September 18, 2026. 22:24 and 22:26. Two buy orders.
7 contracts @ $0.50, 10 contracts @ $0.48 — every one of the 17 TRON JAN’28 5C short legs, bought back.
The seal that went up nine months ago has been lifted.
I. The Ledger First
📒 Ledger detail (click to expand)
| Time | Contract | Side | Qty | Sell avg | Buyback | Commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:24 | TRON JAN’28 5C | BOT | 7 | $0.548 | $0.50 | $3.43 |
| 22:26 | TRON JAN’28 5C | BOT | 10 | $0.548 | $0.48 | $3.70 |
Buyback average $0.488 against a $0.548 sell average — $101.66 gross, +$109.16 on the settlement basis (+11.7%).
A short leg that hung around for nine months and spent part of that time underwater closes with a small win. But the ledger is the least important page of this story.
II. What the Seal Locked Up
The 17× 5C was the last piece of the TRON wreck. Early in 2026, the TRON CC complex held 23 short legs (6× 7.5C + 17× 5C). The 7.5C group closed on August 31 (+$129.53); these 17× 5C were everything that remained.
What they locked: 1,700 of my 2,300 shares. To sell the stock I had to buy the Calls back first — and they expired JAN’28, sat on an options chain with almost no volume, and quoted bid-ask spreads so wide they looked broken. For nine months, 1,700 of my shares had no freedom.
And then there was the double-loss structure: the stock fell from above $4 to $1.47, so the 5C should have gotten cheaper — instead, small-cap IV expansion pushed its mark to $0.875 at one point. The stock was bleeding, and the Calls were bleeding too. That’s the true horror of a liquidity trap: not one side losing — both sides welded shut, hurting whichever one you touch.
III. Why the Unlock Happened Today
Unlocking costs money. Today’s two buys cost about $830 — money I couldn’t afford to spend for months.
Not because the account was empty — because the account state didn’t allow it. When cash was negative and leverage over the line, spending $830 to buy back an “underwater leg” meant paying old debts while still bleeding. Completely wrong sequence. So the answer was always: fix the account first, break the seal second.
And today’s price was the right time to pay: at the $0.875 mark earlier this year the buyback would have cost $1,490. Today $0.488 got it done — waiting for IV to cool saved about $660. Buying back a painful leg is painful; buying it back at its most expensive would have been pain squared.
IV. After the Unlock
All 2,300 TRON shares are free — for the first time in nine months.
Everything left follows the constitution: GTC ladder orders — 1,200 shares @ $1.50, 1,100 shares @ $1.80. If they fill, I’m out; if not, I wait. No watching, no betting on highs. Once the stock is gone, the TRON story is over, and the account enters options-only for real.
Hunter’s Summary
The real cost of a liquidity trap isn’t the loss. It’s the time. Money can be earned back; nine locked months are the position’s true opportunity cost.
Three takeaways:
- Unlocking costs money, and a RED-state account doesn’t have the right to spend it. Fix the account first (cash positive, leverage in line), then handle the wreck. Reverse the order and you’re still waiting for IV to cool.
- Time buybacks on IV, not on mood. $0.875 versus $0.488 is a $660 difference — same legs, same account, the only difference being patience.
- Wrong CC parameters equal time lock-up. 16-month DTE plus near-zero liquidity — see The Hidden Cost of Covered Calls.
The hardest seal is broken. Selling the stock — the last step — goes to the GTC ladder, one rung at a time.
Trade Journal · Phased Stock Exit Series · TRON Chapter