April options expire on Friday, giving three trading days for me to wait and see how I’ll fair. I keep an eye on my portfolio daily, but a week before expiration I can get a better idea what I’ll be dealing with after expiration. I didn’t have access to a computer for the past four days due to my wife being in the hospital. She’s out now and better, so it’s my opportunity to return to trying to grow our nest egg.
For this drill I’m only reviewing April options.
I sold 2 QCOM Apr 40 Puts and QCOM is at 43.37 making me feel safe
I sold 2 AA Apr 32.5 Puts and AA is at 34.77 making me feel safe
I sold 3 CSCO Apr 25 Covered Calls and CSCO is at 26.84 making me think I’ll go ahead and take my losses on this poorly executed trade
I sold 1 NE Apr 67.5 Put and NE is at 80.46 which makes this one 99% sure to stay OTM
I sold 1 NYX Apr 95 Covered Call and NYX is at 96.15 which will keep NYX on my radar to consider buying back the call for a profit and then I’ll rewrite the covered call at 100 for June.
I sold 1 AAPL Apr 90 Covered Call and AAPL is trading at 90.35 which will keep AAPL on my radar to consider buying back the call for a profit (or it could expire worthless) and I’ll rewrite the covered call at either 90 or 95 for June.
I sold 2 IACI Apr 37.5 Puts and IACI is at 38.59 which makes me feel fairly safe and could be a contender for another put to be written once the June options are available next week.
I sold 4 TPX Apr 25 Puts and TPX is at 27.31 which makes me feel safe.
I had a great month the way I sold options this for this expiration. I could let NYX and AAPL go to bring up my cash balance, but I still like them long term. If the prices don’t change much in the next three trading days, rewriting the covered calls out of the money could bring some really big returns. The decision will be how much I think they’ll go up versus how big are the premiums for the ATM and OTM strikes.
In the end I know that I’m about to deposit more cash from a CD that has matured and my wife’s bonus and I’ll be collecting new premiums next week, so I don’t think ~$18,500 tied up in stocks that I like will be such a bad move.
Along with the point that I base my trading model on a higher cash position, I am planning to move my account from TD Ameritrade’s regular APEX account to their Izone account offering that has commissions for half the price, but without the ability to call in with questions. I’ll just have to see how it unwinds on Friday. If AAPL and NYX drop, I’ll likely not debate it much more and will just rewrite the calls for sure and the only debate will be at what strike.