1. This week’s ETF Report has been uploaded to your member site. Login to the member site and scroll down on the left side to access the report.

ETF Report Video Link:

Explanation of the report format:

https://youtu.be/addf7Y54ixwput

2. I’ve attached to premium member emails a 4-day, defensive cash-secured put trade with FTNT, an elite-performing stock at the time of the trade. I executed these trades on 8/4/2026, for the 8/7/2026 expiration. This is another example of the protection offered by OTM put strikes, while still offering meaningful returns. FTNT closed at $164.13 today, down $2.26 from trade entry. The current price is above the breakeven price by $9.65 and $9.13 above the put strike. With 2 days remaining until expiration, I’m in a favorable position with these 2 contracts, despite the share price decline. As always, I am prepared to initiate exit strategy maneuvers, if those opportunities are presented.

3. Our loyalty pledge to you: Premium members will NEVER experience a rate hike as long as premium member subscriptions remains active … NEVER.

4. Quasar Markets Interview Video:

https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1qxvvvjBAaBxB

5. Link to an article I wrote for the August edition of the Journal of The American Association of Individual Investors:

https://www.aaii.com/journal/article/521259-covered-call-writing-as-a-supplemental-income-strategy?acc=o

Wishing you the best results,

Alan & the BCI team

Stephen,

Your question is both astute and important.

Factoring in the most impactful metrics, rather than trying to evaluate all of them, which may lead to analysis paralysis, is definitely the way to go.

Now, theta is critical in establishing when to set up our trades, when and which exit strategies are most appropriate and establishing our 20%/10% guidelines (in my exit strategy books and videos).

I’m happy to provide you with these free resources and you can get back to me with any questions:

https://www.thebluecollarinvestor.com/delta-and-theta-and-their-impact-on-our-covered-call-and-put-selling-positions/

https://www.thebluecollarinvestor.com/how-to-maximize-covered-call-writing-returns-by-understanding-time-value-and-theta/

https://www.thebluecollarinvestor.com/bci-podcast-138-applying-the-20-10-guidelines-with-a-broad-range-of-implied-volatility-securities/
https://www.thebluecollarinvestor.com/application-of-the-20-10-guidelines-for-itm-otm-strikes-registration-form-for-thursdays-webinar/

Alan

I’m not a subscriber (yet) but I appreciate your teachings. They help a lot.

I just read this recent teaching and I have a question. Let me apologize in advance for such bad examples I’ll but it’s the best I can come up with. If I compared the “greeks” to spices, I’m still at using only salt and pepper. There are probably thousands of spices around the globe. Chefs put them in all kinds of dishes and they come out great. I can’t cook with any of those exotic or even plain everyday spices, just salt and pepper.

I can’t “cook” with all the greeks. I use DELTA a lot but of course, like a chef, you learn when to add it and when not to so that’s still a work in progress (add more with this stock and less with that one). How do I cook the Theta? I know what it’s supposed to tell you but is there a step by step example, like your DELTA example today, on how to estimate, “today Theta will drop the premium this much, and the next day it’ll will drop the premium this much” and so on.

My apologies again for odd examples but hopefully my question wasn’t lost.

Thanks again for all your great teachings and keep up the good work.

Stephen

This week’s Weekly Stock Screen and Watch List has been uploaded to The Blue Collar Investor Premium Member site and is available for download in the “Reports” section. Look for the report dated 07/31/26.

Be sure to check out the latest BCI Training Videos and “Ask Alan” segments. You can view them on The Blue Collar YouTube Channel. For your convenience, the link to the BCI YouTube Channel is:

https://www.youtube.com/user/BlueCollarInvestor

Barry and The Blue Collar Investor Team

1. This week’s ETF Report has been uploaded to your member site. Login to the member site and scroll down on the left side to access the report.

ETF Report Video Link:

Explanation of the report format:

https://youtu.be/addf7Y54ixwput

2. I’ve attached to premium member emails a 5-day, defensive cash-secured put trade with XOP, an elite-performing ETF at the time of the trade. I executed these trades on 7/27/2026, for the 7/31/2026 expirations. This is another example of the protection offered by OTM put strikes, while still offering meaningful returns. XOP closed at $172.04 today, up $2.13 from trade entry. The current price is above the breakeven price by $8.79 and $8.04 above the put strike. With 2 days remaining until expiration, I’m in a favorable position with these 2 contracts. As always, I am prepared to initiate exit strategy maneuvers, if those opportunities are presented.

3. Our loyalty pledge to you: Premium members will NEVER experience a rate hike as long as premium member subscriptions remains active … NEVER.

4. Sample Alan Winning Trade Video:

https://youtu.be/ATYZd0JMDBQ

Wishing you the best results,

Alan & the BCI team

Charles,

I appreciate your generous feedback.

Let’s review:

• You own securities that are currently trading at lower prices than your cost-basis
• You are selling 25-delta strikes to generate 10% annualized returns
• These OTM strikes are still below the cost-basis
• You want to avoid exercise and sale of your shares to avoid realizing share losses
• Do our 20%/10% guidelines apply in this situation?

If I have all that right, here are points to consider:

• Evaluate the reasons for retaining these under-performing securities. If your analysis is such that you anticipate share price recovery in the near future, this approach makes sense. If it is fear of realizing a loss, you may want to re-evaluate where to place the cash remaining in these stocks/ETFs. It’s not the securities we care about; it’s the cash we have invested in them that’s critical.
• It is extremely important to avoid earnings report dates and ex-dividend dates.
• The 20%/10% guidelines for covered calls apply to protecting against share price decline; the concern here is for extreme share price acceleration. There is nothing wrong with placing the BTC/GTC orders because it may result in rolling-down opportunities, while still retaining the shares.
• Avoiding exercise is relatively easy by buying back the short call near expiration if share price is near or above the strike sold. Again avoid earnings and ex-dividend dates.

Alan

Love your system and its analytical yet understandable approach. There is nothing like it out there. Most are so complicated and complex that the average person (the blue collar investor) gets lost in the details early on.

I am in the portfolio overwrite scenario. I have gold-related stocks that I want to keep in the portfolio (my favorites are GLD; RGLD; and WPM). Because of the run-up in the share price of these stocks earlier this year, I currently have a basis that is well above the CP. So I sell conservative OTM C/Cs (Delta around .25) well below my basis that get me ~10% annualized returns (vs. the 20%-30% when my basis is closer to CP). My question is whether you have discussed (books or “Ask Alan”) the strategy for placing BTC orders to buy back the options like this to protect against the large losses if the stock closes in on the SP and if exercised results in large losses for me. Although the #244 “Ask Alan” covers a different situation (ITM Calls), is the concept (20%/10%) the same or similar?

Thanks Alan,

Charles