#LongCalls #LEAPS – Now that we’ve got the upside risk to these somewhat contained I gave some thought over the weekend (scary!) about the other risk to these that I’ve noticed concerning the downside and possible whipsaw.

Even with the LEAPS, if the stock has moved against you quite a bit they can pretty quickly start running out of juice to sell against when they get down to the last 6 or 7 months. For instance my LUV 2019 60 strike LEAP calls are already down to 1.60 with 7 months still to run. Eventually these positions reach a point where the LEAPS don’t protect the short calls very much on a big whipsaw even if selling less than a full position.

So…what’s a possible remedy to this? Here’s what I’m planning for the stocks that I don’t mind selling against for the long term. I am going to roll my current LEAP position to the next LEAP as soon as it’s available. The debit is minimal and gives a LEAP to sell against that still offers some upside protection.

Then…think of it this way. Each year you don’t have to sell enough to cover the entire cost of the LEAPS…just enough to cover the cost of the debit roll to the next year when it comes out. Everything beyond that is profit. I feel like longer term the debit roll will be covered very easily and subsequent debit rolls can be taken out of the long term profits and they won’t even be an issue. Also when these rolls are done it will allow any adjustments to be made to the LEAP strike prices if you feel it’s necessary.

Here’s what I did with TSLA this morning. Since I’m wanting to sell against it long term and I’ve already got a 2020 position on the call side I’m rolling my 2019 put side out to 2020. This evens things out and gives another year of selling for a minimal debit.

Rolled TSLA Jan 2019 300/200 BePS to Jan 2020 300/200 BePS @ 8.50 debit.

That’s a small price to pay for an additional year of selling and avoids even the slightest whiff of theta working against the position. When the 2021’s come out in a few months I’ll re-evaluate to see if a roll would help.