beginners corner
Tag Archives: rolling down

Rolling-Down On a Sharp Market Decline at the End of a Contract

Exit strategy opportunities may be created when there is a substantial 1-day market decline and we must be prepared to take advantage of these occasions. In June 2020, there was an 1800 point decline in the Dow 30 due to coronavirus concerns and national unrest related to police shootings. Many members of the BCI community […]

22 Comments Continue Reading →

The Poor Man’s Covered Call: Rolling Options in the Current Contract Month + 15% Holiday Discount Expiring Soon

Exit strategies are critical to our overall success whether using traditional covered call writing or the Poor Man’s Covered Call (PMCC). In this article, we will evaluate scenarios when share price both declines and accelerates creating rolling-down and rolling-up opportunities in the current contract month. The BCI PMCC Calculator will assist with the computations.   […]

25 Comments Continue Reading →
covered call writing calculations

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 […]

17 Comments Continue Reading →

Interpreting Exit Strategy Calculations Versus Final Calculations

Mastering option calculations is an essential skill needed to attain the very highest covered call writing returns. Although the Ellman Calculator will do most of the heavy lifting for us, understanding the reasons behind these calculations and when and how to apply them, will make us all more skilled investors. Recently a BCI member sent […]

26 Comments Continue Reading →
covered call writing exit strategies

Analyzing a Rolling Down Trade During an Extreme Short-Term Market Decline

Exit strategy opportunities must be taken advantage of with our covered call writing and put-selling trades. When there is a significant overall market decline in the short-term, there will be losses. Our job, as option-sellers, is to mitigate those losses using our position management skill. On October 20, 2018, Alvin shared with me a series […]

28 Comments Continue Reading →
technical analysis for covered call writing

Multi-Leg Option Trades: Understanding Calculations and Results

Covered call writing involves a minimum of 2 legs: we are long the stock (own the stock) and short the option (sold the option). There are many times when we employ the position management skill and options are bought back and new options sold or our underlyings are sold. This adds additional legs to the […]

23 Comments Continue Reading →

Rolling Down Our Put Positions: When and Why?

  Rolling Down Our Put Positions: When and Why? When selling cash-secured puts, our breakeven stock price is the (out-of-the-money) strike price less the put premium. Our exit strategy guideline as to when to close the short put (buy back the put) is when share value declines to more than 3% below the strike price. […]

25 Comments Continue Reading →
stop losses for covered call writing

Setting Stop Loss Orders for Covered Call Writing

After entering our covered call writing trades, we immediately go into position management mode. For most of us who started our stock investment careers buying and selling stock, this may include setting stop loss orders to mitigate losses when share price declines. For example, if we purchase a stock at $40.00, we may set a […]

26 Comments Continue Reading →
covered call writing calculations

Mitigating Losses After a Disappointing Earnings Pre-Announcement

A critical BCI rule for covered call writing is never to sell an option if there is an upcoming earnings report prior to contract expiration. Earnings reports are risky events we want to avoid. From time-to-time a company will pre-announce earnings especially if there will be a negative story to tell its shareholders when the […]

41 Comments Continue Reading →

Exit Strategy Selectivity: Can We Implement Too Many Exit Strategies?

Covered call writers, historically, have ignored exit strategies as part of their investment approach. Certainly, not in the BCI community but most everywhere else. As we become aware of the major financial benefits of mastering the position management skill, we must be mindful of the possibility of over-management. Eating a slice of pizza is enjoyable, eating a […]

19 Comments Continue Reading →