Finally a few minutes to catch up on things.
Once in awhile I’ll play a game called “Close All SPX…what if?” 🙂 🙂 I’ll use mid prices from TOS since they are the most accurate and calculate where this big experiment stands if I were to shut it down right now. With the big rally I’m definitely wondering where I stand since I’m holding LEAP short positions and selling daily puts against them.
Started this in Feb 2024 with one position and have gradually added size up to almost my full position. Goal is 10 total and sitting at 8 now but only selling against 6. Keeping 2 uncovered for downside hedging. Learned my lesson on that in April. Was about to uncover a couple of them but got caught in the selloff before I could. Was stuck for a few months again with no put selling and just waiting.
Here goes the quick summary in SPX points:
Losses on LEAPS: 348.85
Total premium received: 1973.25
Net gain: 1624.40
That’s 82 cents on each dollar becoming profit. Better than the 75 cents I was hoping for.
Lessons learned (so far)
1. Crazy up market not helping but great profits still possible.
2. A flat unchanged day profits go straight to the bottom line (yay!)
3. Not leaving a couple LEAPS uncovered was a big mistake. Could have really taken advantage of the giant VIX spike if I had any puts to sell.
4. Leaving a couple uncovered and giving up short term gains would be well worth it.
5. Continue monitoring margin requirements watching the distance between the put sold and the long LEAP put it’s sold against. Don’t be afraid to roll up the LEAPS if this gap becomes too wide.
6. Once I reach max position size the sky’s the limit.
I still look at this like owning rental property. Not all rent income is profit. You sometimes have to do some maintenance (roll up LEAPS) and sometimes you will have vacant units that bring nothing in temporarily (massive selloff with SPX backwardation). But overall everything turns a nice profit over time.
Options Bistro 