I spent 15+ years designing safety systems that keep oil & gas plants from blowing up. Now I apply the same discipline — interlocks, guardrails, trip logic — to selling options. No hype. No signals. Just systems.
In industrial plants, a Safety Integrity Level (SIL) rates how reliable a protection system must be. Think of it like airbag ratings for factories: the higher the SIL, the less likely the protection fails when you need it. SIL 3 is the highest level realistically engineered in oil & gas — near-bulletproof. That's the standard I hold my trading rules to.
In a pipeline, a HIPPS slams valves shut in milliseconds when pressure spikes — the last line of defense before catastrophe. My trading version works the same way: independent layers of protection, each one catching what the layer above missed.
No single position can sink the ship. Size limits set before emotion enters the room.
Hard rules on where calls can be sold relative to cost basis. Written down. Not negotiable at 2 a.m.
When rules must bend, they bend through a documented procedure with explicit conditions — like a Management of Change, not a mood.
In plant design, a HAZOP asks of every node: what can deviate, what's the consequence, what safeguard exists, what do we recommend? I run my positions through the same worksheet. Here's a real example format:
| Deviation | Consequence | Safeguard | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price drops below break-even | MAJOR — Temptation to sell calls below cost, locking in loss | Layer 2 guardrails prohibit below-cost strikes | Enter safe state. Hold shares. Collect nothing rather than lock in damage. |
| Price spikes above strike | Shares called away; upside capped | Strikes selected above blended cost — assignment is profit, not loss | Accept assignment. Redeploy capital per system. |
| Market-wide panic event | SEVERE — Urge to abandon system entirely | Written rules + position sizing mean no forced action | Do nothing is a valid action. Trip logic holds. Review after 48 hours, not during. |
The exact spreadsheet I use to run my covered call wheel: premium tracking, blended break-even calculation, guardrail checks, and recovery progress — with instructions and sample data. Built by an engineer, for people who like their money organized like a control system.
Get it on Gumroad →The full story: a five-figure loss, a recovery engineered like a safety system, the crash I held through, and the complete HIPPS framework — hazards, safeguards, consequences and recommendations for your own portfolio.
Coming 2026I'm a senior instrumentation & controls engineer working in heavy industry. My day job is making sure that when something goes wrong in a plant, layered protection systems catch it before people get hurt. I stay anonymous so I can show you real numbers, real mistakes, and real recoveries without a corporate filter.
I'm not selling a dream. I'm documenting a system — including the times it gets stress-tested. If you want lambo promises, there are ten thousand other accounts for that.