Stick to Your Guns!

On Monday, April 11th I sold a Call on Netflix (NFLX). I bought 1000 shares of the stock at $104.71 and sold 10 contracts of the $105 Calls expiring this Friday the 15th. This Call brought me in a $1.70 premium for a total of $1700. With NFLX on a tear the last 3 days I wanted to take this opportunity to write about “sticking to your guns” and staying disciplined. Now that it’s Thursday afternoon, it looks like I’ll be getting assigned on these 1000 shares at $105. As I write this, NFLX is at $111.50. This is over $6 above my Strike price. At the end of the trading day tomorrow I’ll get assigned at $105, which will give me a $.30 profit on the stock for $300, plus the $1700 premium. A total of $2000. This sounds great for a 5 day profit, and it is! I love deals like this. The problem is, If I never sold the Call Option my profit on the stock (if I sold it now) would be $6.79. On the 1000 shares that’s a total of $6790. I made $2000 and I could have made $6790! This is called an Opportunity Lost (Please hit the link and read my page). I am very happy with sticking to my guns and staying disciplined. And I’m very happy with a $2000 gain on one trade. I’m in this game for the premium! And if I get a stock gain at the same time, great! I know many people in this game and I know most are losing money. My advice is, make a good plan with a good strategy that fits into your risk tolerance and stick to it! With this trade above I could have made more money if I didn’t sell my Call. But I sold my Call (because that’s the game I’m in) and had an Opportunity Lost. I DON”T CARE! If you change your rules and start chasing stocks around, I’m not telling you it’s difficult to do, I’m telling you, YOU WILL LOSE MONEY! PERIOD! This is a very hard game to win at. Don’t listen to the books when they say it’s easy, because it’s not. The books tell you the biggest risk is the Opportunity Lost. I don’t agree. I think the biggest risk is your stock going down. If you take a premium you offset some of the loss if your stock goes down. Don’t only look at my gains this year, and yes I’m having a good year! But in past years I lost plenty of money. Just ask my account. In those days I wasn’t disciplined. I’m hoping those loses are the cost of my education and now it’s time to reap the benefits of my education. I said in the first few pages of my site, “the books don’t tell you the entire truth” and “I would”, so that’s what I’m doing now. STICK TO YOUR GUNS and STAY DISCIPLINED. Don’t get greedy! Slow and steady, steady and slow! The tortoise wins the race! The hare is the one who worries about Opportunity Lost.

 

Steve

The Options Coach

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