This page will document all my yearly options trades. Trades will still be announced on the home page. The link on the ticker symbol takes you directly to the post where I talk about each trade in more detail.
Please see the bottom of this post for options terminology. Closed profits/losses include commission.
I’m leaving all historical trades from early 2015 and earlier listed below. Trades from 2016 and beyond will be documented on the Puts/Calls tab of the my Portfolio spreadsheet.
Closed Trades (2016):
02/06/14 BTO 1 WPRT Jan15 2016 15.00 Call @ 4.60
Comm = 9.71
Closed Trades (2015): $855.70
10/1/2015 STO 1 AAPL Oct16 2015 110 Call @ 2.17
10/16/2015 assigned
Commission: $5.02
Profit: $211.98
9/2/2015 STO 1 AAPL Oct16 2015 115 Call @ 3.57
10/1/2015 BTC 1 AAPL Oct16 2015 115 Call @ 0.59
Commission: $10.05
Profit: $287.95
9/4/2015 STO 1 AAPL Sep11 2015 111 Call @ 1.64
9/12/2015 assigned
Commission: $5.02
Profit: $158.98
03/07/14 BTO 2 JCP Jan15 2016 5.00 Call @ 4.58
9/4/2015 STC 2 JCP Jan15 2015 5.00 Call @ 4.65
Commission: $6.14
Profit: $7.86
8/12/2015 STO 1 AAPL Sep25 2015 119 Call @ 2.38
9/2/2015 BTC 1 AAPL Sep25 2015 119 Call @ 1.05
Commission: $10.04
Profit: $122.96
07/29/2015 STO 1 AAPL Sep04 2015 129 Call @ 0.90
08/12/2015 BTC 1 AAPL Sep04 2015 129 Call @ 0.14
Commission: $10.03
Profit: $65.97
Closed Trades (2014): -$255.85
09/02/14 STO 1 INTU Oct18 2014 77.5 Put @ 0.75
09/24/14 BTC 1 INTU Oct18 2014 77.5 Put @ 0.30
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $41.93
07/02/14 STO 1 KMI Sep20 2014 37.5 Call @ 0.64
07/23/14 BTC 1 KMI Sep20 2014 37.5 Call @ 1.22
07/23/14 STO 1 KMI Sep20 2014 40.0 Call @ 0.49
9/20/14 option expired
Commission: $20.18
Profit/Loss: -$29.18
08/22/14 STO 1 BBY Oct3 2014 28 Put @ 0.54
09/02/14 BTC 1 BBY Oct3 2014 28 Put @ 0.21
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $29.93
08/15/14 STO 1 ANF Sep26 2014 35 Put @ 0.67
08/26/14 BTC 1 ANF Sep26 2014 35 Put @ 0.21
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $42.93
08/15/14 STO 1 CRM Sep26 2014 47 Put @ 0.50
08/22/14 BTC 1 CRM Sep26 2014 47 Put @ 0.12
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $34.93
06/20/14 STO 1 CSCO Aug16 2014 25 Call @ 0.62
08/16/14 option expired
Commission: $9.71
Profit/Loss: $52.29
08/12/14 STO 1 UAL Sep26 2014 37.5 Put @ 0.74
08/15/14 BTC 1 UAL Sep26 2014 37.5 Put @ 0.36
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $34.93
08/04/14 STO 1 CREE Sep20 2014 40.0 Put @ 0.52
08/15/14 BTC 1 CREE Sep20 2014 40.0 Put @ 0.26
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $22.93
07/03/14 STO 1 COH Aug14 2014 32.0 Put @ 0.51
08/05/14 BTC 1 COH Aug14 2014 32.0 Put @ 0.10
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $37.93
07/03/14 STO 1 WFM Aug14 2014 35.0 Put @ 0.44
08/04/14 BTC 1 WFM Aug14 2014 35.0 Put @ 0.12
Commission: 3.07
Profit/Loss: $28.93
05/27/14 BTO 1 DIA Jul3 2014 166.5 Put @ 2.13
05/27/14 STO 1 DIA Jun13 2014 165.5 Put @ 0.90
06/10/14 BTC 1 DIA Jun13 2014 165.5 Put @ 0.05
06/11/14 STO 1 DIA Jun21 2014 166 Put @ 0.31
06/17/14 BTC 1 DIA Jun21 2014 166 Put @ 0.27
06/17/14 STO 1 DIA Jun27 2014 166 Put @ 0.57
06/26/14 BTC 1 DIA Jun27 2014 166 Put @ 0.04
06/26/14 STO 1 DIA Jul3 2014 166 Put @ 0.29
07/03/14 options expired OTM
Commission: 10.78
Profit/Loss: -$52.78
06/11/14 STO 1 LULU Jun20 2014 40 Put @ 0.68
06/16/14 BTC 1 LULU Jun21 2014 40 Put @ 2.54
06/16/14 STO 1 LULU Jul3 2014 40 Put @ 2.82
06/18/14 BTC 1 LULU Jul3 2014 40 Put @ 1.36
06/18/14 STO 1 LULU Jul19 2014 40 Put @ 1.76
