Mitigating Risk, Accentuating Returns and Realizing Gains - 27.9% Return

Introduction

I’ve written a series of articles detailing the utility of options trading and how an investor can leverage a long position in an underlying security to mitigate risk, augment returns and generate cash. This strategy comes with two alternatives, in the end, depending on whether or not one desires to realize gains and relinquish his shares or remain long the security of interest. I’d like to highlight Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM) as an example for this covered call strategy. I’ll be highlighting how I’ve successfully accentuated my returns via leveraging the underlying security in the form of collecting option premiums over a 20-month span. In this example, I decided to ultimately realize gains generated from the underlying appreciation of the stock combined with the options income and relinquish my shares. Taken together, the synergy of the options income and appreciation of the underlying security generated a realized gain of 27.9% over this timeframe.

I’m utilizing a high growth technology stock that’s at the intersection of syncing the customer and enterprise relationship via social, mobile and cloud platforms. Salesforce is a contentiously debated aggressive growth stock that trades on lofty valuations. Salesforce is marginally profitable and thus difficult to assign a valuation as measured by traditional metrics such as the price-to-earnings multiple (P/E ratio) and the PEG ratio. Due to its rapid growth, expanding footprint, major partnerships with Fortune 500 companies (i.e. Home Depot, GE, Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, etc.), expansion into international markets and its overall ubiquity in terms of its consumer relationship management (CRM) platform, it's reasonable to see why investors are willing to pay a premium. Much of its revenue is deferred as a result of its subscription-based model thus deferred revenue is often discussed on earnings calls. Deferred revenue is not yet realized revenue however it’s been received by the company. Since Salesforce delivers its service over time, this received amount isn’t reported as traditional revenue since the service hasn’t been rendered. Due to these factors and the difficulty of placing an accurate valuation on Salesforce, options in the form of covered call writing may be an effective way to leverage this growth stock while mitigating downside risk. Salesforce offers the right balance of volatility, liquidity and a high level of interest which gives rise to reasonable yielding premiums on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. This set-up bodes well for those who are long Salesforce (or a stock similar in nature) and desire to leverage options trading to augment returns and mitigate risk throughout the volatile nature of this underlying security. Salesforce’s recent string of earnings has impressed investors, and covered call options may accentuate this underlying equity return. Writing covered calls in an opportunistic and/or disciplined manner may mitigate losses and smooth out drastic moves in this underlying security. Continue reading "Mitigating Risk, Accentuating Returns and Realizing Gains - 27.9% Return"

Covered Call Strategy Produces Double-Digit Return

Introduction

I’ve written a series of articles detailing the utility of options and how an investor can leverage a long position in an underlying security to mitigate risk, augment returns and generate cash without relinquishing the security of interest. I’d like to highlight Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM) as an example for a covered call strategy. I’ll be highlighting how I’ve successfully extracted an additional double-digit return via leveraging the underlying security while collecting option premiums over a nine-month span. Taken together, the synergy of the options income and appreciation of the underlying security has yielded 23.6% over this timeframe. Continue reading "Covered Call Strategy Produces Double-Digit Return"

Disciplined and Conservative Covered Call Writing To Accentuate Returns And Mitigate Risk

Leveraging covered call options in opportunistic scenarios may augment overall portfolio returns while mitigating risk. In brief, options are a form of derivative trading that traders can utilize in order to initiate a short or long position via the sale or purchase of contacts. An option is a contract which gives the buyer of the contract the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying security at a specified price on or before a specified date. The seller has the obligation to buy or sell the underlying security if the buyer exercises the option. An option that gives the owner (buyer) the right to buy the security at a specific price is referred to as a call (bullish); an option that gives the right of the owner to sell the security at a specific price is referred to as a put (bearish). In the event of a covered call, this is accomplished by leveraging the shares one currently owns by selling a call contact against those shares for a premium. I will provide an overview of how a covered call is utilized and executed. Here, I’ll provide details focusing on optimizing stock leverage (covered calls). Emphasizing the ability to sell these types of options in a disciplined and conservative manner to generate liquidity while accentuating returns and mitigating risk. Continue reading "Disciplined and Conservative Covered Call Writing To Accentuate Returns And Mitigate Risk"

The Proof Is In The Pudding ... That's What My Grandmother Always Told Me

Guess what? Grandma was right!

On February 11th, I posted a blog titled, How To Successfully Play The Earnings Game And Win 95% Of The Time.

This blog posting generated a tremendous amount of feedback from our members, so much so that I decided to once again play the earnings game and pick out 5 stocks that were going to release their earnings either after the close or before the markets opened the next trading day.

I rely on Yahoo’s earning calendar to find out what stocks are scheduled to release earnings and at what time they will release them, after the market close or before the market opens the next day.

Here are the five stocks I picked out and decided to buy based on the Trade Triangle technology: Continue reading "The Proof Is In The Pudding ... That's What My Grandmother Always Told Me"