I thought I had already posted this but I guess I thought wrong.

On Thursday, Jan 17 I rolled out 2 Agrium Inc (AGU) Jan09 65 puts to Feb09 76 puts for a net of $480.99 in an IRA account.  My basis for the stock if put to me would now be $61.09.  AGU is up a little today, closing at 58.08.  It has good premiums (e.g. the Mar09 65 call bid closed today at 3.60 and the Feb09 65 bid closed at 1.80) so if the stock stays  around this price or higher I may let it be put to me in Feb and sell covered calls.  My sentiment about the market in general will probably influence my decision.

On the same day I also BTC 2 Halliburton Company (HAL) Jan09 35 puts.  I did not roll it out again.  I have been rolling this out since Aug06 and was up $694 and decided to take the profit and relieve some potential liability thereby increasing my purchasing power in an IRA account.  I think there will be some great opportunities in the next few days, if not weeks.  HAL has continued to fall so I could even sell puts again in it at a lower strike price if I want to.

I almost forgot these two new put transactions.  I did both of them on 12/26/07.

I sold 2 AGU Jan08 65 puts for $300.50 in an IRA account.  Jim Cramer spoke about this one a few days earlier.  It is an agricultural retailer and fertilizer producer.  It has a great chart and good fundamentals.  Part of the attraction here is leveraging the demand for agricultural products, in particular to support the bio-fuel industry.  Even though bio-fuel is not the most efficient way to create energy it has a lot of popular support and with the recent energy bill that Pres. Bush signed there is even more support.  This creates demand for this stock (and others).  Cramer compared AGU to FCX because of its aggressive acquisition bias.

I also sold 1 COP Feb08 85 put for $203.25 in an IRA account.  COP is also a Jim Cramer pick as best of breed.  In his most recent book, Cramer calls COP out as one of his top 20 stocks to buy now which should be good for the next 5 years or so.  I believe that energy in general is a good place to be.  This stock pays a moderate dividend so if it is put to me I will keep it and sell covered calls because it would fit into my general investing philosophy.