November Trades

Trade History:

• November 30th:
• Sold 5x DNDN Covered Call Strike 5.00, Limit 0.25, expiration January 19/2013

Gut Check:

• DNDN peeked up a *bit* because of good earnings news. It'll be awful if I get assigned, but if I don't do anything I won't make any money. Even if I did get assigned, the stock has been down for a long time and it's possibly unlikely it'll ever recover to what it was when I bought it. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
• 
  

October Trades

Trade History:

• Dividend of 9 cents per share ($9 per contract) on a total of 600 shares of CIM -- 0.23% ROI for December
• November 8th:
• Sold 8x RENN Covered Call Strike 4.00, Limit 0.10, expiration January 19/2013
• Sold 3x YPF Covered Call Strike 12.50, Limit 0.10, expiration January 19/2013
• January ROI will be about 0.34%.

Gut Check:

• Everything's down. Thinking of wiping the slate by selling everything and putting the money into dividend-paying stocks, but I'd never recover the loss. For now, selling what options I can. If I get assigned, it wouldn't be worse than selling right now.
• If either of the Calls get assigned, losses will finally be more than paper losses and will be pretty ugly.

September Trades

Trade History:

• No trades.
• PCX Covered Call I wrote in May now expiring worthless, so I am now putting down the $118.04 credit as realized. This works out to 0.52% ROI for September.
• PCX busted down to around 0.141 cents. No bids for Covered Calls. Some puts can be written, but for a December expiration. I am going to hold off doing anything here and just watch them for now.

Gut Check:

• Sad about PCX but not much can be done now. Just waiting. Based on the Puts, there's a lot of hope out there that they will recover by year end. Fingers crossed!

August Trades

Trade History

• Converted 49.79 USD. Questrade gave me 49.46 CAD. Withdrew by ETF to bank account.
• Changed YPF Covered Call Strike 15.00 expiration October 20th Sell To Open order from Limit 0.50 to 0.25. Executed on July 30th.
• ROI 1.27% if it expires worthless.

Gut Check

• Changed my Sell-to-Open order from Limit 0.50 to Limit 0.25 as the price on YPF had dropped significantly and it was no longer reasonable to expect that sort of premium even though around the July options expiration it had been at that level.
• If it didn't fulfill, I was ready to risk a Strike 12.50 at 1.35 in January. If I got assigned, I'd more or less have broken even and at least got my money back to put into something that required less watching.
• Still stuck waiting for options expiration on the other stocks.
• ROI for the July 21 to August 18th options period is 0.17% because of dividend payments from CIM to both the Margin Account and the TFSA Account. The other open Covered Calls haven't expired yet.
• ROI for August to November at this point looks like 2.26%.

August Trades

Trade History

• Converted 49.79 USD. Questrade gave me 49.46 CAD. Withdrew by ETF to bank account.
• Queued a Sell To Open 3x YPF Covered Call Strike 15.00 @ 0.50, expiration October 20th. ROI 2.80% if it expires.

Gut Check

• Overall feeling depressed by the horrible loss of equity value. After the current calls expire, I won't be able to sell any PINK:PCXCQ (Patriot Coal) options. There's some talk about it being a grossly undervalued company at the moment, but things look so bleak.
• Portfolio value is down to about half. Yikes!

PCX shocker

Trades: None

Gut Check:
In May, I decided to stop obsessively watching the stock prices and just sell covered calls several months ahead but at "safe" strike prices -- that is, with a strike price of what I bought the stocks for.

Then I stopped looking. The Covered Call for YPF is expiring soon, and now that I've looked, I discovered that PCX has plummeted to around 23 cents -- from $6 when I bought it!
Damn.

My margin account is about 1/2 of its book value.

Not sure what to do except just to wait it out and see if it will ever recover. Can't even write Covered Calls on it.

Can't write Covered Calls on CIM either since the price is low and there aren't useful premiums to get.

Mostly just sitting. Might get to write a 12 to 15 cent Covered Call on YPF early next week for the TFSA account. We'll see.

Overall I think it's been too much watching and worry and I'm going to start pulling out as well as withdrawing money when I can.

June Trades

Trades: NONE

Gut Check:

• Stocks still down, but there were some spikes upward in there. If I had set my strikes incorrectly, I might have lost money. Still feels really passive not to take some risks, but at the same time, I'm not obsessively watching the markets. Starting to wonder if it's a good tradeoff by making a (lot) less money in exchange for safety.
• CIM dropped a lot after announcing a 2 cent decline in dividends (was 11 cents in the first quarter). No useful Covered Calls to write at this time. Waiting for it to go up again. IF it goes up again.

May Trades

Trades:

• May 26th: Bought 3x CIM @ 2.79 for both the Margin account and the TFSA account.
• Tried to short 300 shares of FB. Order rejected by QuesTrade -- "not enough shares to short"!

Gut Check:

• Sitting tight on CIM instead of selling any options, since ex-dividend day is probably coming up in June.
• Can't even do a fairly sure trade like FB. I'd psyched myself up all night to do it, since no matter what it's still speculative -- one press release by an analyst and it could reverse its downward trend and spike up in price, like last week with the Needham announcement.
• FB price is plunging again. Down over 50 cents from open, which was my cut-off to get out of the short position. Damn! If I could have shorted it, I'd be up an easy $150. Oh well.

May Trades

Trade History:

• Sold 5x DNDN Covered Call Strike 14.00 @ 0.25, expiration November 17th
• Sold 8x PCX Covered Call Strike 6.00 @ 0.17, expiration September 22nd
• Sold 8x RENN Covered Call Strike 7.00 @ 0.30, expiration October 20th
• Sold 3x YPF Covered Call Strike 15.00 @ 0.50, expiration July 21st
• Queued a buy for 3x CIM @ 2.75

Gut Check:

• Implementing the new trading strategy to remove speculation and spend less time watching the market instead of trying not to get assigned.
• Feeling nervous because this will commit me for several months for some of these stocks. There may be severe regret if they pop up from their current slump and shoot to fantastic values.
• DNDN sold at 0.25, but when I checked the quotes shortly after, it was in the ~0.30 range! Don't know why I got such a lousy price. :-( And for some reason it is showing 0.85 to close the position.
• 
  

Still considering new trading strategy

Ever since March, I've been stressed over writing Covered Calls on DNDN, trying to make 2% each month at option Strikes that were below what I paid for the stock, since the stock fell. And it fell a lot.

This month, the entire portfolio of stocks is down a lot, so except for YPF, I can't write a Covered Call for options expiring in June without choosing a Strike that is well below the price I paid per share. I might still get 2% ROI on each stock, but that involves a lot of watching, speculation, and stress. And I could be wrong, like I was in March and especially in April, where there was a huge 3% loss in just days.

