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.