's frozen beef and broccoli. T gives up on the quesadillas after a few bites, but accepts some applesauce.
7:45 - T is in bed. P runs out to pick up some beer and tonic for me. I prepare a grilled cheese with some pesto and spinach snuck in for T's lunch tomorrow while P is out. $16.53
8 pm - P is back, I make a gin and tonic and hop on a virtual game night with some of my coworkers. P watches hockey and has some beer.
10pm - go upstairs for bed. Brush teeth, wash face, moisturize, bedtime!
Daily Total: 16.53
Day 4 - Friday
7:10 am - Woken up by T who is trying to climb in the bed to wake me up. P takes him down to have breakfast (pumpkin bread and some oatmeal), while I wake up and brush my teeth. I help get T out the door, then I take a much needed long shower. My showers are either 2 minutes or 20 minutes these days, there is no in between.
8:10 am - P asks if I want anything from the bakery by the daycare. I decline, as we need to finish up the bread we have. He gets himself a raspberry danish and a coffee $7.16
8:20 am- P makes me toast and tea as I empty the dishwasher. Then we eat breakfast together and answer our morning work emails. P is out the door by 9 to go into work, I head upstairs.
12:10 pm - P stopped by the grocery to pick up our order $89.30, and also picked up Chipotle for lunch $13.77. He gets a burrito, I get a bowl. We both add queso to our meals for the first time, because fuck it. The queso makes the meal so decadent and I only want to sleep now. After we finish eating we put away the groceries - they were out of a lot of things we requested. Blah. I can't make much of what I was planning to cook, and continue to feel frustrated with COVID.
1 pm - P heads back to work, I go back upstairs despite the meows from my cat who wants me to stay downstairs on the couch. I wish cat. I eat 2 squares of chocolate to get me through the Friday afternoon (yes, I am the person who eats dark chocolate one square at a time. It can take me a month to get through a bar sometimes. I am a monster)
4 pm- I stop working a little early and jump on a zoom call with a couple of friends. We catch up for a little as I start making veggie fritters in hopes to get T to eat any vegetable.
5 pm - P arrives home with T. I offer T the fritters I made and he eats a few bites. I'll take it. I also quickly cook some pasta and steam some broccoli. I mix in some pesto and call that dinner for P and I. P gets T to eat some applesauce as well.
6:15 pm - I go to my aerial silks class. I have been doing aerial since I moved to Baltimore and I love it! Class is an hour long, after it I stop by the liquor store where the bread I ordered earlier in the week is dropped off. I also pick up a bottle of wine while I am there. $16.34
8 pm - I get home and T is asleep. P and I have a couple of drinks (beer for him, wine for me) and we watch RuPaul's Drag Race. We have watched this show for years and had kinda stopped watching it, but picked it back up in the pandemic times and it's exactly the energy we need.
10:30pm - Head up to bed a little later than we should. Lazy face washing and teeth brushing, then sweet sweet bedtime.
Daily Total: 112.80
Day 5 - Saturday
6:45 am - I wake on my own and T is still asleep!!!! I actually get to wake up for a few minutes on my own before I see that T is up. This is the latest he has ever slept and I am overjoyed. I give T milk and we play and look at every book he owns. At 7:45 we wake up P and we both marvel at how well T slept.
8 am - P starts making breakfast for T and himself. I just have toast and tea as usual.
10 am - Another aerial class for me this morning - this time dance trapeze, my favorite! This class is so challenging but I love it. I come home bruised and worn out. It's not ideal for me to take the two classes so close together, but that is just how the schedule worked out. While I am at class, P takes T to the playground to get some energy out.
12 pm - I try to get T to eat more veggie fritters for lunch, but no luck. He "eats" an apple for awhile, and has his trusty yogurt. I honestly don't remember what P and I eat for lunch.
1pm - T naps. P and I chill on the couch and do as little as possible. I order a pair of leggings off of amazon, as I have only worn leggings this winter and it shows. $25.44
3:30 pm - T is up, and we all get dressed to go to the bookstore near our house, which allows you to shop by appointment only - we have one for 4pm. I am just so excited to go somewhere. We browse for a bit and get 3 books for T, P gets a random book, and I randomly buy an expensive but beautiful cookbook - it's all about lunch bowls, and everything in it looks delicious. We spend a lot, but we never go shopping these days and are glad to support a local business. $70.98
5 pm - Dinner time! I heat up some chicken, which T eats most of. I am able to add a few pieces to some instant ramen I made. I also add spinach, green onion, and corn to my ramen. P makes a burrito for himself (P is vegetarian, which is why we eat completely different meals sometimes. He had no interest in any chicken). After dinner we video chat the grandparents, then it's T's bedtime routine.
7:45 pm - T is asleep. I decide it is time for me to make a chocolate torte. I haven't had a true dessert in awhile and I am craving something, and this is what we have the ingredients for. While I am baking, P runs to a grocery near our house. We don't like going inside a grocery these days, but we really need some of the items that were missing in our last pickup. He comes home with way more than what was on our initial list, but we will use everything $71.71 The cake is out the oven, I make a ganache for the first time ever to top the cake and P is in love. He has a much bigger sweet tooth than me, so he is very supportive of my random baking. We end the night eating cake, having some wine, and just chatting and catching up until we head to bed at too late of an hour.
Daily Total: 161.13
Day 6 - Sunday
7 am - Woken up by P & T. I take T and we play downstairs while P gets as little extra rest. It's snowing/raining outside and it just looks awful. Around 8 P comes downstairs and we agree to order breakfast for delivery since no one wants to do breakfast or anything at all in this weather. I ordered homefries and turkey sausage (something other than toast!!) and P gets an egg and cheese sandwich, and also orders pancakes to share with T. We put something on the TV, which we rarely do with T around, but if there was a day to be lazy this is it. Our food comes quickly and we eat it up! $19.51
10 am - we put T in his high chair and let him go wild with paint. This is fav indoor activity for rainy days. Once he is sufficiently messy, P takes T upstairs to wash off, and I pick up downstairs.
12 pm - P makes mac and cheese for T, which he eats up! Both P and I eat some of the boxed mac and cheese, and never get around to eating anymore.
1 pm - T is down for his nap. I play stardew valley on my PS4, while P plays something on his Switch until T is up. We eat some of the chocolate torte.
3:30 pm - It stopped raining and the sun is out! Once T is up, we all get dressed and walk to the park near our house. T finds lots of good sticks and watches lots of good dogs.
5 pm - I make a chicken noodle soup, P makes a flatbread with pesto and red bell peppers. T eats some chicken from my soup and some of the flatbread.
8 pm - T is down, P runs by walgreens to get diaper cream for daycare, since both groceries were out of it. $15.49 We watch another episode of RuPaul and go to bed around 10pm.
Daily Total: $35
Day 7 - Monday
6:15 am - wakeup by T. Play with all the cars until we wake up P at 7. T gets the last piece of pumpkin bread for breakfast.
7:45 am - Drop of T at daycare. Head back home, P makes me tea and makes himself coffee. We both have toast. As usual, we check email and have breakfast together, then he heads into work at 9.
9 am - I start working on some very exciting reports. Yay Monday. Daycare calls and says T hasn't been eating lunch and asks for advice. They commiserate with me on how tricky he is with food and we come up with a few ideas.
12 pm - I heat up some leftover soup for lunch, P comes home and heats up a burrito. We are both busy with work so todays lunch is a quick one and we don't talk much.
1 pm - I am back to work, back to reports.
4:30 pm - I stop working and get some food ready for T. I make some spaghetti and also some bread with peanut butter on it. P arrives home with T, and T runs into the kitchen asking for food. I give him the plate and he throws everything on the ground. I try not to let his eating (or lack thereof) get to me but it's been hard yall. P can tell I am frustrated and takes T upstairs so I can chill out. I say fuck it and heat up this frozen flatbread thing from trader joe's that we have had in the freezer for awhile for P and I. T decides he will eat that. Whatever kid.
8 pm - T is asleep, P runs out and gets a taco for from the place near our house. I had told daycare how T always eats tacos for us when we get them, so we are going to see if he will eat them at daycare. P also gets a taco for himself, since the flatbread wasn't much food. $7.86
9:30 pm - I eat my feelings in chocolate torte. I also decide I need to do something productive to feel better and that we are going to finally order the next size up carseat for T instead of looking online and getting overwhelmed and never buying something. We decide on using the same brand his current carseat is (Britax) and get a midrange model $201.39. This devolves into watching dumb videos on the internet until it's time for bed.
Daily Total: $209.25
Section 5: TOTALS
Total Expenses - $640.15
Food + Drink - $326.85
Home + Health - $15.49
Clothes + Beauty - $25.44
Transport - $0
Other - $272.37
Section 6: REFLECTION
This was honestly a stressful week for me. The snow days hit a bad time with work for P and I, so we spent more on takeout because of that. We also spend more on groceries than normal, but that was because we had spent much less the previous week and were out of many staples. The carseat was as bigger purchase, but I feel like there is always a bigger purchase around the corner these days, which has been making it harder for us to save as much as we would like.

