Earn Extra Dividends From Your Stocks And ETFs With Covered Call Writing
Covered call writing options is an investment strategy that can help to limit your risk. They can be so effective and safe tools that big financial institutions use them along with regular day traders. They can be used in any market situation, whether the market is up or down.
Choose your stocks carefully when using them for options. Top quality stocks with good dividends and high earnings per share make the best choices for options. Research them and know their story as well as any risk involved.
A successful options trader is highly skilled and has learned to sell covered calls. The foundation of writing covered calls is simply buying shares of a security, then turning around and selling or writing them against your shares to make a profit. This can be done with shares that you have already purchased too. The option premium is the amount of earnings received. When expiration for the month arrives, you have two choices, go with selling the stock and having the premium, or hang onto your shares longer and write another option for the future months expiration.
When stocks get in a down trend fear not, you can handle it with options. Marrying puts with calls is a practice to hedge against the downside. You can use puts when you think the stock will go down or to help hedge against the downside. Profiting when a stock moves in either direction helps protect your investments and limits risk. There is always risk when it comes to investing, the key is to manage it and have less of it.
Eighty to ninety percent of options expire as flat and worthless. So it is better to be a seller of options rather than a buyer. Expiration takes place once a month and if the stock is flat, then you get to keep the premium.
In options as with all trading ventures, one must have a good trading plan ahead of time. Write down what you will do when shares go down or when they are in an uptrend. Watch the volatility index as this tells clues to what is going on in the market and can effect the price.
Covered call writing is an effective trading strategy that can produce 3-10% gains or more on a monthly basis. As with any form of trading, there is limited risk involved and it should be managed properly. Correct skills and knowledge are needed to be successful at it. Do your homework and trade at your own risk.
Born To Sell, www.BornToSell.com, is a site about covered call investors. Covered call writing is a great way to create income.
