I find that I am not doing a good job of reporting my new option sales for the week right after option expiration each month.  It just hangs over me and for one reason or another I don’t get it done in a timely manner.  To help solve that problem for me I am trying this new bulk format where I only make comment on those trades that seem to require additional comment.

Beginning on Monday, March 22, 2010, after the Mar10 Options expired I began to sell new Options for Apr10 and beyond.  Below is a picture of my new transactions so far.  I have additional transactions to make and will write about them as they occur.

I have written about most of the underlying stocks before so most of these transactions do not require additional comment.  For the Covered Calls transactions I generally select strike prices that I feel give me the best chance of the underlying stock not being called away.  For the Put transactions I generally select strike prices that I feel give me the best chance of the underlying stock not being assigned to me.  In some cases I don’t care if the stock is called away or put to me or some other situation is worth mentioning about the transaction.  I note those cases below.

The 3 CKR Sep10 Covered Calls at 12.50 are probably going to expire worthless if they even make it to September.  CKR has received and accepted an offer to go private at a price of $11.05.  CKR has the right to continue to search for better offers. 

DSX is already above the $15 strike price I sold for April.  $15 has appeared to be resistance going back to July of 2009 with a couple of higher peaks of around $18 and $16.50 in Nov and Jan.  DSX is certainly capable of being above $15 by April expiration just as it is capable of being below $15 at that time.  I chose the April expiration date because I was not real comfortable with where DSX might be going and the $15 strike price because I wanted to get a better option premium. I might need to roll the DSX Calls out to September if I want to do so at a profit.

I sold the AA Oct10 16 Covered Calls and the AA Oct10 14 Puts with the thought that AA would probably be above 14 in October but if not I could add some additional shares and reduce my basis for my total AA holdings.  If AA turns out to be above $16 in October I will need to roll it out simply because my basis is well above $16.

I have sold NYX Covered Calls at the $30 strike on 5 prior occasions since Jul09.  They have expired worthless each time.  NYX seems to have a hard time getting above, or staying above, $30.  I sold the current Calls only one month out because I am a little nervous about where it is going and did not want to be exposed very long to that strike

On 1/19/10, I sold 4 YHOO Mar10 18 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $78.94 in an IRA account.  My basis for these YHOO shares is now 20.13.

Here I am, late writing about my transactions again.  Life just seems to get in the way.  I have several more transactions that I need to write about.  Maybe I can get them done tonight.

I don’t know that I have much to say about my YHOO shares.  They are not part of my core holding because they are not paying dividends.  On the other hand, making .20 every couple of months is making my own dividend.  At my basis that works out to about 6% annualized – a good dividend but not really at the level I would like to achieve which is 10% or greater.  I’m not there yet for my portfolio partly because of stocks like YHOO in my portfolio.  On the other hand, my return tends to be increasing because my basis continues to decrease.

Yesterday, I sold 4 YHOO Jan10 17.50 Covered Calls for a net deposit of $174.98 in an IRA account.  My basis for these YHOO shares is now 20.33.

My last YHOO options expired in July and I sat on these shares waiting for their price to recover and then I sort of forgot about them in the hustle and bustle of the rest of my life.

I decided on the Jan10 expiration month because I wanted to sell the 17.50 strike which is about where it peaked in July and collect a reasonable premium.  I was able to collect a net .44 per share on these Calls.  I am closing in on being able to sell Covered Calls above my basis which will give me greater flexibility and opportunity to sell Covered Calls with higher premium and closer in.