Stocks and Options » LEH

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) – Sold Sep08 Calls

Bill — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:16:20 +0000

On 8/20/08, (I’m only a week behind now ) I sold 2 LEH Sep08 20 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $44.50 in an IRA account. My basis for LEH is now 69.10.

Since I am so underwater you can guess that I do not want LEH called away. I continue to chip away at my basis each month while collecting the dividends that LEH pays. It’s not great in relation to my basis but the .17 per quarter is about 5.06% based on current valuation. If only my basis was closer to the current price of 14.78 where it closed today.

Aug08 Options Results

Bill — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:43:54 +0000

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.

Stock Symbol	Option Symbol	Call/Put	Bought / Sold	Strike Price	Number of Contracts	Result
AUY	AUYHC	Call	Sold	15.00	10	Expired
BA	BATM	Put	Sold	65.00	2	Assigned
BAC	BACHG	Call	Sold	35.00	2	Expired
BP	BPHM	Call	Sold	65.00	2	Expired
CCJ	CCJHH	Call	Sold	40.00	2	Expired
DIVX	QDWHB	Call	Sold	10.00	2	Expired
DSX	DSXHG	Call	Sold	35.00	2	Expired
FNM	NJWTJ	Put	Sold	10.00	4	Assigned
FRE	FRETB	Put	Sold	10.00	2	Assigned
FRE	FREHB	Call	Sold	10.00	2	Expired
GGC	GGCHA	Call	Sold	5.00	11	Expired
GM	GMHC	Call	Sold	15.00	12	Expired
GOL	GOLHC	Call	Sold	15.00	2	Expired
LEH	LYHHE	Call	Sold	25.00	2	Expired
MO	MOHM	Call	Sold	22.00	2	Expired
PDS	PDSTX	Put	Sold	22.50	2	Assigned
S	SHB	Call	Sold	10.00	3	Expired
TIE	TIEHC	Call	Sold	15.00	2	Expired
VCLK	QCSHW	Call	Sold	17.50	2	Expired
YHOO	YHQHE	Call	Sold	25.00	4	Expired

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH) – Sold Aug08 Calls

Bill — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:26:36 +0000

Last Thursday I said that I would probably be able to finish documenting my trades after July options expiration. Well, as you may have surmised, life intruded in my plans. I’ve got a couple of free hours now so maybe I can finish today while watching CNBC and my portfolio. So, here I go…

On 7/23/08, I sold 2 LEH Aug08 25 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $130.50 in an IRA account. I am still way under water on LEH with a basis after options but excluding dividends of 69.32. LEH is trading right now at just over $16. LEH has paid a dividend of .17 per share per quarter for the past two quarters. It was .15 for the two quarters prior. The current rate is 3.67% annualized.

I am not quite sure what I think about LEH. I am a bull by nature so tend to think that LEH will be okay in the long term and will be a profitable trade for me, eventually. As you may have noticed in my recent writings I have developed a “chip away” philosophy for those stocks that I am underwater. I am chipping away at LEH.

Options Expired for Jul08

Bill — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:28:44 +0000

I am still catching up from being on vacation for 17 days so I am still a little behind posting recent activity in my various accounts. I think I can post everything today.

July has been an okay month for me. Or was it? I own 200 shares of IndyMac Bank (IDMC) and used to own 200 shares of Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC). Of course the CFC is now 36 shares of Bank of America (BAC) which is a little better than CFC.

As I wrote earlier, I was assigned 300 share of Yamana Gold (AUY) in an IRA account which I am okay with. As document earlier I rolled out several Jul08 options that I did not want to be assigned or called away. All of the rest of my Jul08 option positions expired worthless allowing me to keep all of the option premiums. Here is the list of those options that expired. Note that the Total Received column may be higher because it is the result of rolling out a prior option. For example, the AGU Put was originally sold in Dec07 and rolled out three times before it finally expired in Jul08. The actual net received was 8.72 per share or $1744. Still not too bad though. Also, where there are multiple rows for a stock each row represents a separate trading account.

Stock Symbol	Option Symbol	Call/Put	Bought / Sold	Strike Price	Number of Contracts	Total Received
AGU	AGUSM	Put	Sold	65.00	2	2010.48
ALSK	ULOGC	Call	Sold	15.00	5	138.25
ALSK	ULOGC	Call	Sold	15.00	4	89.00
AMD	AMDGK	Call	Sold	8.00	2	286.50
AUY	AUYGC	Call	Sold	15.00	5	263.25
AUY	AUYGC	Call	Sold	15.00	1	51.25
AUY	AUYGC	Call	Sold	15.00	1	51.25
BAC	BACGF	Call	Sold	30.00	2	84.50
BP	BPGM	Call	Sold	65.00	2	360.50
CCJ	CCJGH	Call	Sold	40.00	2	200.50
ETFC	EUSGA	Call	Sold	5.00	4	69.00
ETFC	EUSGA	Call	Sold	5.00	8	146.00
GGC	GGCGA	Call	Sold	5.00	6	137.50
GGC	GGCGA	Call	Sold	5.00	3	49.75
GGC	GGCGA	Call	Sold	5.00	2	20.50
GM	GMGC	Call	Sold	15.00	6	275.50
GM	GMGC	Call	Sold	15.00	6	305.50
HOG	HOGGV	Call	Sold	42.50	2	200.50
IR	IRGV	Call	Sold	42.50	2	50.50
LEH	LYHGE	Call	Sold	25.00	2	312.50
MO	MOGM	Call	Sold	22.00	2	38.50
PDS	PDSGF	Call	Sold	30.00	2	50.50
TBI	TBIGC	Call	Sold	15.00	4	89.00
TIE	TIEGD	Call	Sold	20.00	2	70.50
WM	WMGR	Call	Sold	12.50	1	15.25
YHOO	YHQGE	Call	Sold	25.00	2	54.50
YHOO	YHQGE	Call	Sold	25.00	2	54.50

Sold various Covered Calls from Jul08 to Dec08

Bill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:46:29 +0000

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.