Trading Idea
An Electrifying Yield on a Utility Stock
Christopher Thom
Utility stocks are often loved by yield investors. They provide steady dividends, are regulated businesses, and are less cyclical. Generally they can be called “boring,” but for the investors who own utility stocks that is what they love about them. We’ve seen this sector do well over the last few decades as interest...
Covered Call Horror Stories
Richard Croft
In the late 1990s I sold a covered call on, let’s call the security, XYZ. A “nom de plume” to protect the guilty… or innocent, depending on your point of view. In any event, XYZ was a particularly volatile technology company trading at $21.75 per share in January 1998. I bought the shares for myself and clients and...
Covered Calls versus Naked Puts
Richard Croft
Covered call writing is a low risk option strategy. If the underlying rises above the strike price the calls are assigned, you deliver the shares and exit with the best case scenario. Covered calls make money in a rising or flat market and because the premium received reduces the cost of the underlying shares, is less risky...
The Covered Strangle is both an Income and Investment Strategy
Alan Grigoletto
Canadian investors seeking an index or single stock option strategy may want to consider the covered strangle. It can be employed to enhance yield and provide a strategic means to both add to and exit existing positions. Like any options strategy there are trade-offs, and the covered strangle does pose some risk. The...
CANADA – Recession Worries!
Richard Croft
Probably the most noteworthy event in the first half of 2015 was the surprise rate cut issued by the Bank of Canada (BoC) in the first quarter. It was designed to provide “insurance against a downturn” in light of the sharp decline in oil prices. The BoC was right to be concerned. Unfortunately policymakers underestimated...
Equivalent Option Positions
Richard Croft
In the past couple of months, I authored three commentaries talking about covered straddles. There was the blog on Bombardier (April 18, 2016), another on energy stocks (May 3, 2016) and finally one on gold stocks (May 9, 2016). I call it the double up double down approach to investing. Without re-hashing the specifics of the...
Stepping Into Energy
Richard Croft
Is the energy market becoming energized? It is a tough question laden with ambiguity. Evidenced by reams of well thought out research where slight changes in the inputs can shift the bias from bull to bear and back again. Interesting the foundation for most of the research concentrates on output. How much supply OPEC and...
A Bombardier Covered Straddle
Richard Croft
There is little doubt that Bombardier (TSX: BBD.B, Friday’s close $1.62) is on life support. At issue is the diagnosis. Does the company follow in the footsteps of Blackberry to survive as a shadow of its former self? Or does the company collapse under a mountain of debt and litigation in much the same way as Nortel?...
Belated Resolutions for the New Year
Richard Croft
I don’t usually make New Years’ resolution because I rarely keep them. But in my world there are times where you need to reassess how to best deal with the operational aspects of trading options. Unfortunately these reassessments are usually the result of costly mistakes. Resolution 1: Avoid expiration nightmares! Always...
The Risks of Prolonged Commodity Weakness
Patrick Ceresna
The Bank of Canada released its semi-annual Financial Systems Review on December 2015. Click to download the Report. While the report was comprehensive in looking at Global Macro Risks, we wanted to focus on their comments on the global commodity markets. Here is an excerpt from the report (p.27): “Risk 4: Prolonged Weakness...
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