We opened a covered call on AMT on Apr 1, 2021 (so far it hasn’t been an April Fool joke!). The strategy is working well. In addition to collecting the option premiums we have also received $251 in dividends. Stock appreciation is generating the bulk of the profit. The appreciation has forced us to “roll up” at losses resulting in a net loss on the options of $639. Pleased with the overall profit of the strategy……should sell higher strike calls. We have rolled the options 8 times and been assigned once. Position is with 100 shares of stock and selling 1 call.
Charts below shows the daily evolution of the stock, option, dividend and net profit.
We have rolled the options 8 times and been assigned once over the 102 days.
YTD the account is up almost 16%…..which is in line with the goal of 1-2% growth per month. The returns were much higher in 2020 but it was much easier to generate returns last year. We are more conservative this year with almost a third of the account in cash. Last week the account hit a new high for the first time since late April.
Table below is the current portfolio. All positions have/had call options written against the stock. ABT also has a short put option written as I would be okay with getting assigned and increasing the position. The put was written when the stock recently dipped (after reducing revenue and earnings guidance) and I was looking for a bounce back.
CFLT is a new position opened following their recent IPO. It should be an interesting stock to follow.
10 of the 12 positions are net profitable. Overall the options are generating negative returns in 6 of the 12 positions. I have been writing further “out of the money” strike prices to try and improve this.
Dexcom (DXCM) has been on a roll lately resulting in higher profits on the stock but forcing us to “roll up” at losses.
NIO remains a challenge as my timing never seems to match up. When the stock drops I say “why am I playing with such a volatile Chinese based stock and I sell….only to get pulled back in with all the hype and high premiums.
BCRX has been a great performer generating $86,137 in net profit so far. Option premiums are great and stock has performed well over the past year. PODD (Insulet) was also a new addition to the portfolio. Premiums are surprisingly high.
Today we closed our remaining June SPY Iron Condor (it has 21 DTE) and opened a Jul 30 IC. We currently have 9 open IC’s in the month of July. Profitability of the ladder has been improving and reached a new high today of $4,686. This is a 9% return on capital or 26% annualized. Capital required to carry the positions is $53,463 (equivalent to max loss of all the positions). The 26% annualized return has been steadily improving over since the low in late April. Although max loss is rarely incurred the risk/reward ratio needs to be monitored.
SPY volatility has reduced during the recent run up, decreasing the premium received when we open positions.
Open positions are in the table below. Colors break out the individual IC’s.
On Friday I was assigned on a covered call strategy for NIO. We opened the position 9/16/20 and have been rolling the short calls since then. I had an order in to roll the options but the order did not get filled and I was not able to check and adjust the order…..so I end up with a short term capital gain instead of holding on for another 107 days to get to long term capital gains.
We did not maximize the profit of the position. In early February before NIO stock started trending down the position had a profit of over $32,000 (black line in the graph below).
Overall NIO has been a good stock for a covered call strategy due to the excellent option premiums. Both the stock and options contributed to the overall profit…..a difficult combination to achieve. I will reopen a new CC strategy in NIO in the near future.
Graph shows the daily progress of the profitability of the position over the 258 days. How could I have improved the profitability….in October of 20 the stock went on a nice run. Profits could have been increased by either selling more “out of the money” strikes or just sitting on the stock. I did become more aggressive with strikes in December. When the stock started declining the contribution from the options became positive.
Yesterday life was too busy and we didn’t roll up our expiring DVN short calls….so we got assigned. When we entered the position on 5/20 we were planning on collecting the dividend of $.34 (ex div 6/11). Unfortunately the stock got called away. Return on Capital is good so not complaining…but missing $340 of dividends. We will likely reopen a similar position on Tuesday morning to capture the dividend.
Graph below shows the daily profit/loss for the position since opening. The drop in the blue line (stock) and increase in orange line (option) reflects the assignment.
Over the past year I have “managed” a covered call position on Amazon. During the year the short call options have been rolled 123 times. The rolls have been to keep the short strikes “at the money”. Both the stock ($83,839) and short options ($13,921) have both contributed to the profit.
The stock has dropped recently but gains from the options have offset some of the losses.
Reaching 365 days is a key part of the position strategy. The gains on the stock will now be taxed at the long term capital gains rate of 15% (assuming we hold on to the gain) versus short term capital gains.
Chart above shows the daily profit/loss for the stock/option and net starting January 24th.
It doesn’t happen often when a CC position is profitable on the stock, option premiums and dividends. Our position in CVS is currently positive with all three. Early on the stock dropped (blue line) so we were losing money on the stock and making money on the options (red line). Recently the stock has run up. In the table at the bottom you can see our option rolls as the stock increased in value. Our rolling could have been more aggressive (higher strikes) as the option profits have declined as the stock pushed higher. We remain bullish on CVS and like the dividend. Plans are to continue rolling the options and hold the stock. On Mar 15 we purchased 300 shares and sold 3 Apr 23 $74 Calls to start the position.
Lumber prices have gone crazy. Rather than complain about the prices we decided to establish a CC on one of the top lumber companies, WY. This “approach” has worked in the past with Peleton. We wanted to buy a Peleton so we set up a CC and paid for the bicycle 50x over. I don’t think WY has the same upside as PTON had but we might make some money and offset some of lumber costs on our porch expansion at the cottage.
On Friday we purchased 500 shares at $38.53 and sold 5 Jun 18 $39 Calls for $2.00. After one day we have made $191…..enough to buy a few boards!
We did look at the charts and liked the entry point. Company financials are in good shape and it pays a dividend that yields 1.75%. Based on the current housing shortage, lack of inventory at building outlets and consumers with lots of money for renovations we plan on holding the position and roll the calls. Q1 results were announced yesterday. We took advantage of the dip to establish our position.
On April 6 we established a CC on PBR when we bought the stock for $8.43 and Sold Apr 16 $8.50 Call for $.17.When we set up CC we were planning to collect the $.29 dividend (ex date Apr 15).
The stock dropped in value after we established the position (blue line in graph). Our $8.50 Call option expired and we wrote Apr 23 $8 Call which we rolled up and out to Jun 4 $8.50 as the stock price recovered.
The $145 in dividends we collected have made this position profitable (black line). Without the dividend we would be losing money. Dividends can make the difference between a winning or losing short term trade. We like the yield on PBR and plan on continuing to roll the options and hold the stock.
With CC’s the profit can come from the short option, stock appreciation up to strike price or from the dividend.
