Day 79 of 90 | Thursday, January 15, 2026

Answer Block

Answer Block: 11 days remaining in our journey to build a profitable AI trading system.

11 days remaining in our journey to build a profitable AI trading system.

Today was a wake-up call. Two critical issues surfaced that could have derailed our entire trading operation. Here’s what went wrong and how we’re fixing it.

The Hard Lessons

These are the moments that test us. Critical issues that demanded immediate attention.

Critical Math Error - SPY Credit Spreads Were Always Affo…

On Day 74, we believed SPY was “too expensive” for the $5K account and switched to SOFI.

Deep Research - Daily Income Math Reality

With $5,000 capital, $100/day is mathematically impossible:

Key takeaway: Risk/Reward: 7.

Critical Trading System Fixes - Jan 15, 2026

LL-213: Critical Trading System Fixes - Jan 15, 2026

ID: LL-213 Date: January 15, 2026 Severity: CRITICAL Category: Bug Fixes / System Recovery

CEO Question Addressed “Why aren’t we making money i

Key takeaway: Using iron condors (defined risk, 1.

Why $5K Failed While $100K Succeeded

CEO asked: “Why aren’t we making money in our $5K paper trading account even though we made a lot of money and had good success in the $100K paper trading account?”

CRISIS - Orphan Long Put Created $53 Loss

System created an orphan LONG put position (SPY260220P00660000) costing $307 without a matching short leg. This is NOT a credit spread - it’s a naked debit position that loses money as the market rise

Key takeaway: 1. HALT all automated trading until root cause fixed

North Star Math Roadmap - $100/Day Goal

Account	Balance	Status
Paper Trading	$4,959.26	-0.81% P/L, Day 76/90
Live Brokerage	$60.00	Accumulation phase
Daily Deposits	$25/day	~$750/

Important Discoveries

Not emergencies, but insights that will shape how we trade going forward.

$100K Trade History Analysis Workflow

During the $100K paper trading period (November-December 2025), lessons were recorded in legacy RAG but NOT synced to local files or the blog. This created a visibility gap.

Dashboard Showing Wrong $100K Balance

Progress Dashboard showed paper account as $100,000 when actual balance was $4,959.26.

Session Start Verification Protocol

“Every time I start a session, report exactly how much money we made today or lost today (with brief reasons). Report what is showing on the progress dashboard and GitHub - is it matching what Alpaca

PR Hygiene Session - Jan 15, 2026 - LL-230: PR Hygiene Session - Jan 15, 2026

ID: LL-212 Date: January 15, 2026 Severity: LOW Category:…

Rolling Strategy for Losing Credit Spread Trades - When a credit spread trade goes against us (stock drops toward or below sold strike), we have option…
North Star 30-Month Roadmap to $100/Day - LL-220: North Star 30-Month Roadmap to $100/Day

Created: January 15, 2026 Starting Capital: $4,959….

Lesson Learned LL-217: OptionsRiskMonitor Paper Arg Crisis - The Daily Trading workflow failed at 14:44 UTC with exit code 2. Zero trades executed….

Today’s Numbers

What	Count
Lessons Learned	17
Critical Issues	6
High Priority	3
Improvements	8

The Journey So Far

We’re building an autonomous AI trading system that learns from every mistake. This isn’t about getting rich quick - it’s about building a system that can consistently generate income through disciplined options trading.