Comparing ETF index funds to mutual funds

Advantages of ETF index funds over mutual funds index funds: Management  fees are usually lower.  For example for inflation protected bonds the Schwab mutual fund SWRSX has a .5% expense ratio and the iShares Barclay equivalent TIP has an expense ratio of .2%. Instead of trades executing at the end of the day they can be bought or sold at any time the market is …

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Betting that the rally will last the week

Did covered calls on SPY,  buying SPY at 119.70,  selling to open April 119 Calls at 1.11.   Net investment/ breakeven is 118.59.   Ended up doing sequential market orders because combo order execution was not working well at Schwab.  Has the feel that actual humans are involved in the process–not a good thing with a moving market.

Understanding covered calls—an analogy

I know that analogies usually confuse more than they help—but that’s not going to stop me from trying… Imagine that you are the season ticket holder of 4 good seats for a major league football team at the beginning of the season. A lot of people think the team is headed for the Superbowl, but you are pessimistic. You’d like to cash in on the …

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Capturing dividends with covered calls—are you ready?

In a recent post I gave an overview of dividend capture strategies. In some situations, an effective way to hedge risk with a dividend capture strategy is to use covered call options.  If you are not familiar with options this might sound exotic, but it’s truly the training wheels of option trading.  With covered calls, you can introduce yourself to the conservative, hedging possibilities of …

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