Nov 19, 2016 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Trade Execution, Stock Investing, Stock Option Strategies
Stock and ETF (exchange-traded fund) selection is one of the three required skills needed to achieve the highest level of success when selling options. Covered call writers and put-sellers have varying degrees of personal risk tolerance and trading styles. As a...
Oct 29, 2016 | Investment Basics, Options Calculations, Options Trade Execution, Stock Investing, Stock Option Strategies
Whether we are writing covered calls, selling cash-secured puts or simply buying and selling stocks, the first important requirement is to develop or have access to a quality watch list of elite-performing securities. Once we have purchased a stock or exchange-traded...
Oct 8, 2016 | Covered Call Exit Strategies, Exit Strategies, Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Trade Execution
We write a covered call or sell a cash-secured put. At expiration, the strike price is in-the-money. For calls that means lower then current market value and for puts it means higher than current market value. To demonstrate the moneyness of these strikes, let’s...
Jul 16, 2016 | Covered Call Exit Strategies, Exit Strategies, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Options Trade Execution, Stock Option Strategies
Exit strategies for covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts all start with buying back the option. Frequently, the cost to close our short option positions will be less than the premium generated initially from the option sale. This is because of the impact...
Mar 5, 2016 | Covered Call Exit Strategies, Exit Strategies, Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Options Trade Execution, Stock Option Strategies
Rolling up is a useful exit strategy for both covered call writing and put-selling. However, in my humble opinion, it rarely benefits us to roll up in the same contract month. The main reason for this conclusion is that we are dealing with a stock that has...
Jan 9, 2016 | Investment Basics, Option Trading Basics, Options Calculations, Options Trade Execution, Stock Option Strategies
Corporate events can impact our covered call writing and put-selling positions in many ways. In today’s article we will focus on spin-offs and how to read an options chain after the event and calculate to moneyness of our options based on the specifics of that...