On 7/23/12, I sold 1 FCX Nov12 $39 Covered Calls in my Taxable Account for a net deposit of $48.24.  My basis for these FCX shares is now $36.71, excluding dividends received.  This transaction represents a simple return of about 1.03% with annualized returns of about 4.04% on my prior basis with 117 days to expiration

As I have noted before, I have made similar trades on FCX recently, some of which were assigned as desired, while some were not which allowed me to sell new options.  In this case, the Calls I sold on these FCX shares expired in July allowing me to sell new Covered Calls on them.  I would have preferred selling the weekly Covered Calls but FCX is down enough that I could not get a decent premium at my desired strike price.

S&P has a 12-month price target of $44 and a Buy recommendation.  MarketEdge has a lower price opinion of $33.47 with a Long opinion.  The 19 Yahoo Analysts currently have a 12-month price target of $49.00 and have a recommendation of 1.7; on a scale where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.

At the risk of repeating myself, I actually like FCX and would like to own more of it.  However, I am using these shares as a trading vehicle in an attempt to generate cash flow more quickly.  Even as I make those comments, I realize that I in fact own more of it.