I had a number of Apr08 Options expire worthless allowing me to keep the entire Premium  They are listed below for the record.  Note that the total received may be larger than expected because the option may have been rolled out.

Options expire this Friday (well technically Saturday but Friday is the last day to trade them).  I currently have 37 transactions on 22 different stocks outstanding in my various taxable and IRA accounts.  Of those, 4 Puts and 2 Covered Calls are in the money.  Normally I would have rolled out the Puts by now.  I tend to hold the Covered Calls until Thursday or Friday before I decide to let them go or roll them out to gather additional time premium.  Here are the details on the ITM items for Apr08.

• 2 AA 37.50 Puts in an IRA.  I have rolled these out a few times and as a result I would own AA at 30.85 if assigned to me which they surely will be if I don’t roll them out.  I could net about $120 if I roll them out to May08 reducing my basis by about another .60.  I could let them be assigned and sell Covered Calls on them and net about $130 at the 37.50 strike.  AA also pays a small dividend of .17 per quarter or about 1.9% annually.  I think I am going to accept the assignment.
• 8 PGH 20 Puts.  2 in my taxable account and 6 in an IRA.  In both cases I have rolled them out in the past and own them at 17.94 and 15.71 respectively.  PGH has a nice monthly dividend of .225 or about 13.7% annually.  PGH is currently 19.43 and may close above 20 but I seriously doubt it.  If I rolled them out I would need to go to Jul08 to be worthwhile.  I would then net about $60 per contract.  If I accept an assignment I could sell Covered Calls but they are not worth much.  I would again need to sell Jul08 and would net about $60 per contract.  I think I am going to roll out the 2 in my taxable account and accept assignment on the 6 in my IRA.
• 4 RAD 2.50 Puts in an IRA.  I sold these last month with the realization that I might be assigned and that I would then sell Covered Calls on them.  The stock is currently trading at 2.44 after being near 3.00 last week.  I suspect that I will in fact be assigned.  My basis in 2.43 on these shares.  The Jul08 2.50 Calls would net me $120.  The Jun08 options are not yet available so I don’t yet know what they might yield except that it would be less.  In this case, I intend to accept assignment and sell Calls on RAD.
• 4 DF 20 Covered Calls.  2 each in my taxable account and an IRA.  I own all of these DF in the mid $31 range so obviously do not want them called away.  I will roll them out but have not yet decided my strategy.  I can roll out to another 20 strike or roll out and up to 22.50.  If I do the 20 strike I sell a closer month but continue to run the risk that they will be prematurely called away.  If I sell the 22.50 strike I need to go out to Sep08 in order to get a higher premium than I close the existing position for which is my primary mantra.  I suspect that I will roll out to the Sep08 22.50 calls.

Yesterday I sold 4 RAD Apr08 2.50 Puts for $29.00 in an IRA.

This is a pretty small dollar amount but the percentage return on at risk cash is more than 46% annualized.

I consider this a trade because I do not intend to hold RAD as a “core” investment.  For one reason it does not pay a dividend and I prefer to hold dividend paying stocks.  I needed to find what appeared to be a relatively low risk trade for this account because there is not a lot of free cash in it.  I did not want the cash to just sit there earning a paltry interest.  If by some chance this stock is put to me I can sell Calls at the 2.50 strike price each month until it gets called away.