At the end of last week I sold 6 GM Jun08 15 Puts for a net deposit of $143.50 in an IRA account.

GM has been taking a beating recently, including being down another .55 today.  The talking heads on CNBC tell us that GM is currently at a 26 year low (this must be pre-split, March 1989, pricing).  According to the company, the strike at American Axle will cost GM about 2.8 billion dollars.  The rising gasoline prices which depresses their most profitable truck and SUV lines (56% of their sales) has not helped either.

Despite all of the negativity (which I think is normally overblown) I think the 15 strike price is either going to be a safe bet or, if I am assigned, a good base to begin selling Covered Calls and collecting the .25 per quarter dividend.  In my charting software I see that the last time that GM was at 15 was post split in the 2nd quarter of 1992.  Of course, it could go there again.  I also see that although Citibank lowered the price target on GM the move was to 21 from 32 and they rated GM a hold.  If that has any value, it is certainly above my 15 strike price.  We’ll know in about 3 weeks.