TLT Core Position (IRA)In the absence of some kind of face-ripping rally, I'm going to be assigned shares in TLT here shortly, starting with what began as an October 20th 93 short put and an October 20th 89 short put. Here, I'm using short puts as an acquisitional tool, attempting to acquire shares in multi-year weakness, after which I'll proceed to cover the shares with short calls. The short call premium, along with TLT's monthly dividend, will result in positive cash flow.
There are a couple of different approaches I could utilize here to manage the shares I'm assigned, one of which is to sell a call against each individual lot I'm assigned, laddering out short calls in time as I'm assigned shares. Since I've got quite a few contracts subject to assignment, this would result in sort of a covered call spaghetti-works.
Another simpler approach would be to see what the average cost basis of all the lots I'm assigned is, and then proceed to sell calls at or above that average cost basis in a single expiry. For example, the average cost basis of the two rungs shown here is (89 + 93)/2 or 91/share. With that cost basis in mind, I would proceed to sell two calls at or above the 91 strike at a reasonably delta'd strike in an expiry that's paying. Given the distance price has pulled away from my likely average cost basis, the calls are likely to be somewhat long dated.
Given the fact that my highest short put strike is at 94, I'm more likely to sell calls at 94 initially, wait to be assigned everything that I'm going to get assigned, look at the average cost basis at that point and then adjust the short calls accordingly. Because of its simplicity, this is the approach I'll be going with, looking to stay in the shares and manage the entire position on a fairly long-term basis.
As usual, we'll see how it goes ... .
