Covered Calls

Covered Calls — improving the odds of a modest profit

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Mainstream investors buy assets they think will go up.  If the asset price stays the same or goes down the investor gets no profit or a loss.   Covered calls are a way for investors to show a modest profit if:
  1. The asset goes up in price
  2. The asset price stays the same
  3. The asset price drops a relatively small amount

One of the catches (and there are always at least one), is that the investor gives up some upside.  

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Vance’s rules for covered call investing

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The word “rules” is a bit harsh, but “guidelines” is too soft. Maximum premium is around ATM Buy-writes held to expiration have delta of 0 above the strike, -1 below the strike Don’t mess around too much with bid/ask spreads Don’t use credit / debit orders for covered call transactions unless it is a very slow moving market or if the spreads are unreasonable. Otherwise …

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