Today the market opened flat but U.S. Steel (X) opened up. This morning X also received another upgrade by Argus. They changed their rating from a “Hold” to a “Buy.” I do like X right now but I still want out of half of my position. I would like to cut my 10,000 shares down to 5000 shares. I purchased my shares at $35.73 and today I sold a 50 contract Call with the stock at $34.95. As you might know I’ve been selling Call on my shares since the 1st of the year. At this point, every week I’m selling 50 contracts at a $36 Strike Price and the other 50 contracts at a higher Strike Price. I’m trying to get assigned on 5000 shares with the $36 Strike Price and I would like to keep 5000 shares to work with, so I put a little higher Strike Price to try and avoid assignment. At this point not even my $36 Call have been assigned so I keep selling Calls. I’m happy as long as X doesn’t take a big dip. I can handle a dip with 5000 shares but with 10,000 shares it gets a little scary. Today I sold 50 contracts of the X $36 Calls to expire this Friday and I received a premium of 40¢ for $2000. I’m hoping the stock goes up this week and I get to sell another 50 contract Call with the Strike Price of $36.50 or $37 and get a 40¢ premium on those also. Here’s the Call I sold:
Sell to Open 50 X 2/10/17 $36 C @ 40¢ (+$2000)
I know Trump is busy with immigration, Obamacare and tax reform but I hope he starts talking about infrastructure and the $1 trillion investment. This should get U.S. Steel moving.
Check out the “Term of the Day” from yesterday. I wrote about the Super Bowl Indicator and how an AFC or NFC win would move the market. The AFC team won 34 – 28.
Steve
The Options Coach