High-Quality Secured Puts Yield 20% Return

Overview

I’ve written many articles highlighting the advantages options trading and how this technique, when deployed in opportunistic or conservative scenarios may augment overall portfolio returns while mitigating risk in a meaningful manner. Timing the market has proven to be very difficult if not altogether impossible. However creating opportunities to lock-in the downward movement in a given stock one is looking to own is possible. If a stock of interest has substantially fallen to near a 52-week low, then one has an option to “buy” the stock at an even lower price at a later date while collecting premium income in the process. Alternatively, it's also possible to make money on the option itself without owning any shares of the company via realizing options premium gains as the underlying stock appreciates in value off its lows. This is called a covered or secured put option, covered in the sense that one has cash to back the option contract. Leveraging covered or secured put options in opportunistic scenarios may augment overall portfolio returns while mitigating risk when looking to initiate a future position in an individual stock or looking to make money on the potential appreciation without owning the stock. In the event of a covered put, this is accomplished by leveraging the cash one currently has by selling a put contract against those funds for a premium. Why buy a stock now when you can purchase the stock in the future at a lower price while being paid to do so? Why buy stocks at all when you can make money on the underlying volatility without ever owning the shares? Continue reading "High-Quality Secured Puts Yield 20% Return"