Monday Trades With Yields Up To 294%

A short put and a bull call spread.

• Music selection: “Steppin’ Out” — Joe Jackson
• Weigh-in: 218.2 (0.8)

First up is a short put in AbbVie (ABBV). ABBV has been recently known as a one-trick pony with substantially all profits coming from Humira. They have made moves to diversify with acquisition and have a nice pipeline of new drugs in Phase III trials that will all likely be billion-dollar sellers. They won’t completely replace Humira when it goes off-patent but it will be close and their cash flow should continue to grow.

I sold ABBV200821P00096000 for 2.06 a share. The trade will be in force for about 26 days and yields an expected 30.12% annualized. At the same time, the trade enjoys 3.69% downside protection.

I also bought a bull call spread in Wal-Mart (WMT). This has been an essential business that has done brisk sales during COVID-19. In recent years, the company was threatened by Amazon.WMT acquired an e-commerce firm to obtain its IP and expertise. This was applied to Walmart.com which is now a popular online shopping portal. Because of Wal-Mart’s enormous bricks and mortar logistics footprint, they are able to compete with Amazon and attack its weaknesses. Amazon has acquired Whole Foods, perhaps in retaliation but it will be decades before they can match WMT’s store count.

I bought the 4SEP2020 expiry 120 call and sold the 125 call. I got a fill at exactly four dollars. The trade will be in force for 40 days and enjoys 5.05% downside protection before profits are threatened. Should 125 not be breached to the downside, the full profit of 100 per contract will be earned. That is good for 25% or 294% annualized.