EDUCATION: SYNTHETIC DIVIDEND GENERATION VIA SHORT PUTI think everyone can generally agree that idle cash sitting in your account doesn't earn you much. Here are a couple of methodologies to deploy that capital to emulate dividend generation without being in the stock itself.
For purposes of this exercise, I've chosen HYG, which is not only options liquid, but also has a decent dividend relative to the broader market. Currently, it's 4.92% annually, and its last monthly dividend was .359/share compared to SPY's annual yield of 1.59% and TLT's 1.57%.
In the past, I've used several different methodologies to generate a yield approaching what the underlying is paying annually, depending on how much capital I wanted to or needed to tie up while waiting for opportunities.
(a) The Once a Month/30 Days 'Til Expiry Option: When the next monthly is 30 days until expiry, sell the option paying greater than or equal to the current monthly dividend. Run it until expiry and allow the option to expire worthless and/or take on shares if in-the-money, and sell call against at the same strike as you sold the put. Manage thereafter as you would any ordinary covered call. This is potentially the least buying power intensive setup if you're just selling one contract per month and will necessarily be of short duration.
(b) The Each and Every Weekly 30 Days 'Til Expiry Option: Each week, in the expiry nearest 30 days until expiry, sell the option paying greater than or equal to the current monthly dividend, again allowing each successive weekly option to expire worthless and/or take on shares if in-the-money, selling call against at the same strike as you sold the put, managing it thereafter as a covered call. Naturally, if you want to do something like this each and every week, doing, for example, one contract per week, you'd be tying up greater buying power and/or notional risk to do so. The upside: your longest duration is going to be 30 days.
(c). The Laddering Out in Successive Monthlies Option: Instead of doing just the next monthly at 30 days until expiry, ladder out 30, 60, and 90 days until expiry, selling the put in each successive monthly expiry for an amount greater than or equal to the current monthly dividend. For example, sell the December 18th 83 for .38; the January 15th 80 for .42; and the February 19th 76 for .38. When the front month expires worthless, consider selling a new back month, again for a credit that is equal to or exceeds the monthly dividend. The downside to this methodology is that it is not only buying power intensive, it ties up buying power for greater duration.