07/03/14 BTC 1 LULU Jul19 2014 40 Put @ 0.30
Commission: $9.22
Profit/Loss: $96.78
05/27/14 STO IWM Jun21 2014 115 Call @ 0.96
05/27/14 BTO 1 IWM Jun21 2014 116 Call @ 0.63
06/19/14 BTC 1 IWM Jun21 2014 115 Call @ 2.54
06/19/14 STC 1 IWM Jun21 2014 116 Call @ 1.59
Commission: $6.14
Profit/Loss: -$68.14
05/27/14 STO 1 NFLX Jun21 2014 415 Call @ 8.19
05/27/14 BTO 1 NFLX Jun21 2014 420 Call @ 6.66
06/19/14 BTC 1 NFLX Jun21 2014 415 Call @ 28.58
06/19/14 STC 1 NFLX Jun21 2014 420 Call @ 23.57
Commission: $6.20
Profit/Loss: -$351.12
03/12/14 BTO 1 C Mar28 2014 46 Put @ 0.33
03/12/14 STO 1 C Mar28 2014 47 Put @ 0.58
03/28/14 – expired worthless
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: $21.93
03/19/14 BTO 1 AMZN Mar22 2014 367.5 Put @ 0.67
03/19/14 STO 1 AMZN Mar22 2014 370 Put @ 1.2
03/24/14 – exercised
Commission: $3.07
Profit/Loss: -$200.07
Terminology:
BTO = buy to open
STO = sell to open
BTC = buy to close
STC = sell to close
OTM = out-of-the-money
POP = probability of profit
comm = commission
Closed P/L YTD = profit/loss year-to-date of closed positions
I am a dividend investor and just started in 2014 utilizing covered calls and selling puts to maximize returns. I am using TDameritrade as my taxable brokerage. Due to the size of my overall portfolio, I am only trading 1-2 contracts at a time so the $9.99 commission is significant reducing my overall premiums. Is there a different account type within tdameritrade to reduce my commission fees? I see that your commissions are much smaller.
Thanks,
Brian
Hi Brian,
Great question. I also have a brokerage account with Schwab and the commissions with them are similar; the commissions really eat into the premiums.
I was able to get the $1.50/contract commissions by signing up for an account at dough.com. dough is a new options trading platform from the founders of thinkorswim. Since you already have a TD Ameritrade account, you should just be able to sign up for dough (it’s free) and then contact customer support to get changed over to the $1.50 commissions. (Make sure to let them know you are a user of dough.) It is really nice having commissions be so small you don’t really have to worry about it. If you prefer the thinkorswim platform, the $1.50 commissions are good there as well.
dough is built to be simple yet very powerful. I love the graphical approach to options trading. And it has an educational component built into it. You may also enjoy watching the free options educational videos at tastytrade.com; I subscribe to their daily emails and it offers very practical and actionable tips and research. Both dough and tastytrade were started by the guys who made thinkorswim.
I wrote a blog post about it here when I signed up: https://www.twoinvesting.com/2014/02/options-trading-with-dough/
Good luck with the investing and thanks for visiting!
Scott
Update: Just added a new post addressing this exact topic: https://www.twoinvesting.com/2014/07/1-50-options-trades-in-dough/
Scott,
Wow! You seem to be very busy with the options trading. Seems like you are comfortable with the process and are producing nice returns.
Great job!
Keep cranking,
Robert the DividendDreamer
Thanks, Robert! It’s something I definitely hope to do more of in the future. As alluded to earlier, I only hold three stocks in my Roth that have more than 100 shares, AVA, CSCO, and KMI. I like the diversification, but it sure limits my ability to effectively sell covered calls.
I haven’t checked recently but only CSCO pays a decent premium.