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Tag Archives: in-the-money

Analyzing Market Assessment Based on Portfolio Setup

In May 2020, Gaetan sent me his portfolio positions for the May 2020 contracts. His cash available was $33,000.00 and decided to diversify with 5 different stocks. I thought it would be a useful exercise to look at his positions and analyze what we believe his overall market assessment was at the time of his […]

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covered call writing calculations

Selling Deep In-The-Money Calls to Exit Stock Positions

Covered call writing is used predominantly to generate cash flow in a low-risk manner. But it can also be used to exit stock positions while mitigating losses in those trades. As an example, I will use a series of trades shared with me by Ashvin on May 16th, 2019. The underlying security was iShares MSCI […]

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Blackjack and Covered Call Writing: Throwing the Odds in Our Favor with PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL)

Covered call writers and all investors using stock options strategies have one thing in common: we all want to achieve the highest possible returns within the framework of our own personal risk tolerance. The focus of this site and The Blue Collar Investor is to provide the education and to share ideas that will help […]

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covered call writing exit strategies

Rolling Option Considerations: A Real-Life Example with BEAT

Exit Strategies for covered call writing is the third required skill for successful implementation of this strategy (stock selection and option selection are the first two). This is also known as position management. One of the most common situations we face each month is when the strike price we initially sold is expiring in-the-money (stock […]

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Rolling Out-and-Up After Understanding the Math

Elite covered call writers understand the importance of position management in maximizing returns. As a result, I receive a significant number of inquiries regarding exit strategy execution. This article will highlight one such question I received from John which has two components to it. The main item relates to rolling-out-and-up, a frequently-used exit strategy in […]

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put-selling calculations and strike price selection

“Moneyness” Of Call And Put Options: Understanding Strike Prices

Strike price selection is such a key part of options trading basics and options calculations. There are 3 types of strike prices for both put and call options: in-the-money, at-the-money (and the closely related near-the-money) and out-of-the-money. Moneyness tells option holders whether exercising will lead to a profit.  Moneyness looks at the value of an option […]

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Calculating strike selection returns

Selecting The Best Strike Price

In last week’s article concerning option trading basics I highlighted the in-the-money strike in our covered call writing strategy. In this article I will expand our options calculations to all three types of strike prices. First, let’s review each of these categories: Out-Of-The-Money-Strike Prices: There is a reason why these are  popular strikes for many investors. […]

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THE FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE VALUE OF YOUR OPTION PREMIUM plus Our Readers Pick their Favorite Stocks

So you sold an options contract for $380 and generated a 3.5% 1-month return. Did you ever wonder how the market determined the value of that contract to be $380? The simple equation that most of us know and understand is the following:  Option premium = Intrinsic Value + Time Value To review, let me […]

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