October worked out well for me since I more than made up for my September losses and saw my account balance improve as the major indexes lost ground. I timed my QQQ covered call well, but should’ve used a lower strike (at least so far). My TLT position played the main roll for my account’s success in October and still has a lot more room for gains. I would’ve done even better if I had sold more naked calls, but I opted to reduce my risk and didn’t replace my October calls. I will, but want to see how the election reaction plays out. Hopefully, I can make another move later this week if not next week. My account ended October with a … [Read More...]

TLT has been trading above my naked calls strike off and on for the past couple of weeks. I thought it could be smart to remove some risk yesterday when TLT was trading above $172. I don’t think it’ll continue to trade at these levels too long, but the risk of being assigned another 500 shares started sounding less appealing as it continues to push higher. Instead of closing the full position, I opted to partially close my exposure. While TLT was trading at $170.13, I bought to close three TLT August $170 calls for $1.95 each and paid $586.12 including $1.12 in commission. That gave me a realized gain of $18.92 with two more contracts still at play. I’d love to pocket the remaining … [Read More...]

After missing opportunities in late August to sell a covered call on my 100 QQQ shares, I finally pulled the trigger today after seeing QQQ recover most of its losses from the past month and a half. While QQQ was trading at $294.70, I sold one QQQ December $305 covered call for $10.76 and received $1,075.34 after paying $0.66 in commission. I bought these 100 QQQ shares after being assigned the stock at $225 from an April naked put that I sold back in February when QQQ was trading at $231.67. Contrary to my typical trading plan, I opted to hold onto my shares without selling a covered call as I saw QQQ as the best opportunity for growth. That plan has worked out for me so far, but … [Read More...]

I expected the final monthly options expiration before the election to provide some volatility and we got a little, but not as much as I thought we might get. My only concern for this account today was how TLT behaved. My October options finished well out of the money. My five TLT October $155 covered puts expired worthless along with my one TLT October $165 naked call and my three TLT October $170 naked calls. My covered puts gave me a realized gain of $222.41 after I deduct the short dividends payments of $176 I made in September and October from the $398.41 I received in premiums. I made a realized gain of $1,319.02 from my three $170 strike naked calls and an additional realized gain of … [Read More...]

I had two legs of options on TLT that expired worthless today. Both gave me a full profit. My two TLT August $170 naked calls finished with a realized gain of $403.36. My five TLT August $145 covered puts brought in $320.55 when I sold them, but I paid $190.90 in dividends in July and August on top of the $39.34 in short interest I paid. The net total gave me a realized gain of $90.31 on these puts.  I didn’t sell the puts with a focus on bringing in another profit stream, but instead was only trying to cover my costs of holding the short position. So, the puts did what I hoped and left the door open to profits if TLT had fallen quickly … [Read More...]

Today’s options expiration decision making took me about three seconds. I only have one option left for July expiration, my one IWM July $123 naked put. It’s more than $23 out of the money and expiring worthless to give me a realized gain of $803.34.  IWM was trading at $124.52 when I made the trade and late in the trading day today, IWM is at $146.62. After mid-June, the low trades were in the $136-137 range as it bounced along in a sideways trading channel. On Wednesday, IWM pulled above its trend line of lower highs, but I’m not convinced we aren’t going to see it move lower before we break out meaningfully. Due to my concern about the downside risk and … [Read More...]

June was another positive month for my account. I didn’t break any records with my gains, but my account balance did improve more than the Dow and S&P 500 indexes again. Small-caps, mid-caps, and the NASDAQ beat me for the month, but I’m ahead of all, except the NASDAQ, for the year-to-date and the past 12 months. TLT remains as my biggest holding (as a short) and moved against me slightly, but my options on it made up the difference and then some. QQQ was my biggest gainer with an improvement of $1,424. I had planned to sell a covered call on it, but I decided to let it continue to climb unrestrained since I don’t have a lot of other … [Read More...]

May was another good month for my account as stocks climbed and bond yields rose. My biggest opportunity for gains is in TLT still. With 500 shares short and additional naked calls in play, I have more upside potential from TLT’s decline than from another other position. I’m gaining on my equity naked puts too, but not as much and with a much lower cap on potential gains. My account performance remains much better than all indexes outside of the NASDAQ for the year-to-date and for the past 12 months. My account ended May with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $99,621.81 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending April with a balance of $95,384.17. I had a paper gain of $4,237.64 (+4.44%) on … [Read More...]

My TLT option combination for June that reaches expiration Friday in two and a half weeks seems safe from being assigned. My strikes on the June options are $145 for the covered puts and $180 on the naked calls. I have a paper profit of $249 on the June puts, minus the $230 or so in short interest and dividends I’ve paid. My naked calls have a paper profit of $1,688 so far. The purpose of the puts is to pay for my short interest and dividend payments while I wait for the share price to drop again. That’s working. The naked calls are both another way to bring in profit and, if the new options are assigned, raise my average price per share from … [Read More...]

Idiot governors, such as my state’s Governor Kemp (Georgia), might make my trades today poorly timed. By opening up the state from our lockdown while cases are still trending higher, we can expect a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases again. That’s the general consensus, but the hope is that my fellow Georgia citizens are smarter than our governor and won’t fill bowling alleys, gyms, churches, and salons too quickly. I recognize that being smarter than Kemp is a low bar to beat and that’s why I’m hopeful. My plan from the beginning was to sell puts to go with my short position if I was assigned my first round of TLT naked calls. I also planned to add more naked calls if … [Read More...]

January was a blah month by the end. It began with what appeared to be a missed opportunity for me, but I remained cautious and waited for a better entry point. The result was that my account barely moved and is in between the losses of the Dow and S&P 500, which is not much. I’m still wary of what might cause the market to move in either direction. The coronavirus is developing still and we don’t know how much of an economic impact it will have. I expect a few more rough days in the near-term and then maybe the market will reset after a solid consolidation phase. If we have a relatively calm week, I might start dipping my toe deeper into … [Read More...]

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know that I’m a fan of selling calls on TLT. The basis for my attraction to the bond ETF is that it’s volatile and tends to follow patterns. Most importantly, when it does reach new highs, it reverses away from these price spikes within weeks usually. Selling naked calls on any stock or ETF is risky, but I recognize these risks (especially since I’ve made mistakes with my approach in the past) and have learned to manage the trade better when I’m wrong on my timing. While TLT was trading at $143.09, I sold five TLT April $149 naked calls for $1.15 each and received $573.66 after paying $1.34 in commission. … [Read More...]

I came into 2020 with a light load of equity exposure and that low percentage of my invested cash is only going lower today. I had three option contracts expire today and sold one new one. Two of my option contracts were on IWM where I had a strangle using an IWM January $160 naked put and an IWM January $164 covered call. Technically, I guess that’s not an exact strangle since I was long 100 shares of IWM, but you get the point. My put expired worthless and my covered call will be assigned, forcing the sale of my 100 IWM shares more than $5 below where it’s trading this afternoon. I bought my IWM shares at $171 when I was assigned a naked put. Including that … [Read More...]

I made over $600 in five weeks. That’s always fun, especially when I don’t put up any money to back the trade. When these trades work out, it’s a thing of financial beauty to sell call options on shares you don’t own (aka “naked”). That means I had no capital set aside to back the order. If my naked calls were assigned I would’ve been forced to short the shares of the underlying ETF and my margin totals would’ve been adjusted accordingly, but until the options are assigned, the margin impact is extremely small and I don’t even bother adding it to my spreadsheet most of the time. While TLT was trading at $138.28, right at the open … [Read More...]