This morning I was assigned 2 LEH Jan09 75 Puts.  I immediately (well almost) sold 2 LEH Jun08 30 Calls for a net deposit of $162.50 in an IRA account.  My basis for LEH is now 71.53 including all accumulated options premiums.

I am really surprised that it took this long for these LEH shares to be put to me.  I really wanted to roll them out again but they were so far underwater that I could not roll them out and net any additional premium.  I could certainly have just bought back the Puts but not giving up is one of my biggest investment faults.

On the other hand, LEH does pay a small dividend and the option premiums are relatively high.  I could roll this option out and up easily (if it becomes necessary) because of that.  There is a lot of fear associated with LEH right now.  It is certainly not something for the risk averse.  I think I will be okay with this one unless it starts to rise so fast that I cannot effectively roll out or it goes bust and I lose it all.  I don’t think either will happen just now.  Time will tell.