Archive for March, 2009

Option trade: Southern Copper (PCU) covered calls

While the market’s short-term uptrend remains intact, a pullback or consolidation of some sort seems increasingly likely – especially as the major indices approach what are likely to be significant upside resistance levels. As a result, my only new position this week is a covered call:
Southern Copper (PCU: 0.00 N/A, yld: N/A%) – I sold [...]

Option trades and expiration: NYX, PCU, KFT, ADM & more!

This week was March options expiration and, as usual, I had a number of options positions expiring:

Air Products & Chemicals (APD: 78.04 +1.10%, yld: 2.44%) – Some March 35-strike puts I sold against APD last November expired out-of-the-money (OTM) for a 5-month net return of 12.9%.*
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM: 32.00 +1.46%, yld: 1.87%) – The [...]

Options trades: Frontline (FRO) and Aflac (AFL)

I made the following options trades recently as further defensive moves in my portfolio:
AFLAC (AFL: 50.94 +1.84%, yld: 2.24%) – Early last week as AFL dropped into the low teens I rolled over my short put options position by buying back the August 25-strike put options I was short and selling some January 2010 12.5-strike [...]

Options trades: 3M, Norfolk Southern, General Dynamics and more!

As the market continues to move lower – and as likely future 10 to 20-year annual real returns edge up toward the high single digits – I’m increasingly viewing my put option sales as a way of establishing potential long-term investment positions. When stocks were trading at all-time highs and the average dividend yield was [...]