IB Account – 2021 Year End

The IB account generated a return of 17.5% (blue line) in 2021….within the goal of 1-2% per month but below the return of the SPX (500 stocks). Disappointed in performing below the SPX. My portfolio is overweighted on healthcare stocks. Omicron surge and the negative reaction was much higher in my account than the general market. At the end of October I was outperforming the SPX and looking at annualized returns in excess of 25%. Last couple of months were challenging.

No funds were added or removed from the account in 2021 .

The IB account was started with a $25,000 investment in 2012. No funds have been added or removed. The returns over the past 9 years have exceeded expectations especially in the past three years when I spent considerably more time on investing.

In the 4th quarter I added naked put writing to my strategy. Most of the open positions are comprised of a covered call + naked put. The naked puts are usually less than 50% of the number of covered calls. This strategy works well in a flat and up market. In a down market the naked puts amplify the losses on the stock.

A strategic decision that definitely impacted the return in 2021 was following the tax guidelines that do not cause the holding period on a stock to be reset (short calls have to be greater than 30 days before expiration and at least one strike price higher than the stock). Rethinking that decision for 2022 as a lot can happen in 30 days…..and any type of roll has to be out 30+ days.

Here is the portfolio leaving 2021……

Assigned on NIO on 5/29/21, Profit of $24,073 in 258 days, Return on Capital of 84.9% or 120% annualized

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.

NIO Covered Call “hanging in” despite price drop, VIAC CC not working so well

NIO CC Strategy established 9/16/20 has been able to hold onto most of the profits (black line) despite the erosion in stock profits (blue line). NIO call premiums have remained at a reasonable level due to the volatility. As the stock profits declined the option profits (orange line) has been offsetting. Overall the position is generating a profit of $23,184 a return on capital of 77% or 130% annualized. We would like to hold the shares until 9/16/21 so we pay long term capital gains on the stock.

Our VIAC CC strategy has not worked out very well so far. We bought the stock after the steep decline thinking it was a good entry point. Unfortunately the stock has continued to decline (blue line) and the profits from the short calls are not able to offset the stock decline. We will continue to hold the strategy and roll the calls as they expire as VIAC pays a good dividend and we feel confident the stock will eventually bounce back.

Update on SPY Iron Condor Strategy – Losing $175 despite a lot of effort and trading……Schwab might be winning on commission……

Difficult week for the IC strategy. The continued rise of the SPY over the past 12 days has created challenges. We have had to roll up Puts and use some of the incremental premium to roll up the Calls (only investing incremental premium received or the maximum risk associated with the strategy will be increased).

We also rolled a couple of IC’s ‘up and out’ as the ‘days to expiration’ were approaching 21 days (Tastytrade.com mechanics on when to roll/close options). The IC’s we closed have generated a profit of $2,289. Unfortunately the open IC’s are generating a loss of $2,464. Overall the strategy is losing $175. For $175 it has been good entertainment…..except the purpose is to make money not just keep me busy.

We need a pullback in the SPY ….or at least for it to stop rising for the strategy to return to profitability.

Closed MOS Covered Call/Iron Condor Position – Loss of $80, would have been much larger loss without IC

Yesterday we closed the position on MOS for a small loss. We opened the position as a covered call on 2/18/21 when we purchased 2,000 shares of MOS @$28.88 and sold 20 Mar 5 $29 Call options @$1.73. Shares jumped in price (blue line) but quickly fell back. We sold the shares on 2/26 for a small gain. When the stock was appreciating we rolled the short options up (to $30, $31, $33) as the losses on the short options were offsetting the stock gain. When the stock quickly pulled back the option premiums on the higher strike price were not enough to offset the losses on the stock. When we shut down the covered call the position we had lost over $3,500 on the options. We established the Iron Condor on 2/24/21. 30 Contracts April 16 +27P/-$29P and -$37C/+$39C. The IC performed well getting the overall position back to a loss of $80 (yellow and red lines).

Closed MU Covered Call/Iron Condor for profit of $4,346 in 52 Days

Yesterday (3/24) we closed our position in MU. We opened it on 2/1/21 as a covered call (Bought 200 shares @$79.71 and sold 2 Feb 12 $80 calls @$2.53. On February 23 we closed the covered call (Blue line goes flat) and opened an Iron Condor (Sold 20 Contracts April 16 +$65P/-$75P and -$105C/+$115C. Our goal was for the stock to remain between $75 and $105 so we could keep the premium collected. We closed the position yesterday as we were exceeding 50% of the max profit potential. The combination of CC and IC generated profits of $4,346 ($1,754 with the stock and $2,592 with the options).

