I am looking at the possible ways to generate some income (effectively not loosing my shares).
Would appreciate pointers on this.
First, I'm definitely a small-fry retail trader with zero formal financial training--I'm happy to opine on what I've learned; I encourage you seek out more than just a data point of me.
There's quite a bit of good stuff in this and other threads here (and elsewhere) so I'll try not to repeat too much, but, IMHO, when it comes to selling options, and especially cash/margin puts:
-Don't fall into the 'its easy money' trap and assume you don't need to apply the same diligence to strike price and profit targets that you would when buying contracts/shares.
-IMHO (I know there are differing opinions), never sell a put with the intent of being executed. One crappy pullback can ruin months (or more) of incremental profit, and if you want to buy shares at a price, just wait till that price and buy shares.
-Sold contracts make
terrible directional trades. If you think the price is going to move in a direction, buy.
-Volatility: Buy low, sell high. That applies much more on monthly timeframes than weekly, but generally if volatility is low, do not sell.
-Use common multi-leg strategies and shares to manage things like volatility and margin (hard to do in a retirement account)
-The big rub about selling contracts "for income" is that without a VERY well honed strategy and a fair bit of risk, other methods of profit generation ways to make the same amount of profit with basically as much effort.
The good news is, if you're really just selling covered calls against shares you would own anyway (and don't intend on releasing), its a little more forgiving to be a little more lax with how attentive you are and much more forgiving to be more agressive with your approach, because its basically impossible to royally screw up. The worst that can happen is you go DITM, and that's really not a big deal if you're really in it for the long haul.