I sold 4 BP Nov08 55 Covered Calls on 10/21/08 for a net deposit of $309.00 in an IRA account.  My basis for these BP shares is now 64.78.

BP is a good dividend payer at 6.78% and .84 last quarter.  It also has a pretty good option premium.  Even with the current price of oil way down I am still positive about oil’s long term value.  As best I can tell they are not making any more of it.  :-)  That just has to be good for it’s long term outlook.

I also own another 100 shares in addition to these 400 in the same IRA account with a Jan09 70 Covered Call outstanding.

On 8/22/08, I sold 2 BP Sep08 65 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $160.50 in an IRA account.  My basis for these BP shares is now 59.65. 

I also own 300 additional BP shares in the same IRA account.  BP pays a good dividend and a rising dividend, .84 in the prior quarter from .6495 four quarters ago.  Not only does it pay a good dividend, it also has pretty good option premiums.  I consider BP, as a representative of the petroleum segment, a core holding.

Here are the results for the options that I still had outstanding when the markets closed on Friday, 8/15/08.  I had four Put assignments and 22 Calls across multiple accounts that expired allowing me to keep all of the option premium.  The 22 Calls are summarized by stock across accounts resulting in 16 stocks being represented in the following list.  I will begin to sell Calls on these stocks starting tomorrow.