I was reading Eric's link on shipping & read the comment section below the article. That's usually a waste of time, but I came across the following post. I was curious as to what you might think of this tactic.
[All writing below is from a different writer... NOT from me...]:
"A more conservative approach is to sell SHORT TERM well out of the money puts (preferably below strong support levels) on stocks you're interested in owning anyway. Then if the market continues lower and you get assigned the shares, you have them at a steep discount.
On the other hand, if the options expire, you keep the premium. In other words, you're getting paid to wait to get a great deal!
I personally am doing this exact strategy with major gold stocks. With the massive amount of new $$$ introduced into the system (highly inflationary in the long run), I will be glad to own Gold Shares at a steep discount and I'm getting paid handsomely in the meantime. "