If I were to remove speculation entirely, I could by selling Covered Calls for options expiring several months ahead. I would gain a certain amount of peace of mind and reclaim a lot of time watching the market and stressing out. In exchange, I am giving up potential gains -- capping any profit from the stocks going up a lot suddenly. And these are all volatile stocks to begin with.

After thinking about this more intently over the last couple of days, I think this will be my new strategy for stocks that have fallen a lot in value. It goes back to the original principles of not speculating and not spending a lot of time watching the markets.

There will be some idle cash in the portfolio because of this, and I think I will spend it on dividend-paying REITS. Looking at CIM at the moment.

Rethinking my strategy and targets

I was looking at Facebook this morning, intending to short it. I'd heard it might be allowed today, and QuesTrade did let me queue a short order (possibly a naked short). I decided to tune in to Twitter to see what was going on with FaceBook. Generally negative, it seemed, until a story broke about a valuation at Needham rating it a "buy" with a price target of $40. I personally find a a less optimistic and comparison-based valuation more realistic.

In any case, the effect, it seems, has been to inch the pre-market price up over 2% (at the time I am writing this). So much for doing a short. I suppose it is still possible if you can trade in the brief ups and downs and are willing to watch the market, BUT the cost is time. Since last night, I'd been thinking of my overall options trading strategy and how much time it has consumed in the last few days.

I have been aiming for 2% in the worst case, and it can be easily exceeded by picking volatile stocks and selling Covered Calls on them. It worked well in the early months, but I always knew that I could end up holding a stock that had plummeted in value. In the early days, I joked about it with my friends saying I could buy BP and they might lose a tanker offshore the next day, leading to a huge price drop. I never imagined that market manipulation could do that just as easily.

Right now, I'm holding DNDN, PCX, RENN, and YPF, all of which gave nice returns initially. But the price has since dropped a lot, so now I can't afford to be assigned on my Covered Calls, which in turn means I need to be careful choosing my Strike prices, and that in turn means keeping a closer eye on price movements in case I need to do a buyback because the stock price spikes up -- like it did with DNDN last month, resulting in a 3% loss in just 3 days.

So now I'm rethinking my whole strategy since 2% a month can sure take a lot of work when you're holding on to stocks you need to babysit. For one thing, I'm thinking of exiting trading altogether. I could day-trade, but that wasn't the point. One of the important factors for me was limiting time spent.

My exit strategy from here might be:

• Write a longer-term expiration Covered Call, where (Strike Price + Premium earned) > (price paid per share). Not exactly a LEAP, necessary, but a few months ahead.
• As I return to a cash position, switch out to (boring) dividend paying stocks and do more longer-term expiration Covered Calls.
• When the portfolio is allowed to trade Cash Secured Puts, I will then try that. Or possibly just keep the portfolio at 8%+ dividend stocks and call it quits.

Holding for now

Trades: None

Gut Check:

• Seriously thinking of shorting FB!
• Holding on all stocks -- No useful short-term calls I can write at the moment, compared to the risk.
• DNDN is climbing upward slowly. Can't write any useful safe options except maybe a November call on 14.00 for a slightly more than 2% return. I might still end up doing something like that. I think I'll give it till the end of the options period. If I'm paralyzed by low prices, I'll write a safe but farther-ahead call. If the price goes up... well, I'd be out and up a bit. Not 2%/month, but at least I'll be out of the position.
• PCX could be busted down to nothing -- there's even talk of bankruptcy, or at least cash flow problems. Still, stock might inch up a bit. Same situation as DNDN -- nothing useful to write now.
• RENN could climb back up a bit while FB slides down. Will wait.
• YPF: I could write a ~1% ROI covered call for Strike 15.00, but there's no point. I might as well wait for the 12.50 Strike to reach a price where I can sell a call on it and still come out ahead. In any case, if the new administration pays out dividends similar to what the company used to do, then there's no hurry and I can just hold.
• Overall I feel paralyzed by inaction, but also anxious to make even a bit of money. Still aiming for 2%/month, but feeling foolish about the risk and I would feel really bad if I lost money making bad bets.
• Very long-term Calls with Strike Prices on or above what I paid for the stock, are another option I need to start looking at. Better safe than sorry?
• I played with too-volatile stocks, and now I have to deal with idle money, and possibly never liquidating them.

May Trades

Trades:

• None yet. Queuing some Sell-to-Open Covered Calls but waiting to see if stock prices rebound a lot over the next couple of weeks.
• DNDN: Queue Strike 9.00, Limit 1.00
• Price of 5.30 to make 2% ROI if I am assigned.
• Price of 0.31 to make 2% ROI if the option expires
• Price of 0.04 to make any money at all after commissions.
• PCX: Queue Strike 5.00, Limit 1.00
• Price of 1.17 to make 2% ROI if I am assigned.
• Price of 0.15 to make 2% ROI if the option expires
• Price of 0.03 to make any money at all after commissions.
• RENN: Queue Strike 5.00, Limit 1.00
• Price of 1.78 to make 2% ROI if I am assigned.
• Price of 0.16 to make 2% ROI if the option expires
• Price of 0.03 to make any money at all after commissions.
• YPF: Queue Strike 15.00, Limit 1.00
• At any price, I would make money if I were assigned.
• Price of 0.37 to make 2% ROI if the option expires
• Price of 0.04 to make any money at all after commissions.

Gut Check:

• Oh boy. All stocks down. A LOT.
• I am trying to be more organized about selling my Calls, and maybe not be so anxious to lock in a price -- especially after the fiasco with DNDN where I sold a Call, only to have the stock rebound in price above my Strike, forcing me to buy it back.
• I will probably wait 1 week or so to see whether the stocks keep recovering their price.
• DNDN and PCX are supposedly oversold, so they could keep going up.
• RENN is down a lot, probably dragged down by general sentiment after the Facebook IPO fiasco. I could write a call now, but it might still rebound.

Options Expiration Day

Trades: None

Gut Check: 

• It's options expiration day again. All my options look like they will firmly expire worthless out of the money. Which is okay for now, except all the stocks have fallen a lot in price.
• There was also an interesting article about stock price manipulation and how it has devastated DNDN. Conspiracy aside, it is obvious that playing with volatile stocks can have both high option premiums and liquidity consequences. I always knew that and had a contingency for that -- cautiously selling Covered Calls while waiting for a time to sell -- but in practice it is proving more stressful than I expected, and as early April showed with my 3% loss in just a few days, it can be very tricky.
• Moving ahead, I think I will still continue my options trading experiment. For the current batch of stocks, liquidity is a huge issue so I might not get to the 25,000 I need to trade Cash Secured Puts any time soon. It may even be that I will have to babysit these stocks for a very, very, long time.
• Come Sunday, it will be time to look at how to place my Strikes again. I'm thinking of a two-dollar gap for those options with Weeklys, and just staying put for a few days for those options that expire in June, to see if prices peek up a bit and hopefully write Calls at a higher strike and/or a higher option premium.

