Rolling Out-And-Up: Explaining The “Bought-Up” Value Of Our Stocks

 | May 27, 2018 12:57AM ET

One of our covered call writing exit strategies is rolling out-and-up. This involves buying back (buy-to-close) the current in-the-money option and selling the later-date higher Ellman Calculator .

Hypothetical example with made-up stock “More Money Corp. (MMC)”

Current contract month

  • Buy MMC for $28.00
  • Sell the $30.00 call for $1.00
  • Near expiration, MMC is trading at $32.00
  • The cost-to-close the $30.00 call is $2.10 ($2.00 is intrinsic value and $0.10 is time value)
  • The next-month $35.00 call generates $1.50

The “What Now” tab of the Ellman Calculator

The blue cells of the calculator spreadsheet (left side) are filled in: