2 Weeks Until Arena Pharma Trade Ends; Status Code Yellow

There are 2 weeks remaining on the Arena Pharma trade. The status of the trade is Code Yellow. The stock closed the week at $8.58. That is a decline of $0.12  from when the trade was made. The Feb $9.00 call ask closed the week at $0.19. That is a decline of $0.12 from when the trade was made.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.  

Arena Pharma Trade Now Code Green

The Arena Pharma trade is now Code Green. The stock closed the day at $10.20. The Jan $10.00 call ask price closed the day at $0.43. There are 3 days remaining on the trade.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.  

One Week Left On Arena Pharma Trade

There is one more week left on the Arena Pharma trade. The trade is currently Code Yellow. The stock closed the week at $9.66. That is a rise of $0.66 for the week. The Jan $10.00 call ask price closed the week at $0.23. That is a rise of $0.09 for the week.

Possibilities abound for next week with this trade. Sell The Call will be watching closely during the week to see if the trade does move into Code Green territory. If that is the case, the option of buying the call back and selling a later one is a possibility. Letting the trade end Code Green is also a possibility. If the trade does not end in Code Green status, the plan is to sell a February call.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.   

Arena Pharma Trade Now Code Yellow

The Arena Pharma trade has gone from Code Green to Code Yellow today. The stock closed the day at $9.83. The Jan $10.00 call ask price closed the day at $0.37. There are 7 trading days left on the trade. The company is presenting today at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.   
 

2 Weeks Left on ARNA Trade; Status Code Yellow

There are two weeks remaining on the current Arena Pharma trade. The status of the trade is Code Yellow. The $10.00 call ask price closed at $0.12. That is a decline of $0.10 from last week. The stock closed the week at $9.00. That is a rise of $0.15 for the week. The option expires on January 19.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.  

4 Weeks Left On ARNA Trade

There are four weeks remaining on the current Arena Pharma trade. The status of the trade is Code Yellow. The stock closed the week at $8.63. That is a decline of $0.71 from where the trade started. It is higher than the cost basis by $0.18. The Jan $10.00 call ask price closed the week at $0.22. That is a decline of $0.30  from when the trade started on Wednesday.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.  

ARNA Rollover Covered Call Trade

For the first time, Sell The Call has rolled over a covered call trade. The December $9.00 call that was sold for $0.41 after purchasing the shares was purchased back for $0.43. The shares are currently trading at $9.34. A January $10.00 call was then sold for $0.52.  The cost basis for the shares is currently $7.99.

The status of the trade is Code Yellow.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.  

1 Week Left on ARNA Trade; Status Code Green

There is one more week remaining on the Arena covered call trade. The status of the trade is Code Green. The stock closed the week at $9.18. That is a rise of $0.62 from last week. The December $9.00 call ask price closed the week at $0.34. That is a rise of $0.12  from last week.

An interesting point in this day's trading is that the time value for the option went from $0.28 in the beginning of the day to $0.16 at close. Even though it is a significant drop, the price of the option has a higher than normal time value.

Sell The Call will watch the trade and see if a buyback will happen before next Friday.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.  

ARNA Trade Now Code Yellow

The Arena trade has now turned Code Yellow. The stock closed the day at $8.97. The Dec $9.00 call ask price closed the day at $0.28.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages. 

ARNA Trade Turns Code Green

The current ARNA covered call trade has turned Code Green today. The stock closed the day at $9.12 . The Jan $9.00 call option ask closed the day at $0.38.

Sell The Call has a few options to consider now that the stock is above $9.00 so close to expiration. It will choose between one of the two opportunities below.  

- It can let the trade continue on its current track. That will result in the shares being sold and the trade ending on expiration day, December 21. It would total a profit of $1.22 per share.

- It can buy back the $9.00 call and sell a January call (either $9.00 or $10.00) for more revenue.


Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages. 

2 Weeks Until ARNA Trade Ends; Status Code Yellow

There are two weeks remaining on the Arena Pharma covered call trade. The status of the trade is Code Yellow. The stock closed the week at $8.56. That is a decline of $0.30 from last week. The January $9.00 call ask price closed the week at $0.22. That is a decline of $0.19 from last week.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.

