Understanding Covered Calls

By Dennis Miller

The strategy I’m writing about today is one of my favorite, guaranteed moneymakers. These are trades we can all easily make, requiring no capital outlay and guaranteed to make a profit or you don’t make them. What’s the catch? We might occasionally find ourselves lamenting how much more money we might have made.


Experienced investors have likely figured out that I’m talking about a stock option called a “covered call.” Buying options is for speculators, and that’s not what I’m talking about today. I want to show you the one and only option trade that meets my stringent criteria for comfort.
Covered calls:

• Are easily understood;
• Are easy to implement;
• Require no market timing to make your predetermined profit; and
• Require minimal time for investors to manage.

In addition, you can calculate your profit clearly at the time of the trade (if there’s no hefty gain, you pass on it); the risks are financially and emotionally manageable; and the upside potential is excellent with covered calls. Let’s begin with the boilerplate stuff first before we discuss strategy.

There’s an options market that allows people to buy and sell options on stocks. Speculators have made millions of dollars trading options without owning a single share of stock. That’s the wrong place to be with your retirement nest egg. I’m going to show you how an average investor with an online brokerage account can supplement his income in a safe, easy, responsible, and conservative manner.

Let’s start with a basic premise: money is consistently made on the sell side of the transaction. Selling one type of option is the only strategy that will meet our stringent criteria.

Before we proceed, here’s a need-to-know glossary for covered calls:

Stock option. An option is a right that can be bought and sold. There are markets for trading options in an orderly manner. Two transactions may occur between the buyer and seller. The first is the transaction when the right (option) is sold. The second transaction is “optional” and at the discretion of the buyer. If the buyer exercises his right (option), the seller is required to complete an agreed-upon stock transaction. Today we’re focusing on covered call options.

Covered Calls. When you sell a covered call, the buyer purchases the right to buy a certain number of shares of stock which you own, at an agreed upon (strike) price, at any time before the option expires (known as the expiration date). The option buyer is not obligated to buy your stock; he has the right to do so. You’re obligated to sell the stock if the buyer exercises the option. The term for this is your stock gets “called away.” Regardless, you keep the money you were paid when you sold your option.

There are four elements to an option transaction:

1. the price of the option in the market (what you can buy or sell it for);
2. the number of contracts (each contract is 100 shares);
3. the price of the underlying stock (referred to as strike price); and
4. the expiration date.

Option price. This is the price the option is bought or sold for. This changes as the price of the underlying stock moves in the market and the time frame moves closer to the expiration date. Readers will see that there are two prices: “bid” and “asked,” just like stocks. When you sell an option, this completes the first part of the transaction. The money changes hands and is yours to keep, regardless of what happens later. Cha-ching!

Strike price. This part of the transaction is agreed upon when the option is bought/sold. Let’s assume the buyer purchased a call (a right to your stock) at a strike price of $55/share. Should the buyer choose to exercise his option, the buyer pays you $55/share, and you (through your broker) deliver the stock, regardless of the current market price of the stock.

Expiration date. Options generally expire on the third Friday of every month. When looking at the options trading platform on any major stock, you’ll find options available for several months in advance. You’ll notice that the longer the remaining time, the higher the price of the option.

At the time the stock option is bought/sold, all of the elements above are agreed upon. The buyer has until the expiration date to exercise his option. The numbers of shares and selling price have already been determined. If your stock is called away, you’ll see the cash come in to your brokerage account, and the shares will automatically be delivered to the buyer.

Never sell a call option without owning the underlying stock; it’s much too risky for your retirement nest egg.
Option contract. An option contract is for 100 shares of the underlying stock. Options are sold in contracts, and the prices are quoted per share. For example, if you see an option price of $1.15, the contract will cost $115 ($1.15 x 100 shares). If a buyer/seller wants to have an option on 500 shares, he buys five contracts.

There are two types of options: puts and calls. We’re going to discuss the only option strategy that meets our stringent, conservative criteria: selling a covered call.

Why would an investor buy a call option? Buyers of call options are generally speculators who believe that a stock will appreciate above the strike price before the option expires. If they guess right, they can make a lot of money.

The vast majority of call options expire worthless. The rules are simple. Don’t sell an option unless you own the underlying stock. (This is referred to as a “naked call”.) Don’t buy options—period!

A Savvy Strategy

We’ll use a fictional company – ABC Products – for an example. Say we bought the stock in October 2012 for $40; the market price one year later (in November 2013) was $55/share. Why would we want to sell a covered call?

In November, ABC was $55/share. We’ll say its current dividend is $0.55/share. The March call option at a strike price of $57 is selling for $1.10/share—twice as much as the current dividend.

