3.19.2012

Covered Calls Conservative Investment Strategy

By Joseph Vencius


There is a conservative investment strategy used by savvy investors that produces a consistent monthly income. This technique uses covered calls option contracts. If you have a stock portfolio you are losing money every month that you do not sell call options. There is some risk with this trade, and it is a little complicated to understand. Maybe that is why more investor do not take advantage of it.

In order to execute this technique you must have a portfolio of common stock. You sell options on the underlying shares of your portfolio, which generates cash income. Because the vast majority of option contracts expire with no value, this is a low risk trading technique. In the rare circumstances when the trade goes against you, you can offset the trade by purchasing the same option contract.

Most of the time the option seller keeps the cash income and their stock because most options expire worthless. Even if you have to buy back the call option, you still have had the use of the cash you received when you sold the contract. The bottom line with this type of trade is that there is only a little downside to it. This strategy is so effective that there are those who run this operation as a business.

The first step is to build up a stock portfolio to fuel your options operation. With a strong diversified portfolio of common stocks of major international corporations, the investor will have a stable but potent portfolio. Depending on the investor's financial resources it may take a while to build up a large portfolio.

If you do not have a stock portfolio then you will have to build one before you can use this income producing technique. This is technique will still be around when you are ready to use it. Knowing that this powerful technique is available ought to serve as an incentive to build your portfolio. When you buy your stocks make sure the companies are listed on the public option exchanges.

If you do not want to do this yourself you can find mutual funds that use this technique. This is a good alternative if you do not have the money for a large stock portfolio or you do not have the time to manage the trades. Mutual funds are a good opportunity for the average investor to participate in the stock market. It is not difficult to obtain information about mutual funds that use this type of trading technique.

Assistance can be received by an option broker. This can be the expert guidance that can help you. An expert can advise you about the best current opportunities in the market. It is a good idea to use the advice of professionals who are experts in option contracts. There are excellent managed funds in the marketplace where you can benefit from professional fund management.

In the meantime learn all you can about the technical aspects of the covered calls option technique. Your professional option broker will educate you about expiration dates, premiums, strike prices and other technical aspects. Options contracts may seem complicated at first, but that is just because you are not used to them. They are really not so complicated once you start using them.




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