May Trades

Trades:

• Sold to Open 8x PCX Covered Call, Strike 6.00 @ 0.15 (May 19th expiry)
• Sold to Open 8x RENN Covered Call, Strike 7.00 @ 0.30 (May 19th expiry)
• For the options period expiring May 19th, after additional new funds and nasty loss early this month, I will emerge with a measly 2% or so ROI.

Gut Check:

• Both stocks went down. Not as drastically as DNDN, but quickly enough that I missed the good prices yesterday -- especially RENN, which had a price of 0.55, which would have made a very tidy sale price.
• Prices were still going down today--looks like France/Europe election issues yesterday, and more Greece troubles early today. I took a chance that this might continue all day today, maybe even this week, and decided to take the prices above before time value ticked down even more even if share prices held sort-of-steady.
• With my usual bad luck, prices could jump back up after. Urgh.
• But my Trading Strategy isn't supposed to be about speculation! It's about seeing what's available now, and deciding to take it or not. And once I've secured a certain level of profit, I need to just let go and not regret. It is the stress of regrets that's taking a toll on me.
• Strange... Just checked now (0650h PST) and Google Finance shows PCX price gapped up at open. But QuesTrade had shown it ticking down at market open... Hmm...
• DNDN is now trading at LESS THAN $10! The company posted mild profit gains, and that was apparently just not good enough. Might be more scary times squeezing profit out of this next month... Now I'm glad I'm at a Strike 14.00 waiting for expiration.
• There's the possibility of buying that back and getting another Strike. I'm tempted to try it, even if it is speculation, though at a Strike of 12.00 it might be a safe bet, when the share price is ticking down toward $9.
• ROI for the month still in the positive, but only because of new cash. No more huge wins like the early lucky days of very volatile stocks, I guess. But still better than the 1% everyone's projecting. 

May Trades

Trades:

• Previous PCX Covered Call expired May 4th. ROI 1.29% on the $4,808 spent buying the 8 contracts.
• Queued Sell to Open 8x PCX Covered Call Strike 6.00, Limit 0.10, expiry May 11th
• Queued Buy 8x RENN at Limit 6.60.
• If filled, will do a Sell to Open 8x RENN Covered Call, Strike 7.00. Price was around 0.50 when the market closed on Friday. This would be a nice 7% return on the $5405 available cash in the account.

Gut Check:

• Decent return on a Weekly Option on the PCX. Price of the stock is going down, however. But even if it hovers and the option premiums are decent, then I'm still okay.

May Trades

Trades:

• Bought 3x YPF @ 14.28
• Sold to Open 3x YPF Covered Call Strike 15.00 @ 0.50, expiry May 19th

Gut Check:

• My first TFSA account buy. If I lose money here, I can't just top it up. Can't go into margin either, so there'll be more "idle money" in this account, making ROIs smaller compared to committed capital.

May Trades

Trades:

• Added 10,000 CAD to the Margin trading account, and 5,000 CAD to the TFSA account.
• Bought 8 contracts PCX @ 6.00
• Sold 8x PCX Strike 6.00 @ 0.15, expiry May 4th.
• On the $4,808 spent buying the 800 shares, this is 1.69% ROI if assigned (due to auto-assignment fees), 2.12% if the position expires.

Gut Check:

• Got the Weekly on the PCX because I wanted to have cash on hand for this month's conference calls for DNDN, PCX, and INVN. Price of PCX has been very volatile this morning. Hopefully it'll close this week at 6.00 or slightly above -- or at least not drastically low.
• Still feeling a bit anxious about my decisions after April, but I need to push forward.
• Still two and a half weeks left to make money. Hopefully I can turn things around and not feel anxious about making excessive amounts. The early months of 10% ROI were fortunate, especially when the benchmark returns for options is 1% per month. I need to concentrate on getting assigned, returning to cash, and still coming out ahead a few percentage points.
• I'm about 10,000 away from asking for Options Level 4, which will let me do cash-secured Puts. Looking forward to choosing trades more likely to end in a cash position at options expiry!

QuesTrade programmers need to go back to school

I tried to log in to QuesTrade to see if my bank transfer had gone through. And I got this...



How is this error message at all useful? How the hell do I report it when I can't even sign in, and live help isn't available at the moment? And do they know about it? Can I trade tomorrow?

(1) How about a MORE DESCRIPTIVE error message?
(2) How about a "Report This Error" button?

April Trades

Trades:

• Sold 5x DNDN Covered Call May 19th Strike 14.00 @ 0.40
• Queued Buy-To-Close at 0.20

Gut Check:

• Missed the brief window where the April 27th Strike 12.00 was at 0.10. Oh well.
• Price of DNDN was down pre-market, and down in the morning. I queued a close at 0.20 in case the price really drops, and in any case I might close prior to May 7th, especially if the price has gone down a lot. The conference call to go through Quarter 1 earnings could swing prices either way.
• Funded account 5000 CAD. It should go through by next week and I'll transfer it over to the TFSA.
• Not sure what to buy yet but I'm thinking of a 1 Billion+ market cap stock that pays more than 8% dividend and can yield 1% selling On-The-Money Covered Calls.
• I'm hoping I can more than break even on my loss earlier this week. To come out with even 1% for the April to May options period would be very nice.
• DNDN could very well close below 11.00 today.
• That would be so goddamned irritating, after I exited my Strike 11.00 call at 0.55! Even now, the morning of the last day, it is close to 0.40 to exit. So I wasn't far off.
• But if it closes below 11.00, there wouldn't have been a need to close the position at all. On the other hand, I don't think I would have liked to cut things quite so closely, especially when it had been very high most of Thursday, threatening to go to 12.00.

April Trades

Trades:

• Queued a Sell to Open Covered Call 5x DNDN April 27th, Strike 12.00, Limit 0.10.

Gut Check:

• One day left to expiration and so far it looks like DNDN has flatlined from its bull run. Took a chance and queued a fairly safe (?) Sell to Open Covered Call Strike 12.00 Limit 0.10. Fingers crossed.
• Luckily I didn't go with the earlier idea of a Buy to Open 0.40 May 4th Strike 12.00. Hope this works out better and expires worthless.

