IDCC straddle

IDCC's earnings are coming out May 7. I think that a straddle is a good idea for two reasons:
1) There is a good chance that the stock will actually move more than 15% in either direction after they report earnings.
2) The VIX dropped below 20 - I think that we will see a rebound. This is just a hunch - it seems low when compared to the last 6 months.
The details:
May '08, Strike 22.5 call @ 0.35
May '08, Strike 17.5 put @ 0.40

New, exciting activity

I sold IDCC because LNG dropped 35% on no news and I felt like I would be missing a great opportunity if I did not buy more shares. The nitty gritty:
Sold IDCC @ 19.50. I have had a good return on IDCC: 0.5 from price appreciation and 0.75 from selling calls for a return of 6.6% since Feb 14.
BUY LNG @ 7.1466, sell May '08 call (strike - 7.5) @ 1.45. If the stock goes above 7.5, I will be getting a return of 31%.

LNG CC

I have been following this company after an analyst recently downgraded it, and I decided to sell a covered call after the IV went above 150. I bought in at 10.80 and sold a call for 2.20 (May '08, strike - 10). If the stock stays above 10 (which is below the 52wk low), I will make a 16.2% return on a cash on cash basis - slightly less than 200% annualized. Awesome.

A note on earnings

ETFC and SLM both announced that they will be reporting earnings next week - I think there is significant upside potential, so I have bought back my options on both of them for 0.05 per contract. I definitely do not want my upside capped during such a market-moving event.

ARQL CC

1 minute before the market closed, another one of my orders got filled - I sold an April '08 ARQL covered call (strike - 5) for 0.15. It was funny because I had just raised my price from 0.1 to 0.15 and it got filled very soon after. I'm not sure what to do with ARQL. Including this covered call, I've had a return of 16% since 2/21. But I have no long term interest.

More option sales

ETFC had another nice jump today so I sold an April '08 covered call (strike - 5) for 0.10. On a cash on cash basis, I'm making 2.5% with IDCC (37% annualized) and 2.2% with ETFC (47% annualized). The cash on cash numbers may look small but on an annualized basis, they're HUGE. If you like money, sell calls.

Happy April Fools!

I tried to sell calls against all of my holdings today, but unfortunately the bids are too low for me to justify selling April calls on a lot of them. I'm unwilling to sell May calls right now, because many of my holdings have earnings coming up, and I'd rather be naked through earnings to maximize my portfolio volatility.

I did sell an April '08 covered call on IDCC (strike - 22.5) for 0.50.