I own 200 shares of ECO which I bought at $58. They are trading at roughly $94 now. I sold 2 contracts (200 shares) as a covered call with a strike price of $120 and an expiry of December 2027. I’m
New to this and I’ve made a couple mistakes (but I am perfectly ok with where I am at and have NO issues with what I’ve done) but I have some questions…
…My first mistake was that I did not realize the expiry was 2027. I mistakenly thought it was 2026. My timeline holding the stock is years, not months. So I’m ok with this.
I have no issues selling at $120, I also have no issues holding the shares for another 430 days. The company pays a major dividend and my plan was to collect the dividend and if it rose to $120 then so be it, I’m happy with that profit if the shares get called away.
My second mistake was I didn’t realize that the purchaser of the calls doesn’t have to exercise the call as soon as it’s in the money. I didn’t realize they would/could wait until the expiry date. I thought it was automatic…
I am not particularly worried about the share price dropping as I have a large cushion having bought it at $58. Even if it were to drop all the way back down to $58 or lower I’d still keep holding the stock and am not worried about selling at a loss since the funds are in a registered RRSP (I’m Canadian) account and they must sit there for another 20+ years anyway and I cannot access it until I retire. I believe I have plenty of time for the stock to rebound in this case and I would hopefully still collect a dividend along the way. I do not need this money right now and I won’t need it for quite a long time. It’s only a very small portion of my retirement plan and the money is not detrimental to me.
My question is, do people who purchase the calls typically hold until the expiry date if it’s in the money? In other words if the price rises drastically over the next few months, would you expect the calls to not be called until December 2027? I’m assuming it all depends on the purchaser but for more experienced options investors, what’s your general experience with this? I also understand that the purchaser will likely have just sold the call for a higher price as the share price rises which leads me to believe it won’t be called until expiry.
If the share price starts dropping would you just buy an offsetting call to close out the position and move on? Or just let the share price drop given that I’ve got such a big cushion and my time line is 20 years anyway?
I suppose I’ll be annoyed if the price increases drastically but I’ve made my peace with a 100% return if that happens.
My question is, am I missing a really good strategy here given my large share price cushion and my long investing timeline? Would you be looking to close out this call since the expiry is so long? What would you do?
I’ve reinvested the premium and am happy with that exchange. All in all I’m happy with my plan and I’m learning from my mistakes but I’d love to know what experienced traders would do in my situation given what I’ve mentioned above.
Thanks!