We’ve had a good run (the markets, that is) over the past month. Since mid-May our portfolio is up roughly ten percent and we’re threatening to reach an all-time high value of our portfolio.
This morning two of our outstanding short positions in put option contracts closed on standing limit orders when the market opened for today’s trading.
Our Cloudflare (NET) contract (strike: $85; expiration: 23JUL2021) closed after nine days to net $136.31 (1.2% of collateralized capital). With about a month remaining until expiration, we netted 68% of the premium and live to sell the contract at a later date. NET shares have skyrocketed over the past few weeks and our shares were called away for $85 on a covered-call option contract last week. This put option was written to reestablish a long position in NET but the upward trend has continued.
Our first exposure to Upstart Holdings Inc (UPST), a recent Motely Fool recommendation, was also closed at today’s open when our short position in a put option contract (strike: $80; expiration: 30JUL2021) closed to net $178.63 (2.2% of collateralized capital). After eight days holding this contract, just 18% of the time from initiation to expiration, we earned 71.6% of the premium. UPST may be a promising company, but I’ll pay $70 to net $180 for a 101.9% annualized return whenever the opportunity presents itself.