Jan 3, 2015 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Trade Execution, Stock Investing, Stock Option Strategies
Covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts are conservative strategies for risk-averse retail investors. This is why I feel most of us should be trading in cash accounts (no borrowing) and sheltered accounts whenever possible. For those of us who have higher...
Dec 27, 2014 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Stock Option Strategies
Mastering options trading basics includes understanding the factors that impact our option premiums. The original Black Scholes pricing model was designed to evaluate European Style options which can only be exercised on expiration Friday, not earlier. Here is a brief...
Dec 20, 2014 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Stock Option Strategies
A Covered combination (“combo trade”) trade is the simultaneous sale of an out-of-the-money (OTM) call and an out-of-the-money put with the same expiration date on 100 shares of a stock or ETF (exchange-traded fund). It consists of a combination of a...
Dec 13, 2014 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Stock Option Strategies
Combining covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts into a multi-tiered option strategy is one way to hedge against bear and volatile market environments. In my book, Selling Cash-Secured Puts, I refer to this as the PCP or put-call-put-strategy. First I will...
Dec 6, 2014 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Stock Option Strategies
Our stock options strategies, whether writing covered calls or selling cash-secured puts (the topic on my just published book) requires us to make an overall market assessment before entering any trades. In last week’s article we evaluated bull market scenarios....
Nov 29, 2014 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Stock Option Strategies
Covered call writing or put-selling? In-the-money or out-of-the-money strikes? When we view an options chain there are some basic principles we must factor into our final covered call writing or put-selling decisions. First, which of these two strategies is most...
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