Fastball Financial

Our options trades for November are thus far not going well.  To help keep the portfolio from losing too much money, we’re going to do a little damage control.  With 10 days left until options expiration, let’s look at each trade. F5 Networks (FFIV) We sold $80-$85 put spreads with an 11.4% downside cushion.  Unfortunately, FFIV’s earnings report caused the stock to plummet even more than that.  It now sits at $82.59, 2.8% below our $85 sold put strike.  Right now, we are at a $1,044 loss with $2,478 at risk.  Rather than risk losing [...]

Fresh off the October options expiration, we’re jumping right into the November options trades.  We’re going with the familiar faces, minus Intel until it stabilizes.  We’re getting almost a full four weeks of option premium for income as these will not expire until November 16th. F5 Networks F5 Networks (FFIV) has pulled back to $95.97.  They report earnings on Wednesday, so options are more expensive than normal.  This provides opportunity for higher premiums and allows us to sell even lower strike options to generate income.  Here’s the trade: Sell 6 $85 Puts for $1.83 [...]

We had only a couple of options trades for October.  All trades were selling put spreads.  Two of the three expired well, F5 Networks (FFIV) and Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), while one did not, Intel (INTC).  Both FFIV and BBBY used up most of their downside cushion.  FFIV needed to stay above $95, and did so by closing at $95.84.  BBBY needed to stay above $60, and did so by closing at $60.24.  Those two trades produced $624 for the income portfolio. Intel however needed to stay above $22, but it closed at $21.26.  Therefore, the $21 [...]

With two weeks left until September options expiration, it is time to add the option trades that will expire on Friday the 19th.  We’ve discussed all of these stocks before, so we won’t go into them in detail.  But each of them is providing opportunity over the next two weeks.  F5 Networks F5 Networks (FFIV) has pulled back over the past few days, so this is a good time to sell a put spread and make some income over the next two weeks.  Here’s the trade: Sell 7 $95 Puts for $0.72 Buy 7 [...]