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The Basics of Covered Calls

By ALAN FARLEY Updated Apr 20, 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Is a Covered Call?
Profiting from Covered Calls
When to Sell a Covered Call
Advantages of Covered Calls
Risks of Covered Calls

The Bottom Line

Professional market players write covered calls to boost investment income, but individual investors can also benefit from this conservative but effective option strategy by taking the time to learn how it works and when to use it. In this regard, let's look at the covered call and examine ways it can lower portfolio risk and improve investment returns.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A covered call is a popular options strategy used to generate income from investors who think stock prices are unlikely to rise much further in the near-term.

A covered call is constructed by holding a long position in a stock and then selling (writing) call options on that same asset, representing the same size as the underlying long position.

A covered call will limit the investor's potential upside profit, and will also not offer much protection if the price of the stock drops.


Covered Call

What Is a Covered Call?

You are entitled to several rights as a stock or futures contract owner, including the right to sell the security at any time for the market price. Covered call writing sells this right to someone else in exchange for cash, meaning the buyer of the option gets the right to own your security on or before the expiration date at a predetermined price called the strike price.

A call option is a contract that gives the buyer the legal right (but not the obligation) to buy 100 shares of the underlying stock or one futures contract at the strike price any time on or before expiration. If the seller of the call option also owns the underlying security, the option is considered "covered" because they can deliver the instrument without purchasing it on the open market at possibly unfavorable pricing.

Profiting from Covered Calls

The buyer pays the seller of the call option a premium to obtain the right to buy shares or contracts at a predetermined future price. The premium is a cash fee paid on the day the option is sold and is the seller's money to keep, regardless of whether the option is exercised or not. A covered call is therefore most profitable if the stock moves up to the strike price, generating profit from the long stock position, while the call that was sold expires worthless, allowing the call writer to collect the entire premium from its sale.

Covered Call

When to Sell a Covered Call

When you sell a covered call, you get paid in exchange for giving up a portion of future upside. For example, let's assume you buy XYZ stock for $50 per share, believing it will rise to $60 within one year. You're also willing to sell at $55 within six months, giving up further upside while taking a short-term profit. In this scenario, selling a covered call on the position might be an attractive strategy.

The stock's option chain indicates that selling a $55 six-month call option will cost the buyer a $4 per share premium. You could sell that option against your shares, which you purchased at $50 and hope to sell at $60 within a year. Writing this covered call creates an obligation to sell the shares at $55 within six months if the underlying price reaches that level. You get to keep the $4 in premium plus the $55 from the share sale, for the grand total of $59, or an 18% return over six months.