Fills

[LoriPrecisely]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!
ASAN strike price of 25., for 1.80 premium, May 20th.
I know this is close to the market price, but I am willing to buy the shares, as Sol said, this makes it "like getting paid to put in a Limit Order, and low risk."
I want to thank everyone for their input on Options, @Sol for first suggesting it, @PuppBaby, @blogbuilder,@Centeron631 for asking questions I did not know to ask, @Eric for very specific suggestions regarding ASAN, and @JLHooter--much too detailed for me at this point.
I know I have a lot more to learn, and I appreciate this group a lot.

[Yodean]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!

Congrats, you lost your SPTO virginity. It's a bit addictive, I find. But in a good way.

[Eric]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!
ASAN strike price of 25., for 1.80 premium, May 20th.
I know this is close to the market price...

Congrats! That's a good premium to collect for that option... Your either lucky or good.
If you get shares put to you it'll be at a really nice $23.20 basis, and if not your trade paid you 7.2% in just 17 days which works out to about 155% annualized!

[LoriPrecisely]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!
ASAN strike price of 25., for 1.80 premium, May 20th.
I know this is close to the market price...

Congrats! That's a good premium to collect for that option... Your either lucky or good.
If you get shares put to you it'll be at a really nice $23.20 basis, and if not your trade paid you 7.2% in just 17 days which works out to about 155% annualized!

Thank you, Eric. That is some fancy math you are doing there.
Now, I want to choose another one. This is actually fun. Options seem like a well kept secret for the uninitiated.

[SOL]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!
ASAN strike price of 25., for 1.80 premium, May 20th.
I know this is close to the market price...

Congrats! That's a good premium to collect for that option... Your either lucky or good.
If you get shares put to you it'll be at a really nice $23.20 basis, and if not your trade paid you 7.2% in just 17 days which works out to about 155% annualized!

Thank you, Eric. That is some fancy math you are doing there.
Now, I want to choose another one. This is actually fun. Options seem like a well kept secret for the uninitiated.

The main thing that is kept secret is selling puts to get into stocks you would like to own. However, move slowly as in don't let the excitement get to you. For if it does you might say to hell with it, let me sell three puts when you only have funds for two. I am not saying you will do this but you need to approach investing and options in particular with a cool to cold approach. Congrats on your first trade that was quite a decent premium. The best time to sell puts is when the stock is trading in the oversold ranges and the best time when it is trading in the oversold ranges is on a down day, the premium will jump due to the fear factor.

Now once you master that you can slowly use some of the funds from the sale of the puts to purchase a far out of the money call. However, approach this slowly.

Also selling covered calls is hidden to some degree

[LoriPrecisely]

Thank you, Sol. I very much appreciate your guidance. I will remain cool, calm, and collected. I know I have a lot to learn still. I don't understand the idea of buying puts that are priced higher than the current market price, but they have a very high premium. And, I don't really understand calls yet, but I am studying diligently.

[SOL]

Thank you, Sol. I very much appreciate your guidance. I will remain cool, calm, and collected. I know I have a lot to learn still. I don't understand the idea of buying puts that are priced higher than the current market price, but they have a very high premium. And, I don't really understand calls yet, but I am studying diligently.

The very best time to sell a put (this involves extra monitoring) is when the premium is already high, the stock is trading in the oversold ranges on the monthly charts and you managed to sell them on a down day

I am going to post my notes on selling calls
Right now I sold calls on WOLF (very high premium for just 15 days). I got 5.00 bucks for selling a may 20, 125 call, that is 24 bucks away from the money. The stock is trading in the oversold ranges so lets see how that works.

Covered calls are the opposite of selling a put. Instead of selling to open a put, you would just sell to open a call. So if you bought the stock at 100 you could sell a call for may as I did above instead of getting 25 bucks you now have the chance to get back 30 bucks per-share profit. Yes, you risk your shares being called over, but if you want to hold onto the shares you could simply roll over the calls. To this you buy back the calls you sold and then sell a new set of calls say at 130 but with more time premium on them,

Another stock with a very high premium is CYBR, the call premium is quite staggering for just 15 days and with a strike price at 165, I think you can get paid over 5.30, the stock is at 155.

[LoriPrecisely]

Thank you, Sol. I very much appreciate your guidance. I will remain cool, calm, and collected. I know I have a lot to learn still. I don't understand the idea of buying puts that are priced higher than the current market price, but they have a very high premium. And, I don't really understand calls yet, but I am studying diligently.

The very best time to sell a put (this involves extra monitoring) is when the premium is already high, the stock is trading in the oversold ranges on the monthly charts and you managed to sell them on a down day

I am going to post my notes on selling calls
Right now I sold calls on WOLF (very high premium for just 15 days). I got 5.00 bucks for selling a may 20, 125 call, that is 24 bucks away from the money. The stock is trading in the oversold ranges so lets see how that works.

Covered calls are the opposite of selling a put. Instead of selling to open a put, you would just sell to open a call. So if you bought the stock at 100 you could sell a call for may as I did above instead of getting 25 bucks you now have the chance to get back 30 bucks per-share profit. Yes, you risk your shares being called over, but if you want to hold onto the shares you could simply roll over the calls. To this you buy back the calls you sold and then sell a new set of calls say at 130 but with more time premium on them,

Another stock with a very high premium is CYBR, the call premium is quite staggering for just 15 days and with a strike price at 165, I think you can get paid over 5.30, the stock is at 155.

