Seller's Paradise

Most people would be happy to beat the market over a year's time. Few have beaten the S&P 500 over an 11 year time frame, but that is exactly what Van Hulzen Asset Management has done by using a conservative covered call strategy.

Recently we spoke to Craig Van Hulzen, founder of the firm, to ask him about the particulars of his market beating covered call strategy and how his firm invests the $300 million they manage. In our interview Craig reveals the types of stocks he targets and the kinds of call options he writes against these stocks (longer term, farther out of the money vs. shorter term and closer to current stock price).

Read all of Craig's comments in our Van Hulzen Interview. You will learn some tips on how at least one pro uses covered calls to beat the market.

There is a school of thought that believes management teams who increase dividends must know (or believe strongly) that their business is good and likely to increase. Looking for companies with dividend increases is a reasonable place to start when looking for covered call candidates. Of course, you'll need to diligence the rest of the story and should not invest only because of a dividend increase.

Rear our blog article on 19 stocks that announced dividend increases in mid-December. It also contains results from our covered call scanner on those same stocks.

The so-called "Dogs Of The Dow" strategy is a conservative, income-oriented strategy. It involves buying and holding the highest yielding Dow 30 stocks and making adjustments only once per year (for better tax treatment). Historically, it has beaten the market in several time frames, and in most (but not all) years.

We looked up this year's "dogs" and ran our covered call screener on them to see if we could improve on an already good strategy. Read the results in our blog article Improving Dog Yield With Covered Calls.

Followers of the Born To Sell blog know that we've had a good track record of weekly buy-writes on AAPL (24 out of 24 trades closed profitable).

On December 5 we initiated a new position and wrote in-the-money weekly options. The options expired out-of-the-money and we wrote new weekly options on Dec 11. Those expired out-of-the-money, too, so we rolled down (lowered the strike) and wrote new weekly options on Dec 17, which also expired out-of-the-money.

We took a break the last week of the year (holding the AAPL stock uncovered) and today (Jan 2) took advantage of the stock's rise to write a new set of weekly options.

This 4 week trade is a good example of managing a series of options written against the same underlying stock (and one that is falling during the first few cycles). For a full accounting of these trades, along with today's suggested options, read Weekly Apple (AAPL) Trade January 2.

Born To Sell's covered call investment tools have been nominated (again!) for a trading software award. Help us win (by voting before Jan 31) and you are automatically entered into a drawing for $10,000 of trading software. Please vote for us in the Trading Software category. We are listed as "Covered Call Investment Tools":

TraderPlanet 2012 Star Awards

Thanks! And good luck in the $10,000 free drawing!

With just over 2 weeks to go until the January options expire, the top 4 covered calls Born To Sell members have written are (in order of popularity):

(Note: Born To Sell members have access to the full Top 10 Covered Call list, as well as having this list update real-time as members change positions. These are not recommendations, they are merely a reflection of our members' current positions.)

Like Born To Sell? Help us get the word out and you could win a free book on covered call investing, or an iTunes gift card:

There are 8 ways to enter (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc). Full details on the Link To Us And Win page. Thanks and good luck in the drawings!

Currently, the top 8 stocks Born To Sell members are using for their Watchlist are (in order of popularity):

(Note: Born To Sell members have access to the full Top 20 Watchlist, as well as having this list update real-time as members change their watchlists. And, you can have the highest yielding covered calls from your personal watchlist emailed to you after the close each day. Never miss a fat premium from your watchlist again!)

Born To Sell is dedicated to only one thing: Making Money With Covered Calls. Our subscribers have access to state-of-the-art covered call screeners and covered call portfolio management tools. For less than the profit of a single trade you could be enjoying recurring monthly income using our tools. Three subscription types to choose from:

Plus, all subscriptions begin with a no-obligation 2-week free trial. What are you waiting for? Start collecting premium today!

Happy Trading,

The Born To Sell Team