April Trades

Trades:

• Queued Sell To Close 5x DNDN May 04 Strike 14.00 Limit 1.00

Gut Check:

• Thought of taking another chance on DNDN by queuing a Buy To Open 10x DNDN May 04 Strike 12.00 Limit 0.40 . It's moving up strongly, may well exceed 12.00 by the end of the week. But the difference between the Bid and Ask is quite big (0.10 last time I looked). And if it doesn't work out well enough, I can't sell it at a high enough price. Ultimately decided against it. No more greed-based / impatience-driven speculation.
• The Limit 1.00 on the Strike 14 is unlikely, but with the stock moving up so strongly, I figured I had nothing to lose in positioning myself now.

Totally missed the boat -- now looking ahead

Trades:

• None

Gut Check:

• Looking back, what I should have done was reverse my position early in the week. Immediately buy it back, and buy a Covered Call (to sell later) since the price was trending upward quite quickly.
• Now, the price seems to have flattened a bit even though it gained almost 20 cents yesterday. After-market was down.
• I was thinking of buying a Call and hoping it would ride up 10 cents or so, but at the same time I think I've also had enough speculation. Price speculation was never part of the plan. Trading only what I immediately see was the plan.
• There's another earnings conference call on May 7th. The last one caused the price to drop. If there's good news here, it might move the price up. I could...
• Sell the May 18th Strike 14.00 covered call this week. And if the price trends downward, exit before May 7th if there is still profit to be made, in case the conference call causes prices to jump.
• Queue to sell a May 18th Strike 14.00 at Limit 1.00. This is a lot more than the last price of 0.40, but if the price keeps moving up, it might actually be feasible. In any case, I can adjust the price based on price movements tomorrow. I would also therefore be participating in the upside without cash outlay (buying a call to sell later).
• Wait till the conference call on May 7th before doing anything.
• Right now I have basically no cash in the account, just the stock. And I don't want to keep shoring up the account with more cash. Not yet. After I handle my taxes, I'll think about putting money into another position or two.
• Can the stock rise 50 cents in the two remaining days? I'm thinking of a Strike 12.00 Covered Call and let it go to expiration.
• The Bid closed at 0.11 yesterday. A buyback even at 0.01 would see fees eat up a lot of that. I should wait till mid-day to decide.
• Possibly wait till Friday, although by then time value would be next to nothing.
• After-hours price yesterday was 11.36, so I'll definitely have to look at pre-market today (April 26th). A Bid price of 0.04 is the least that will still show some profit after commissions.

April Trades

Trades:

• Queued a Buy-To-Close 5x DNDN Strike 11.00 Limit 0.55
• This is the maximum buyback I can do without going into overdraft on the account.
• Filled at ~0940h. ~3% loss.

Gut Check:

• DNDN is still rising. Over 11.50 and will probably keep climbing. During the day, a temporary dip might allow me to close the position at 0.55.
• The Buy-to-Close order was filled, thankfully. Of course, now I will be supremely pissed off if the stock takes a dive!
• Probably no point writing an option for Strike 12.00 or 13.00. Both are more or less at just time value now, and the Ask was equal to the Bid on the Strike 12.00. I'll probably sit tight for now. Might possibly write something on Friday, but at this point I'm starting to get gun-shy.
• Feeling annoyed and anxious.
• At least DNDN is inching back up. I can probably write a Strike 14.00 soon, and then I won't care if I'm assigned. I'd really like to exit DNDN with a healthy profit despite a lousy April.

Trading Strategy going forward

After my recent experience with having to hold DNDN while it had gone down a lot in value, I thought more about my trading strategy, and looked at various stocks online to see if a new heuristic might pan out.

Strategy 1: Write options on stocks that pay 3%+ dividend.

This was a good idea in principle, but I couldn't really find any where I could write a decent option on and that still satisfied the dividend criteria.

Strategy 2: Write Deep-In-The-Money call options to ensure I get assigned and returned to cash.

This might work out, but it seems that the best money on call options were At-The-Money or Near-The-Money.

Strategy 3: Buy high-dividend-yield stocks and make options secondary.
There are stocks paying 16%+ yields, so this could work out. But if I can make that much in a matter of months, the risk vs. reward perspective is against this strategy.
I am considering this for a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account), however.

Feeling really anxious

Trade History:

• None

Gut Check:

• DNDN is still climbing. Closed at 11.31 today.
• The Strike 11.00 Ask is 0.61. I sold it at 0.17. HUGE loss if I sell it now. But I should probably keep waiting. A loss is confirmed -- at this point -- no matter what. I might as well wait for the time premium to decrease and accept the price on Friday. It could go even higher by then. 12.00? Damn.
• I am feeling very upset. Anxious. Embarrassed. Angry. Annoyed. Everything. I never wanted to hold stock too long or have to deal with fluctuations. Selling Covered Calls and getting assigned to go back to a cash position was the plan.
• I need to somehow learn from this and do better in the future.
• I need to be able to hold stock without panicking. I tried to keep making money on DNDN because it's not giving any dividends so it's just dead inventory sitting in the account. There's money to be made, but it's hard by Covered Calls when the price can keep going up like that. I don't want to handle having to predict price!
• I'll have to buy dividend paying stable stocks and accept less options profit due to less volatility. And a comfort in holding stock for a long time.
• For now... I have a plan in mind but the anxiety is wearing at me.
• I think what is mostly making me angry and embarrassed is posting my first loss. I narrowly escaped last month with a Buy to Close and another Sell to Open, making a fraction of 1% gain. Now in one week I'm about to wipe that all out. And this compared to previous months where I was making 10% returns!

April Trades

Trades:

• Queued Sell to Open 5x DNDN Covered Call, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.17, expiry April 27 (weekly)
• Filled at 0.25
• April-24: CORRECTION -- Filled at 0.17
• Queued Buy to Close 5x DNDN Covered Call, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.05,expiry April 27 (weekly)

Gut Check:

• There's a conference call to go over first quarter results in early May, so I didn't want to lock myself into a full month-long options contract.
• The price of DNDN appeared to be firmly below 11.00, but by mid-day it was peeking over 11.00. Drat. Price of the Strike 11.00 is now over 40 cents.
• I'll probably have to buy this one back unless the price goes back down.
• The main worry now is if it keeps going up, past 11.25, in which case I'll have to post a loss.
• The Strike 12.00 price remained quite steady through all this, and low enough to not be worth selling a Covered Call on it.
• Have to wait and see now. I might put in a Buy-To-Close at Limit 0.05.
• Why is it whenever I sell a Covered Call, the price goes up almost immediately afterwards? :-(
• April-24: I could have sworn I saw the order filled at 0.25... But when I checked the trading platform this morning, it showed the Sell-to-Open was filled at 0.17? Well, nothing I can do about that now since I didn't collect evidence to the contrary.

Another QuesTrade Platform FUBAR?

Trade History:

• Can't Trade -- QuesTrade's IQ platform is not working.

