I’m reporting an options trade from last Thursday.  I sold another INTC put, this time longer dated.

I sold a July 20 ’13 $21 PUT @ 1.96.  If assigned I would be buying an additional 100 shares at a cost of $19.04/share.  That would be a 4.7% yield if INTC doesn’t even raise its dividend.  This would also reduce my cost basis further.

I’m expecting to get put 100 shares this week at a cost of $22.56/share after premiums.  I will continue to add to INTC by selling puts as I like the company long-term.

I’ve updated this trade on my options tab.

I have two trades to report from yesterday.  The first was an options position in ADM that I closed.

I decided to go ahead and close this trade from August 10th mentioned here.  In August I sold 1 Dec. $25 put @ 1.31.  Yesterday I bought-to-close 1 Dec $25 put @ .25.  I profited $106 before commissions and I have updated this trade on my options tab.

I didn’t necessarily think these shares would be put to me but I wanted to free up some additional cash in my options account.  I expect to get assigned 100 shares of Intel this month so I may be closing out a couple of options positions for gains. 

My total options profit before fees stands at $2321 for the year.  This is almost double the amount I’ve collected from dividends this year so far! 

I mentioned a limit order that was filled yesterday with BBVA.  I had a second limit order filled yesterday but didn’t have time to talk about it until today.

I believe NSC is on a lot of watch lists right now.  It hit a 52-week low yesterday of $60.96/share.  It has a 52-week trading range of $60.96-$78.50.  They reported weaker than expected earnings yesterday due mainly to weak coal exports.  They also said that weaker coal exports will carry into 2013.  I believe this to be a short-term problem and I think the company is a great long-term investment here.

Yesterday I sold 1 Jan 19 ’13 $60 Put for $2.10.  If executed I would own another 100 shares of NSC for $57.90/share not counting commissions.  This is a yield of nearly 3.5% on a stock that has historically had a high dividend growth rate.  If the put expires I would keep the $210 minus commissions.

I’ve already made a couple of purchases this year for NSC and I also sold a longer dated put that expires next March.  If these options contracts get assigned then NSC would easily be my largest holding.  That is not a big concern as I plan on aggressively building my DG portfolio next year.

I’ve now capped out my options portfolio and will probably be writing another article as an overall options update.  I don’t want to keep more cash than 15% of my total DG portfolio in this options account.  As it stands, I have to keep 9k in my options account per margin requirements.  This is right at the 15% threshold.  My options trades will likely be very limited through the rest of the year.

I made a couple of options trades over my vacation to Europe. I sold 1 WM Apr 20 ’13 $30 Put @ 1.35 & I sold 1 DOW Jan 19’13 $28 Put @ 1.33. I’ve updated these trades on my options page. 

If assigned I’ll have a YOC of 4.95% on WM and 4.8% on DOW not counting commissions.  This would also lower my average cost.  I’ll be happy however these trades turn out. 

I’ll be posting a September update as well soon. 

I logged into my account this morning and saw NSC was down 7.5%.  Norfolk Southern lowered their Q3 earnings and shares were hit hard.

NSC is now trading at my cost basis.  Instead of buying more shares, I sold 1 March 16 ’13 $67.50 Put @ 5.17.   If assigned I would own 100 shares of NSC at a cost of $62.33/share.  This would lower my total cost basis of my 133 shares to $63.71 and increase my YOC to 3.14% from 2.95%.  

If the shares are not assigned I keep the premium of $517! This is the largest premium I’ve ever received from selling a put on an individual stock.  I still like NSC as a long-term holding and will be happy however this trade turns out.

I’ve updated this trade on my options tab.

So this morning I was thinking about purchasing additional shares of INTC on weakness however I wanted to average in at my current cost basis or lower, which is $22.52.  The stock is still around $23 so instead of purchasing more stock I decided to sell more puts.

This time I sold an in-the-money put meaning that if my options put contract expired today I would be required to purchase shares of the stock.  I sold 1 Nov 17 ’12 $24 Put @ 1.44.  This would give me a cost basis of $22.56/share not counting commissions.  I also still have another $23 put option with a cost basis of $21.90 in play.

