With option expirations last Friday, many of the options I had written have expired. Generally speaking that was a good thing for me, as it meant I was able to keep the option premium. It also meant that I had to reload many of the positions, which I did yesterday.
There were a couple of situations in which I would have done better by simply buying or selling the stock outright rather than selling the options. In other cases, I would have fared worse. Over the long term, I think the option writing strategy will be more rewarding and less risky than a stock-only strategy.
The new option positions I have written (all expiring in June) are:
- Coach (COH) $35 puts
- Hansen Natural (HANS) $30 calls
- Radioshack (RSH) $15 puts
- Ansys (ANSS) $45 call options
- Starbucks (SBUX) $17 call options
- Adobe (ADBE) $45 call options
- Ceradyne (CRDN) $40 put options
- Nutrisystem (NTRI) $20 put options
I also sold outright a position in Itron (ITRI), which was too few shares to cover with a call option. I had a nice profit on the shares, but they have been acting punk lately and I’m a little worried about the potential for new smart meter competition. I might be interested in getting back at a cheaper price.
Disclosure: Obviously, at the time of publication William Trent has a financial position in all of the companies mentioned in this article with the exception of Itron.
Disclosure: Author is long Starbucks (SBUX) at time of publication.