Scroll down at the bottom for the list of websites that offer data collection projects:
Data Collection jobs are one of the most fun and lucrative ways to earn money online. Modern AI algorithms need a lot of raw data for training. The more data you feed the algorithm, the better it becomes.
Hence, there are a lot of companies willing to pay you for your photos, videos, audio recordings, and whatnot.
Are data collection jobs safe? How will my data be used?
Most of the data collection jobs you encounter will not ask for any of your personal or identifiable information. On the rare occasion that they do ask for your personal info (such as an identity card/bank card for “research purposes”), you should have the common sense of skipping them.
I have only come across one task so far that felt shady. It asked for my govt. issued ID card, convincing me that it will be used for training some face recognition software. I simply skipped that task, as it felt too personal for me. It was on Clickworker, btw.
What type of content can I submit, and how much can I earn?
I have participated in a tonne of data collection projects, and have submitted everything from photos of street signs, videos of my hands performing various gestures, and audio recordings of giving various commands to voice assistants.
There are data collection projects that are incentivizing you for uploading pictures of your pet, your child, textbooks, receipts, household objects, etc.
Earnings vary from project to project, but as a general rule of the hand, you get 0.10$-0.50$ per image, 1$-5$ per video, and 0.05$ - 0.20$ per audio recordings. The price varies depending on the complexity of the task.
Every month, I earn around 20$-100$ extra by just doing some data collection projects on the side. An interesting thing to note that several of these projects repeat across the different platforms (Appen, Clickworker, Neevo, etc.) so you can actually earn multiple times from the same data set.
I have earned over 50$ by submitting photos of Textbooks, 20$ for submitting videos where I pretend to have a video call under different lighting conditions, and around 40$ recording voice commands in various regional languages.
There’s no limit on the earning, and the best part is that it takes only several minutes to complete the tasks. You are actually earning anywhere between 10-20$/hour if you calculate it that way.
The problem with data collection jobs (and how to avoid them)
One problem that turns people away from data collection jobs is when their data is rejected. This is quite a common occurence with people. Earlier I used to believe that it happens when people don’t follow the guidelines (how to take photos, rules, etc.) correctly.
But turns out that the companies themselves are notorious for doing this. I am usually paid only 70% of the promised amount for doing most data collection jobs. Don’t know how but most of them simply reject a part of my submission (for vague reasons).
Sites like Appen, Clickworker, etc. don’t do it as much as sites like Neevo. The reason behind this being that the former sites have internal teams to check your submissions, while the latter ones verify your submissions through other crowd workers. It’s still worth giving sites like Neevo a shot because they have some of the best pay rates in terms of data collection projects. Appen has the worst rates.
How to avoid getting your submission rejected:

