Conservative option strategies, what did you buy or sell today?

[fenders53]

(03-06-2021, 01:35 AM)vbin Wrote: Glad it worked out for you. I got a MO call assigned today. That bring my MO position to less than I want. Will be selling puts next week for 3/19.

Watch out. It's gonna be volatile and 3/19 is TW. I think we can see a lot of selling and roll forwards.

I won't hold it to EXP if it pops some day next week.   This is first week in awhile I have rolled much.  I will just own ENPH if necessary.  I'd rather have more premiums while they are this good.  The green narrative will be with us awhile.

[NilesMike]

TW week is usually very bullish, week after-quite bearish.

[fenders53]

(03-06-2021, 07:46 AM)NilesMike Wrote: TW week is usually very bullish, week after-quite bearish.

I'm still keeping my finger on the buyback trigger for these puts.   When I get a chance to lock in a 50% profit in days it's going to happen.  This market is obviously nervous.  My PEP income attempt trick seemed low key.  I had no idea it would pullback 20 points.  I could have been holding long shares like I have for years so no real harm done yet.  Unless ENPH drops 25pts from here in 10 days.  I don't rule that possibility out.

[fenders53]

(03-05-2021, 10:30 PM)fenders53 Wrote: VBIN I know you roll puts sometimes.  Listen to this Hail Mary.  So maybe 6 weeks ago PEP hit 148 and I was pretty  sure earnings wouldn't be good enough.  So I sold my shares, then sold a strike 146 for some good premium.  PEP steadily drops.  I walk the put down every week and grab a little more premium.  I get it to strike 141 in about a month.  Expired today so I bought it back for $1100.  Ouch I am down about $700.  So I sold an at the money put in ENPH on the hard dip today for $1140.  Looked real good a couple hours later when it ran and put dropped to $600.  If ain't MAR 19th yet so I'll let you know.  I like ENPH but damn it's volatile lately.

And the $1140 put is worth only $99 just five days later so I just closed it.  Probably expire worthless actually, but then again ENPH price range swing has been $50+ the past few weeks.

[NilesMike]

I was going to demonstrate wheel trades on T since it got called away yesterday but my notes are such a mess that I can't reconstruct it myself-LOL

Here is the condensed upshot.

Did buy/write on T 5/27/20 $29.85

Collected 3 dividends $156 per 100 lot.
Collected $448 options premiums per 1 lot (100 shares)
Collected $15 capital gains per 100 lot-LOL
Total $604 for 11 months

20% YOC for 22% annualized, on a cash account.

With 6-1 portfolio margin one can see how the gains ramp up. Either way, it illustrates how to supersize your gains from a stock that essentially didn't move.

[fenders53]

Works great. I have about a dozen stocks I like to wheel. Some of them finally ran. It's a strat that works in varying markets.

[crimsonghost747]

Opinions on gold? Looking at the ticker specifically (GOLD - barrick gold corporation) but of course the price of the actual metal makes a huge difference here.
I do see that fenders has been busy with gold puts earlier this year.

Idea would be to buy now and immediately sell covered calls in the $20 to $25 range with a few different expiry dates through 2021. Or alternatively just sell some puts.

Quick reasoning: Overall the company is making great progress on the balance sheet side, dividend is growing nicely, they will be profitable even if the price of gold drops, however I think that no one is in a hurry to increase interest rates and with this ridiculous amount of helicopter money being thrown around, the macro situation should be more of a tailwind for gold price, right?

[fenders53]

I've been doing that with GOLD and NEM for nearly a year selling puts about 2-3 weeks out usually. Probably about 30 times. I got the timing wrong over half the time and it still worked out because the premiums ranged from good to very good. I ended up assigned about three times. Sold calls a few times on those.

If I was recommending a strategy.... "I'm not a licensed financial advisor, do your own due diligence".........

Just kidding, do this lol.... Spread out your contracts if you do more than one. Nobody knows what gold will do for sure, helicopter money or not. I happen to think GOLD and NEM are safer than most for some time to come. They claim they will be cashflow machines with gold much over $1100. I just don't see gold dipping like that with about every other commodity going GameStop mode lol. I think we are supposed to bury gold coins in the yard like a proper gold bug but I prefer the dividends from the big miners. Gold will never be a large part of my port.

BTW, GOLD is supposedly doing a special dividend this summer. That would make it's yield larger than NEMs for 2021 unless NEM does something similar. Pretty good chance GOLD will pop some on that announcement. I don't think a date is published yet but they should have to cash to do it.

Crypto is an issue for gold right now. A 50% correction in crypto will alter that thinking. Until then, some fools will think crypto is a hedge against their spec stocks.

[crimsonghost747]

(05-02-2021, 07:26 AM)fenders53 Wrote: I've been doing that with GOLD and NEM for nearly a year selling puts about 2-3 weeks out usually.  Probably about 30 times.  I got the timing wrong over half the time and it still worked out because the premiums ranged from good to very good. I ended up assigned about three times.  Sold calls a few times on those.

If I was recommending a strategy.... "I'm not a licensed financial advisor, do your own due diligence".........

