Investment Approach

We actively manage Berkshire Hathaway stock and options positions in your own account.

This is a discretionary, managed account strategy, meaning you grant us authorization to place trades within your own account at Schwab.

This is not a fund. The funds remain in your own account. You have access to your funds at all times.

You can withdraw your funds or income any time, no lockup periods. IRA accounts maybe subject to early withdrawal penalties.

We only have trading authority, not disbursement or transfer authority.

You can see all the trades, it is a fully transparent strategy.

 

Investment Objective

To outperform Berkshire Hathaway with lower volatility while generating income for clients.

Risks

Risks include concentration risk, equity risk, options risk, volatility, tax consequences, possibility of loss, and strategy-specific risks.

Risks are similar to trading and owning Berkshire Hathaway stock, but we also use options, which are risky.

This strategy is not a fully protected strategy.

We may underperform Berkshire.

Options are risky, but we focus on selling options spreads to generate income.

Options are a form of leverage, and a margin account is required, but we maintain very high levels of equity in the account.

 

Investment Advantages

Unlike many alternative strategies that have lockup periods, infrequent valuations, and limited transparency into underlying holdings, this strategy is designed to provide daily liquidity and full transparency.

Clients can view their holdings and access their funds or investment income at any time, subject to normal market conditions and settlement requirements.

We generate income and capital gains for you, even though Berkshire historically has not paid dividends.

Berkshire Hathaway has had positive annual returns for 10 consecutive years, even when the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Indexes declined in 2018 and 2022. This strategy does not make any performance guarantees.

We often maintain zero overnight positions, meaning your account will have 100% cash a moderate portion of the time.

Berkshire Hathaway is a diversified conglomerate of some of the highest quality businesses in the world. It is one of the world’s largest insurance companies. We prefer to think of it as a high quality index fund.

 

What to Expect from Our Performance

We focus on small and frequent trades. If we use baseball as an analogy, we aim to hit singles, not home runs. However, the more extreme Berkshire’s price movements are, the more likely we are to place bigger trades. This may happen once in a while.

As of August 9, 2026, for our very first client, who invested $60,000, our average losing trade was less than $100. Our single largest losing trade was less than $700.

1 options contract represents 100 shares of BRK-B.

Since BRK-B’s price is subject to change, we aim to generate roughly $200 per week in pre-tax trading gains per 100 shares worth of portfolio value invested, plus a margin of safety.

For example, if BRK-B is trading at $500, 1 options contract would represent 100 shares, or $50,000. We would ask clients to invest roughly 20% more to optimize the strategy, or $60,000.

At the current price of Berkshire, we aim to generate roughly $200 per week in pre-tax trading gains per $60,000 invested.

Of course, once in a while, we have losing weeks.

Please note that we focus on generating realized trading gains or equity in your account, but this doesn’t necessarily mean your account’s portfolio value will increase accordingly. Sometimes, even though we may generate positive trading gains, your portfolio value may fall slightly, and vice versa, due to market risk.

However, over time, assuming Berkshire’s price did not change, positive trading gains will increase your account’s portfolio value. If Berkshire’s price fell, positive trading gains would reduce your losses over time. And if Berkshire’s price increased, positive trading gains would improve your overall return relative to simply buying and holding Berkshire. Positive trading gains are not guaranteed.

We occasionally will cut losses if Berkshire begins to have a long decline, but we generally protect on the downside using protective put options, which act as a form of insurance and income generation.

The basis of this strategy is to dollar cost average Berkshire Hathaway, so as Berkshire declines, our put options generate income and protect your stock against some of the declines.

When the stock price declines, not only do we often generate income, but also we enter into more options trades that generate income and potentially lower your average cost per share.

Essentially, you are being paid to own Berkshire Hathaway, but with potentially less volatility.

 

Peace of Mind

You have full and continuous access to your own funds. You can withdraw your funds at any time. Highly liquid. No lockup period.

You can see all the trades. No black box.

You can view all the trading gains or losses.

You receive monthly statements from Charles Schwab.

 

Discretionary Trading Authority Only, No Disbursement Authority

Unlock Investments is not granted any ability to disburse funds out of your account (except for fees when they are due, or unless you authorize a transfer).

This is a fully discretionary managed strategy run by the daily trading activities of Sean Gurson, Portfolio Manager.

“Fully discretionary” means Unlock Investments is granted full trading authority within your own Charles Schwab account.

A completely new and separate account will be created for this strategy.

 

Taxes

You may use an IRA or other tax advantaged account.

 

Benchmark

Berkshire Hathaway B shares (BRK-B) is the benchmark.

 

Account Requirements – Margin and Options

All trades occur within your own individually managed margin account at Charles Schwab with an Options Level II approval

(naked calls and puts, cash-secured puts, covered calls, and spreads).

Unlock Investments is happy to set up your account for you.

 

Strategy Breakdown – Use of Options

The Unlock Berkshire strategy utilizes cash-secured puts and covered calls in addition to naked puts and calls, various forms of options spread trading, fundamental stock analysis, buy and hold investing, and swing trading to generate returns and income.

 

Cash-Secured Puts

The cash-secured puts strategy is an options strategy that Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has utilized successfully when buying a stock.

The risk of this options strategy is that you have to buy Berkshire at the price specified in advance, even if it is selling for less than that price. Since Berkshire continuously generates roughly $1,000 in profit every second, buying Berkshire is a risk we are comfortable with.

The best part is, you receive income in exchange for taking this risk.

 

Covered Calls

The covered calls strategy is widely known as a “safe” options strategy and wealth building method to generate income while holding a stock.

 

Naked Put and Call Purchases

Buying naked puts and calls to generate returns is generally minimized, as Unlock Investments considers their risk of expiring worthless excessive. However, they are often employed as one leg of a spread trade when cost effective or when reward / risk ratios are high. We also use protective puts to partially hedge some of our stock positions.

 

Options Spreads

Options spreads are used at times in order to limit the risks of positions and to generate income.

 

Strategy Breakdown – Value Investing

Value investing is the idea of purchasing a stock for less than it is worth with a margin of safety and letting the market to price it properly over time because markets are “efficient”.

We are swing trading value investors.

 

Use of Leverage, Equity, and Cash

To the extent possible, your cash and equity levels will be maximized, and use of leverage and margin will be minimized.

Maintaining high levels of cash provides flexibility to take advantage of Berkshire selling at good prices, while also protecting your capital from drawdowns.

 

Short Sales

Short selling stock will be avoided, but you will be positioned to benefit from a “short outlook” by buying naked puts, selling covered calls, etc.

 

Minimum Requirements

You must have an investment objective of “speculation” for the capital employed in the strategy. However, we consider the strategy to be quite conservative and suitable for many investors.

A Charles Schwab margin account is required to avoid any pattern day trading regulatory restrictions.

Minimum investment is $100,000 for individuals.

Minimum investment is $500,000 for institutions.

 

Options Education

For those unfamiliar with options, a 30 minute educational course will be provided at no cost by Unlock Investments to familiarize you with options.

 

Fees

Monthly fees are $100 per $50,000 managed.

So if you invest:

$50,000 – $99,999: $100 per month

$100,000 – $149,999: $200 per month, etc.

$1 million: $2,000 per month

 

Taxes

The strategy is not tax efficient, but some clients have elected to run the strategy in their non-taxable IRA accounts.

 

Disclosures