Trading Covered Calls on LEAPS - Part 2
Written by John Jagerson Options Trading Strategies
Click here for the first part of this article on selling covered calls on LEAPS.

In the second section of our series on selling covered calls against LEAPS or diagonal spreads I will begin walking through the entry process with a case study. The numbers and real life scenario should help you understand how these trades work and why they are attractive but if you really want to remember the information you should paper trade it a few times yourself. Going through the process by hand will help you retain the information and you may come up with some questions you want to ask in the options trading forums. Covered Calls on LEAPS

Additionally, you can find more information about trading short options and covered calls from the links below.

- Trading short options
- Selling covered calls on long stocks

In the case study I will use an index option with European style expiration. This solves the problem of early exercise that I mentioned in the first part of this series because European style options can only be exercised at expiration and not before. The index option I will use is the Mini SPX Index Option (XPS.) The XPS or mini version of the SPX is good for smaller traders as the options are only 1/10 the price of the normal SPX options. 

First, we need to buy the long term option at least a year out before expiration. In this case, that means buying the December 2009 calls. The long term options you buy can be very far in the money if you wish but I typically suggest buying one strike price in the money. With a current XSP price of $93 that means I would buy the $90 strike price calls for $1,615 per contract. 

In my experience, buying a far in the money long term call does not materially impact returns compared to a call that is very near to the at the money strike price. What is important however, is that in the next step you sell a short term call with a strike price ABOVE or further out of the money than the call you bought. In this case, that means I would sell the December 2008 95 strike price calls for $535 per contract. The rate of return just based on those prices is more than 30%. Of course, risk and time value will eat away at that best case scenario.

At this point the trade looks very similar to a covered call. The long term option takes the place of the long stock and protects against the unlimited losses that may occur with a short option alone. In the next section of this series I will cover what happens if you are "called out" of a trade like this at expiration.

Learning Markets Video Click here to see the video case study on selling covered calls on LEAPS or diagonal option spreads.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."