1. Read the guidelines very carefully. I cannot emphasize it enough. There are very minute instructions for you in the guidelines that if missed, can get your submission rejected.
2. There are instructions on how to frame the image/video, the kind of lighting and background conditions required, silent/noisy environment (for audio recordings), etc. that should be thoroughly read and followed while creating your dataset.
3. No images from the Internet. I don’t know why a lot of people are hell-bent on cheating the system. And then they complain about their submission getting rejected. If they wanted images that are freely available on the Internet, they wouldn’t be paying you for it.
4. Whatsapp images are not allowed. This is because Whatsapp heavily compresses the content you share (Photos shared on WhatsApp are less than 2 Megapixels in size). Most of the data collection projects require larger and higher quality photos.

A list of website with Data Collection Projects

1. Appen Connect: Appen has a lot of data collection opportunities ranging from photos, videos and audio recordings. Most of them require you to use their mobile app for submissions.
2. Lionbridge: Lionbridge has a seperate email address ([[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])) that will mail you from time to time regarding data collection opportunities. The payments are much better than Appen.
3. Neevo: Neevo has a lot of data collection projects from time to time, and they have a very robust interface that helps you to easily upload. But they are notorious for rejecting a lot of submissions.
4. Clickworker: Clickworker has several data collection opportunities from time to time, though they are very infrequent. You are paid 30 days after the approval of your submission.
5. Oneforma: Oneforma has a lot of data collection projects for several countries. Their pay rates used to be good but have been reduced nowadays. They usually approve your submissions a lot more than other platforms.
6. Dataforce: A data collection platform by Transperfect, usually has image and video tasks only.
7. Robson: An app based platform with voice recording tasks. Payments via Paypal. Amount of work varies from country to country.
8. Labeldocs: A website that specializes in data of forms, handwritten text, etc. But beware, a lot of people complain about their high rejection rate.

Do let me know about more such websites in the comments.

SoFi is going public via merger with Chamath's IPOE spac. Here are some SoFi catalysts to look forward to!
​
Cash deposits!
SoFi is in talks to roll out cash deposits. A cash deposit solution will drive increased adoption of SoFi Money over accounts at brick-and-mortar banks. Cash deposits are a big deal because they are the main sticking point for online banking holdouts. If cash deposits take the form of partnering with a national chain, that could also mean new Member benefits.
​
Social Investing platform and Chamath as an Influencer
SoFi Invest has a "Social Investing" feature where you can view the holdings, watchlist and performance of other Members (if they opt-in). From there, you can make follow on investments/watches, discuss investments, and leave emojis.
Will Chamath join SoFi's social investing platform? Seems likely! He is the ideal anchor investor to promote the platform.
The Social Investing platform gives SoFi a means of growing SoFi Invest by bringing notable investors (and their communities) to SoFi. In a hint of things to come, CEO Noto says "... we're on our way to introduce portfolios for those that you're following socially on our platform." This might mean one-tap portfolio duplication, or a form of MembeInfluencer managed portfolios.
SoFi hiring favoring experience with social networks suggests that Social Investing will continue to evolve.
​
SoFi Member Rewards aka SoFi Points
Currently in Early Access, SoFi's Member Rewards program is expected to roll out to everyone in 2021!