If I end up getting assigned shares from both of these options contracts then I would be adding 200 shares of  INTC at a cost of  $22.33/share which is still lower than my current cost basis of $22.52.

I’ve updated this trade on my options tab.

TGH has been under some weakness lately and I decided to sell 1 Feb 16 ’13 $30 put for 2.10.  If assigned I’d own 100 more shares of TGH at a cost of 27.90/share.  This is a yield over 6% assuming they don’t even raise the dividend again!

TGH has raised its dividend ever single quarter for the last 10 quarters.  The quarterly dividend payments since the first quarter of 2010 until August of this year look like this:  .23, .24, .25, .27, .29, .32, .33, .35, .37, .40, .42.

From Etrade:

Textainer Group Holdings Limited (TGH) is a holding company engaged in the purchase, management, leasing and resale of a fleet of marine cargo containers. The Company is a lessor of intermodal containers based on fleet size, with a total fleet of more than 1.6 million containers, representing over 2.4 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU). It operates in three segments: Container Ownership, Container Management and Container Resale. It manages and provides administrative support to the affiliated and unaffiliated owners (the Owners) of the containers and structures and manages container leasing investment programs. The Company leases containers to more than 400 shipping lines and other lessees. On May 16, 2011, it purchased approximately 113,500 containers. On March 31, 2011, July 25, 2011 and August 25, 2011, it completed purchase-leaseback transactions for approximately 10,600, 7,800 and 6,800 containers, respectively.

I’ve updated this trade on my options tab.

I entered a limit order last week to buy-to-close my 1 JCI Oct 20 ’12 $25 Put @ 0.10.  This was executed a couple of hours after the QE3 announcement when the market was up almost 200 points.

I sold this put in July for $120 and bought it back for $10.  I made a profit of $110 not counting commissions.  This brings my total for the year to $2215.  I have already made more on options trading this year than I will make from dividends.  I hope this trend continues.

I’ve updated this trade on my options tab.  I have 4 options trades still open.  

I entered a limit order last week to sell a put and it was executed this morning.  I sold 1 INTC Dec 22 ’12 $23 Put for 1.1.  This will provide $110 in premiums.  If Intel trades under $23 around December then I would get assigned 100 shares for a cost of around $22 counting commissions.  My current cost/share is $22.53 so I would be averaging down slightly on a great company.  I have no problem adding another 100 shares at this price.  At $22 Intel would be yielding 4.09%.

Intel recently lowered their sales outlook for the third quarter ending in September from 13.8 Billion to 13.2 Billon.  I believe this is just a temporary weakness that I decided to take advantage of.    I’ve also updated this trade on my options page.

This morning I sold 2 BBVA Jan 19 ’13 $8 Calls @ .60 for a premium of $120 and I simultaneously sold 4 BBVA Jan 19 ’13 $6 Puts @ .40 for a premium of $160.  My total premiums collected are $280 not counting brokerage fees.  I currently hold a little over 400 shares.

I believe this is called a Short Straddle.  I don’t pay too much attention to particular strategy names, rather I just like to think logically about how my trades can play out.

This trade can play out in 3 different ways assuming I don’t buy back the calls or puts:

1.)  If BBVA stays between $6 and $8 around expiration on Jan 19 ’13 then I will make $280 profit.  My position doesn’t change and I’ve reduced my cost/share to $6.57/share from $7.26/share currently .

2.)  If BBVA trades higher than $8 around expiration, I will have 200 shares called away at $8 per share.  I’ll make $.74 per share + $280 in premiums for a total profit of $428.

3.)  If BBVA trades lower than $8 around expiration, I will have 400 shares put to me at $6/share and collect the premiums of $280.  My cost on the additional 400 shares would be $5.30/share.  This would reduce the cost/share of my total position (of around 810 shares) to $6.29/share.

I’ve been selling a lot of puts this year but haven’t sold many covered calls as I don’t have many position over 100 shares currently.  I also don’t want to risk losing my whole position in the positions that are over 100 shares.

I’ve updated my trades on my options tab.