I have not played AA for it seems like eons. This is because my go-to, premium selling play for earnings is the short strangle, and you won't get sufficient premium out of a low priced underlying like AA via short strangle for the life of you. The other option, naturally, is a short straddle, but even then it's a slog to squeeze sufficient premium out of the setup to make it worthwhile.
However, given where AA is at in its trajectory (another beaten down commodity/basic materials play), it's literally begging for a covered call at some point. But those are best put on when volatility in the underlying is high, since volatility enrichens premium in the short call of the setup and reduces your cost basis to a greater degree. Consequently, what I'm watching for is a volatility pop around earnings such that doing a covered call with a short strike slightly above current price is worthwhile (a dip like we had last post-earnings would also be helpful).
It's frankly not horrible right now, but I generally look to put these on when implied volatility rank is above 70 and the setup will yield 10% return on capital if called away at the short call price of the setup. A 100 @ 9.87/Feb 19th 10 short call will cost 9.13 to put on with a max profit of .87. Could be better, naturally.
However, given where AA is at in its trajectory (another beaten down commodity/basic materials play), it's literally begging for a covered call at some point. But those are best put on when volatility in the underlying is high, since volatility enrichens premium in the short call of the setup and reduces your cost basis to a greater degree. Consequently, what I'm watching for is a volatility pop around earnings such that doing a covered call with a short strike slightly above current price is worthwhile (a dip like we had last post-earnings would also be helpful).
It's frankly not horrible right now, but I generally look to put these on when implied volatility rank is above 70 and the setup will yield 10% return on capital if called away at the short call price of the setup. A 100 @ 9.87/Feb 19th 10 short call will cost 9.13 to put on with a max profit of .87. Could be better, naturally.