Yesterday and today I sold Covered Calls on the various stocks whose Covered Calls expired in Jun08.  I don’t think any of these require additional discussion as I have written about them in various previous posts.  Enter the stock symbol in the search feature to find them if you have an interest.

These transactions represent $1382.75 in cash flow in addition to those which I have already written about yesterday and today.  Here are they are with quantity, stock, expiration type, strike price, Call/Put and net deposit amount.

• 4 YHOO Jul08 25 Calls – 109.00
• 4 TBI Jul08 15 Calls – 89.00
• 7 AUY Jul08 15 Calls – 365.75
• 2 LEH Jul08 25 Calls – 312.50
• 3 S Aug08 10 Calls – 19.75
• 2 BAC Jul08 30 Calls – 84.50
• 3 CKR Dec08 15 Calls – 139.75
• 2 PM Aug08 55 Calls – 30.50
• 2 IR Jul08 42.50 Calls – 50.50
• 2 IMB Oct08 2.50 Calls – 20.50
• 2 GOL Aug08 15 Calls – 60.50

After making the list I guess I should say that whenever possible I prefer to sell options which expire in the next month.  Sometimes that just doesn’t work for one reason or another, usually because I want to sell the call at a higher strike price and/or want to get a larger premium.  That explains why some of these expirations are further out.

Also, after todays action I see I may have some some with a strike price a little too close.  I’ve been feeling a little bearish lately and generally am expecting prices to stagnate for awhile.  I’ll just need to watch them and perhaps roll some of them out if I really don’t want to have the stock called away.  The notable excpetion here might be YHOO.  I think I might be okay if it gets called away at 25.  Although, something might be going on because YHOO was up .59 today.  As always, time will tell.

Most of the options I open for Jun08 expired worthless.  Most of them were Covered Calls which allowed me to in turn sell new Covered Calls on them.  In the interest of brevity, here is the list of expires with quantity, strike price and whether it was a Put or Call.  I will make additional posts shortly on specific stocks where I have something more to say about them.

Together, these expirations represent $3183.50 in prior deposits in my various accounts.

• 5 JOYG - 80 Put
• 2 PGH – 20 Put
•  7 AUY – 15 Call
• 2 BAC – 35 Call
• 3 CKR – 15 Call
• 51 FBR – 5 Call
• 1 FBR – 2.50 Call
• 2 GOL – 17.50 Call
• 2 IMB – 2.50 Call
• 2 IR – 52.50 Call
• 2 KFT – 35 Call
• 2 LEH – 30 Call
• 2 PM – 55 Call
• 3 S – 10 Call
• 4 TBI – 15 Call
• 4 YHOO – 30 Call

On Tuesday, 5/20/08, I sold 2 IMB Jun08 2.50 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $20.50 in an IRA account.

Sigh!  Another bank stock that is doing poorly.  With this sale my basis in IMB is now $35.39.  That is pretty embarrassing but there it is.  One might ask why I don’t just sell it and move on.  It may just be inertia, but I ask myself can I do better with the amount I would receive or do better selling the Covered Calls.  Often it appears that the return on the current stock value by selling Covered Calls is better than the return I might get elsewhere.  It turns out that way so often that I don’t even check most of the time.