When we enter our covered call trades, we make our stock and option selection based on our initial time-value return goal (2% – 4% for 1-month expirations in my case). If the strike moves deep in-the-money as share price accelerates, we may consider closing both legs of the trade or rolling the option out or […]
Realized Versus Unrealized Capital Gains: A Real-Life Example with GWRE
Covered call writing calculations include initial and final computations. Since our trades incorporate both long stock and short option positions, it can become confusing when determining final capital gains (losses). In July 2019, Ralph shared with me a covered call trade he executed with Guidewire Software, Inc. (NYSE: GWRE). He sold an out-of-the-money (OTM) strike […]
Combining In-The-Money Strikes and Stock Dividends to Provide Protection in Bear Markets + Holiday Discounts
When establishing our covered call writing trades, we must factor in current market conditions to either add protection in bear and volatile environments or to take advantage of normal to bull market scenarios. On May 17, 2019, Mauricio sent me a diagrammatic strategy proposal that would lower the breakeven using an in-the-money (ITM) strike as […]
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 […]
Delta as the Sole Criteria for Covered Call Writing Strike Selection
Strike selection is the second required skill when writing covered call options or selling cash-secured puts. Over the years I have been asked to suggest a specific Delta for strike selection implying that this statistic would be the sole criterion to determine strike determination. This article will make a case why Delta, although important, should […]
Can We Manage Our In-The-Money Strikes to Create a No-Risk Investment Strategy?
Covered call writing is a low-risk cash-generating strategy. It is not a no-risk strategy. As we become educated and master the 3-required skills (stock selection, option selection and position management), it is understandable why BCI members try to figure out strategies that can convert low-risk to no-risk. Here is a common inquiry I receive from […]
In-The-Money Covered Calls: Intrinsic Value Protects Time Value: A Real-Life Example with TEAM + New Tool Coming Soon
Meaningful option calculations are essential in determining if the premiums meet our covered call writing goals. To this end, we must understand the mathematics of these calculations to become elite option-sellers. Now don’t worry…we don’t have to become Albert Einstein to be successful. But we do have to have a general understanding of the components […]
Understanding the “Paid-Up” Risk When Rolling Out-And-Up: A Real-Life Example with FIVE
One of our covered call writing exit strategies when the strike is in-the-money on expiration Friday is rolling out-and-up. This is when we buy back the near-month call (buy-to-close) and sell the next month’s higher strike. There are times when share appreciation has dramatically increased above the near-month strike price such that buying back the […]
Increasing Capital Gains When Selling Stock: Another Use for Covered call Writing
Covered call writing is a low-risk option-selling strategy typically used to generate monthly cash flow. When we capture call premium into our brokerage accounts, we are lowering our cost basis thereby increasing the opportunities for successful trades. This strategy can also be crafted to increase our capital gains (or decrease capital losses) when we decide […]
Evaluating the Success of our Covered Call Trades
Whenever a covered call trade results in a maximum return, it is a successful trade…period…end of story. To most, this statement appears nonsensical and self-evident. But I’m here to tell you that there are a lot of covered call writers that question that success. In late December 2017, Paul shared with me a series of […]