The SoFi Rewards program allows eligible members to earn points through various account activities, and then redeem those points as the member sees fit across multiple SoFi products.
You can redeem your SoFi Points into cash in your SoFi Money account, into Stock Bits in your SoFi Active Invest account, as an extra payment applied to your SoFi Personal Loan or SoFi Student Loan Refinance, or as a statement credit on your SoFi Credit Card--all from your phone.

This program will increase daily engagement and cross-buy of products.
Resources: SoFi Member Rewards, Rewards FAQs. Not to be confused with existing Member Benefits.
​
Bank charter
SoFi received preliminary approval for their banking charter and is on the way to full approval. The charter will enable SoFi to lower costs and compete more aggressively. SoFi hiring is seeking to fill key banking positions.
​
Targeting $1 Billion in 2021 revenue & full year profitability
SoFi's target looks well within reach. They reported ~$200MM in revenue and a return to profitability for Q3 2020.

... pulled in about $200 million in revenue in the third quarter and also generated positive earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and other exceptions, the first time it has done so since 2017, Noto wrote in a letter to shareholders last month.

per The Information.
​
Credit Card
Currently in Early Access, the SoFi Credit Card is expected to roll out to everyone in 2021! Credit Card FAQs.
​
SoFi-as-a-Service partnerships
SoFi's consumer digital banking solution is ripe for white label expansion with major brands. The 2020 launch of Samsung Money by SoFi gives a glimpse of the massive potential.

Samsung Money by SoFi is the new way to grow your hard-earned cash, letting you save, spend, and earn -- all in one secure place. Now available on Samsung Pay.

Look for more SoFi-as-a-Service deals as consumer brands and dinosaur financial firms seek to catch up.
Not limited to banking services: In October, T. Rowe Price launched co-branded financial wellness offerings with SoFi.
​
SoFi International Expansion
SoFi's international expansion was announced in Q2 2020 with the launch of SoFi Invest in Hong Kong!

Obviously, we put a lot of thought into where we chose to go with our first international foothold, and Hong Kong made sense to us for several reasons. As one of the financial capitals of Asia and a global financial center, it has a strong base of both novice and sophisticated investors that would benefit from the innovation we could bring to the market.

Members in HK can trade over 15,000 US and Hong Kong stocks for free using the SoFi Hong Kong app. This is one of SoFi's "top of the funnel" feeder products. Look for HK offerings to expand.
SoFi has long planned for international expansion. From targeting mortgages in Australia (old), expansion to Canada (old), Asia and Europe (old). As SoFi's feeder products mature, they will be positioned for fast international deployment.
​
SoFi Stadium
SoFi Stadium will drive brand awareness and accelerate trust building. These are both key for growth in consumer finance.
Some major events are already lined up:

The state-of-the-art stadium re-imagines the fan experience and will host a variety of events year round including Super Bowl LVI in 2022, the College Football Championship Game in 2023, and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2028.

Located in LA, this massive stadium is packed with benefits for SoFi Members, including line skipping, 10% cash back on concessions and merch, free bag checking, and an exclusive SoFi Member Lounge.
SoFi was planning to IPO at the end of 2022, which we can assume was in part due to the expected Super Bowl bump. More info at SoFi Stadium.
​
Member Experiences
SoFi has hosted free in-person Member Experiences for years. These include social events at Top Golf, escape rooms, bars/dining and so on, as well as teaching events in line with SoFi's "Get Your Money Right!" ethos. There are big celebration events for Members who have paid off their student loans in full.
When the virus put a pause to in-person events, SoFi expanded their digital experiences. Over 20,000 Members registered for virtual SoFi events in 2020!
As virus re-openings expand, look for SoFi Stadium opportunities and Member Experiences to increase.
​
Galileo
SoFi is expanding their offers across Galileo's platform of 50M-and-growing accounts. Keep up with Galileo using their Resources page.
​
Possible tax solution & other additions
A couple months ago SoFi surveyed Members about a possible tax filing solution. Maybe it will launch for this tax filing season.
At the start of 2021, SoFi asked for input on which new features to prioritize. Such as portfolio analytics, more advanced spend tracking, and debt repayment budgeting.
SoFi continues to iterate and improve their offerings with a focus on the Member.
​
More information SoFi's public listing via IPOE merger
SoFi Investor Presentation
IPOE / SoFi Introductory Presentation
EDIT: A revised and enhanced catalyst DD has been posted here: https://old.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/kvz9x1/sofi_ipoe_growth_catalyst_overview_extensive_dd/

Link to FGA wiki page

If anyone missed last league's edition, we've made this into an official (well, subreddit official) wiki page called 'Frequently Given Answers', link above. Formatting's a bit better there (you can link to individual sections!) but keeping in line with what we did with the infothread we know there's plenty of people who prefer a post due to local format setups (RES/CSS/darktheme/etc), so here you go! I'll also be using a linked comment as a changelog for anyone that's curious what's changed, if anything.
NOTE: These answers are mostly collected from the questions threads and suggestions by the community so, inevitably, some will be opinions or advice. There are exceptions for everything, especially in PoE!

