Option Expiration – August 2008

This is how my August options closed on Friday along with my plans for these same equities moving forward.

AAPL closed at $175.74 leaving my August 155 naked puts out of the money (OTM) and giving me a full profit.  I plan to write a new naked put on AAPL when it takes another dip.  I haven’t picked my strike yet.

BA closed at $64.45 making my August 75 naked calls out of the money and giving me a full profit.  I’m still long on BA in my IRA where I consider it a longer term hold.  I’ll be re-writing covered calls well OTM there and might write more naked calls in my taxable account.

CELG closed at $75.86 leaving my August 60 naked puts out of the money and giving me a full profit.  CELG has been on a good run for a while.  I need to research it again to decide if I should get back in yet.  The chart still looks good.

I bought back my MON naked put on Friday and took a partial profit based on where I sold it originally.  I’ll get back in on MON at a lower strike.

NVDA closed at $12.96 leaving my NVDA August 15 naked calls out of the money and giving me a full profit.  The bad part is involves the whole story – I took a big loss ($2,305.99) on the naked puts I started the position with and sadly sold closer to the bottom than Friday’s close.  The calls only saved me $187.00.  I’ll be avoiding NVDA for a while.  I actually think it NVDA could recover, but I’ve been so wrong twice on it and need to admit defeat and move on.  Y’all can laugh at me when NVDA hits 30 in a few months.

TDW closed at $55.88, below my strike, leaving my TDW August 65 covered calls out of the money.  I profited in full on the calls, but lost on the underlying stock.  I should’ve sold in the money (ITM) covered calls in hind sight.  Now I think TDW has found some footing and I’m debating selling a covered call at the 60 strike at the same time as selling a naked put at the 50 strike.  I could do the same trade for both at the 55 strike.  I’m still debating the pros and cons to each path.

VIP closed below my strike at $24.43 leaving my VIP August 30 calls out of the money.  I profited on the calls, but lost on the underlying stock.  I’ve already sold OTM covered calls on VIP at the September 25 strike.