Nucor (NUE) Covered Call

In my IRA, my May 70 call for PCU was assigned to me today, 4.5 trading days before expiration.  I sold it (covered) on 3/20 at the money and it was assigned today, 5/14, when it was $17.50 ITM.

This happens to me sometimes in the week of expiration for those options I have that are deep ITM. I consider it good for me to have my cash back in hand to find another equity to invest in now. Obviously, not selling the covered call would have been even better on this one.
I read about Nucor Corp (ticker: NUE) in Barron’s this weekend and was eyeing it for selling puts on today in my brokerage account, but after my PCU stock was called away early I decided to replace a Basic Materials company with another.  PCU is copper and NUE is steel and iron.  PCU has had a great run and NUE has been a little down and is hitting its trend line of higher lows.  I sold slightly ITM since it’s in my IRA and I try to give myself a little more chance of taking the profit at expiration.  I’m hoping for ~25% annualized gain on the transaction.  PCU ended with a ~30% annualized gain.  Being called early helped me by allowing me to trade again earlier than planned.

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