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Non-Tech : QQQ - Nasdaq 100 Trust -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cosmo Daisey who wrote (324)	6/12/2000 5:51:00 PM
From: RoseCampion	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 840

Re: buy-write strategies on QQQ Cosmo, et al: Due to investment refocusing, and a desire to actually spend some of this summer out-of-doors rather than in front of a glowing quote screen, I'm considering committing a large portion of my IRA assets to QQQ buy-writes (ie, buy the stock and simultaneously sell an ATM or just OTM covered call). My broker (Fido) allows call/put purchases and covered call sales in a retirement account, but nothing more sophisticated or tricky than that. The intent would be to try to get called out in most months, with an _occasional_ Plan B being to buy back the short calls on market dips (and then write more at a lower strike after a few days of recovery). (1) are there other issues specific to buy-writes of QQQ I should know about and understand? (2) are there any unique dynamics to the QQQ options pricing or volatility? For example, I've heard (but never verified) that ATM premiums stay high much closer to expiration than you'd expect for those based a single equity. (3) Are there other "un-stocks" that this sort of strategy would work with? (One I can think of is the ML "HLDRS" baskets, some of which - like BBH, the biotech basket - do have options available.) I understand the market risks here (even if I just buy and hold both QQQ and the call), but the current size of QQQ near-month premiums certainly seems makes the risk/reward ratio of this kind of thing pretty attractive. Even more so when you consider how little "eyeball time" it seems it would take compared to a strategy involving individual equities (and the time to follow the news and pricing on each). cheers, -Rose-