Hey Members!
Looks like we officially have a new president and that markets are reacting positively to it. It also looks like Bernie has become a wide-spread meme in less than 24 hours.
Here's an overall view of the markets. There was a lot of green in our tech and commutation services this week.
What's up with all this market volatility? Hey! It's earnings season!
Here are some notable price movements in the stocks we're trading:
Advanced Micro Devices AMD
Monday Open: $89.56
Friday Close: $92.79
Microsoft MSFT
Monday Open: $213.75
Friday Close: $225.95
Apple AAPL
Monday Open: $127.78
Friday Close: $139.07
Nike NKE
Monday Open: $140.99
Friday Close: $139.35
Trade of the Week:
If your covered calls expired worthless, you can sell another call against your shares at the same strike you chose last month. If you were assigned the 100 shares from your cash-secured put, you can now convert your trade into a covered call by selling at the same or 1-2 strikes above what you chose last month.
A lot of earnings announcements for our favorite companies are coming out this week! This means that implied volatility will be higher, which causes premiums to be higher too. If you are a beginner, you can wait until after earnings to see which companies do well to then start the Wheel. This is typically the more conservative approach. If you still want to start the Wheel anyway, we recommend you starting off with selling cash-secured puts around 1-2 strikes OTM. However, if you are more experienced, bullish about the markets, and have been using the Wheel Strategy for some time, we recommend restarting by selling a covered call around 1-2 strikes OTM to not only receive the premium, but also make capital gains if you are called away at expiration. Also, some ex-dividend dates are coming up, which means that if you start a covered call, you will hopefully own the shares to collect the dividends too!
Here are some trade recommendations:
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Cash-Secured Put on MSFT - MSFT's Current Price: $225.95 - Capital needed: $22,500.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $225.00 - Premium you'll receive: $750.00 - Cost basis: $225.00 - $7.50 = $217.50
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Covered Call on MSFT - MSFT's Current Price: $225.95 - Capital needed: $22,595.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $227.50 - Premium you'll receive: $677.50 - Cost basis: $225.95 - $6.78 = $219.17
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Cash-Secured Put on AAPL - AAPL's Current Price: $139.07 - Capital needed: $13,900.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $139.00 - Premium you'll receive: $665.00 - Cost basis: $139.00 - $6.65 = $132.35
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Covered Call on AAPL - AAPL's Current Price: $139.07 - Capital needed: $13,907.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $140.00 - Premium you'll receive: $605.00 - Cost basis: $139.07 - $6.05 = $133.02
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Cash-Secured Put on AMD - AMD's Current Price: $92.79 - Capital needed: $9,250.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $92.50 - Premium you'll receive: $585.00 - Cost basis: $92.50 - $5.85 = $86.65
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Covered Call on AMD - AMD's Current Price: $92.79 - Capital needed: $9,279.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $93.00 - Premium you'll receive: $597.50 - Cost basis: $92.79 - $5.97 = $86.82
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Cash-Secured Put on NKE - NKE's Current Price: $139.35 - Capital needed: $13,900.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $139.00 - Premium you'll receive: $370.00 - Cost basis: $139.00 - $3.70 = $135.30
Starting a New Wheel: Selling a Covered Call on NKE - NKE's Current Price: $139.35 - Capital needed: $13,935.00 - Sell at the Expiration Date: 2021-02-19 - Select the Strike: $140.00 - Premium you'll receive: $357.50 - Cost basis: $139.35 - $3.58 = $135.78
Earnings Dates 📅
Whoa. This is going to be an exciting week! Remember that we are typically going to see if a company made increasing top-line revenue and if they give some sort of positive forecast.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. | AMD - Jan. 26
Apple Inc. | AAPL - Jan. 27
PayPal Holdings, Inc. | PYPL - Jan. 27
Microsoft Corporation | MSFT - Jan. 27
Visa Inc. | V - Jan. 27
MasterCard Inc. | MA - Jan. 28
Home Depot, Inc. | HD - Feb. 23
Square, Inc. | SQ - Feb. 23
Remember that in this program, we like to follow earnings and only invest and trade in stocks that do well fundamentally.
Trading vs. Investing 💰
When you invest in stocks, your objective is to hold onto those shares as long as possible so you can let your wealth exponentially grow. This is to not also let the value of your portfolio grow, but to also combat inflation that creeps on you each year. The only time we recommend selling your long-term shares is if you need to make a large purchase, like a car or house, or if the company you are investing in goes on the "detention" list for not making increasing revenue, not giving positive guidance, and/or having any other damaging fundamental issues. When you invest for the long-term, you won't incur any taxable events since you are not selling anything. If your primary objective is to build wealth, then you can focus the majority of your portfolio in long-term holds. You can consider having anywhere from 60-70% of your portfolio dedicated in investing in ETFs, like VTI, VOO, and QQQ, and/or stocks like, MA, SQ, COST, EL, V, PYPL, AMZN, FB, GOOG, and HD.
When you trade stocks, your objective is to "play hot potato" with some of your shares. Your intention is to buy shares and to sell them at a higher price. When you utilize the Wheel Strategy and sell rights to others, you are layering another income stream by collecting a premium on top of your capital gains. We don't recommend having the stocks that you trade and invest in to be the same in the same brokerage account. Why? It's because of FIFO, or first in first out. This means that if you invest in 5 shares of MSFT and buy 100 shares of MSFT to sell covered calls, when you're called away by Craig, the first 5 shares of MSFT you purchased will typically be sold first and will no longer be considered as a long-term investment. You will then be taxed short-term capital gains, which is typically higher than long-term capital gains.
When allocating your portfolio, we recommend diversifying your ETFs and stocks, along with option strategies. This way, you have a nice bat-belt of tools to tackle different market environments. You'll have your long-term holds (and LEAPs options if you're in our Premium Membership) gaining value when markets rise, Wheel Strategy and dividend-paying stocks generating income in a neutral or slightly downward trending market.
Got FOMO? 😲
We get it. Sometimes when we sell covered calls, our shares are called away! You might get this painful feeling in your stomach where you think you should have sold at a higher strike or if you should have just held onto the shares and not sell any calls against them. Remember that when you utilize the Wheel Strategy, your primary intention is "play hot potato" with your shares. At the end of it all, realize that you made money from the trade because you collected a premium and some capital gains. You are in the positive!
We know that there are butterflies and sunshine right now with the markets progressing forward. Many investors might think they're geniuses because they see a lot of green on their phones and laptops. However, when negative geopolitical events happen, you will be glad that you had calls sold against your shares to give you a little downside protection.
Remember that it's hard to time the markets. It's virtually impossible for you to know exactly where the price of a stock will be in the short-term, which is why we sell short-term options to bring in guaranteed premiums.
If you are really bullish on the markets, remember that you can always sell more OTM strikes. We typically recommend selling around a Delta 0.30 since you roughly have around a 30% probability of getting your shares called away if you sell a covered call. Just know that the downside to this is that the premium you receive will be much lower and will give you less downside protection in the event that a pullback or correction occurs. Selling NTM will typically give you the highest premium since extrinsic value of options are highest NTM.
Discord Launched! 💬
Make sure to check it out on the bottom of your "Dashboard" and follow the instructions on how to sign up.
Remember that we are a community of wealth builders at all different levels, so be positive, kind, and helpful to others, so we can help each other get to financial freedom much faster.
Stay patient and positive! Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 😎
- Call to Leap Team
The following article is strictly the opinion of the author and is to not be considered financial/investment advice. Call to Leap LLC and the author of this article does not claim to be a registered financial advisor (RIA) or financial advisor. Please visit our terms of service and privacy policy before reading this article.