Covered call writing strategy

Similar financial terms

Covered calls
A call option that is sold when the seller also owns 100 shares of the underlying stock.

Uncovered put
A short put option position in which the writer does not have a corresponding short stock position or has not deposited, in a cash account, cash or cash equivalents equal to the exercise value of the put. Also called "naked" puts, the writer has pledged to buy the stock at a certain price if the buyer of the options chooses to exercise it. The nature of uncovered options means the writer's risk is unlimited.

Uncovered call
A short call option position in which the writer does not own shares of underlying stock represented by his option contracts. Also called a "naked" call, it is much riskier for the writer than a covered call, where the writer owns the underlying stock. If the buyer of a call exercises the option to call, the writer would be forced to buy the stock at market price.

Covered call
A short call option position in which the writer owns the number of shares of the underlying stock represented by the option contracts. Covered calls generally limit the risk the writer takes because the stock does not have to be bought at the market price, if the holder of that option decides to exercise it.

Covered interest arbitrage
A portfolio manager invests dollars in an instrument denominated in a foreign currency and hedges his resulting foreign exchange risk by selling the proceeds of the investment forward for dollars.

Covered or hedge option strategies
Strategies that involve a position in an option as well as a position in the underlying stock, designed so that one position will help offset any unfavorable price movement in the other, including covered call writing and protective put buying.

Covered Put
A put option position in which the option writer also is short the corresponding stock or has deposited, in a cash account, cash or cash equivalents equal to the exercise of the option. This limits the option writer's risk because money or stock is already set aside. In the event that the holder of the put option decides to exercise the option, the writer's risk is more limited than it would be on an uncovered or naked put option.

Call feature on bonds
A call feature grants the issue the right to retire the debt, fully or partially, before the scheduled maturity date. Inclusion of a call feature benefits bond issuers by allowing them to replace an old bond issue with a lower-interest cost issue if interest rates in the market fall.

Call risk on bonds
Many bonds include a call feature that allows the issuer to redeem or “call” all or part of the issue before the maturity date. The issuer usually retains this right in order to have flexibility to refinance the bond in the future if the market interest rate drops below the coupon rate. This implies three risks from the investor: (a) The cash flow pattern becomes uncertain, (b) The investor becomes exposed to reinvestment risk because the issuer will call the bond when interest rates drop, and ( ...

Hard call protection
Hard call protection usually refers to callable bonds. The protection is the period of time when the bond cannot be called, no matter what the interest rate is. That is, if the interest rate falls sharply, most callable bonds will be called (so the bond issuer can reissue at a lower interest rate). Hard call protection ensures that the holder of the bond can benefit when rates fall.

Call
An option giving the owner of a call the right to buy 100 shares of stock at a specified price by a specified deadline.

Yield to call
The percentage rate of a bond or note, if you were to buy and hold the security until the call date. This yield is valid only if the security is called prior to maturity. Generally bonds are callable over several years and normally are called at a slight premium. The calculation of yield to call is based on the coupon rate, length of time to the call and the market price.

Put-call parity relationship
The relationship between the price of a put and the price of a call on the same underlying security with the same expiration date, which prevents arbitrage opportunities. Holding the stock and buying a put will deliver the exact payoff as buying one call and investing the present value (PV) of the exercise price. The call value equals C=S+P-PV(k).

Provisional call feature
A feature in a convertible issue that allows the issuer to call the issue during the non-call period if the price of the stock reaches a certain level.

Margin call
A demand for additional funds because of adverse price movement. Maintenance margin requirement, security deposit maintenance

Call an option
To exercise a call option.

Call date
A date before maturity, specified at issuance, when the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond for a specified call price.

Call money rate
Also called the broker loan rate , the interest rate that banks charge brokers to finance margin loans to investors. The broker charges the investor the call money rate plus a service charge.

Call option
An option contract that gives its holder the right (but not the obligation) to purchase a specified number of shares of the underlying stock at the given strike price, on or before the expiration date of the contract.

Call premium
Premium in price above the par value of a bond or share of preferred stock that must be paid to holders to redeem the bond or share of preferred stock before its scheduled maturity date.

