On 7/22/08, I sold 2 BAC Aug08 35 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $56.50 in an IRA account.  After option premiums, but without considering dividends, my basis is now 45.77 for these BAC shares.

BAC pays a decent dividend at .64 per share per quarter for a 7.91% annualized return.  BAC reaffirmed this dividend in quarterly meeting.

I am still underwater with BAC but feel pretty good that it will end up being a good investment for me.  It would have been better to have gotten in at a better price though.  :-)  I am actually considering selling some new puts for BAC, perhaps at the 25 strike price.  If put to me it would reduce my average price nicely.  If not, it would be nice additional revenue.  By the way, I am considering doing the same for WFC which I think is probably a stronger bank.

On 7/21/08, I BTC 2 GM Sep08 25 Calls and STO 2 GM Dec08 25 Calls for a net deposit of $121.00 in my taxable account.

The Sep08 GM Puts may have turned out okay but I was feeling more than a little vulnerable with the potential assignments in my taxable account so wanted to generate some additional cash to help mitigate the problem if I start getting assigned.  I would now own these GM shares at 20.76 if assigned.

I am still underwater in 3 other stocks in my taxable account (DSX, LVLT and RIO) which I may look to roll out also.  All of these stock are up right now though.  As they move up I feel less vulnerable.  LVLT in particular is a stock I don’t really want to own though.  I would really be okay if I was assigned the other two but would still prefer not to be assigned if possible.

One more thought in GM.  Some of the incentive for me to own GM is now gone since GM suspended the dividend.  The option premiums are still okay but the total return is now less.

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.