3 Weeks Unitl Expiration on ARNA Trade; Status Code Yellow

There are three weeks remaining on the current ARNA covered call trade. The status of the trade is Code Yellow. The stock closed the week at $8.86. That is a decline of $0.36 for the week. The Dec $9.00 call ask closed the week at $0.43. That is a decline of $0.12 for the week. Since the beginning of the trade, the stock has risen $0.84, while the option has risen $0.02.

Previous covered call trades have been made in AA, OCZ, YHOO, ZAGG, LLEN, CLSN, EDMC, EXAS, ARIA

If you are interested in futures options or futures etf options, Sell The Call is now following Trading Futures ETF Options.

** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Be sure to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.

Born To Sell Article About Time Premium

Here is an article sent to Sell The Call by Born To Sell. It was back in September.

A Lot Of Time Premium

Ever wonder how much total time premium is in the market at any given time? It turns out that right now there are 130,513,596 open call option contracts. The sum of all the time premium in those 130 million contracts is $18,757,615,007.42. That's $18 billion of wasting assets that someone is going to collect (*)! What does $18B look like? We couldn't find a photo of $18 billion in cash (and, sadly, are a wee bit shy of the $18B needed to take our own photo), but we did find a photo of one billion in cash. You'll just have to imagine 18 times as much as the pile of $100 bills pictured here. And if you want to see a LOT of cash (like 1000 times as much), check out theTrillion Dollars article from January. (*) Since 60% of contracts are closed prior to expiration, only 40% of $18B, or roughly $7B is going to time decay to zero between now and expiration. Of course, some contracts will partially decay before being closed, and new contracts will be opened between today and expiration, so it is likely more than $7B of premium will be collected. In any case, it's a big number and you should get your piece by selling some premium!

Five Ways To Increase Portfolio Income

There are many ways to use covered calls to increase your portfolio's income. Here are five of them: Turn non-dividend stocks into yield generators. Any stock in an existing portfolio can generate a dividend-like yield by selling out of the money call options. Probably want to sell 10% out of the money strikes so you leave yourself some upside potential on the underlying stock or ETF (it is presumed you are bullish, since you already own them). Double Dividends. If your stock pays 3%/year, why not make it pay 6%? Take the annual dividend and divide by 12. That's the amount of time premium you need to capture each month in order to double the yield. Example: If your stock pays $1.20/year dividend, sell out of the money calls to generate 10 cents/month ($1.20 / 12) or more in premium (probably a bit more to cover transaction costs). If you don't like the near month strike price that is offering 10 cents of premium, then go out 3 or 6 months and try to get 30 or 60 cents of premium at a strike you are happy with. The point is, premium should average 10 cents per month (after transaction costs) in order to double your dividend (for this example stock). Target Yield. Say you have a goal of 1%/month in income (12%/year). All you have to do is find the deepest in the money buy-writes that yield 12% or more on an annualized basis (including dividends, since your goal is simply to have 1%/month in overall yield). Once you have those buy-writes identified, sort by downside protection, eliminate risky situations (like earnings before expiration, small market cap, thinly traded, biotech, etc) and then research the ones at the top of the list. (hint: our screener will save you a ton of time) Dividend Capture. Find all stocks that have an ex-dividend date before the option expiration date. Remove those with earnings before expiration and then sell in the money calls. You'll get time premium plus the dividend. If the time premium remaining the day before the ex-dividend date is really small (zero or very close to zero) then you may getearly exercised, but you'll still make something. (hint: our screener has a special dividend search to help you with this strategy) Time Premium Capture. Sort all 240,000 covered calls by annualized return and then downside protection, research the ones at the top of the list, and then do some deep in the money short-term buy-writes to capture time premium. (hint: not surprising, our screener does this for you) Any way you do it, you can increase portfolio income and lower portfolio volatility by selling calls on stocks and ETFs you own (or buying stocks just for that purpose).

