Lesson Learned #022: Options Income Not Automated Despite Being Primary Profit Source

ID: LL-022 Impact: Identified through automated analysis

Date: December 12, 2025 Severity: HIGH (Revenue Impact) Category: Automation Gap Status: RESOLVED

The Gap

Options trading generated $327 profit on Dec 12 (100x more than DCA’s $3-5/day), but was only running manually every 7+ days because it was never added to the automated daily workflow.

Evidence

  • last_theta_harvest: Dec 5, 2025 (7 days stale)
  • Today’s options P/L: +$327 (AMD put +$130, SPY put +$197)
  • Today’s DCA P/L: ~$3-5
  • Options were 100x more profitable but not automated

Root Cause Analysis

  1. Workflow Oversight: daily-trading.yml only ran autonomous_trader.py for equity DCA
  2. No Options Step: Options scripts existed (execute_options_trade.py, options_profit_planner.py) but weren’t in workflow
  3. Manual Dependency: Theta harvesting required manual intervention
  4. No Staleness Alert: System didn’t alert when last_theta_harvest was >24h old

Detection Method

CTO Claude asked “What is the single most important step?” and analyzed:

  1. Profit sources: Options » DCA
  2. Automation status: Options = manual, DCA = automated
  3. Last harvest timestamp: 7 days stale
Key Insight: Grep for “option theta” in daily-trading.yml returned no results.

Resolution

PR #590 merged - Added “Harvest theta (options income)” step to daily workflow:

  • Runs after equity trading succeeds
  • Scans for opportunities via options_profit_planner.py
  • Executes wheel strategy on SPY/QQQ
  • Updates last_theta_harvest timestamp
  • continue-on-error: true to not block equity trading

Prevention Measures

1. Automated Gap Detection Script

Create scripts/detect_automation_gaps.py:

  • Compare profit sources vs automation status
  • Alert if high-profit activities lack automation
  • Run weekly via cron

2. Staleness Alerts

Add to daily workflow:

if last_theta_harvest > 24 hours:
    send_alert("Theta harvest is stale!")

3. Profit Attribution Dashboard

Track daily P/L by source:

  • Equity DCA
  • Options (theta)
  • Crypto
  • Other

4. Workflow Completeness Check

Pre-commit hook to verify all income strategies have workflow coverage.

Metrics to Track

Metric Before Fix Target
Theta harvest frequency ~7 days Daily
Options as % of profit 98% (when run) 60-80%
Automation coverage 50% 100%
  • ll_020_options_primary_strategy_dec12.md - Options should be primary
  • ll_019_trading_system_dead_dec12.md - Silent automation failures
  • ll_010_dead_code_and_dormant_systems_dec11.md - Unused systems

Tags

#automation #options #revenue #workflow #gap-detection #theta