Gut Check:

• I log onto QuesTrade's new "IQ" platform, and what happens? No information -- It loads no information on my account, no positions, no nothing. I click of Live Help and it says no one is available right now -- probably all firefighting the same glitch. And on options expiration day!
• Price of DNDN is over 10 and there are already some pre-market movements that increased the price from closing of 10.03 yesterday. Can't close my Strike 11.00 at 0.01 anymore. Not till much later. Now I'm wishing I had not cancelled the order to close the position at Limit Price 0.01, since I can't react to the market at all with the trading platform down. :-(

Coming up to Options Expiration

Trades:

• (yesterday) Cancelled Buy-To-Close DNDN Strike 11.00 @ 0.01

Gut Check:

• The price of DNDN is firmly below 11.00 (closed at 8.98 on April 18th), so I've taken a chance and cancelled my Buy-To-Close order, and will instead just let the Covered Call expire normally.
• I think I won't sell any options until DNDN's May 7th conference call to go over first quarter results.
• Once the option expires, I'll queue a Sell order to close my DNDN position with a limit price of maybe 15.00.

DNDN Stock Plummets

Trades: None

Gut Check:

• At the time I write this, DNDN's price has dropped to a lot less than $9, apparently due to good news for competitors.
• I'm trying not to feel regret at having bought back my Strike 10.00 call last month.
• At the time, the price was more than 10.00 and climbing, so without a crystal ball, the trend looked like it might go back to 11+. Even if it stayed just at 10.00, it would have expired in the money and I would have had to buy it back at a loss from commissions. By buying it back early and writing another call, I got to instead secure a slight profit.
• Now that it's fallen to less than 9.00, clearly I could have waited till expiration. But that's hindsight. If I keep regretting every move, I'll go crazy.
• The April-20 Strike 11.00 asking price is around 0.05 now. I'm wondering if I should go ahead with an earlier buy-back and sell a lower call -- and risk a sudden price jump and having to buy back another call. Hmm... If it drops a lot, my currently queued buyback at 0.01 might get filled anyway.
• Whatever happens, I'm stuck with a stock that is almost half the price I bought it for. Sure, I can make maybe 2%-5% a month depending on ongoing volatility, but the value might never recover to my original purchase price. Damn.
• Still waiting on my redemption of funds from the League REIT. I'm definitely switching to Cash-Secured Puts, and probably selling stock immediately if I end up getting assigned. Stock price risk is just too annoying.

March Trades

Trade History:

• Topped up account by 150 CAD to cover overdraft while waiting for order to fulfill. Converted by QuesTrade to 148.13 USD on March 29th. 
• Order fulfilled: Sell to Open 5x DNDN, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.45.
• Queued order: Buy to Close 5x DNDN, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.01.
• If this goes through, net ROI for the options period of March 24 - April 21 will be 0.63%.

Gut Check:

• Was about to lower my Limit Price on the Strike 11.00 because it wasn't quite getting to 0.40. However, on Friday morning, the price ran up a bit, so I let it sit and crossed my fingers. It actually did hit 0.45.
• Looking back, I think it was the right move to buy back the Strike 10.00 call at a loss. If I had waited till closer to expiration, I might have had to buy it back at a loss, even, or slight gain. By selling it early, I had the opportunity to make a little more with the higher Strike price because there's still time premium left.
• Addendum (April 2nd): Price is ~10.66 over the weekend. Hoping it won't jump to 11.00 or more. Either way, I'm still leaving the order to buy to close at 0.01, just to make sure I don't get assigned.

March Trades

Trade History:

• Changed order to Sell to Open, 5x DNDN, Strike 11.00, Limit 0.45

Gut Check:

• Looking back, I probably should have risked early assignment and instead let my initial Strike 10.00 Covered Call ride till closer to expiration when I could buy it back at a reduced rate. Although the way the stock was climbing, it looked like it was headed for 11.00 or more and not going back down.
• Trying it again, Strike 11.00. DNDN is still over 10.00, but looks like it is inching down. If it spikes up again like it did this morning, this order might actually get filled.
• If I do get this filled, I'll try not to panic if it goes over 11.00, but instead wait much closer to expiration before buying it back.
• Still feeling annoyed by the "day trading" level of watching I am doing.
• Hopefully this will help me recover my losses from jumping the gun yesterday and maybe even make a tiny bit of money.

March Trades

Trades:

• Buy-to-Close Covered Call 5x DNDN, Strike 10.00, Limit 0.90 -- Order filled.
• ROI -2.07%

Gut Check:

• DNDN kept rising and I was worried it would go up too high to buy back and I would either take a big hit to buy my call back, or get prematurely assigned. Either way, at over 10.00, it was up for automatic assignment anyway.
• Naturally, as soon as I did a "stop loss" buyback, the price fell to close at 10.11. Tuesday's range was 10.10-10.66.
• Might have to settle for a very low Strike 14.00 call. For now, I have queued an unreasonable Strike 14.00 at limit 0.50. Will watch the price this week to see if I want to accept a very small Strike 14.00.
• I could also risk a Strike 11.00 but I'm worried about the price shooting up again. If I were to do that, I might try it next week. Will see how the price moves.
• Overall, feeling really ansy. The Strike 10.00 was a fair call when the price had dropped to a lot less than 10. why is it that as soon as my order is fulfilled, the market goes the other way? :-(

March Trades

Trades:

• Changed Buy-To-Close order of 5x DNDN from Limit 0.12 to 0.40.

Gut Check:

• DNDN continues to climb, though there's some up and down. I might have to confirm a small loss on my buyback of my Covered Call. At least the Strike 14 Calls are now worth a little bit of something.
• Might still be too early to say since there's about 3 weeks left. But I'm starting to think I should pull the plug and accept a small loss now than risk seeing the price keep climbing. Sold my Covered Call at Strike 10.00 for 0.67. Might have to buy it back at 1.00 if DNDN keeps rising. The price could even go to 11.00!
• Something I could do is pull the plug now and wait to see where it goes in a week. If I bought it back now at 1.00, I'm at a net -2.79% loss but I could sell something else to mitigate it a bit.
• Or, I could wait till expiry and if the price isn't significantly over 10.60, I could buy it back at around 0% loss... Feeling indecisive! Urgh.

March Trades

Trade History

• Changed Buy-To-Close Covered Call of DNDN from Limit Price 0.01 to 0.12.
• ~3% ROI after buyback.

Gut Check

• Invariably, as soon as I sell a Covered Call, the price goes up! ARGH!
• What's even more worrisome this time is that I really DON'T want to be assigned this time. I've changed the buyback price to 0.12 to get out a bit earlier if possible, even if the share price is below the Strike price of 10.