Call price
The price, specified at issuance, at which the issuer of a bond may retire part of the bond at a specified call date.

Call protection
A feature of some callable bonds that establishes an initial period when the bonds may not be called.

Call provision
An embedded option granting a bond issuer the right to buy back all or part of the issue prior to maturity.

Call risk
The combination of cash flow uncertainty and reinvestment risk introduced by a call provision.

Call swaption
A swaption in which the buyer has the right to enter into a swap as a fixed-rate payer. The writer therefore becomes the fixed-rate receiver/floating rate payer.

Callable
A financial security such as a bond with a call option attached to it, i.e., the issuer has the right to call the security.

Cold-calling
Calling potential new customers in the hope of selling stocks, bonds or other financial products and receiving commissions.

Great call
Used in the context of general equities. Customer does not have a working order in with the trader, but we feel has an interest in participating in a trade being constructed due to one's past inquiry or activity.

Equitize a Margin Call
An event whereby a previously unsatisfied margin call is eliminated by an effective transfer of ownership. In 1998, Long Term Capital Management transfered a portion of ownership to its creditors. In some respects, it was a debt for equity swap.

Call auction
In a call auction participants indicate their willingness to buy or sell units of a security by placing an order to buy or sell some number of units at their buying or selling price. At some point in time the orders collected so far are matched together to form contracts. Different auctions follow different rules about the acceptance of orders, feedback about orders in the system, rules for updating or withdrawing orders, when to do the match, how to do the match, and the form and content of ...

All-or-none underwriting
An arrangement whereby a security issue is canceled if the underwriter is unable to re-sell the entire issue.

Underwriting syndicate
A group of investment banks that work together to sell new security offerings to investors. The underwriting syndicate is led by the lead underwriter.

Underwriting income
For an insurance company, the difference between the premiums earned and the costs of settling claims.

Underwriting fee
The portion of the gross underwriting spread that compensates the securities firms that underwrite a public offering for their underwriting risk.

Active portfolio strategy
A strategy that uses available information and forecasting techniques to seek a better performance than a portfolio that is simply diversified broadly. Related: passive portfolio strategy.

Structured portfolio strategy
A strategy in which a portfolio is designed to achieve the performance of some predetermined liabilities that must be paid out in the future.

Stock replacement strategy
A strategy for enhancing a portfolio's return, employed when the futures contract is expensive based on its theoretical price, involving a swap between the futures, treasury bills portfolio and a stock portfolio.

Spread strategy
Spreading is a strategy that involves a position in one or more options so that the cost of buying an option is funded entirely or in part by selling another option in the same underlying.

Randomized strategy
A strategy of introducing into the decision-making process a random element that is designed to reduce the information content of the decision-maker's observed choices.

Protective put buying strategy
A strategy that involves buying a put option on the underlying security that is held in a portfolio.

Passive portfolio strategy
A strategy that involves minimal expectational input, and instead relies on diversification to match the performance of some market index. A passive strategy assumes that the marketplace will reflect all available information in the price paid for securities, and therefore, does not attempt to find mispriced securities.

Pac-Man strategy
Takeover defense strategy in which the prospective acquiree retaliates against the acquirer's tender offer by launching its own tender offer for the other firm.

Overlay strategy
A strategy of using futures for asset allocation by pension sponsors to avoid disrupting the activities of money managers.

Ladder strategy
A bond portfolio strategy in which the portfolio is constructed to have approximately equal amounts invested in every maturity within a given range.

Exit strategy
Refers to the way in which investors and founders can "exit", i.e. leave their company, with a cash return on their investment - e.g. by going public or being acquired or being bought out by other shareholders.

Barbell strategy
A strategy in which the maturities of the securities included in the portfolio are concentrated at two extremes.

Bullet strategy
A strategy in which a portfolio is constructed so that the maturities of its securities are highly concentrated at one point on the yield curve.

Buy-and-hold strategy
A passive investment strategy with no active buying and selling of stocks from the time the portfolio is created until the end of the investment horizon.

Combination strategy
A strategy in which a put and with the same strike price and expiration are either both bought or both sold.