Covered call writing and selling cash-secured puts are stock option strategies with primary goals of income generation and capital preservation. Most of us are conservative investors who seek to beat the market on a consistent basis while minimizing portfolio risk. This is one of the mission statements of the BCI methodology. In the past few […]
Market Volatility and Our Option-Selling Trades: Using the VIX to Achieve Higher Returns
Options trading basics teaches us that the VIX or CBOE Volatility Index reflects the market’s expectation of the upcoming 30-day volatility. It measures market risk and is also known as the investor fear gauge. With this in mind, option-sellers are faced with a dilemma. Increased market volatility will translate into higher option premiums because the […]
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 […]
20%/10% Guidelines for Covered Call Writing and Put-Selling: Same Name, Different Circumstances
Exit strategies for our covered call writing and put-selling portfolios allow us to mitigate potential losses and enhance gains to even higher levels. In my books and DVDs, I detail the 20%/10% guidelines as one of the exit strategies available to us for both strategies. Although the name is the same, the circumstances are different […]
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 […]
Making Money with Technology Stocks: Investing with QQQ
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) that has appeared most frequently in our premium member ETF reports is Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ). This fund consists of 100 of the largest non-financial companies (predominantly technology companies) that trade on the NASDAQ exchange. As of June 2019, the top 3 holdings in QQQ are Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) […]
In-The-Money Cash-Secured Puts: Allow Exercise or Roll the Option When Using the PCP Strategy?
As contract expiration nears, we must be prepared how to manage our in-the-money (ITM) cash-secured puts. Assuming we initially sold an out-of-the-money (OTM) put which is now ITM, share price has declined. We can assume that by following the BCI guidelines for position management, the current stock price is not more than 3% below the […]
Rolling Deep OTM Puts to a Higher Strike: A Viable Mid-Contract Strategy?
After selling an out-of-the-money (OTM) cash-secured put and then stock price accelerates substantially, the put value will decline. Share price and put value are inversely-related. This allows us to take advantage of our 20%/10% put-selling guidelines exit strategy discussed on pages 141 – 143 of my book, Selling Cash-Secured Puts. With this exit strategy, if […]
Why Was My Short Out-Of-The-Money Put Exercised?
When we sell covered calls or cash-secured puts, we understand that if a strike ends up in-the-money at expiration, that option will be exercised over the weekend and shares will be sold or purchased depending on the option type (for calls, our shares are sold; for puts, new shares are purchased with the cash set […]
