Overview of dividend capture strategies

I have written several posts on dividend capture strategies. My favored, although far from perfect strategy: Dividend capture with covered calls Some approaches I don’t recommend: SPY dividend capture ideas that don’t work Dividend capture—three approaches to skip Additional background and tools, and an example: Dividend capture overview Covered calls–are you ready? Combo orders–maximizing profits on covered calls DIA dividend capture: creating the position DIA …

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Will CVOL become the next VXX?

When Barclays ‘ VXX ETN first came out early last year I was pretty excited.   Having an direct investment in a volatility product that didn’t have the time decay (theta) of VIX options was attractive.   However, it turns out that price erosion on VXX is a huge issue—anyone that holds on for the long term becomes a loser.    In spite of this, …

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My Schwab Christmas 2011 wish list

Update:  Schwab has added weekly and quarterly option support to all of their trading platforms.  See here for more information. Schwab has provided a peek under the tree for the account holders they think have been good: Stocking stuffers (not available until January): A 35% discount for TurboTax.  In your Schwab account online look for “Tools and Calculators” under “Guidance”, then look for “File with …

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Bearish on treasuries

I created a bear spread on IEF,  using a $0.50 credit  combo order to sell Dec 98 calls and buy Dec 101 calls.  The order filled at 0.57 and 0.07 respectively.   The straight market quote at the time for the spread was $0.40 (0.50 bid on the 98s and 0.1 ask on the 101s).

Get weekly updates on the Weeklys

The CBOE has announced a nice new email service for people wanted to know what weekly options are going to be offered each week.  While the list has been relatively stable the CBOE recently extended the list to 35 offerings and they usually make a few tweaks each week.   For example, they recently dropped USO in favor of NDX—something I’m not happy about. They …

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