Just kidding, do this lol....  Spread out your contracts if you do more than one. Nobody knows what gold will do for sure, helicopter money or not.  I happen to think GOLD and NEM are safer than most for some time to come.  They claim they will be cashflow machines with gold much over $1100.  I just don't see gold dipping like that with about every other commodity going GameStop mode lol.  I think we are supposed to bury gold coins in the yard like a proper gold bug but I prefer the dividends from the big miners.    Gold will never be a large part of my port.

BTW, GOLD is supposedly doing a special dividend this summer.  That would make it's yield larger than NEMs for 2021 unless NEM does something similar.  Pretty good chance GOLD will pop some on that announcement.  I don't think a date is published yet but they should have to cash to do it.  

Crypto is an issue for gold right now.  A 50% correction in crypto will alter that thinking. Until then, some fools will think crypto is a hedge against their spec stocks.

Thanks.
Yeah my plan is not 100% ready yet, but I was thinking indeed of grabbing 2-3 different expiry dates for the calls. One might be 2-3 weeks but I think the others will be much further out, I was eyeing September but we will see. Probably at a couple of  different strikes too. Might also sell a put or two but somehow I feel more like a covered call with this but there is still some math to do on those two possibilities.

A special dividend would be a pretty nice bonus on top of the regular div and the option premium.

[fenders53]

(05-02-2021, 08:13 AM)crimsonghost747 Wrote:

(05-02-2021, 07:26 AM)fenders53 Wrote: I've been doing that with GOLD and NEM for nearly a year selling puts about 2-3 weeks out usually.  Probably about 30 times.  I got the timing wrong over half the time and it still worked out because the premiums ranged from good to very good. I ended up assigned about three times.  Sold calls a few times on those.

If I was recommending a strategy.... "I'm not a licensed financial advisor, do your own due diligence".........

Just kidding, do this lol....  Spread out your contracts if you do more than one. Nobody knows what gold will do for sure, helicopter money or not.  I happen to think GOLD and NEM are safer than most for some time to come.  They claim they will be cashflow machines with gold much over $1100.  I just don't see gold dipping like that with about every other commodity going GameStop mode lol.  I think we are supposed to bury gold coins in the yard like a proper gold bug but I prefer the dividends from the big miners.    Gold will never be a large part of my port.

BTW, GOLD is supposedly doing a special dividend this summer.  That would make it's yield larger than NEMs for 2021 unless NEM does something similar.  Pretty good chance GOLD will pop some on that announcement.  I don't think a date is published yet but they should have to cash to do it.  

Crypto is an issue for gold right now.  A 50% correction in crypto will alter that thinking. Until then, some fools will think crypto is a hedge against their spec stocks.

Thanks.
Yeah my plan is not 100% ready yet, but I was thinking indeed of grabbing 2-3 different expiry dates for the calls. One might be 2-3 weeks but I think the others will be much further out, I was eyeing September but we will see. Probably at a couple of  different strikes too. Might also sell a put or two but somehow I feel more like a covered call with this but there is still some math to do on those two possibilities.

A special dividend would be a pretty nice bonus on top of the regular div and the option premium.

The best plan is 100% dependent on ones view of gold price moves in the short term.  I own some long shares due to assignments and I don't sell calls against my entire position .  Just in case gold flies right?  I know that is exactly what I was thinking 9 months ago.  Your narrative made complete sense a year ago too.  It ran a little and pulled back where it still hangs out.  I've done this long enough now and racked up a bunch of 2-3% income plays.  I would probably be down 10% on my long shares had I not sold a few calls.  Actually I think I am currently up 10% on GOLD shares and down 10% on NEM shares.  That has absolutely zero to do with the companies.  Just the timing of those particular put sells.  I really think playing it as a partial income and partial longer play isn't a half bad plan.  If you sell enough time and don't get greedy on the premiums you could let it run some.  If you buy shares tomorrow and sell a call for a 3% SP gain you are accepting the risk of a big slide and eliminating your chance of a decent gain too cheap.  I've done that too often for some quick income in other div stocks.  The upside needs to be proportional to the downside risk.  Telling you what you already know but it is very easy to forget when I am trying to steal $100 income today.

[fenders53]

I really could use some advice on this one. And now for my next truly conservative option income play I am going to do what we discussed on this thread over a year ago. It really does need to be conservative. One of my buckets is a cash bucket I built selling put options mostly. My incoming pension checks come in stages. This is $100K I want available for use for calendar 2023-2024. I was good with a 2% safe yield. Now it has dipped to .5% yield in an inflationary environment. The line has been crossed. I just moved half of it to my settlement account where it will yield nothing. I can't do anything fancy in this account, no chance I am playing with bonds and I see no other option than selling puts on very conservative stocks. This would be easy on a decent market dip. That isn't where we are. Premiums are weak on conservative stocks. Guess I will find a place to park the $50K for 30 days at a time until we get a real dip. At that point scores of quality stocks could work. MSFT at $150 not so much. Even a put on an index fund would suffice on a good dip. I need a VIXX spike lol. If half this cash bucket yielded 4% annually I could deal with the other half yielding next to nothing. All of it yielding nothing for years doesn't work.

[crimsonghost747]

Well. The GOLD cc would have worked absolutely amazingly, but I'm late to the party and I don't think it's a smart idea to initialize the trade when we are up 3% for the day.