Things that will make your life easier

1. Best stash tabs to buy first are Currency and/or at least one Premium tab. Former for solo play, latter for the ability to sell items publicly easily. Both is even better.
   
2. There is customarily a Stash Tab Sale every third weekend. If on a launch weekend it will be delayed by a week.
   
3. Don't be afraid to look into an item filter asap. It will save you a lot of headaches.
   
4. You can buy skill gems from Nessa and similar vendors on page 2 of their shop (you may need to do a quest before that page shows up). So don’t fret about the gem choice from the quest reward!
   
5. Doing a Trial of Ascendency is league-wide. Meaning doing it once in a league means all other characters in that league don't need to do it again.
   
6. When highlighting a support gem you'll notice a popup with all of your current active skill gems. This details what skills the selected support works with.
   
7. If you're still unsure if a support is working with an active skill gem, the skill's icon on the toolbar will have small boxes denoting what supports are currently active on the skill.
   
8. The medicine chest quest gives you some specific gems (i.e. ancestral call) as well as a choice of flasks (most notably a quicksilver flask).
   
9. Completing the quest in The Library (connected to the gardens) in Act 3 will give you access to an early NPC that sells every skill gem available up to that point regardless of class. Completing the quest 'Fallen from Grace' in Act 6 will give you a vendor for every buyable skill gem.
   
10. You can move the minimap with the arrow keys
    
11. Skill gems in your alternate set of weapons will also gain exp. That's up to 6 (usually) more skill gems you can level!
    
12. If you are too far above or below the area's monster level you will have an experience penalty. Rule of thumb: try to stay within 6 levels of the area.
    
13. Any maps dropped in the campaign will be tier 1. Anything higher can only be received via Zana, inside maps, or inside map-like areas like the Temple of Atzoatl or the Eternal Labyrinth (specifically the chests).
    

End-game

1. Use common currency on maps when you have some extra. (e.g. An orb of scouring can get a map back to white for easy 20% quality!)
   
2. To use a divine vessel place it into the map device along with the appropriate map (there will be text on the atlas for it) and kill the boss. The filled divine vessel will then be inside the map device still. Don’t forget to pick it up and take it to Sin (Epilogue zone)!
   
3. Using a single sacrifice fragment instead of a map will generate a vaal side area from the map device. Using a sacrifice fragment with a map in the device will increase the map's quantity by 5% per piece, up to 20% for four unique pieces. (You can’t double up the same fragment)
   
4. Sacrifice of Midnight (top-right one) is the most rare of the four. Don’t burn those willy nilly.
   
5. A complete set of sacrifice fragments in the map device (arranged appropriately) will give you access to the Apex of Sacrifice. This same strategy is also used for Shaper, the Pale Council, Uber-Atziri, etc. (four different fragments of the same set into the map device)
   
6. Sextants are used on watchstones to apply the effect to the entire area the watchstone is slotted into! Unlike Map Mods many sextant mods are beneficial.
   
7. Watchstones can be ‘banked’ in the sidebar on the left of the atlas. They won’t do anything there but it saves you valuable inventory space.
   

Things that will help you craft

1. Beasts can be used in beastcrafting only after fully completing your first Einhar mission. A particularly useful beastcraft is adding a removal (bleed/freeze/curse/etc) affix to a magic flask.
   
2. Quality items (whetstone, scrap, bauble) will give 5% to a white item, 2% to magic and 1% to rare/unique items up to 20%. (GCP's always give 1% to gems) This applies to maps as well!
   
3. Item affixes are reliant on item level, a lower item level means less possible affixes. You cannot improve an item’s iLvl, so stop alteration spamming that iLvl 4 quicksilver flask you got from Act 1!
   
4. Dexterity (Evasion) pieces favor green sockets, Strength (Armor) pieces favor red and Intelligence (Energy Shield) pieces favor blue. Hybrid pieces follow this logic.
   
5. You can craft affixes on gear from the crafting bench in your hideout. This is very important for keeping your resistances capped.
   
6. A corrupted item (using a Vaal Orb) is not alterable. With the sole exception of their sockets. Those can be altered (re-colored/fused/etc) via the crafting bench, but any craft will cost an additional equal amount of vaal orbs.
   
7. A Divine Orb does not re-roll the numbers completely, they stay within the affix range that was already given. So a 6% Cold Res roll on some boots will re-roll between 6-11% and no higher. Be careful! (NOTE: most legacy gear will also be changed to the current non-legacy version if a Divine Orb is used)
   
8. High quality items have a sliiiiightly higher chance to 6-socket and 6-link. Every little bit helps!
   
9. Incubators in your weapon swap will not gain kills towards their completion.
   

End-game

1. If you corrupt a map and end up making it unidentified it has the same affixes as before. So make sure to actually read the affixes of a rare red map before corrupting it just in case!

