Book Description
Covered Calls and Naked Puts Create Your Own Stock Options Money Tree Readers Are Amazed! They can earn good income on their stock portfolio. Even in a stagnant market. Put Financial Nightmares to Rest! Quit Leaving Piles of Money on the Table! Most common response: "Why the heck didn’t I know about this sooner!" • Provides a clear, easy to understand process for the average investor to make money in the stock market. • Illustrates points that are not currently known or understood by the general investing public. Once grasped the financial value is obvious and the reader is most appreciative. • Provides the tools for independent investing beginning with wise stock selection, building a prospect list, sorting stocks based on clear criteria. • Covered call strategy is appropriate (and allowed) for IRA accounts. • Gain peace of mind from your own financial competence. Brief Summary Jake Kimball sold his CPA Firm and retired to south Florida in his mid fifties. Funds are running low when he encounters his former Finance professor at a local Rotary Club meeting. The professor is doing unusually well financially. Step by step, with examples, the prof explains to Jake his stock market strategy of careful stock selection and earning a high rate of return by selling options. "You make money by selling, not by buying!"


From the Publisher
"Covered Calls and Naked Puts" by Ronald Groenke. Finally a book unlocking the power of both Calls and Puts in an interesting novel format. One of the main characters, Jake Kimball, is getting desperate. Having retired to Marco Island, Florida with wife, Katie, he watches current expenses eat into the value of his portfolio as the market remains stagnant. What to do? Coming to the rescue is a chance meeting with his college finance professor from 30 years back. Professor Rob Graham has also retired to Marco Island and is doing surprisingly well for a retired teacher. Jake is impressed with the professor’s expensive auto and beach front penthouse condo. He must learn the secret. As the two renew friendships, the professor reveals a few secrets each week. In the first lesson Jake learns the meaning of "covered calls". While owning stock is certainly not risk free and the options market in general is considered a big gamble, there is one type of options trade that is risk free. It is called a covered call and is even allowed in retirement accounts. To do a covered call you must own 100 shares of a stock on which calls can be bought and sold. For example consider 100 shares of Wal-Mart which has recently been trading for about $54.00. When you acquire the 100 shares you take the risk associated with owning stock. It can go down! The risk free transaction is to sell on the market the right for someone to buy your 100 shares for, say, $55.00 (the strike price) anytime up to some future date (the expiration date). The lower the strike price and the later the expiration date the higher the cash payment (premium) you receive. The volatility of the stock also affects the premium. The author explains how to decide which premium to select and provides software tools to easily evaluate and sort the data. The cash you receive for selling a covered call goes into your brokerage account immediately and is yours regardless of what happens next. What can happen? Actually only one of two events. Again with Wal-Mart, if the price on the expiration date is $55.00 or less the option expires and you can do it again. Sell another covered call on the 100 shares and pocket the money. The other possibility is that the price of Wal-Mart will be above $55.00 on the expiration date and your stock will be bought for $55.00, the strike price. Now you have the cash from the stock sale plus the premium for the call to reinvest in another stock and do another covered call. Covered calls are only the beginning. The professor next explains his "naked puts" strategy, with guidelines on selecting appropriate stocks on which to sell a put and the acceptable put premium, again with software facilitating the process. Like with calls, the put premium goes immediately into your brokerage account. And again one of two events will happen. Either the option will expire (and you can sell it again) or you will buy the stock at a discount (be put the stock at the strike price). If the later happens you are now positioned to sell a covered call on your new acquisition. Underlying both strategies is a basic primer on stock selection which is well worth the price of the book even if you don’t get into selling options. The software made available in the book features a search engine for updating stock and option data based on your criteria. As you might predict the novel ends on a happy note. Jake becomes his own financial advisor, takes charge of his portfolio and creates a steady stream of income from selling covered calls and naked puts. With this book, you can too.


