On Monday, 5/19/08, I BTC 10 LVLT Jun08 5 Puts and BTC 10 LVLT Sep08 5 Puts for a net deposit of $159.01 in my taxable account.

This trade allowed me to lock in $218.99 from the prior Put sale (which was also a roll out) because LVLT has risen in value some and because the time value of my Jun08 Puts had eroded.  I see that some of the analysts that follow LVLT have raised their recommendationsto market perform.  I originally got involved with this stock based upon a Jim Cramer recommendation.  If I remember correctly, Jim still thinks that LVLT is below where it should be.  However, it does not really match my current model so if it ever expires worthless I will probably not get involved with it again.  If I should get assigned, I will probably hold it and sell Covered Calls for as long as I can.

This morning I BTC1 MNST May08 25 Covered Call and STO 1 MNST Dec08 30 Covered Call for a net deposit of $72.51 in an IRA account.

This roll out and up is farther out than I really wanted to do but I also do not want to have MNST called away at 25 as I own it at 41.14 even after this current transaction.  I was originally put MNST at 50.  If I remember correctly this was another Jim Cramer idea that I bought into.  He thought that MNST looked like a good takeover candidate for MSFT.  I have pretty much quit listening to Cramer’s ideas of this type.  Most of my new current activity is on stocks that pay a dividend and are less speculative.

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.