This morning I BTC 1 TIE May08 17.50 Covered Calls and STO 1 TIE Dec08 22.50 Covered Call for a deposit of $42.51 in my taxable account.

I don’t normally like to sell Covered Calls so far out and for such a small premium but I wanted to roll up enough to provide some additional room for the stock to continue moving up.  The 22.50 strike price may not be enough but by December I should be able to roll it out and maybe up again.

The market is moving so fast in some areas that I can’t seem to keep up with it.  After April 2008 expiration I sold Covered Calls on several stocks at strike prices that I thought would allow them to expire worthless.  I was expecting the market to continue moving essentially sideways.  TIE is one example that did not behave as expected causing me to roll out and up.  Yesterday it was AA, MNST and NYX.  Again today I see that NYX has already moved ahead of my new strike price.  I have the same situation with DIVX but have not dealt with it yet.   In this case I need to call the broker (E*Trade) because for some reason (they gave me a reason but it sounded lame) they will not allow on-line trades on DIVX options.  With the exception of AA the other stocks I felt compelled to take action because my basis is below the strike price.  I am never happy just getting out of a stock with a loss when I can attempt to “fix” it with options.

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 don’t have anything specific to say about the following May08 Calls so I will just list them for the record.

• 2 BAC 40 for 86.50 in an IRA account
• 6 BVF 12.50 for 69.50 in an IRA account
• 2 NYX 70 for 388.50 in an IRA account
• 1 MNST 25 for 96.25 in an IRA account

I generally like to sell calls for the front month because it turns the money faster and makes it easier for me to monitor and roll out or out and up if necessary.