12 Comments

I might sell MRK puts on the dip. And I'm waiting to sell puts on CAT and ORCL when and if they dip.

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PSX cost me $101 when it was put to me. Late yesterday, I sold PSX 6.16.23 $105 strike calls(9 days, delta .19, OTM probability 81.8%) for $0.46 a share on a 100-share option contract. RoR was .46%, or 23.75% ARoR if I get the same results on this kind of trade 52 times a year.

Petroleum prices were rising yesterday. They're down a bit this morning. My strategy was to take a small RoR in the hopes that the stock will rise about 4% to over $105 and be called on June 16. The delta suggests that there is about 19% probability that that will happen.

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I'm waiting for a dip to sell puts, but ORCL continues to rise. CAT is up $3.16, which makes my sale of CAT $195 puts yesterday look pretty good.

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Markets are stalled while speculators wait to see what the Fed will do with fed funds rates next week.

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Apple's VisionPro head set looks like a good deal at $3,500.

That is about half the $7,148 per Mac Plus price I paid in 2023 dollars in 1986 when the nominal price was $2,599. A new Mac Studio, one of the greatest computers you can buy, costs less than $2,000, not including the four monitors you can use with current versions and the six monitors that you'll be able to use with the new Mac Studio that was announced Monday.

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AAPL: Nice upgrades to Mac Studio, Mac Pro and 15" MacBook Air. IOS and IOP new features aren't useful for me. Just more stuff to learn. I won't need to upgrade anything.

MAC OS Sonoma no big deal. I'll upgrade to get the new security that is always included with upgrades.

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My MRK puts expired worthless on Friday. Cumulative premiums collected were $1.81. Bought MRK for $113.41 and sold MRK 6.30.23 $116 strike covered calls for $1.12. Net Debit is $113.41-1.12-1.81=$110.48. RoR is 0.99% times 15 trades a year gives a potential ARoR of about 14.42%. Dividend yield on net debit is about 2.64% if collected 4 times a year. Ex dividend is 6.14. If the stock is called before then I'll still get a 2.28% gain, or If I got that gain 25 times a year the ARoR would be about 57%.

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CAT dipped to $222.90. I sold CAT 6.30.23 $200 puts (delta -.09, OTM probability 89%, IV 29.34%, margin of safety 10.3%. Options price was $0.90 per share. RoR 0.404% on 25-day trade. ARoR if trades like this get same result 12 times in the next 12 months would be about 5.9%.

On this trade, I sold CAT at a nice profit last year at $210. I want to buy it back for $200 or less. So the chance to buy the stock at a 10% discount is more important at this point than the ARoR.

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I'm looking at selling puts on the stocks in this portfolio. I may do some today, especially if we get a real dip. Otherwise, income traders have to take the trades that are offered and trade more cautiously when premium prices are low as they are now.

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Southern Co. (SO) is up this morning. When it was at $69.96, I sold SO 6.30.23 expiration $71 strike covered calls for $0.90 when the bid was $0.80 and the ask price was $0.95. RoR on the 25-day trade will be 0.58%. If I get the same results on the same kind of trade 15 times over the next 12 months, the annualized ROR would be about 18.5% plus about a 4% dividend if all the dividends are collected.

The price pop allowed me to use the $71 strike instead of the $70 strike I was considering yesterday. If SO is called, there won't be a gain on this trade, and I will sell puts again. This trade is in an IRA so the taxable equivalent returns are even higher than reported here.

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Thanks Donald! Once again your analysis is much appreciated. The stocks you list are pretty much the same grouping that Jeff M worked with 3 years ago! Stodgy stocks was the term he used. I find all of them worth taking a look at. I have learned during these last three years to be careful of choosing stocks with high premiums/high risks!....PLTR is my best example! Throw PARA in there to! Have to get back to basics! But stlll holding on to SOFI! Thanks again.

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@Brewmeister. Thanks again for the comment. Yes, I am using Jeff's strategy on this portfolio. He charged us $500 a year for his excellent service. Mine is still free. I do more puts trading than he did but he approved the puts strategy. If he hadn't died, I would still be a subscriber.

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