March Trades

Trades:

• Cancelled order to Sell to Open Covered Call at Strike 11.
• Queued order to Sell to Open 5 contracts DNDN Covered Call at Strike 10, Limit Price 0.67.
• If filled, queue Buy to Close at Limit Price 0.01 to make sure I'm not assigned.
• I'll also have to keep a close eye on the price. If it goes over 10, I'll buy it back for a hopefully tiny net loss and sell a Strike 11 Covered Call instead.
• UPDATE: Order filled at 0.67. ROI estimated to be 4.29% after Buy-To-Close at 0.01. If I get  assigned, I'd be at -24.21% (!) compared to the original purchase price at 13.95 per share plus commissions.

Gut Check:

• Lots of stress today! Oh boy! First, I couldn't log onto to QuesTrade. For some reason, my user name and password didn't work anymore. This issue cleared up shortly after, very close to 6:30 am. Yoicks!
• Then, after I queued my sell order, I wanted to tweak it down to 0.66. Couldn't do it. The interface showed me I could, but the trading platform didn't update. WTF? In any case, I'm going to leave it for this morning. Who knows? The price of DNDN might slip back up a bit, enough to fill the order.]
• Still feeling very on edge with DNDN. I'm locked in unless I want to sell at a horrific loss and start all over again. I can theoretically continue to make money off it with Covered Calls, but at this point I feel worried and trapped even though I have a game plan. Got to stop feeling so panicky!

March Trades

Trade History:

• Queued 5x DNDN Strike 11.00 Covered Call, at 0.60.
• ROI: ~4.08% if it expires worthless, -17.28% if assigned.

Gut Check:

• I bought DNDN at 13.95, before their review of Q4 earnings which basically sank their stock. If I sell now, I'm realizing a pretty sizable loss that would wipe out a lot of my gains over the last few months. This was one of the risks that I understood to be there when I first started options. It's only now that I've really been tested. Have to try not to panic or throw the baby out with the bathwater by stopping options trading altogether.
• It's not really hopeful that the stock will go back to 14, but in the meantime I think I can still make a bit of money each month with some cautious Covered Calls, assuming they don't get assigned.
• The plan for now is to hold DNDN and make a bit of money each month until I can sell at a loss that is offset by the gains made off it. Even at just 4%, I'm slightly ahead of my monthly target to beat my mutual funds.
• If DNDN's price surges, I'll have to buy it back at a slight loss and re-sell at a higher Strike.

DNDN still limping but slowly upward

Trades:

• None.
• Order of Sell-to-Close 5x Covered Call DNDN did not go through at limit price 0.01 since the stock has not free-fallen to a super-low price. Order has expired based on date and I didn't renew it. Strike 14.00 Covered Call bid has been holding at a price of 0.10.

Gut Check:

• DNDN is still low, but slowly inching up. An article on Seeking Alpha talks about how everyone's wrong about Dendron, and that it's partially management's fault for not setting up expectations correctly. This is both the frustrating part and potentially profitable part of the stock market -- facts don't count as much as herd mentality. When price swings up or down, there's profit to be made.
• Price has swung down, so I will make money this month and hold onto my stock. That's like renting the stock instead of selling it at a good price. Good news, right? But I'm now holding onto stock that's fallen about 3 dollars. Bad news? Maybe I can rent it out again (write another Covered Call) at a good Strike Price next month? So far ROI for next month looks like maybe 3% at Strike 14.00. Urgh. Better than nothing and definitely better than confirming a loss.
• Is there hope that DNDN will at least go up to 12.00? There are still two weeks left before options expiration and another four before April expiration. Lots of time for it to recover and for me to write a decent Covered Call for more money. Not the fantastic ~10% returns in the near past, but better than the other investments out there that I know of.

February Trades

Trades

• Deposited 120 CAD, which QuesTrade converted to 118.73 USD

Gut Check

n/a

DNDN stock fell because of boring news?

Trades:

• Queued Buy To Close 5x DNDN at Strike 14.00 Limit 0.01.

Gut Check:

• Late last week I was worried that the DNDN earnings announcement might result in bad news and stock prices falling like a rock. Turns out it was just boring news that made DNDN drop. It started off slightly high at the start of the trading day, but has since plummetted to less than $12.00.
• This is one of the risks of making money with Covered Calls -- While you're waiting for expiration or assignment, your stock takes a dive. It's not a serious one here, but it's annoying enough because if the price doesn't pick up, I won't get assigned and might end up holding the stock.
• If I get to buy back my Covered Call at 0.01, my effective share price after having made some money with the earlier Covered Call would be 12.63 at basically 0% profit.
• I have almost 3 weeks to expiration if I can't buy it back. Enough time for the price to inch back up?

DNDN earnings announcement on Monday

Trades: None.

Gut Check:

• DNDN is scheduled to review their 4th Quarter 2011 on Monday, February 27th. People are talking about either a big jump or a big drop in share price, depending on what happens. If it really does sink, I'll try to buy it back at minimum and either write a Covered Call for the Weekly ending next week, or just wait. If I buy it back at 0.01, my effective purchase price per share is 12.63, so it'd have to fall pretty hard to bother me.
• Whatever happens, I'm locked in for the moment. Will just have to wait and see.

February Trades

Trades:

• Sell to Open 5x DNDN Covered Call at Strike 14.00 Limit 1.40 -- order filled.
• After recalculating the funds left in my account after Questrade finally cleaned up the options assignment issue and after factoring in final commissions, ROI looks like 10.86%.

Gut Check:

• Price of DNDN shot up -- as expected. Yesterday was just a low day. Pre-market saw it as high as 14.22 or thereabouts. It's still above 14.00 and the Covered Calls are at over 1.60.
• Was tempted to reset my limit price higher, but that would be speculating too much. I might have missed my target again, lost time (which also means losing a bit of option price), and stressed out.
• Feeling relieved.
• In part because I'm now locked into my positions until options expiration. Can't look back now, but the ROI I got isn't shabby, especially compared with the amount of time spent, and the other returns I can get from other investments.
• I hit my target of 1.40 and my ROI of close to 10%. I shouldn't be too greedy. Just yesterday I was worried I might have reset it as low as 1.20! Got to get a handle on the butterflies in my stomach.
• Final ROI figure will depend on how much my 120 CAD converts to USD. Right now the exchange rate is 1.000 with Questrade, but the money hasn't reached them yet as I telephone-banked it only yesterday morning.

DNDN price drop -- but outlook positive?

Trades:

• None, but still have an order queued: Sell to Open 5x DNDN Covered Call at Strike 14.00 Limit 1.40.

