Cash-Secured Put and covered call trades can be established as traditional, aggressive or defensive. In March 2025, there was market uncertainty regarding the imposition of multiple tariffs and their potential negative impact on our economy and the stock market.

During this time, I was creating only defensive positions in my option portfolios. In this article, I will share one such 4-week cash-secured trade I executed with DocuSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: DOCU).

Reasons for selecting DOCU from the BCI Premium Stock Report & Watch List

• DOCU: $88.15
• Selected from BCI database
• On our stock list for 1 week (welcome back)
• No dividend
• Modest implied volatility (IV): 33.2%
• Industry segment rank: A (Software)
• Next ER: 6/12/2025
• Bullish On Balance Volume (OBV)
• Analyst rating (MAR) 2.83 (above average)
• Weekly options available
• $82.50 4/18/2025 deep OTM $82.50 put strike has a bid price of $1.10

 

DOCU option chain on 3/24/2025 (DOCU: $88.15)

• Extremely robust open interest (purple cells)
• The $82.50 deep OTM put strike shows a bid price of $1.10 (brown cells)
• The Delta of the $82.50 strike is -0.227% (approximate 23% probability of expiring ITM & subject to exercise)
• Note: The Delta of puts is negative because put premium is inversely related to share price

 

DOCU: Initial cash-secured put calculations with our TMC

• The spreadsheet shows that, if taken through expiration, this is a 26-day trade (red circle)
• The breakeven price is $81.40 (yellow cell)
• The initial 26-day return is 1.35%, 18.97% annualized (brown cells)
• If share price declines below the $82.50 strike price and no exit strategy intervention is executed, shares will be “put” to us at the breakeven price of $81.40, a 7.66% discount (purple cell) from share price when the trade was initiated

 

Discussion

By implementing the low-risk option-selling strategy of selling cash-secured puts, we have generated significant initial returns and lowered our breakeven price from $88.15 to $81.40. The BCI 3% guidelines tells us to consider closing the trade if shares price dips below $80.00. These defensive trades are extremely low-risk but are not no-risk trades.

 

 

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Your generous testimonials

Over the years, the BCI community has been incredibly gracious by sending our BCI team email testimonials sharing stories as to what our educational content has meant to their families. Moving forward, we have decided to publish several of these testimonials in our blog articles. We will never use a last name unless given permission:

Upcoming events

1.Mad Hedge Investor Summit

Tuesday September 9, 2025

11 AM ET

Details to follow.

2. BCI Educational Series Webinar # 8: New Credit Spread Calculator

Thursday September 18,2025

8 PM ET – 9:30 PM ET

Over the past 2 years, BCI has been developing and beta-testing a 1-of-a-kind spreadsheet for entering and adjusting our credit spread trades. Like our Trade Management Calculator (TMC), our goal was to make it the industry standard. Only you can decide if we accomplished our mission.

Alan & Barry will introduce this product, review all the tabs inherent in the spreadsheet and demonstrate how to use it. A 1-time early order discount will also be offered.

For those who trade, or are interested in learning how to trade, credit spreads, this is a must-see webinar.

Click here to register for free.

3. Orlando Money Show

Orlando Resort @ ChampionsGate

October 16 – 18, 2025

• Opening ceremony keynote address
• 2-hours Master’s Class
• 45-minute workshop class

Details and registration link to follow.