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

Shoot!  Once again, no options activity whatsoever, and thus no options income.  This past month I didn’t even scope out any possible trades.  I’m just not finding the time needed to do any research, and the options income has certainly suffered.

Again, with no activity this month, there’s no clip from my options spreadsheet to share.

 

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

Unfortunately, this is now 3 straight months with no options income.  Thus, my 2018 options income will finish out the year at $1,499.90.  This is short of my $1,800 goal I had set.

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

 

 

As I wrote in last month’s report, 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

I closed out 2018 with a whimper with regards to options income.  In fact, I was blanked in the 4th quarter.  Still, on a positive note, I did manage to secure a better annual total in 2018 than in 2017.  It’s not all bad!

Given that I don’t foresee a lot of options activity in the coming months given my recent time constraints (and also having a lack of cash for cash-secured put options), I think I’ll move the options post to a quarterly one, instead of monthly.  I will re-evaluate this timing as things unfold in 2019.  My focus will most likely be on writing covered call options in 2019.

 

How did you fare in 2018 when it came to options income?  I look forward to your comments.