Opynaut Investor Profile | AlphaSerpentis
The Opynaut Options Investor Profile is an interview series that spotlights Opyn’s Opynauts, a group of passionate community members dedicated to spreading knowledge about Opyn, options, and everything DeFi.
Hello! What’s your background?
Hello, the name’s Amethyst or Ammy. I am a college student currently working towards an associate’s degree in business. I am able to program in Java and Solidity at roughly an intermediate level of detail with more time in Java than Solidity.
I began to develop an interest in cryptocurrencies around the time I began growing an interest in stocks, which coincidentally led me to discover the existence of Bitcoin around late 2016. From there, I began learning how financial markets worked, focusing mainly on the stock market, which slowly led me to cryptocurrencies. Fast forward a few years and I’m trading and investing in stocks, cryptocurrencies, and options in both stocks and crypto.
What’s your approach to investing in DeFi / crypto?
To begin, this is not financial advice. All investments involve risk to some degree. Only invest an amount that you’re willing to lose. Ensure you do proper due diligence and research.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I find DeFi and cryptocurrencies overall difference in the way you would trade stocks. Stocks are relatively “mature,” while cryptocurrencies are a quickly evolving space. Given the higher volatility of cryptocurrencies, it can be scary (or exciting) to see prices fluctuate in ways you could make massive gains or losses in such a short time period.
Some of my experience with trading cryptocurrencies was around when Robinhood had just released their cryptocurrency trading platform. Later on, I began trading smaller amounts in certain exchanges that had more “obscure” coins. Nonetheless, these experiences taught me some lessons and provided trading strategies that hold to more trusted and liquid assets.
When I invest in an asset, I consider some of the following characteristics:
- How long has it been issued?
- What is their tokenomics (token economics)?
- Does it provide certain rights (e.g., governance)?
- Is it a product I use, and do I believe in the team?
Other than that, ensure you don’t put all of your eggs into one basket. Through diversification, if one of the assets goes bad, you will be able to limit your risk. If you have a long-term strategy, it may be in the better interest to lend out eligible assets on Aave, Compound, or other money markets.
How did you first hear about Opyn?
I don’t exactly know how I discovered the existence of Opyn, but it was around a month after Uniswap did their UNI airdrop, which really changed a lot for me. It reenabled me to participate in DeFi, and at some point, discovered Opyn.
My first impressions of Opyn were really smooth for the most part. At the time, I wasn’t aware of other derivative platforms that were decentralized, so I was pretty fascinated.
How do you use Opyn now?
Some of the options trading I do on Opyn utilize both v1 and v2. Beginning with v1, it does not have the auto-exercise feature. As a result, I can expect to some extent that the risk of exercise is dampened. As a result, profits could be generated by simply writing a certain amount of calls. Often, I don’t write covered calls on my entire position, but split some of them off, depending on how ITM the options may be.
As for v2, I currently only enter long positions. A strategy I often look into doing is trading call debit spreads. Doing spreads helps significantly lower the needed capital, but also lowers the reward. However, it is still lucrative, and the potential rewards one could gain can be high.
Not necessarily exclusive to either version, but another strategy I look into is straddles. Straddles enable me to cover both upside and downside, but it comes at a higher cost.
What are your goals for the future?
As a college student, ideally, I want to obtain my associate’s degree in business. I’m currently approaching the half-way mark of completing the degree. I believe having some sort of job security would be great, and I think it could help me explore the finance industry, although I heavily want to land in the DeFi industry.
Personally, I see myself working somewhere between software engineering in Solidity and maybe working as a financial advisor. I have deep interests in both, though I am not working towards a computer science degree or related one. Perhaps I’ll land a part-time job in both or even full-time. I would want to make some impact or contribution to society to fulfill my personal life goals.
What are your future thoughts for the DeFi market?
The DeFi market is young. We’re going to see periods of major downturns, price surges, institutional and general adoption of the technologies that DeFi has created. We’re going to be taken on a rollercoaster ride. It’ll be chaotic, but a fun one in the end. DeFi is going to revolutionize the way we think of money, how we use money, and the countless possibilities that could be done.
Where can we go to learn more about you?
Twitter: @AlphaSerpentis_
GitHub: AlphaSerpentis
Website: alphaserpentis.space
Opyn Community
At Opyn we value our community and we strongly encourage anyone to contribute in improving Opyn. There are several ways you can contribute:
- 🛠️ BUIDL on top of Opyn. There are many applications and interfaces that can be built using Opyn. More info on: https://medium.com/opyn/buidling-with-options-otokens-in-defi-pt-2-f561eb67f4af or Join #dev channel on Opyn Discord
- 🐞 Participate in the Bug Bounty. Security is one of our highest priorities, so you can participate to v2 Bounty Program with rewards up to $100k. Learn more on https://opyn.gitbook.io/opyn-v2/get-started/security#bug-bounty-program
- 👩🚀 Become an Opynaut: members of the Opyn Community who share our values and are eager to take the responsibility to Spread the Knowledge! More info on https://medium.com/opyn/calling-for-opynauts-eaf8703fa8e5
- 🍄 Join Opyn. We’re hiring! You can find the available positions here: https://angel.co/company/opyn-4
- ✍️ Give us a feedback. We wouldn’t be here without inputs of the community. Join #feedback channel on Opyn Discord
Resources
Opyn v2| FAQ | Github | Security
