Stock and option selection are 2 of the 3-required skills essential to successful covered call writing (position management is the 3rd). There is no one factor that will dictate our choices but rather a mosaic of bits of information which will lead us to the best choices. In this article, I will discuss two of […]
Collar Calculations: Adding Protective Puts to our Covered Call Trades
Covered call exit strategies play a major role in mitigating losses in our BCI methodology. In most cases, we can keep losses to a minimum, turn losses into gains and enhance profits as well. Some covered call writers want the security of protecting against a catastrophic gap-down which can occur rarely. With the current market […]
Comparing Call and Put Strategies with Paylocity Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: PCTY)
Covered call writing or selling cash-secured puts… which is the best strategy? Well, they both offer great opportunities to generate cash-flow in a low-risk manner. I favor the former in normal to bull market environments and the latter in bear and volatile markets. On June 24, 2019, PCTY passed our rigorous screening requirements to earn […]
Creating “Dividends” for Non-Dividend Stocks: A Real-Life Example with PAYC
Covered call writing can be beneficial to us in a variety of circumstances. This article will highlight how this strategy can be implemented to create a dividend-like cash flow for stocks that currently offer no dividend income. This can be particularly useful for those who will only purchase dividend stocks and miss out on other […]
Comparing the Cost-to-Close with Initial Trade Goal
When we enter our covered call trades, we make our stock and option selection based on our initial time-value return goal (2% – 4% for 1-month expirations in my case). If the strike moves deep in-the-money as share price accelerates, we may consider closing both legs of the trade or rolling the option out or […]
Protective Puts and The Poor Man’s Covered Call
The Poor Man’s Covered Call (PMCC) is a covered call writing-like strategy where the underlying security is a LEAPS options (1 -2 years expirations) rather than the stock itself. The technical term is a long call diagonal debit spread. Since the cost of the option is lower than the price of the stock, the return […]
Comparing ITM Calls and OTM Puts in Bear Markets
Covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts are both outstanding low-risk strategies that can outperform the overall market on a consistent basis. I am on record as favoring covered call writing in normal to bull markets and include put-selling in bear markets. In normal to bull markets, covered call writing gives us the flexibility to […]
Realized Versus Unrealized Capital Gains: A Real-Life Example with GWRE
Covered call writing calculations include initial and final computations. Since our trades incorporate both long stock and short option positions, it can become confusing when determining final capital gains (losses). In July 2019, Ralph shared with me a covered call trade he executed with Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE). He sold an out-of-the-money (OTM) strike […]
Covered Call Writing Quiz: Evaluating a Series of Trades
Managing our covered call positions is essential to our overall option-trading success. In July 2019, KA Lau shared with me a series of questions he developed based on a real-life trade. I felt that these were excellent educational questions and will now share them with the BCI community. I added 4 more questions for a […]
Should I Unwind My Covered Call Trade 1 Week Prior to Contract Expiration?: A Real-Life Example with Alibaba Group
Covered call writing exit strategies are critical to our overall success. There are times, however, when the best action is no action at all. On July 25th 2019, Rob shared with me a successful trade he executed and was considering closing 1 week prior to the 8/2/2019 expiration. For an answer, we need to turn […]
