Archive for July, 2009

July options trades and expiration: BP, MMM, ERF, VIX & more!

This week was July options expiration and I had the following options positions expiring:

BP plc (BP: 56.19 0.00%, yld: 5.98%) – The July 45-strike puts I sold against BP last January (which had themselves been rolled out and down from the January 50-strike puts I’d sold against BP last September) expired out-of-the-money (OTM) for a [...]

Options trades: COP, NYX, MT, EMR & more!

The market’s sideways action and declining volatility while remaining near its recent highs didn’t make for a lot of tempting put-selling opportunities during May and June. But that has started to change recently as the market has pulled back, and as a result I’ve stepped up my put selling activity (see below).
I’m well aware that [...]