Things that will help you plan

1. Just because it's unique does not mean it's good. Well-rolled rares can be and often are better options than uniques. Read the text.
   
2. 'More/Less' are not the same as 'Increased/Reduced'. It's very important to know that. More specific info here
   
3. You will earn either 22 or 24 Passive Skill points through quests in all 10 Acts, depending on Bandit choices.
   
4. PoE is a game of extremes. Support a few (usually just one) skills as much as possible instead of supporting a lot of skills a little.
   
5. Life/ES > Damage when planning a tree. Rule of Thumb: 150% or more increased max life from tree if going a life build. 200% or more increased ES from tree if going ES.
   
6. You can only have 1 spell totem up at a time barring specific effects like Searing Bond or Multiple Totems Support. Up to 3 by default for Ballista totems
   
7. Mana reservation does not decrease max mana. This is relevant to effects like base mana regen or Arcane Surge.
   
8. You can change your bandit reward later
   
9. If you kill all 3 bandits you get +2 passive skill points from Eramir (old dude sitting in Forest Encampment) as opposed to the specific effects from the bandits.
   
10. Large items (Chests, 2H weapons) cannot roll with 5 sockets until iLvl 35, and cant get 6 sockets until iLvl 50. Even with jeweler's orbs! You can 'force' 6 sockets with the crafting bench but it's usually not worth it.
    
11. You can only have 1 curse at a time on enemies barring specific effects. Note: You can still only have one mark at a time no matter what, additional curse limit simply allows you to slap a hex on top.
    
12. You can respec ascendancy nodes but they cost more refund points per node (5). If you want to change ascendancy completely you’ll need to unspec out of all ascendancy nodes and hit the ascendancy shrine in any version of the labyrinth (hint: Unspec the ascendency nodes in the treasure room, no need to do the entire lab run unascended).
    
13. Read 'Trigger' support gems carefully. Cast on Critical, for example, only works with an attack triggering a spell.
    
14. Trigger gems and effects can trigger multiple skills, but will do so (unless otherwise stated) one at a time and sequentially. More info here
    
15. Aqueducts and its later incarnation Blood Aqueducts in Act 9 contain the divination card 'Humility' which can give you a Tabula Rasa.
    
16. 'Low Life' is defined as 35% max health or lower. Chaos Inoculation is not low life since it reduces your max health to 1 and you can’t be at 0.35 hp. This does, however, make CI eligible for full life effects like Damage at Full Life support.
    
17. Lily Roth will sell every buyable gem (similar to but more than Siosa) but all at level 1 after completing her quest. Vendors elsewhere in the campaign will sell gems at a higher level.
    
18. Make sure to look for corrupted 6-link chests (either via trade or vaal side areas) when you want to ditch your 4-link or Tabula. They're much cheaper than a normal 6-link and actually have rolls on them! Just make sure to search for the specific colors you need since you can't change them easily!
    
19. You can buy Glassblower Baubles from the weapons vendor on the last page in exchange for 8x whetstones
    
20. Leech has a cap! There are ways to increase it but by default you cannot gain more than 20% max life per sec or 10% max ES per sec from leech alone. There are lot more calulations involved in that though.
    

End-game

1. Running a map unidentified will give an additional 30% quantity bonus. This does not apply to Unique Maps since their affixes are for the most part fixed.

Things that can get you killed

1. Support gems increase the mana cost of an ability, more linked supports = more mana spent
   
2. You don’t have to do the Labyrinth right away. You can come back when you’re overleveled. Many people do this.
   
3. Hexes always have Less effect on Bosses (e.g. Dominus, Piety)
   
4. You can use Scrolls of Wisdom and other currency like Orb of Chance on Strongboxes. Identify them first!
   
5. Read a skill’s green text! For example: Withering Step shares a cooldown with Blink skills. So if you trigger Wither Step with CwDT you won’t be able to use Dash for a short period!
   
6. Barring specific effects, Life/Mana Flask effects will end once you hit full life/mana respectively. This includes effects from affixes like freeze immunity. By extension, utility flasks (like a quicksilver flask) have affix effects last for their full duration. Aka put your anti-freeze on a utility flask!
   
7. Cast when Damage Taken (CwDT) requires a linked skill’s required level to be under a certain level in order to trigger it. CwDT also requires more damage taken to trigger with higher levels. Many players leave CwDT at lvl 1 for this reason. So be careful leveling your skill gems!
   
8. Make sure you have + X to maximum life rolls on some of your gear by Act 5 (Alternatively, ES focused builds should always shoot for ‘% increased ES’ anytime they can). PoE’s per level scaling is negligible at best, the vast majority of your health/ES comes from gear! Rule of Thumb: you should have ~300 Life/400 ES total per Act you've completed.
   
9. Elemental resistance has a cap of 75% barring specific effects (e.g. Purity of [X] aura). The game is tuned to expect you to be at this cap past Act 4. Chaos resistance, on the other hand, doesn't need to be anywhere near 75%, most get 0% and can function fine (although more is never bad of course).
   