From the Inside Flap
Ronald Groenke has written a gem of a book that is ideal for conservative investors looking for low-risk opportunities in the options market. By the time investors are finished absorbing the information contained in "Covered Calls and Naked Puts", they will feel comfortable embarking on the strategies discussed, with the goal of generating extra income in their accounts on a regular basis. As an investment professional with 30 years experience in the financial services industry, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Jerome Tuccille Best selling author, Financial Advisor I highly recommend "Covered Calls and Naked Puts" by Ronald Groenke. It is an excellent supplemental text for finance courses. The book does a fine job of illustrating how writing options can be used to enhance the returns on a common stock portfolio. The real world context in which the story unfolds is a critical advantage, allowing students to observe a derivatives strategy in a practical application. Professor J. Howard Finch, Ph.D. Eminent Scholar in Finance, Florida Gulf Coast University I read "Covered Calls and Naked Puts" last night. Congratulations! Have not enjoyed an academic book this much since reading "The Goal" by Goldratt, 15 years ago. I found myself into the story, wanting to get a pencil and paper, find a calculator, grab a Wall Street Journmal, and get to work making money. The story line is subtle and believable. The covered call explanation is clear and a logical development of the formulas. The examples blend into the construction of the total theory of making money via covered call technique. This could be a "How to..." book or an academic supplement to a hedging financial instruments course. Dr. Bob Cluskey, CPA Professor of Accounting, State University of West Georgia


About the Author
Ron Groenke moved from Minnesota to the sunny gulf coast community of Marco Island after twenty-five years in the communications systems and software development environment. He has been active in the stock options market for eighteen years and developed the concepts and techniques provided in the book. On Marco, he and wife, Jean, are active in their church and busy entertaining family and friends who visit from the north. Besides options investing/advising, other activities include personal computing, Rotary, walking, boating, and traveling.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Ronald Groenke has written a gem of a book that is ideal for conservative investors looking for low-risk opportunities in the options market.  For most investors, the options market is an arcane universe populated by puts and calls, spreads and straddles, and other unfathomable concepts.  The author has done an admirable job of de-coding the mysteries surrounding these investment products and rendering them comprehensible to average investors.  Most people who are unfamiliar with options regard them as highly speculative and specialized tools for sophisticated investors.  What is largely overlooked is that, for every free-wheeling investor who speculates on puts and calls, there is a conservative investor on the other side of the trade who uses options to generate extra income for his or her portfolio.  Covered Calls and Naked Puts addresses the conservative side of the options market.

This book offers one of the best expositions of low-risk options trading I've ever read.  I was particularly impressed by the stock-picking advice and discourse on how to find value in puts and calls.

Also valuable is the so-called ￯﾿ﾽCedric Chart￯﾿ﾽ on historical stock market highs and lows, which at first glance appears deterministic, but is primarily reflective of boom and bust cycles in the past and serves as a suggested roadmap for the future.

The author leads the reader by the hand through the basics of the most conservative options strategies, such as selling covered calls and selling puts on stocks one would like to own. By the time investors are finished absorbing the information contained in Covered Calls and Naked Puts, they will feel comfortable embarking on the strategies discussed, with the goal of generating extra income in their accounts on a regular basis.  As an investment professional with 30 years experience in the financial services industry, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

SYNOPSIS

Readers Are Amazed! They can earn good income on their stock portfolio ...even in a stagnant market. Put Financial Nightmares to Rest! Quit Leaving Piles of Money on the Table! Most common response: "Why the heck didn￯﾿ﾽt I know about this sooner!"

Key Points: Provides a clear, easy to understand process for the average investor to make money in the stock market. Illustrates points that are not currently known or understood by the general investing public. Once grasped the financial value is obvious. Provides the tools for independent investing beginning with wise stock selection, building a prospect list, sorting stocks based on clear criteria and then selling options, both calls and puts. Covered call strategy is appropriate (and allowed) for IRA accounts. Gain peace of mind from your own financial competence.