Welcome to another Monthly Options Income post.  In these posts I discuss my options activity, and report on my options income for the month, and year-to-date.

Here’s some background before I go into the details of my options activity this past month.  Readers can skip the Background section if familiar with my previous options income posts.

 

Background

Last year I decided I’d try to generate some additional income by writing options contracts.  The plan is to use any options income I realize to help make additional purchases in my dividend Portfolio.

I write covered calls for a stock that I own and don’t mind selling at a selected strike price.

I write cash-secured puts for stock positions that I don’t own and wouldn’t mind buying at a selected strike price.  I also write cash-secured puts for stocks that I already own but wouldn’t mind adding more of at that price.

Ideally, the contracts I write will expire “out of the money”, my gain being the collected premium for writing the contract.  Alternatively, I may buy the contract to close it prior to expiration.  This might be done if I can capture the majority of the premium prior to expiration, or to avoid having the option be assigned to me.  In the case of Assignment, the option holders end up exercising their right to buy the underlying stock (in the case of a call) or sell the underlying stock (in the case of a put) at the strike price should it move “in the money” prior to expiration.  As the option writer, an assigned call means I sell the shares, and an assigned put means I buy the shares.

 

Options Activity

It doesn’t get any more quiet than this… no options activity whatsoever, and thus no options income.  My time was limited this month, and spending time on options trades was the first thing to go.

With no activity this month, I don’t have any clip from my options spreadsheet to share, as it wouldn’t show anything new… maybe something next month.

 

Previously Opened Options

I did not have any previously opened options that I carried into this month.

 

Newly Opened Options

I did not write any new options this month.

 

Closed Options

With no open options to my name, I did not Close any options this month.

 

Expired Options

Again, with no open options, I did not have any Expired options this month, either.

 

Assigned Options

Finally, with no open options, no options were Assigned to me.

 

Options Income

This is now 2 straight months that I failed to deliver any options income.  Unfortunately, my options income goal for 2018 is in jeopardy of not being achieved, despite being in a good position to reach the goal just two months ago.  My 2018 options income total thus remains at $1499.90.

Here’s a breakdown of the 2018 options income by month…

 

 

I was contemplating a call option on my Hormel Foods (HRL) shares this month, but didn’t obtain the premium I was looking for, and thus passed.  This was essentially the only option that came close to becoming a reality.

Once again, I don’t have any Open options that I’ll carry into next month, and recently I’ve been using available cash to add to various dividend Portfolio positions.  This means less available cash for writing cash-secured put options.  In addition, with many of the recent price declines for stocks in my Portfolio, I’ll have limited choices for writing covered calls on my existing shares, as I don’t want the threat of having to sell at depressed prices.

 

Summary

Another quiet month with no options income to report has left me with a 2018 options income goal that is more distant that ever, especially given that I’ve got one month to go.  With limited time for me these days to research option trades, I don’t believe I’ll generate enough income in December to reach my goal.  It will be great if I manage to reach the $1,800 goal, but I won’t be making any extraordinary efforts to do it.

 

If you trade options, are you close to achieving your annual goals?  I look forward to your comments.