The first month of the year is behind us. Time flies when you have fun! Let’s see what we earned this month.
Premium Income
In Januari, I made 168,51€ with trading options. This is on the low side, compared to my 2016 average performance of 250€ per month.
How can that be?
- Still sweating out my gold miner trades from the summer of 2016.These positions eat up 25 pct of my maximum allowed trading capacity.
- There is another postion I have that now blocks 10 pct of my trading capacity as the put is deep in the money
In total, 35 pct of my capacity is being used by in-the-money puts. As I want the premium, not the assignment, I try to roll myself out of the positions. This can take time and while doing that, I have no realised gains to report! That is the consequence of my trading style. Others might trade via a different strategy and take the loss in a position rather than let that position eat up trading power.
One valuable lesson for me so far is that my option trading income can not yet be seen as a reliable income source. The monthly difference is quite big. I hope to have stable growing income with my yearly income. Let’s see what 2017 brings (and if the Belgian government has a surprise on the downside for us, like they had end of 2015)
Dividend and Capital gains: 0€
The month of January had 0 extra € for me. At the core, I am not a dividend investor (yet), so it is more than normal to get nothing paid out to me.
Coming up
Just today I started an experiment with dividend stocks and options. I have reserved a part of my money for that. There should be an impact on either my dividend income, or even better, my premium income. Stay tuned for more info.
amber tree leaves 
Ciao ATL,
My question is: But why not holding some dividend paying stocks too? If it wasn’t for them I would be (again) deep in the red in January, because my option trading was not that great this month (too many rolls)… I trade in Options 1/6th of the available capital, the rest goes in long stocks and bonds. I have a base granted thanks to them, regardless of their valuation at the time.
Ciao ciao
Stal
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The tax regime in Belgium is against dividends… 30 pct is too high.
With my experimenr, i try to find an answer. I started writing options with a higher delta on dividend stock. I will roll less in this case. And write covered calls as soon as i can.
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Any profit is good profit. Nice job. I’m in the same boat right now. I have more cash than usual tied up, so this month my options activity will be much slower than it has been the past few months.
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Awesome job making money in January off the premiums. I figure every month that it’s positive is a good month. Keep up the awesome work!!!
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Bit of a slow start to the year, but I have a gut feeling that it will pick up over the next few months.
Best of luck AT, we have full confidence in your money making abilities 🙂
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Thx for the encouraging words… I have a lot of potential premium income stored in the in the money puts…
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My point in case, you will do just fine later in the year!
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Still a good number I would say, as the monthly figure would be more than €2k on a yearly basis. Good luck!
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Thx. Lastyear I had 3 k. Would be great to beat that. With my experiment that I started, I have a high probability to do so.
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I still struggle where to put the ‘special circumstance investing’ profit I make. I have been able to roll over my construction for another year, so I am off to a good start of the year. But no idea how and when to report it so for the moment I don’t.
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You make me curious: may I suggest off line reporting? 🙂
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Taxes can be murder so I understand why you are not so hot on dividends yet. I still think a portion of your portfolio should hold dividends and not just be dependent on options premiums. Still, a nice showing for Jan. with your premiums even if on the low side. Better than on the negative side. Keep building!!!
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Nice options premiums this January. Sorry to hear that taxes on dividends are so expensive in Belgium. Seems strange that it would be so high since they are taxed twice…by the company that pays them and us when we receive them.
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The tax rate on dividends dubbeled in 5 years!
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as it is written some posts bevor.
every positiv month is a good month. nothing to complain about your options income 🙂
in some months there is a huge result, in some months there is a good result. as long as we do not lose money everything is fine 🙂
congratulations 🙂
best regards
Chri
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Thx for the encouraging words… And indeed, as long as we do not loose, it is fine.
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Nice job ATL. It’s a nice amount, even if it’s a bit volatile. Good luck for next month!
Tristan
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Keep it up.. good work for you
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