I bought SPY at 111.64, and sold-to-open SPY 108 June-30 expiration calls at 4.08 for a net investment (debit) of 107.58. I used the quarterly SPY options because I could go considerably deeper in the money with the calls and still get a premium that is close to the likely SPY dividend for this quarter (around $0.50). Schwab does not appear to …
If you have general questions about dividends see Top 10 questions about dividends. One strategy for capturing dividends is to buy the stock/ETF and then sell calls against that security as a hedge—a covered call. The value of the short calls moves in the opposite direction of the stock/ETF, providing a hedge. There are three major variables with this strategy: 1. How many days before …
In a recent post I gave an overview of dividend capture strategies. In some situations, an effective way to hedge risk with a dividend capture strategy is to use covered call options. If you are not familiar with options this might sound exotic, but it’s truly the training wheels of option trading. With covered calls, you can introduce yourself to the conservative, hedging possibilities of …
In trying to capture dividends there is no free lunch. In fact, since Wall street is involved, the best you can hope for is an affordable lunch. I have looked at, and tried quite a few approaches—most of which don’t work, but I have found one approach that does work with some ETFs. Ironically you don’t actually collect the dividend most of the time, but …
Some SPY dividend capture strategies I don’t recommend: 1. Sell SPY short right before closing the day before ex-dividend Rationale: Securities tend to drop by about the dividend amount when trading begins (pre-open trading) Problem: The buyer that bought the stock from you deserves the dividend and the loaner that loaned you the stock you sold (probably unknowingly), deserves the dividend too. Two dividends, one …
