Earlier this year, I was fairly satisfied to play the broader market via index ETF's like SPY, DIA, QQQ, and IWM, but my focus has turned away from those to sector ETF's, since some of those are widely divergent from where the broader market is, offering opportunities that won't be present in broader-market trades, either for premium selling or directional covered call trades. (I prefer covered calls over directionally biased debit spreads, since I feel they offer more flexibility if my directional assumption happens to be somewhat short-term incorrect, but sound in the longer term).
The commodities sector is one of those sectors that has been absolutely hammered this year. I considered playing XME via covered call or with a short strangle (its IVR/IV is 43/46), but I'm opting for a play in an individual underlying instead -- FCX. It is essentially a long copper play; has a little bit more volatility in it than XME (making the short calls a bit richer premium-wise), and is super liquid.
So, here's the play:
100 shares FCX at 8.25
Jan 15 Short 9 call
Max Profit: $122/contract (if called away at $9)
BPE: $776 debit/100 shares-1 contract
Notes: I'm also running out of earnings plays and looking for some "background" trades that are potentially longer-term and keep a modest amount of buying power in the game.
The commodities sector is one of those sectors that has been absolutely hammered this year. I considered playing XME via covered call or with a short strangle (its IVR/IV is 43/46), but I'm opting for a play in an individual underlying instead -- FCX. It is essentially a long copper play; has a little bit more volatility in it than XME (making the short calls a bit richer premium-wise), and is super liquid.
So, here's the play:
100 shares FCX at 8.25
Jan 15 Short 9 call
Max Profit: $122/contract (if called away at $9)
BPE: $776 debit/100 shares-1 contract
Notes: I'm also running out of earnings plays and looking for some "background" trades that are potentially longer-term and keep a modest amount of buying power in the game.
