I only accidently noticed that these shares had been called away when I was doing some research in my account.  For whatever reason, E*Trade does not provide an alert when shares are sold as a result of a merger or reorganization, which is what happened in this case.  I’m pretty sure I lost money on these shares, even after dividends are considered but because I have not always kept track of the dividends received I don’t really know for sure.  I only know that I’ve received 30 cents per share since the beginning of 2009.

CKR was taken private.  The last I looked the offer was at 11.50 per share so I was surprised to see that I actually received 12.55 per share.  I sold the Sep10 12.50 Calls back in Mar10.  Maybe getting the higher price had something to do with that but I don’t really know.

Beginning on Monday, March 22, 2010, after the Mar10 Options expired I began to sell new Options for Apr10 and beyond.  Below is a picture of my new transactions so far.  I have additional transactions to make and will write about them as they occur.

I have written about most of the underlying stocks before so most of these transactions do not require additional comment.  For the Covered Calls transactions I generally select strike prices that I feel give me the best chance of the underlying stock not being called away.  For the Put transactions I generally select strike prices that I feel give me the best chance of the underlying stock not being assigned to me.  In some cases I don’t care if the stock is called away or put to me or some other situation is worth mentioning about the transaction.  I note those cases below.

The 3 CKR Sep10 Covered Calls at 12.50 are probably going to expire worthless if they even make it to September.  CKR has received and accepted an offer to go private at a price of $11.05.  CKR has the right to continue to search for better offers. 

DSX is already above the $15 strike price I sold for April.  $15 has appeared to be resistance going back to July of 2009 with a couple of higher peaks of around $18 and $16.50 in Nov and Jan.  DSX is certainly capable of being above $15 by April expiration just as it is capable of being below $15 at that time.  I chose the April expiration date because I was not real comfortable with where DSX might be going and the $15 strike price because I wanted to get a better option premium. I might need to roll the DSX Calls out to September if I want to do so at a profit.

I sold the AA Oct10 16 Covered Calls and the AA Oct10 14 Puts with the thought that AA would probably be above 14 in October but if not I could add some additional shares and reduce my basis for my total AA holdings.  If AA turns out to be above $16 in October I will need to roll it out simply because my basis is well above $16.

I have sold NYX Covered Calls at the $30 strike on 5 prior occasions since Jul09.  They have expired worthless each time.  NYX seems to have a hard time getting above, or staying above, $30.  I sold the current Calls only one month out because I am a little nervous about where it is going and did not want to be exposed very long to that strike

I have recently received notice of the following dividends paid in various IRA accounts for a total of $97.00:

This quarter marks the return of FCX dividends for the first time since October 2008.  The dividend is not near the prior levels of around .50 per quarter but is a positive sign nevertheless.

I use my basis per share, excluding dividends, to determine the simple and annualized percentage return because I feel that it gives me a better representation of the value of the dividends as they relate to my portfolio.  My basis may be above or below the market price which causes my return to be lower or higher than published yields for a stock.

On 11/23/09, I received notice of the following dividends paid in an IRA account for a total of $18.00:

I use my basis per share, excluding dividends, to determine the simple and annualized percentage return because I feel that it gives me a better representation of the value of the dividends as they relate to my portfolio.  My basis may be above or below the market price which causes my return to be lower or higher than published yields for a stock.

I rolled all of these Calls out and several of them up.  I had to go out farther than I normally like to do in order to make these trades net credits to my accounts.

BTC 2 BMY Aug09 21 Covered Calls and STO 2 BMY Dec09 21 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $106.98 in an IRA account.  My basis for these BMY shares is now 19.13, excluding dividends received.

BTC 1 MWW Aug09 15 Covered Call and STO 1 MWW Dec09 17.50 Covered Call for a net deposit of $68.49 in an IRA account.  My basis for these MWW shares is now 49.79.  There are no dividends for MWW.

BTC 2 BA Aug09 45 Covered Calls and STO 2 BA Nov09 50 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $116.99 in an IRA account.  My basis for these BA shares is now 63.41, excluding dividends received.

BTC 5 BAC Aug09 17 Covered Calls and STO 5 BAC Nov09 20 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $172.46 in an IRA account.  My basis for these BAC shares is now 23.29, excluding dividends received.

BTC 3 CKR Aug09 10 Covered Calls and STO 3 CKR Mar10 12.50 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $60.49 in an IRA account.  My basis for these CKR shares is now 15.98, excluding dividends received.

BTC 2 MO Aug09 18 Covered Calls and STO 2 MO Dec09 19 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $34.99 in an IRA account.  My basis for these MO shares is now 35.81, excluding dividends received.

And that concludes the list of Aug09 options that I rolled out rather than allowing the underlying shares to be called away.  I live to fight another day.  Now I need to write a post about some new trades I’ve made since then.