Assume that on December 20, you either called your broker or went online and brought up ABC in your trading platform. You would have seen the current bid and asked prices. Assume it sold for $1.10/share.
Now, one of four things could have happened:

1. The stock didn’t go over the $57 strike price, so the stock was not called away. In approximately 90 days, you’d have received $0.55/share in dividends, plus $1.10 for the option, for a total of $1.65. You just added more than double the dividend to your yield without spending a penny more of your investment capital. What do we do when the option expires? Look for another juicy opportunity for the June options and do it again!
2. Let’s take the worst case scenario: the market tanked. You had a 20% trailing stop in place. You got stopped out at $44—$11/share lower than the November price. But wait a minute, what about the covered call? The value of the option would also have dropped and sold for mere pennies. If you got stopped out of the stock, you could have bought back the option at the same time. For the sake of illustration, say you bought it back for $0.04. You netted $1.06/share profit. Instead of losing $11/share, your loss became $9.94. If you didn’t buy back your option, you’d have had huge risk exposure should the stock jump back up. It isn’t worth the risk, so you’d spend the few pennies it takes to close out your position.
3. You wanted to exit your position before the expiration date. If the stock rises above the strike price of the option, generally the price of the option will move right along with it. If the stock moved to $59/share, you would “buy to close.” The market price should be close to $2/share; however, that would be offset by the fact that you sold your stock for $59.00 share. If the stock remained stagnant or started to drop and you wanted to exit your position, the market price of the option would decline more rapidly. You’d likely buy back your option at a profit.
4. The most difficult situation emotionally is when the stock rises well above the strike price and gets called. Let’s assume that in March, ABC has appreciated to $59/share. Your option is called at $57 (the strike price). You make a profit of $2/share from the time you sold the option, plus the $1.10/share for the option and the $0.55 dividend, for a total of $3.65/share. For the 90-day time frame, you earned 6.3% on your money ($55/share), or 24.9% on an annualized basis, net of brokerage commission. Yet we’ll lament the fact that you could have made more.

In each case, you haven’t invested any more capital. You make 100% profit on the call in two cases. The worst case is you generally break even on the options should you want to exit early. In the vast majority of cases, selling covered calls is straight profit on top of your dividends.

Here are some guidelines:

• Sell covered calls for stocks you own and would gladly keep.
• Sell covered calls to expire after the dividends are paid.
• Sell covered calls at a strike price above the current market price of the stock, referred to as “out of the money.”
• Don’t lament the times your stock gets called. You took a nice profit, and there are plenty more opportunities out there.
• Use stocks that are heavily traded, as they are more liquid.
• To calculate gains for any stock and option price combination, please use our option calculator, which you can download here.

Selling selected covered calls is a great way to turbocharge yield without any additional investment. At the same time, it will mitigate a bit of risk. If you have a 20% trailing stop in place and the stock gets stopped out, your 20% will be offset by the profit you made on the option sale. While most investors are starved for yield, you can find yield in the safest and easiest manner possible.

Each month, we look at the Miller’s Money Forever portfolio and recommend and track covered calls on some of our positions. If you're not a current subscriber, I highly recommend taking advantage of our 90-day, no-risk offer. Sign up at the current promotional rate of $99/year, and download my book and all of our special reports—really take your time and look us over. If within the first 90 days you feel we're not for you, feel free to cancel and receive a 100% refund, no questions asked. You can still keep the material as our thank-you for taking a look. Click here to subscribe risk-free today.

The article Covered Calls was originally published at Millers Money

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SP 500 Being Left Behind By The Russell 2000

Before discussing why I think the S&P 500 may be setting up to rally I have to discuss an options strategy that often times is overlooked. Besides writing covered calls and cash secured naked puts (same risk profile by the way), one of the most basic spread constructions available to option traders is the vertical spread.

A vertical spread can be written when an option trader believes prices are going up (bull call spread) or when prices are going down (bear put spread). In addition to the previous trades which are placed as debit trades, option traders also have the ability to place vertical credit spreads too. While vertical spreads regardless of nature are a very basic option trading strategy, they can produce strong returns with defined risk.

A brief description of a vertical debit spread involves buying a call or put and simultaneously selling a strike further away from the money. Vertical debit spreads always have a directional bias depending on whether calls or puts or used. The sale of the call or put that is further away from the money results in a credit and helps reduce the total cost of the spread thereby reducing the capital risk. A call debit spread, also called a bull call spread is used when a trader expects higher prices. A put debit spread, also called a bear put spread is utilized when the option trader expects lower prices.

A vertical credit spread is established in the opposite construction of a vertical debit spread. The construction involves selling a call or put that is closer to the money and buying a strike that is further away from the money. This strategy profits from time decay as well as price action. The maximum gain is limited to the difference in the credit received for the contract that is sold and the debited premium that is required to purchase the long strike. Vertical credit spreads always result in a trader receiving a credit. A call credit spread, also known as a bear call spread is used when an option trader is expecting lower prices. A put credit spread, also known as a bull put spread is utilized when an option trader expects higher prices.

I typically use vertical debit spreads when I want to place a trade that has defined risk and when I am expecting an underlying’s price action to move in a specific direction. However, vertical credit spreads are often overlooked by many traders and this is most certainly a mistake. My favorite time to utilize a vertical credit spread is when price action across the equity indices is ugly. In fact, a nasty selloff where implied volatility is juiced in most equities presents an outstanding opportunity to construct vertical credit spreads.

