Born To Sell Seller's Paradise 
Mar 1, 2011 
Penny Quiz: Zinc or Copper?
penny

US pennies were made of 100% copper until 1982. At that time the actual price of copper became so high that a penny contained more than a penny's worth of copper. Since then, the US Mint has made pennies with 97.5% zinc covered with a thin copper layer.

At the moment, zinc is about $1.12/pound and copper is about $4.47/pound. So, how many pennies weigh one pound? For 1982 and earlier it's about 146 pennies. For 1983 and later, it's about 181 pennies. Important note: Even though you could buy a pound of copper for $1.46 worth of pre-1982 pennies, it is illegal to melt pennies or nickels (or export them for melting) -- you could face up to 5 years in jail and $10,000 in fines. Better to save your pennies and invest in covered calls...

Legging In On The Last Day Of The Month

There is a well-known phenomenon that stocks tend to rise on the 1st day of each month. The theory is that mutual fund managers find themselves with new inflows of cash on that day, from people's automatic 401k contributions and such, creating new buying demand. In the last 16 months the S&P 500 has risen by an average of 1% on the 1st day of the month. You may not win every 1st of the month (like today) but on average over many months the historical statistics say you should do okay.

So how can covered call writers use this to their advantage? By legging into new positions over 2 trading sessions.

"Legging in" means you buy the stock first and then later sell the call (as opposed to doing a buy-write transaction where both legs are exectuted at the same time). You could buy stock near the close on the last day of the month, and then sell covered calls against that stock near the close of the 1st day of the month. In theory, the stock will have nudged up 1% or so during that 1st day and you can get more premium for the call option.

Blog Articles

Here's a summary of February's blog articles (click on any article to read it):

ArticleSummary
Buy The Dip In Hewlett PackardWhen a good company sells off during a bad market it creates an opportunity... read more
Roth IRA vs Traditional IRAEach has its advantages and disadvantages... read more
Dividend Yield Of 10% On AppleCreate a 10% dividend on Apple stock... read more
Deep In The Money CallsAfter a big run up, or just for income, sell deep in the money calls... read more
CCME And 3 Other Covered Calls For Mar 19 Expiration

With less than 3 weeks to go until the March options expire, the top 4 covered calls Born To Sell members have written are (in order of popularity):

RankSymbolStrike
1.CCME14
2.TIVO10
3.HGSI26
4.F16

Careful with TIVO: Earnings will be released after the close today. The other three do not have an earnings release scheduled before the March expiration.

(Note: Born To Sell members have access to the full Top 10 Covered Call list, as well as having this list update real-time as members change positions. These are not recommendations, they are merely a reflection of our members' current positions.)

Top 8 Covered Call Watchlist Stocks and ETFs

Currently, the top 8 stocks Born To Sell members are using for their Watchlist are (in order of popularity):

RankSymbol
1.AAPL
2.F
3.MSFT
4.CSCO
5.INTC
6.GE
7.NFLX
8.BAC

(Note: Born To Sell members have access to the full Top 20 Watchlist, as well as having this list update real-time as members change their watchlists. And, you can have the highest yielding covered calls from your personal watchlist emailed to you after the close each day. Never miss a fat premium from your watchlist again!)

Want More Covered Call Goodness?

Born To Sell is dedicated to only one thing: Making Money With Covered Calls. Our subscribers have access to state-of-the-art covered call screeners and covered call portfolio management tools. For less than the profit of a single trade you could be enjoying recurring monthly income using our tools. Three subscription types to choose from:

TermPrice
Monthly$59.95
Quarterly$149.95 (17% discount)
Annual$499.95 (31% discount)

Plus, all subscriptions begin with a no-obligation 2-week free trial. What are you waiting for? Start collecting premium today!

Happy Trading,

The Born To Sell Team

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