I don't currently own either one of those stocks. Maybe it would be expedient for me to purchase them now so I can sell calls for them. Or, I could sell puts to get them. I own 100 shares of MTCH and FINX, so I could do calls for them. I will take some time to look at these options.

[froggo]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!

That's awesome @LoriPrecisely !!! Really happy for your progress
I still don't know how to do this nor confident with the more advanced stuff - am just doing the usual buy sell stock units at certain price. Maybe one day I'll put my toes in for a dip...

[SOL]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!

That's awesome @LoriPrecisely !!! Really happy for your progress
I still don't know how to do this nor confident with the more advanced stuff - am just doing the usual buy sell stock units at certain price. Maybe one day I'll put my toes in for a dip...

In theory, selling a put is almost as easy as putting in a limit order to purchase a stock. Instead of the stock symbol, you focus on 1 put which controls 100 shares. Selling covered is pretty easy after that. If you watch several videos on the topic you will be able to understand these safe concepts quickly. Once you grasp the concept paper trade but the real reason selling a put is safe is because you intended to buy the stock in the first place and so now you are selling a put to get in at an even lower price as you get to keep the premium. If the put is not triggered you get to keep the premium which adds up over time. If the put is triggered as in the stock trading below the price you sold the put at, the shares are put into your account and the funds are deduced. So if you sold the put like Lori did for ASAN May 25 PUT (expires on the 20th of may) for 1.80. If the shares trade below 25 the shares will be put to her account, but instead of paying 25 a share, her final price will be 23.20. If the shares are not put to her account she gets to keep the 180 bucks (1.80 times 100. 1 option equates to 100 shares)

[jlhooter]

If interested, go here for more info, that I learned, on options specifically covered calls (CC) and cash secured puts (CSP).
viewtopic.php?p=9560#p9560

[froggo]

thanks @Sol, thanks @jlhooter !!!

[jlhooter]

Froggo, I was like you maybe less than 6 months ago; I knew 0 and was very afraid. Put in the effort to learn and it is eye opening. Like Yodean and Astute say you learn by doing. Start small and learn from mistakes. I am making a ton of them, but I am also reacting in a way that forces me to figure it out. Pretty cool, but not for someone who doesn't have the time to do it.
I started with selling puts because if I play it correctly, I want to get stocks put to me at where I feel is a good price.
I didn't start with selling calls because I don't own many stocks where I have >= 100 shares, so once I own from selling puts and getting the shares put to me, the next step will be to sell covered calls (at some point when the timing and prices is right) on the stocks I just bought.

[LoriPrecisely]

I sold my very first Put option this morning!!

That's awesome @LoriPrecisely !!! Really happy for your progress
I still don't know how to do this nor confident with the more advanced stuff - am just doing the usual buy sell stock units at certain price. Maybe one day I'll put my toes in for a dip...

If you like to read, check out this site--https://www.great-option-trading-strate ... technicals
I also got a lot of helpful information from Investopedia and Option Alpha.
I find it helpful to copy and paste the articles into Word, and then print them to read and underline and make notes on. I did that with the 3 articles I found regarding options on the TI website. I did that with this forum discussion regarding options, too. I prefer to read rather than listen to videos, my learning style.
For now, this is how I look at it (my simplified version):
There are Calls and Puts.
There is Buy and Sell.
There is Open and Close.
I chose a Put because, as Sol says, "It is like getting paid to put in a Limit Order."
Think of "Put" as the stock being 'Put to your account' at the price you select, if the market price hits the price you selected. Choose a price lower than the market price, just like you would do with a Limit Order. If the stock price drops to the amount you chose, you will be obligated to buy 100 stocks. If the price does not hit the price you selected, you still get paid the premium you chose to Sell your option contract, but you do not get the shares of stock. Options always occur in bundles of 100. One Put or Call is equal to 100 shares of stock.
Sell to "Open" begins the contract--'Opens the contract'.
I chose a stock I was willing to own, ASAN. I would not have done this if I were not willing to potentially own 100 shares of ASAN.
Eric's specific suggestions helped a lot here. You can look back at his post.

On my trading platform, the Sell to Open, Sell to Close, Buy to Open, Buy to Close, option buttons were not available until I applied for approval with Schwab. Then I messed around with the choices a bit to see the outcome. You can do that without placing an order. Then I chose a stock I would be willing to buy, ASAN. I chose the closest expiry date, as I thought that would be less stressful waiting to see what would happen.

There are a LOT of other ways to transact options. I saw this as a good beginning point. Take advantage of all the wisdom in this group to get started with options, as it is an interesting way to potentially make money in the stock market, a way that most people are unaware of. Options is an advanced way to play the game because it gives you a lot of new maneuvers.

[Triplethought]

All this blood and nobody has any fills? I was hoping you guys would make it easy to see what has dropped to buy levels. I guess that means we're all filled up and watching the red in our portfolio.