With the commodity complex getting hammered recently as the U.S. Dollar increased in value, a lot of the agriculture based companies have suffered. The ETF MOO as an example has lost close to 10% from recent highs. I was stalking $MOO looking for a bottom in the price action and on May 23 I looked on as MOO was close to testing its 200 period moving average shown below:

I had also been stalking Deere & Company (DE) for a while looking for a bottom. As it turns out, $DE is the single largest individual holding held in the MOO ETF. When I saw MOO bounce near its 200 period moving average while at the same time I looked on as $DE closed in on its 200 period moving average I felt that we were near a short to intermediate term bottom in the agriculture space. I immediately looked at the $DE option chain as well as the historical implied volatility chart. The trade offered solid risk definition as the 200 period moving average was my support level and credit spreads offer an option trader precise capital risk attributes.

Since Deere & Company had been under significant selling pressure implied volatility was elevated which would also put the wind at my back. When writing credit spreads, implied volatility is critical and must be monitored. I knew I was selling juiced option premium as the implied volatility was historically elevated. The closest at the money strike on the put side was the June DE 80 Put contract. I proceeded to sell the June DE 80 Put contracts and bought the June DE 77.50 Put contracts in a 1:1 ratio to setup the spread.

The maximum risk per put credit spread was $197. The maximum gain was $53 per spread. At expiration the maximum yield would be earned if $DE closed at $80/share or more. The maximum yield of the trade would be 27% (53 / 197) based on maximum risk. The profitability curve of the DE Put Credit Spread is shown below:

I had absolutely no intention of holding this trade to expiration. In fact, my trading plan was to close the trade as soon as a 15% return based on max risk was reached. I employed a hard stop based on the underlying Deere & Company stock price of $80.90 /share. Essentially the trade had a 1:1 risk versus reward ratio (also referred to by traders as a 1R trade). I entered the trade and at this point still have the trade open, but with the higher prices I am seeing this morning (Friday) in $DE, I will be closing my trade with a gain near 15% of my maximum risk and 100% of my hard stop based risk.

Often times option traders overlook basic trading strategies like a vertical credit spread. In a stock market correction or in a situation where a particular underlying has been under selling pressure for quite some time and implied volatility is juiced and a major support/resistance level is nearby, vertical credit spreads offer solid risk / reward. Often times option traders fail to use basic strategies like vertical spreads which provide them the opportunity to trade around bounces, topping patterns, and bottoming patterns without the total capital risk associated with buying/shorting stock.

Russell 2000 Index (IWM)

Members of the service I run are used to seeing analysis about the Russell 2000 Index on a daily basis. Every day I monitor the price action in the Russell 2000 Index (IWM), the Dow Jones Transportation Index (IYT), and the financial complex (XLF). Quite often one, if not all of these ETF’s start throwing off clues about Mr. Market’s favored market direction.

During strong moves in the market, all 3 ETF’s will generally be moving in the same direction regardless of whether prices are going up or down. If the move is strong and has momentum they all move the same way, but generally speaking one of the ETF’s displays relative strength against the S&P 500 and the other ETF’s.

Recently the Russell 2000 Index started showing signs of life and then the transports and financials followed the small caps higher. While both the Transports (IYT) and financials (XLF) traded higher the past two days, neither have had the relative strength that the Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) has shown. When the small caps speak, I listen and they have been screaming the past two days that higher prices may be likely next week and into the first week of June. However, as the daily chart of IWM below illustrates, they have some major work to do the rest of Friday and next week.

If the price action in IWM can push above the upper bound of the recent downtrend and show continuation higher, we will likely watch as the S&P 500 pushes up to the key 1340 price level for a retest. If the S&P 500 is able to penetrate the resistance area I believe we will likely see the 1,400 – 1,450 S&P price level come into play. The daily chart of the S&P 500 Index (SPX) is shown below:

I am leaning bullish on the S&P 500 and risk assets in general (commodities) going into the final week of May and the early part of June. I am expecting a news event to move the markets in a big way within the first few weeks of June. My guess is that an announcement coming out of Europe will be the headline that finally pushes the market into overdrive. For right now, the price action is coiled and we are about to witness a big move.

While I am leaning bullish, I am certainly not willing to risk capital in an attempt to game price action. I will sit back and wait for price action to confirm and pick my spots. Anticipatory trades do not fit my risk tolerance or trading style and I consider them sophisticated gambling. I’m going to let others do the heavy lifting and wait for confirmation about the trend’s direction. At this point in time, the small caps are signaling that higher prices are likely for equities but the real question is whether Mr. Market is just toying with us and this is nothing more than a head fake. Risk is excruciatingly high.

If you would like to be informed several times per week on SP 500, Volatility Index, Gold, and Silver intermediate direction and option trade alerts… take a look at Options Trading Signals today for a 24 hour 66% off coupon, and/or sign up for our occasional free updates.

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