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View Full Version : A Different Angle to Generate Passive Income Online


italian_job
01-31-2008, 01:25 PM
hello all,

This is gonna be a pretty technical post. It is not for the newbies or for people that have not generated any sort of income. It is for people that are already advanced in the online marketing business and want to add more income generating weapons to their asset arsenals (automated sales weapons...by the way...).

As some of you may know, I am involved into different online businesses, where the common denominator is that they all generate cash flow (sometimes fully "untouched/automated", sometimes they require my attention).

You probably know that I do affiliate marketing. But I do even more dropshipping consumable products that can allow you to have a stable income from returning customers and referrals.

I am also involved into residential real estate. And I have signed a remote-work agreement with my employer a few years ago.

Over the past year though I have not invested my profits into property because I felt prices were too high, so I start looking at stock investing.

I didnt know much, so I started reading. And I didnt like what I discovered, because I felt that stock investing could have never given me any sort of leverage or any sort of control to generate passive income.

To me, once again, let me repeat, cash flow is the name of the game.

So...I kept reading (and I really recommned you to do your home work before jumping into any entrepreneurial venture).

And I discovered one way of earning stable income from stock that I never considered before.

This is what I do:

I trade options. Option trading is an often misunderstood concept. It is true that you can lose your shirt easily if you dont know what you are doing. Most of the people start trading options in the most SPECULATIVE way possible, which is they BUY a CALL option (basically they bet that a certain share price will go UP by a certain date).

But that's not what I do.

As you might have guessed, I am a VERY conservative investor and entrepreneur. I like stability and cash flow.

So, what I do is I sell COVERED CALLS to generate income.

This is probably the most CONSERVATIVE option trading strategy. And I like it. Of course you must chose the underlying stock wisely, because you want to sell a call option of a stable stock (=low volatility). So tech stocks are not good for selling covered call options.

I usually sell slightly "in the money" covered call option, with an expiration date of around 5-7 weeks, for not less than $1/option.

"Covered" means you sell options of a stock that YOU own. So this strategy DOES require an investment (since for every call option you sell, you must own 100 shares of the underlying asset).

Basically, when you sell (=write) a covered call you cash in a premium and you keep it. That's the income that you can generate every month. Then, if at expiration date the buyer of your covered call exercises the option, you stock is called away. If the option is not exercised, you keep the stock (as well as the premium you received when you sold the option).

This strategy works also extremely well if you own stocks that you intend to SELL anyway. Remember though that when you sell 1 option, you are selling the right linked to 100 shares. ONE HUNDRED shares. Don't forget that!

I didnt learn all this by myself. I did all my necessary readings and now I am reaping the rewards. It really is an advanced automated income generating technique.

There are a tons of different techniques to use when you trade options, but I feel that the one that fits my personality (very conservative), is at the moment the one I described above.

Also, I like learning how to trade because in my business I always thought that I had to keep my asset forever, but now I can also consider building an asset that generates monthly net cash flow and then selling for a multiple of the monthly cash flow generated.

This is a website that has lots of free stuff for you to learn:


http://www.optionsuniversity.com/


I hope this post will help you to do some "lateral thinking"

Safe investing to you all !!

Danny

PS (disclaimer): this post does not constitute financial advice. Always seek for professional financial advice before making any sort of investment decision.

jdoc
01-31-2008, 08:30 PM
Hi Danny,

First time post for me - I've been lurking for a little bit but you touched on an interesting subject so I was compelled to respond.

First of all, congrats on becoming an options investor. I agree it can be a misunderstood field, but that is partially because the types of investments using options can range from extremely risky/leveraged to high probability/relatively low return.

However, I think the risk/reward of covered call writing is not exactly as you specified. Coverd call writing involves the risk that you will lose 100% of your investment, since the underlying stock you purchase can go to 0. On top of that, the reward is limited because if the stock increases beyond the strike price, you do not participate in the greater gains because your stock will be called away. Some people would not characterize this risk/reward setup as 'conservative'. See http://www.cboe.com/Strategies/EquityOptions/CoveredCalls/Part1.aspx (this graph) for an illustration of this setup.

From my perspective, covered call writing can be beneficial to those who as you say are not worried about the stock being called away. They do not believe the stock will rise greatly in the near term (or don't care because they can lock in a guaranteed return if the stock price is above a specific value). However, they also don't care if the stock drops significantly in value, because they believe in the long term prospects of the stock at least maintaining its current value.

I would caution against writing covered calls in volatile or growth stocks. Using blue chip names with track records of slow growth (both earnings and stock price) are the best stocks to own in this space. Having a good dividend to boost the income yield doesn't hurt either.