Gut Check:

• Could have sold the call at 1.30 early this morning right after I bought the stock at 13.95, but I was feeling conflicted. It had happened before: A short-term / 1 day price drop and I traded anyway, only to discover I was selling my Calls on the lowest trading day of that options period. There's still about 3 weeks left.
• I dug around and it looks like the outlook on DNDN is still bullish. Bid on the Strike 14.00 Call closed at 1.21. It has to climb 19 cents to reach my target.
• I'm tempted to reset to 1.30, which still gives me ~9% ROI. I'll hold on and see what happens tomorrow. As of 7:56 PM EST, DNDN had climbed from a close of 13.73 to 13.84. Might take off above 14.00.
• If I have to sell at 1.20, that's still ~8% ROI (and about $100 more into margin).
• Using limit orders necessarily involves speculation -- and maybe too much watching. I think next time around I might sacrifice a few % profit for less stress.
• In other news... My Questrade account was glitched and I mentioned that on Twitter, to which I got a response.
• Anyway, when I logged in early this morning (Feb-22), it looked like everything had been cleared up. Great.
• In the afternoon, around maybe noon, I got a call from Questrade apologizing for the glitch and asking me to look in on my account.
• I feel it's a bit late -- I could have used some notification, when over 99% of my money just disappears from my account -- but at least they did call to apologize and check in. Better late than never, as they say. Nowadays, it's not uncommon for companies to fall into the "never" category.

February Trades

Trades:

• ACHN and ATPG Covered Calls auto-assigned over the weekend. Back to cash.
• Queued an order to Buy 500 shares of DNDN at 13.95, good till Friday Feb-24.
• If the order is filled, I will be in margin over 700 and will need the Covered Call to bring that down nicely to about $70, whereupon I will top it up with cash.
• If I can get the order filled, I'll queue a Sell to Open a Covered Call at Strike 14.00 and limit price 1.40.
• Estimated ROI 9.81% (expires worthless) to 9.92% (assigned) when compared to purchase price (rather than capital committed).

Gut Check:

• Feeling very relieved after the problem with my Questrade account looks finally cleared up when I logged on this morning.
• Missed a Covered Call opportunity with CEDC that was about ROI 10%. Trying for DNDN. More volatile, pricier stock. Closed moving up yesterday at 13.99. Pre-market has it up a few cents. I'm going to try to get it at a little less, then queue a Covered Call. Otherwise, I'll look at it again Friday to see if the stock has rocketed up too far. Fingers crossed!

Questrade Glitches -- Can't trade till who knows when

Trades: UNABLE TO TRADE

Gut Check:

• I logged onto the Questrade trading platform, IQ Beta, and discovered I had only $14 to my name. WTF!? Turns out there was some kind of problem with my Covered Call assignments and they have to manually fix it. Meanwhile, my buying power is about $42. God knows when this will be fixed.
• I also discovered a retroactively applied $12.95 commission on my BAC assignment. I had seen that transaction line in my trade history WITHOUT the commission, but it was apparently retroactively applied to the same transaction line maybe on Jan-25th, the settlement date. This is very confusing for me, since what is published as a completed transaction should no longer be changed. Instead, an adjustment line should have been added. Anyway, it got sorted out -- so now I have to recalculate my ROIs...

13.01% return for February, and back to cash

Trades:

• Over the weekend, both ATPG and ACHN Covered Calls got Assigned. Net ROI for Jan-23 to Feb-21 is 13.01%! Hurrah!
• EDIT: Will be 12.57% after commissions on option assignment that will eventually be applied.

Gut Check:

• Back to cash and all set to go, except it's President's Day in the US. NYSE not open. Boo!
• Presently sorting out what looks like a retroactive $12.95 commission charge when my BAC Covered Call got assigned last month. Strange... Waiting for customer service to get back to me.
• Got my eye on TSL, DANG, PCX, and CEDC. Will watch what happens when the markets open tomorrow before ordering anything.

Prices gapped up!

Trades: None

Gut Check: Relieved!

• After stock prices for both ACHN and ATPG fell over the February options period, I was worried that I'd be stuck with both stocks and my Covered Calls might expire un-assigned -- yesterday, especially, with ACHN looking really bleak closing at less than 9.00! At such a low price, the March calls would not have had a really good premium attached to them (not bad per se -- but not 10%+ of my purchase price).
• The way things are going today, it looks like both positions will expire In-The-Money and get assigned. I'll lose a bit (about 16 cents) per share on ATPG, but I've held it a long time and wouldn't mind going back to cash.
• Going forward, I think I want to aim to more aggressively be assigned and return to cash. As well as use limit orders to set ROI% targets instead of personally watching the market for a good price. Will see how the market closes today!

Might not be assigned after all

Trades: None.

Gut Check:

• Holy shit! ACHN just fell by a dollar and is now at less than my Covered Call strike price of 10.00. Looks like I might not be assigned after all. But if the bid price for a March Strike 10.00 Call is still over $1.00, I can just write another for over 10% ROI.
• ATPG still low but Strike 7.00 Call also has a high premium. Luckily I didn't buy back my call. I'd have just chopped off 5% profit for nothing. Good thing I stuck to not speculating on price.
• Cruising into options expiration in 1-1/2 weeks now...

ATPG sinks, tempted to swing trade

Trades:

• Last week: Cancelled Limit Order Buy-to-Close ATPG Covered Call.
• January 27th: Topped up account by 200 CAD. Converted to 196.52 USD.

Gut Check:

• ATPG was on the decline but still above my Covered Call Strike of 7.00. This morning, it gapped down A LOT and opened at 6.88. Has been going down. Presently 6.58. I was tempted to buy back my call at a modest profit and re-sell at Strike 7.00 but with a limit price of 1.00.
• The problem is, there's only 2 weeks left, and I don't know the reason it gapped down. Maybe some development in the investigation into possible securities law violations that I don't yet know about? Insiders supposedly selling and that probably triggered a big sell-off and price drop today.
• The payoff is 2:1 -- I give up 5% now in the hopes of getting 10% later. It's speculating. In the end, I decided I didn't want to do it. I'm not supposed to be a speculator.
• Let it sink. If it does, I keep my profits AND keep my stock -- i.e., back to my trading strategy.

ACHN price jumps

Trades:
None

Gut Check:
Holy shit! ACHN has jumped to over 11.00. I bought at 9.111, made 0.94 per share on it, and will definitely be assigned at Strike 10.00 now that it is well over $11. So, in total, I'd have made $1.829 per share. The Strike 10.00 call is trading at 1.85 right now!
Drat.
Still, I'm not in this for speculation. I've made my money, and I'm out. Left money on the table for others.

ATPG price sinks

Trades:

• None.