Covered Call Strategy with SDC (Smile Direct Club) after 422 Days, $144,230 Unrealized Profit, 123% Return or 107% Annualized Return

We have been managing a covered call strategy on SDC for well over a year now. The excellent option premiums received when we roll the calls on a weekly basis have resulted in the options generating a profit of $53,309 in addition to the $90,921 generated by the stock..

The graph below illustrates the daily profit of the stock and options. It covers the period starting Jan 24 when we started with a new tracking system. The blue line on the graph shows the drop in stock profit from over $200,000 in January to under $100,00. Covered calls have offset some of this decline. The red line shows the increase in option profits from a loss to a profit of $60,000. Considering the stock has dropped from over $14 to $11 we are pleased with result (we initially purchased the stock at under $5). It is challenging to find a covered call strategy where both the stock and options are generating profits.

The approach has allowed us to build up a nice long term capital gain we can sell to “titrate” against short term losses generated by rolling up options on other covered call positions.

Covered Call and Dividend Capture for FOXA – 2 Days, 1% Return on Capital, 234% Annualized

On 3/8 we established a covered call with the intent of capturing a dividend. We purchased 500 shares of FOXA shares and sold a Mar 12 $41 Call. The dividend of $.21 went exdiv of 3/9. We sold the shares on 3/10. The shares appreciated in value generating a gain of $315. The stock appreciation resulted in the option losing $182 when we repurchased the option to close the position. The dividend generated $115. Overall the position generated $255 in profit in two days.

This is one of our first attempts at using covered calls to capture a dividend and exit the position immediately after it goes exdiv. We have a number of similar positions to see if we can consistently generate good short term profit with the strategy.

Update on AMZN Covered Call Strategy after 277 Days, +$92,620, ROI 81% or 107% Annualized

AMZN CC strategy continues to perform well. Tables below show the continued progress. In late January I switched the tracking software so the graph starts with the historical profit on the stock, option and net as of Jan 25. In the tables below it shows our all time profits on AMZN as well as the Current Position Profit. On the right is the current position in our portfolio.

The table below shows the importance of the call premiums. On 1/25/21 we had a profit on the stock of $90,011 and a loss on the options of $5,700 for net gain of $84,311. In the next 25 days the net price of AMZN declined and our profit on the stock dropped from $90,011 to $85,601. The option premiums collected during the 25 days (we rolled the options 14 times….to mostly ATM strike prices) improved the profitability on the options from ($5,700) to $7,019. Despite the drop in stock profit our overall net profit on the position increased from $84,311 to $92,620. Historically we have been challenged to create profit on the short options as the stock price continually increased. In the past 25 days the covered call strategy is performing the way we would hope.

This is not investment advice. I am sharing a position that has worked out well for me. No guarantee that it will work out in the future. Individual investor….not a licensed professional.

Iron Condor (IC) on ABT, DXCM

Our IC on ABT lost money this week as ABT stock increased in value. The table below shows the current status (ignore the -15 ABT 02/19/2021 $127 Calls as they are part of a covered call).

The “wings” of our IC include a call spread of $125/$135 (10 point spread) on the upper side and put spread $110/$120 (10 point spread) on the lower side. When we established the IC we received $13,255 in premium for selling the two spreads.

Max Profit = Premium Received.

Max Loss = Spread between the wings (10) * #contracts (30) * 100 shares per contract – Premium Received = $16,745.

Current stock price of $128.23 is above the lower strike on our call spread.

To realize max profit we need ABT to be between $120 and $125. When we set up the IC it seemed like a reasonable assumption. In hindsight I should have used a wider range. A wider range would have reduced the premium received (Max Profit) but increased the probability of the stock remaining inside the range. Position is currently losing $1,225.

The position has a lot of time left (expires March 19) and ABT may drop back. If the price goes above $135 we will incur the maximum loss. We do have an option of rolling up the Put from $120 to $125 which would generate additional premium and reduce the maximum loss.

Yesterday I established a new IC on DXCM following the earnings announcement. Took the lesson learned about wider range. The options in the table below with the quantity 20 and -20 make up the IC. The spread between the put spread ($360) and call spread ($460) is much wider than what we did on ABT IC. The stock has a $100 range to move and allow us to make maximum profit. Our Max profit is the sum of the premiums received ($15,680). Max Loss is the spread of the wings (20) x number of contracts (20) x 100 shares per contract – Premium Received = $24,320. Current profit is $1,340…….