Free Covered Call Books Giveaway

Like Born To Sell? Help us get the word out and you could win a free book on covered call investing, or an iTunes gift card:    There are 8 ways to enter (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc). Full details on theLink To Us And Win page. Thanks and good luck in the drawings!

June Born To Sell Newsletter

Here is the June newsletter from Born To Sell:

	Seller's Paradise Jun 1, 2012
Selling Covered Calls In May Was A Good Call On May 7 we published a blog article suggesting you sell in-the-money covered calls for the month or for the summer. This was based on the historically weak summer months for the S&P 500, as seen in this chart showing median returns by month for the last 25 years: Given last month's performance, the in-the-money strategy was the right call. Despite the drop in May, all 6 suggested trades (AAPL, CRM, LNKD, CRUS, GOOG, VHC) with expiration dates of Aug 18 or Sep 22 are still in-the-money, and will yield annualized returns of 15.9% to 24.8% if they stay in-the-money. To read the full article, please see Sell (Covered Calls) In May An Go Away. More Apple Income Many people make a living off of writing covered calls on AAPL. The at-the-money weekly options often pay annualized returns of 80% or more. Of course, writing at-the-money options increases risk should the underlying drop by more than the option premium received, as AAPL did for many people in May. The solution is to reduce your return expections and write in-the-money or deep-in-the-money options instead of at-the-money. In the last several weeks we've completed 3 cycles with this strategy: May 8: all 3 strikes called away for annualized returns of 25% to 53% over 5 days. May 14: all 3 strikes not called, but then on May 21 were re-written at the same strike and then succcessfully called on May 25 for annualized returns of 52% to 79% over 12 days. May 29: all 3 strikes called away for annualized returns of 21% to 51% over 4 days. You can read about the trades in May 8, May 21, and May 29 blog entries. Free Covered Call Books Giveaway Like Born To Sell? Help us get the word out and you could win a free book on covered call investing, or an iTunes gift card:    There are 8 ways to enter (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc). Full details on theLink To Us And Win page. Thanks and good luck in the drawings! MSFT And 3 Other Covered Calls For Jun 16 Expiration With 2 weeks to go until the June options expire, the top 4 covered calls Born To Sell members have written are (in order of popularity): Rank Symbol Strike 1. MSFT 29 2. AAPL 585 3. CHK 15 4. INTC 26 (Note: Born To Sell members have access to the full Top 10 Covered Call list, as well as having this list update real-time as members change positions. These are not recommendations, they are merely a reflection of our members' current positions.) INTC And Other Covered Call Watchlist Stocks Currently, the top 8 stocks Born To Sell members are using for their Watchlist are (in order of popularity): Rank Symbol 1. INTC 2. MSFT 3. AAPL 4. GE 5. CSCO 6. T 7. JNJ 8. F (Note: Born To Sell members have access to the full Top 20 Watchlist, as well as having this list update real-time as members change their watchlists. And, you can have the highest yielding covered calls from your personal watchlist emailed to you after the close each day. Never miss a fat premium from your watchlist again!) Want More Covered Call Goodness? Born To Sell is dedicated to only one thing: Making Money With Covered Calls. Our subscribers have access to state-of-the-art covered call screeners and covered call portfolio management tools. For less than the profit of a single trade you could be enjoying recurring monthly income using our tools. Three subscription types to choose from: Term Price Monthly $59.95 Quarterly $149.95 (17% discount) Annual $499.95 (31% discount) Plus, all subscriptions begin with a no-obligation 2-week free trial. What are you waiting for? Start collecting premium today! Happy Trading, The Born To Sell Team Follow us: Facebook | Twitter or watch demos of Covered Call Tools (YouTube)

Seeking Alpha article on Covered Call Strategy (April 24)

Seeking Alpha published the following articles (April 24) on covered call strategy:

Allan Ellman - Covered Call Writing: The Significance of Volume and Open Interest : MELI


** Disclaimer** - Sell The Call is simply posting information. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities above. Do your due diligence before investing as there is risk to all investments. Don't forget to Like ourFacebook page, and follow Sell The Call's Twitter and Stocktwits pages.