Gut Reaction:

• ATPG dropped about 70 cents to close at 7.18 on January 26th. If I buy back my Covered Call now (bought at 0.81, last traded at 0.61), I'll make 2% and keep my stock. There's talk about a lawsuit. That might sink the stock even further and I'll be stuck with it. Which may or may not be bad, depending on whether the stock still trades and I can still write a decent option on it. The option is still in-the-money, so I'm still on track to be exercised, as hoped.
• It's a speculative move to buy it back now and put a limit order in to sell at a higher price. I'm feeling conflicted. My no-speculation trade strategy says I should stay put. I do still have a buy-to-close limit order at 0.39 in case the price really plummets.

January Trades, continued

Trades:

• ACHN order filled at 9.111, Covered Call filled at 0.94. Price is climbing, so I may well get assigned for a net profit of 349.96.
• Account is approximately 187.11 in margin at probably 4.5%/annum.
• Could not write a Buy-to-Close at a 5% ROI -- got a "price out of range" warning.
• Anticipated ROI 9.66%, or 19.35% if I get Assigned.

Gut Check:

• Very strange! The pre-market price for ACHN was 9.34 but my order got filled at 9.111. Then when I wrote a Covered Call at Strike 10.00, the trading platform quoted me 0.85, but it got filled at 0.94!
• Overall feeling very relieved, and much less stressed than looking at Weeklys without a lot of volatility and trying to scrape together a winning position whether I am assigned or not. I was still looking at BAC up till a half hour before market open. I couldn't make the numbers work (without speculating on a price jump after buying) and still see a profit if Assigned, after factoring in commissions. Commissions at this small-dollar-play is so significant!

January Trades, continued

Trades:

• Cancelled order of 2 contracts of BAC at 7.15.
• Queued order of 2 contracts of ACHN at 9.20. Will be 359.18 into margin at 4.5%/annum.
• If filled, will queue a Sell to Open ACHN Strike 10.00. Closing price was 0.85, which would be 8.57% if it expires worthless.
• Will then queue a Buy to Close ACHN Strike 10.00 at Limit 0.27 to secure 5.00% ROI.

Gut Check:

• Price of BAC still too far out and the volatility is too low to see much profit. Too much speculation, too much watching the market. This isn't my trading strategy! Cancelled the buy order at 7.15
• I went back to looking at the volatile stock list instead of the Weeklys list, and back to my strategy of "now". If it is profitable NOW, then I enter the trade, and not look back.
• Also thinking of putting Buy to Close orders to catch the market when it's down and securing profit as well as holding onto the stock. I can then put back a higher Sell to Open order. But that's speculating again. Hmm...
• Will have to remember to watch pre-market prices for ACHN!

January Trades, continued

Trades:

• Cancelled order for UNG.
• Queued 2 contracts of BAC at Strike 7.15. Will queue a Sell to Open at Strike 7.00, limit price 0.40 if it gets filled.

Gut Reaction:

• ATPG still more or less levelled, so 0.81 on the Covered Call option premium was okay -- but I should have checked if it gapped up (which it did) before putting in the limit order. Have to remember that next time. Could have been over 1.00 during today's high.
• Still limiting myself to Weeklys for now in new positions. The potential profits are much smaller. I'll have to consider my gut reaction to all this in a couple of weeks, and see if I want to switch back to regular (monthly) options and more surety from the start.
• UNG rocketed up today after a slight dip that I had hoped would go lower for a more comfortable purchase nearer to 5.00. I could possibly still buy now and wait for the stock to keep going up, but the time value in the premium is very small -- just 1 cent -- at Strike 5.00. I might have to wait a while for it go get to a good value. BUT I don't want to speculate too much. That's not what I'm supposed to do. That's not supposed to be my trading strategy.
• Changed UNG to BAC, which has more volatility and a potential to get a better price.

January Trades

Options Expiration:

• BAC Assigned at Strike 5.00
• Initially bought 2 contracts of BAC at 5.07 for $1018.95 (after commissions) with 194.19 on margin.
• Subsequent sales of Covered Calls on ATPG and BAC covered the margin so I didn't actually end up paying any interest.
• Wrote a Covered Call at 0.36 during market low, for net $60.04.
• Assigned at Strike 5.00, so payout was $1000, less 0.02 SEC fees, = $999.98.
• Net: 999.98 + 60.04 - 1018.95 = $41.07.
• ATPG Covered Call expired worthless at just under the Strike price of 7.50 (stock closed at 7.48).
• Profit from Covered Call was $146.04.
• Net profit for Dec-19 to Jan-21: 41.07 + 146.04 = $187.11. Capital committed was $5126.75. ROI 3.65%.

Trades:

• Queued an Expiry Feb-18 Covered Call on 6 contracts of ATPG at Strike 7.00, at Limit 0.81 GTC.
• Capital committed is $4302 (original purchase price plus commission).
• Anticipated ROI 8.56% (assuming I get assigned).
• Queued a Buy of 3 contracts of UNG at 5.00.
• Will write a Covered Call at Strike 5.00 with Limit 0.20 if I get this order filled.
• ROI for the week would be 3.06% on Assignment.

Gut Check:

• Still annoyed that I left so much money on the table with BAC, but I'm trying to focus on not being so much a speculator, and definitely not thinking about spilt milk.
• Looks like ATPG may have levelled out for now. In any case, I'm going to look at stocks with Weeklys, since all I need is 1% per week to do well here.
• Cash of just over $1000 (plus after-fees $474.04 from the ATPG Covered Call, if it gets filled) means just under $1500. Not much to trade with, so BAC at over $7 might be out. Looking at UNG, which looks promising at just over $5.
• For the UNG, I'll have to watch it closely to see if the order gets filled. I'm hoping it'll be filled by end of Monday. If there's no action by Tuesday, I may have to cancel the order and do something less ambitious, targeting a mere 1% for this week.

Good news/Bad news: Stock price for BAC up a lot

Trades:

• Queued Buy to Close 2 BAC Covered Call at Limit Price 0.01, Good Till Cancelled
• If filled, my profit on BAC drops from 5.89% to 4.92% but I hold my shares

Gut Check:
ARGH! BAC is up over $1.20 since I bought it. Hindsight is 20-20, but I still can't shake feeling disappointed that I could now be making over $1 per share on just writing a Call Option on it! But instead I'll have to wait until my month-long call expires.
I'll put in a limit order to automatically buy back my Covered Call at 1 cent. I bought BAC at 5.07, which is a good price to hold onto it.

ATPG was up and down, over 7.50. Now it's back down to slightly less than what I bought it for. This volatility does mean options will carry a good price. Hopefully this will hold into February. Right now, the Strike 7.00 Calls for the February 18th expiration are over 90 cents!
I'll probably not get assigned again, but with the volatility as it right now, it looks like it's at least good for writing more Covered Calls.