Diversion

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Ex-dividend Day and Deltas on MRK, UNH, and URS


I have three positions that will go ex-dividend tomorrow, on March 13:  MRK, UNH, and URS, and each has an April covered call written against it.  I thought I might take a quick look at the deltas on these positions to estimate whether any of them might be called early – a full month early in this case.

The details of the three positions are:
·         MRK, ex-dividend 3/13, April 44 call out of the money
·         UNH, ex-dividend 3/13, April 57.50 call out of the money
·         URS, ex-dividend 3/13, April 40 call in the money

I looked up the Deltas this morning and found that the MRK contract is 48%, the UNH 17%, and the URS is 100%. From this I conclude that the $130 I will collect from MRK and UNH is safe, but the URS dividends, totaling $84, may go to some new owner if the calls are exercised today. 

It still seems a long way out for an early call, but it is reasonable to think that the URS shares could be called away.  I’ll watch carefully and report in my next post.

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