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You lost me there. I did some searches on the subject, looks like I have a lot of reading to do on this topic.

spindr0, I believe I couldn't sell those naked OTM calls unless I use margin, which I don't want to. Selling calls on existing equity positions would be the only way without margin. My findings are not terribly encouraging, though. By the time I am in the situation of holding the...

spindr0, Thanks, that certainly explains it ! Accounting for intrinsic value, the call is really 2.04 - .46 = $1.58 . The put is $1.27, but is $0.46 out of the money. I guess I'd like to see what happens to the weekly values the next time SPY closes on an exact dollar amount. Thanks...

Let's say I sell an American-style option. Either put or a call, it doesn't matter. I plan to keep the short option to expiration. I'm right about both direction and timing, and the option will actually expire worthless. Provided it is allowed to expire. However, the market moves against...

I did the math on commissions with my strategy . This is over 1321 days for the data I input. Optionshouse (using $8.50 + 0.15) : $1333 IB : $1847 Fidelity : $3451 Schwab : $2975 The above assumes no partial assignments. If there are a lot of them, Optionshouse costs become close to...

Any hint on what that thread might be called ? Searching "selling options" in this forum returns way too many results. What are the risks you want to point out that haven't already been talked about ?

Thegoonior, I know. One fix for that is to not watch the markets at all, and just patiently wait until the put expires. Past data clearly shows that most of the time, the position reverts to positive and the put expires worthless. Trying to buy it back when it moves in the wrong direction is...

spindr0, Thanks for downloading my spreadsheet ! (the only other download was myself, to make sure it worked ;)). Hmm. I use the annual dividend rate for SPY as one of the inputs to the PUTOPTION function... Is the error that I shouldn't use it for the weekly options ? Or should I only...

That's not bad, I probably would use the former rate. I wouldn't have >30 contracts and likely the max rate would be $13 with 30, then. Yeah, I looked at IB's commission page. 0.25 is pretty good for the cheap contracts. But 0.75 is on the higher side of things. Commission would be $22.50...

cyoungmark, Thanks for clarifying. How would you choose which protective puts to buy ? 1 yr or 2 yr LEAPS ? Is it better to buy 80% of the puts with a strike near the purchase price, or buy 100% of the puts at a strike of 80% of purchase price ? The later costs a lot less :) T is...

cyoungmark, Thanks. Did you mean buying the stock and selling covered calls against it ? I just wouldn't want to hold AT&T shares. I don't like individual stock risk. There is a merger with T-Mobile going on. Which I hope doesn't go through, as a T-mobile customer. There are too many...

I might do that with a dividend index, not individual shares. I will have to check what the yields are. Looks like DVY is at 3.5%. Ultimately, what matters is the total return, though. The yield doesn't matter much if the share price goes down over time. The downside risk to share price is no...

IVTrader, I will read about those. Never invested in an MLP before. I didn't open most of those accounts specifically with the purpose of options trading in mind. I have had to open some of them for other reasons, for example ESPP. For fidelity I have used the brokerage account to...

Hmm, I wasn't allowed to attach the ODS spreadsheet. Here is a ZIP with the ODS in it. I hope it works.

As promised, I am attaching a spreadsheet with the work I have been doing exploring SPY with my strategies, for anyone who cares. For the haters who don't like long posts, or short attention span, you can skip this post immediately. Otherwise, read on. The spreadsheet is in openoffice 3.3...

spindr0, Well, I could, but then I would have made 6-10 posts, I figured this one was preferable. What are the better ones for each end of this respectively? For example fidelity charges $7.95 + $1 per contract. If I'm trading 1-4 contracts at a time, I may be able to live with it. If...

KINGOFSHORTS, Thank you for your great response ! I am willing - I just would prefer not to ;) Great, then I'm sure you can answer my question about early assignment. How often does it happen to you, as opposed to assignment at expiration, which will mechanically happen or not happen...

iceman1, I have actually put in a lot of work over the last few weeks, reading a lot about options, spending in fact my entire last week end on the subject. The questions I posted are the ones that I could not find answers to. I figured actual traders might know. If you do not wish to share...

I never said that. 1% a month would come to 12.6% a year compounded. Here is what I actually wrote :

ASE1245, Thanks for your response, comments inline. Well, 90% of the 350k in my 401k/IRA is in equity index funds already - and staying there. I just don't want something with a bit less volatility, and return, for my after-tax accounts. I accept that there must be some risk. Indeed...