Today our outstanding short position in a put option contract (strike: $100; expiration: 16APR2021) on Appian shares closed as the market opened. We wrote contract as markets fell last week, and, when the market rebounded yesterday and continued higher today, our standing limit order was filled to close the position. We held the position for eight days and netted $148 or 1.5% of the collateral.
We also chose to close our covered-call position on our Square (SQ) shares because it was trading for just $25 with three weeks to expiration (26MAR2021). The strike price ($330) was about 30% above the market when we wrote the contract on 2MAR2021 but, with the NASDAQ correction over the last week, SQ fell to 43% below the strike. We’ll realize the gain and write another covered-call when the opportunity presents itself.
An unrelated position in a cash-covered put option contract on Quidel shares fell $1000 today when the company announced testing was down significantly. The position went from a $100 gain yesterday to $900 loss around noon today. I could have closed this position for $85 a few days ago and this action inspired me to close the SQ call.