For those who want to mimick the same risk/return profile of covered call writing without as much initial capital needed to own the stock, look at naked put writing. While some may feel this is riskier than covered call writing, in actuality it is exactly the same. You will need less capital since the margin requirement will be 1/3-1/2 the value of the stock.

Check out http://mytradersjournal.com/stock-options/ for more detail on covered call and naked put strategies - this person has been doing it fairly consistently for a year or two now.

I also have written some details about option trading on my (currently dormant) blog, http://investoid.com.

If you're interested in learning about other option strategies that are relatively conservative and can act as an income play, feel free to let me know.

Alex-MyTradersJournal
04-14-2008, 12:20 PM
Thanks for linking to me JDoc. I've been selling options since early 2000. JDoc hit the high points of the risks. I want to repeat both of your warnings that the strategy can be risky if you don't know what you are doing.
I'll also disagree with both of you that growth/tech stocks should be avoided when selling options. I have a mixed portfolio of value and growth. Sticking in one camp (value or growth) will increase your risk over time as the masses change which side they favor. Mixing types of stocks in your portfolio adds diversity which is key. Also, the increased premiums with more volatile equities counters much (NOT ALL) of the risk.
I list all of the option trades I've made for the past year on my blog and I welcome feedback for anyone interesting in learning more about this strategy of increasing cash flow.

Vagabond
04-14-2008, 03:17 PM
ItalianJob,

How much of your review is influenced by the affiliate commissions you receive for the leads that you refer?

Vagabond

shanerbock
04-14-2008, 07:32 PM
I could be wrong, but I dont think thats an affiliate link.

Additionally, if we come to trust one another and people are contributing here in a fair and meaningful manner, I dont think it should be a problem for someone to post their affiliate link... Don't get me wrong, I dont want a bunch of spam or crap on this board (its pretty pure at the moment)... but someone that posts and contributes good stuff should not be scathed for posting an affiliate link... hell if I find their lead useful and I am interested in what they have brought to the table, I want them to get paid for it.

That money is going to go to someone, it might as well go to them... they are the one's that have used it, reviewed it, etc, and eventually recommended it to me.

thats just my 2 cents..... HOWEVER, that is a fair question and one that should be openly answered by anyone that posts an affiliate link... i.e., If I post an affiliate link, I dont mind telling you it is... and Its my job to convince you that I am trying to provide value, not just post spammy messages and make a buck.

shane


ItalianJob,

How much of your review is influenced by the affiliate commissions you receive for the leads that you refer?

Vagabond

Vagabond
04-14-2008, 08:39 PM
It is an affiliate link.. its just cloaked to NOT look like one and thats exactly the problem.

www.optionsuniversity.com is the real site and registered by Options University LLC. The other is not.

I take issue with his postings for several reasons.

First, they're frequently under the guise of providing "real information." Just look at his very first post on this forum:

http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=282

Whether its passive income through options trading or a "review" site of dropshippers which is just clickbank offers he signed up for.

Second, most people who come to this forum are people who just read the book and are coming here with a hopeful attitude and I feel like he is attempting to take advantage of them.

I'm a very "buyer beware" type person but I feel like his tactics are really shady. And makes me really wonder if he makes all the money he claims he does since he still has to post affiliate links on this forum that doesnt have much traffic... he's probably just linkbuilding to raise his google rank.

If he was forthcoming and was like, look i love this program etc etc I happen to use them and have an affiliate link so if youre gonna buy it anyway use my link, I wouldnt care. Instead his post is an entire pre-sale (as its called in affiliate marketing) to get you interested to go to his site to sign up with your email address so he gets his $5 lead or whatever it is.

-Vagabond

webgal
04-15-2008, 01:04 AM
I dont think it should be a problem for someone to post their affiliate link...

The owner of the forum says NO WAY. There is no wiggle room whatsoever on that point. NONE. You risk getting banned.

nghs22
04-15-2008, 03:44 AM
i think shane makes a good point, but I could see how ppl would just come in and spam all over the place. Maybe if a flagging feature was added to prevent aff links to only those that provide true value to the forum.

TimW
04-20-2008, 04:52 AM
...to only those that provide true value to the forum.

Who determines "true value"?

Besides, it's a moot issue. The board's owner, who is not webgal, says "no".

nghs22
04-21-2008, 12:44 AM
Who determines "true value"?

Besides, it's a moot issue. The board's owner, who is not webgal, says "no".

I understand it's a moot point, but "true value" could be determined by users of the forum. If a user feels like the link is spam, they could flag it. After 4 flags, for example, it could be removed.