10. Multiple vaal skills will divide the soul count amongst themselves and as such each skill will charge slower per additional vaal skill equipped. Note: Once a vaal skill is fully charged it will stop taking in souls.
    
11. After progressing through each end-boss fight (Act5/Act10) your resistances will go down by 30% for a total of -60% to all resistances past Act 10, gear accordingly
    
12. Incoming chills, freeze duration and stun chance on you are based on your maximum life barring specific effects. In short, the less max life you have means longer you’ll be frozen / higher chance of being stunned.
    
13. Critical hits guarantee elemental ailments (shock, ignite, freeze) assuming you did enough of that element’s damage to reach the monster’s Ailment Threshold, as shown with Shock here.
    
14. Barring specific effects, Chaos Damage ignores Energy Shield and goes straight for your health.
    
15. Mind over Matter (MoM) and similar effects will only apply to damage hitting your health, so your Energy Shield will still take full damage (but your mana won't drain either).
    
16. Dying after Act 5 will make you lose experience (5% total to next level), but will not decrease your level or put you into a negative value. Higher penalty (10% total to next level) after Act 10
    
17. By Act 6 you should have an "of Staunching" (anti-bleed) and "of Heat" (anti-freeze) flask. They help avoid many of the more common 'one-shot' moments you may run into.
    
18. Flasks don't level up with you! Check in on your flask level every now and then while leveling, or else you might be short a few hundred life.
    

End-game

1. All mods on maps will make them more challenging, certain mods will be betteworse for certain builds.
   
2. Reflect damage is one of the deadliest map mods in the game, and has claimed the lives of many new and experienced players alike.
   

Hideouts

1. Hideouts will persist through leagues so feel free to put a decent amount of time getting your abode perfect. It’s not going anywhere.
   
2. The basic hideout locations are listed in the hideout selection when talking to Helena.
   
3. There are a lot of hideouts not listed in Helena’s default selection, most of these rare tilesets are in maps and will not appear everytime. Usually they require a large number of runs to find. (I still don’t have a Tower Hideout…..)
   
4. Hideout instances last much longer (30 min) than normal instances, so don’t worry about a normal disconnect, your map portals will still be there.
   

Lord's Labyrinth (Lab)

1. If you die you get tossed back to the beginning (Aspirant’s Plaza), unless you’re in a hardcore league, then you are still very very dead.
   
2. Look at the bronze tablet by every door, it will show you a map and reveal where the nearby door goes.
   
3. Izaro has different mechanics in his first two arenas. (Specific Info). The third arena will be a combo of the previous two (with traps included in uber lab).
   
4. Look for hidden rooms on the minimap! They can hold Darkshrines which can give permanent (for the lab run) buffs, a guaranteed unique, less trap damage and more. Hit tab and read the text at the top-right to see exactly what it did.
   
5. Uber (Eternal) Lab has trials that will only spawn in maps, randomly. If you need to get those last few go to Global chat 820 and watch for the trial you need and/or use ‘The Dream Trial’ Prophecy.
   
6. Map layouts and Izaro's mechanics will change day to day.
   
7. Decorative Chests (marked on the map nodes with a hollow circle) give an item to make the next Izaro fight easier (usually instantly destroying/removing one of the mechanics.)
   

Text Commands/Buttons

1. Typing “/passives” will let you see any passive points you have from quests. And after you finish the campaign it will tell you any you are missing.
   
2. [ctrl]+[enter] will let your type out to the person who most recently whispered you.
   
3. [ctrl]+[right-click] or [ctrl]+[left-click] on the doodoorway/gate/ into an area to give a list of all instances for that area as well, more importantly, giving the option to generate a new instance. Newer players: This means you can enter a new ‘copy’ of the area with everything reset. |PS4 Players: Highlight an instance and hit Triangle.| |Xbox Players: Highlight and hit Y|
   
4. Right click the level up icon on a skill gem level up notification to hide it without leveling the gem. If you would like to level it up afterwards the gem icon at the bottom of your inventory page. |Xbox Players: after socketing, hit Y to lock gem level|
   
5. To find the tiers and ranges of rolls you must first turn on advanced mod descriptions on options->interface->”Advanced Mod Descriptions”. You then must hit your advanced mod button while hovering over an item to get the pertinent info (default is left alt) |Xbox Players: Hit LS after activating the setting|
   
6. [shift]+[click] on a stack of items to have the option to take only a certain number of that item onto your cursor. This applies both to in your inventory and when removing from your stash. |Xbox players: Highlight item and hit B, hit Y to pick up that amount, X to send that amount to stash if it is open|
   
7. Open chat and hit [ctrl]+[alt]+[left-click] on an item in your inventory to link said item to chat. After hitting enter the person you’re talking to will be able to hover the link and see your exact item.
   
8. [ctrl]+[left-click] on a master to open their relevant window. (i.e. Do that on Niko to open the delve menu)
   
9. Click on a skill in your toolbar and look at the top of the popout. The button labeled “always attack without moving” is a great thing to use on movement skills and some specific primary skills. What it does is if you target a skill out of it’s range it will simply use the skill in the direction of the click as opposed to moving in range and then using it.
   
