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Dividends are almost universally viewed as positive aspects of stock selection and options trading. The higher the dividend yield, the more positive. But does this ignore some dangers in dividend trends? In fact, there are three ways in which dividends can mislead traders and create positive impressions when in fact, the news is negative.

Steady Options has received numerous inquires into how dividends impact options, option prices, and the owners or option contracts. The impact of dividends should be understood by any option contract trader.  Fortunately, the rules for option contracts and dividends are clear and straightforward. 

There are jokes within the financial industry that "nobody has ever seen a bad backtest" and that "the worst 10 years of your backtest are the next 10 years". There certainly are bad backtests, but nobody ever markets them. They just get thrown in the trash. Even academics can fall prey to this.

When starting out with options, a natural place to begin is with covered calls. It’s a very easy to understand strategy for those that are familiar with stock ownership. The strategy involves buying a stock in lots of 100 shares. The total size will depend on you account size and how much exposure you want to take.

One of the most common complaints received from investors relates to low yields, low returns and/or the inability to have a reasonable cash flow from investments. This is particularly true for investors who feel that they have too much invested in the stock market.  Many want to diversify into real estate of one form or another.

If you’re comfortable owning an S&P 500 index fund, you should also be comfortable with covered calls. For example, CBOE publishes data on a simple covered call strategy with their BXMD index. The description from CBOE is as follows:

First, this is a general comment. Every person’s situation is different. I could say “95% of people don’t need this,” and you could be in the 5% who do. So, don’t ever make personal investment or estate planning decisions based on an online post, contact an actual investment advisor or attorney - most will have initial conversations for free (I do).

Higher dividends are better, right? Yes, usually. But not always. Dividends are a fundamental indicator and many options traders are not interested in fundamentals. But as a means for picking stocks on which to trade options, some fundamentals offer great insight.

One of the most common fears in option trading is one of early assignment.  The fear of having a large number of shares (or a large short position) coupled with a potential margin call (or Reg-T call) causing a sudden shortage of cash in their accounts worries investors.  Investors commonly view assignment as a huge potential risk.

This investing lesson is a tale of two time periods that highlight the important role of equity asset class diversification and systematic rebalancing in an equity fund portfolio.  Human nature is a failed investor, when our natural instinct is often to do the exact opposite of what we should do in practice.

Exactly how risky are uncovered calls? That depends … Some traders avoid uncovered calls altogether because the risk can be significant, even unlimited (in theory). Others can rationalize this strategy as only moderately risky based on how you pick expiration and strike.

According to www.bankrate.com, the current national average interest rate on bank savings accounts is only 0.10%. Many banks have barely budgeted on increasing interest rates even as the risk-free rate of return on a US Treasury Bill is currently in excess of 2%. This spread is a substantial profit margin for banks.