The most important thing to learn from our fearless, intrepid investor’s loss of $US10,990.00 in her “fun” portfolio over a year is not to write covered calls on individual securities. She sold just out-of-the-money covered calls on Novavax (NVAX) on Mondays, expiry dates on Fridays of the same week. NVAX declined to a far greater extent than the premium income she received for that transaction.
It is far better to sell covered calls on the American market as a whole by using an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the S&P 500. SPY is the best. It is the largest, oldest, and most heavily traded US ETF. It has the narrowest bid/ask spread, one of investors’ expenses that most tend to ignore.
Also, writing (selling) covered calls sufficiently out-of-the-money to earn about 1% per month or slightly more, significantly reduces the possibility of being assigned while yielding a decent return.
