—Marina Gioiosa, Italy. August 9, 2026
I'm a few days into a month in Italy. Day 1 saw me visit the Colosseum and the Palatine (where Rome was founded) before heading way off the beaten track down south into the Calabrian hills — famous for bandits and kidnappings!
Machina Capitalis is Latin, the language of the legendary Roman empire. It translates to ‘money machine’. I chose the name for this publication because that’s its mission: A record and explanation of of how I actually run a machine that produces money, mechanically, on a schedule, whether I'm in my home office or standing in the Forum.
That’s more than just a metaphor. The premium collected and profits of this portfolio is what’s currently paying for the flights, the rentals, the long dinners. That’s the whole point of building it this way.
Headline Numbers
Working Capital at risk: $261,443
YTD realized P&L: $9,499.57
MTD realized P&L: $1,440.70
Unrealized profits: $55,871
Total return on working capital: +27.3% YTD
For those just wanting the pulse: the book is up +27.3% on working capital for the year, with $231K currently used as working capital. Steady, unglamorous, exactly as designed. This is seperate from my long term investing — this is an operating business.
A Note on the figures: The 27.3% is total profit ($65,001.86, realized + unrealized) divided by working capital ($238,194.20). Working capital defined as: Capital at risk net of the non-cash liabilities.
Furthermore, these returns need further explanation lest the reader think they are fully market exposed and thus comparable to any other type of return - they are not and they are not. Almost nothing here is a naked long: it's hedged. Real market exposure runs closer to a quarter of the notional. Same profit against that smaller, real number pushes the risk-adjusted return into triple digits. Both are true — one measures capital used, the other measures risk taken.
Take this real example from the trading book:
UROY: entered at $1.79 net of premium, with the stock closing at $2.82 that day — meaning the position carried 36.5% downside protection before showing a loss. Calls sold fully covered at the $2.50 strike cap profit at that spread: $0.71/share, a ~39.7% return on capital, now essentially locked in with the stock at $4.15.
That’s the mechanic behind a risk-adjusted return: a defined profit band with over a third of the stock’s value cushioning the downside — a fraction of the risk a straight stock position carries for a comparable return.
If you want: the whole book, trade-by-trade, wins and losses, unrestricted chat access where you’ll receive live trade alerts and my thoughts behind my positions — that's inside — Join today using this code for 20% off!
https://www.machinacapitalis.com/Lifetimeredemption