I only had one option contract remaining today for May options expiration. My one IWM May $110 naked put will finish nearly $15 out of the money. Yesterday was the closest IWM traded to my strike for the past month, but was still more than $7 out of the money. I could’ve rolled the put earlier and been safe, but wanted to see how low the next dip would be before increasing my risk. As my May contract expires worthless and gives me a realized gain of $869.38, I’m more comfortable raising my strike now than a week ago. IWM is trading lower and has bounced off its lows. It could rollover again this afternoon or sometime in the next couple of months, but as … [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...]

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...]