10. [shift]+[ctrl]+[left-click] a currency in a vendor to buy a whole stack at a time. Save your fingers some torment.
    
11. Holding shift while using a currency will keep the item on your cursor and allow you to spam the entire stack. If you're accessing your stash at the time you can spam your entire stock of said currency. |Xbox players: With currency picked up, hover an item and hit X|
    
12. Holding ctrl and using the mousewheel will quickly cycle through stash tabs
    
13. Teleport between areas with commands like "/hideout" or "/menagerie" or "/delve"
    
14. Entering "/reset_xp" will reset your xp/hour metric (mouseover your exp bar at the bottom). Very useful for comparing experience rates between maps/mechanics.
    
15. Hitting (by default) ‘v’ will open the relevant menu in each area. i.e. beastcrafting menu in menagerie, azurite upgrades menu in Delve, etc etc.
    
16. "/remaining" will give you a text prompt of how many monsters are left in the instance.
    
17. Entering "/dnd [message], /afk [message], /autoreply [message]" will give a notification of [message] to anyone whispering you until you shut it off. /dnd is just hitting /dnd again, /afk turns off if you move. Note that only /dnd will actually block messages.
    
18. ctrl+click on the passive tree will skip the confirmation step and save you a click.
    
19. F1 will give a stat breakdown of your computer, including connection metrics. If you're lagging or frameskipping this is how you check. Hit F1 again to cycle through different layouts.
    
20. Using '~' before a trade search in poe/trade will give an approximate search. In other words it will search for similar text not exact, like "~multi" will return affixes of "Global Critical Strike Multiplier, Critical Strike Multiplier, Melee Critical Strike Multiplier" etc etc
    

Vendor Recipes

^{Arranged by the Act they’re most often used, they can be used at any time at any vendor you can sell to}

Act 1

• 3 health/mana flasks (same type+tier)=1 flask higher tier
• 1 Portal Scroll = 1 Wisdom Scroll
• Iron ring + G/B skill gem = Ruby/Topaz/Sapphire Ring respectively
• 1 item with 3 linked RGB sockets = 1 Chromatic Orb
• Blue Wand/Sceptre/RuneDagger + [X resistance] Ring + Orb of Alteration = added flat damage of [X element] (higher ring rarity=higher bonus) on weapon
• Weapon + magic or higher Rustic Sash + Whetstone = Weapon with %Physical damage roll (higher belt rarity=higher bonus)
• Boots + quicksilver flask + Augmentation Orb = Blue boots with 10% movespeed roll. This can be repeated for an additional +5% on the movespeed roll, up to 30% (note that repeats will increase req level to 0/10/12/24/32/44 respectively)
• Orb of Transmutation/Orb of Alteration/Blacksmith’s Whetstone = 4 Wisdom Scrolls

Act 2

• Life Flask + Mana Flask (of same tier) + Orb of Fusing = Hybrid flask

Act 3

• Flasks with a sum quality of 40% or one normal rarity 20% flask= Glassblower Bauble
• Gems with a sum quality of 40% or one 20% gem= Gemcutter's Prism
• 1 of each Two-Stone Ring = 1 Prismatic Ring

Act 4

• Skill gem + Orb of Scouring = Skill gem with -1 level
• Skill gem + Orb of Regret = Skill gem at level 1

Act 5+

• Level 20 Skill Gem + Gemcutter's Prism = 20% Quality Level 1 Skill Gem
• Item with 6 sockets = 7 Jeweler's Orbs
• Full Rare Set Recipes = (Chance/Chaos/Regal Orbs)
• 7 Vaal Skill gems + Sacrifice Fragment = Vaal Orb

Helpful Links

^{Look at the sidenav of this sub for more!}

• POE Wiki
• POELab - Labyrinth daily tracker. Someone else runs the layout and maps it out for you! Also includes shrine locations and Izaro mechanics as soon as they're found.
• Path of Building - Downloadable, powerful build concept tool
• Path of Building - LocalIdentity Fork - An expanded and more frequently updated version of PoB
• PoePlanner Lighter, online build concept tool
• poe.ninja - PoE Economy Tracker. Easy way to pricecheck specific items/currency/etc. Also a very robust method of browsing top-tier builds.
• poe/trade - Official player-to-player trading site

NOTE Real money trading (RMT) is NOT supported or accepted by GGG you will get banned when you use IRL money to buy anything in poe that isn't from their own site/in-game store.

• Vorici Chromatic Calculator A calculator to tell you the most efficient use of chromes for an item
• Blight Anoint Simulator - A more interactive way to see what you want to anoint
• Mikelat’s Mana Reserve Calculator Online tool to assist with planning mana reservation (also can account for life reserved)
• Filterblade Loot filter customizer
• EngineeringEternity's Beginner Guide - Widely cited beginner guide. Look for his D3 transition guide as well!
• poe.house - Copyable hideout layouts!
• poemap.live - Handy site for map trading, particularly bulk map trades