I am a little behind reporting my option activity this week.  My Father-in-law is dying and we have been spending a lot of time at his house to be with and help care for him.  Consequently, I will only do a recap of those trades that I have been able to make this week.

The following trades all occurred on Monday, 3/19/12:

I sold 4 F Jul12 $14 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $108.94 in an IRA account.  I also sold 1 F Jul12 $14 Covered Call in another IRA account for a net deposit of $23.24.

I sold 2 BALT Sep12 $7.50 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $10.48 in an IRA account.

I sold 2 TIE Sep12 $17 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $70.48 in an IRA account.

I sold 2 VZ Apr12 $40 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $58.48 in an IRA account.

I sold 8 YHOO Jul12 $17 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $329.94 in an IRA account.

The following trade occurred on Tuesday, 3/20/12:

I BTC 1 C Apr12 $34 Covered Call and STO 1 Sep12 $35 Covered Call for a net deposit of $90.49 in an IRA account.

All of the Monday trades, with the exception of the single F trade, were to place new positions on stock whose previous Covered Calls expired worthless last Friday.  The single F Covered Call sale was on some F shares that I had been sitting of waiting for the stock to appreciate.  I finally decided that it was not going to appreciate anytime soon so decided to go ahead and sell the Call.

My C Covered Call was in the money and I just wanted to capture some additional option premium while increasing the strike price by $1.  It is still in the money but I am okay if it is called away because I am profitable at this point.

Yesterday, 1/23/12, I sold 8 YHOO Mar12 $18 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $89.94 in an IRA account.  My basis for these YHOO shares is now $15.70.  This trade provides a simple return of about a .71% and an annualized return of about 4.81% on my prior basis.

Jerry Yang’s leaving the company has once again stirred rumors of YHOO being acquired by another party.  I suppose that is possible but I am not hearing any serious comments of the possibility.  The stock has pretty much been drifting sideways since October 2011.  I would have liked to sell the $19 strike once again but decided to sell the $18 strike this time in order not to sell too far into the future.  If something should happen and I am called away prior to March expiration I will be happy with the profit I will have realized.  On the other hand, I have rather enjoyed playing with YHOO and will probably attempt to roll out and up these Calls, if it looks like I might be called away.

YHOO does not pay a dividend so it does not meet my general investment goals.  However, as I suggested above, I am starting to think that I might like to continue owning it to sell the Covered Calls and, in effect, create my own dividend while at the same time decreasing my basis.  As an FYI, I have received a net total of $7,968.40 in option premiums on YHOO going back to 2006.

The 25 YHOO analysts currently have a 12-month price target of $17.74, down from $18.16 in November, with a recommendation of 2.6, down from 2.5, where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.  S&P continues a 12-month price target of $20.00 and a Strong Buy recommendation.  MarketEdge has a price opinion of $15.52, up from $14.71 last November, and an Avoid recommendation, down from an earlier Long recommendation.

Today, 11/21/11, I sold 8 YHOO Jan12 $19 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $209.94 in an IRA account.  My basis for these YHOO shares is now $15.81.  This trade provides a simple return of about a 1.63% and an annualized return of about 9.77% on my prior basis.

There are still some rumors of YHOO being a takeover target although I have not heard any comments this past week.  The stock has been drifting down for the past 10 days.  I don’t know what to believe but I decided to go out two months this time to continue selling the $19 strike price at a reasonable level.  If something should happen and I am called away prior to January expiration I will be happy with the profit I will have realized.  On the other hand, I have rather enjoyed playing with YHOO and will probably attempt to roll out and up these Calls, if it looks like I might be called away.

YHOO does not pay a dividend so it does not meet my general investment goals.  However, as I suggested above, I am starting to think that I might like to continue owning it to sell the Covered Calls and, in effect, create my own dividend while at the same time decreasing my basis.  As an FYI, I have received a net total of $7,878.46 in option premiums on YHOO going back to 2006.

The 22 YHOO analysts currently have a 12-month price target of $18.16 with a recommendation of 2.5 where 1.0 is a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell.  S&P has a 12-month price target of $20.00 and a Strong Buy recommendation.  MarketEdge has a price opinion of $14.71 and a Long recommendation but their opinion is a little old, dating from 9/26/11.