Covered Call Position Established in NVIDIA Corporation

A short-term (9 days) in-the-money Covered Call position was established this afternoon in NVIDIA Corporation (ticker NVDA).  My net buy/write limit order at $227.98 was executed when one hundred shares were purchased at $236.93 and one October 16th, 2026 Call option was simultaneously sold at the $230.00 strike price at $8.95 per share, which provides a $2.02 per share = [$8.95 Call option premium received - ($236.93 stock purchase price - $230.00 option strike price)] time value profit potential.  An in-the-money Covered Call position was established for this new position with the probability that NVIDIA's stock will close in-the-money on the 10/16/2026 options expiration date was 72.6% when this transaction was executed. 

As detailed below, a potential return-on-investment result is +0.9% absolute return-on-investment (equivalent to +35.8% annualized return-on-investment for the next 9 days) if NVIDIA's share price is in-the-money (i.e. above the $230.00 strike price) and therefore assigned on its October 16th, 2026 options expiration date.  

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) -- New Covered Call Position

Today's buy/write net limit order transaction was as follows:
10/7/2026 Bought 100 NVIDIA Corporation shares at $236.93.

10/7/2026 Sold 1 NVIDIA 10/16/2026 $230.00 Call option @ $8.95 per share.  The Implied Volatility of this Call option was 30.9 when this position was established.  

A possible overall performance result (including commissions) for this NVIDIA Corporation Covered Call position is as follows:
Covered Call Net Investment: $22,798.67
= ($236.93 - $8.95) * 100 shares + $.67 commission

Net Profit:
(a) Option Income: +$894.33
= ($8.95 * 100 shares) - $.67 commission
(b) Dividend Income: +$0.00
(c) Capital Appreciation (If 100 NVIDIA shares assigned at the $230.00 strike price at expiration): -$693.00
+($230.00 strike price - $236.93 stock purchase price) * 100 shares

Total Net Profit Potential (If 100 NVIDIA shares in-the-money and therefore assigned at the $230.00 strike price at the options expiration date): +$201.33
= (+$894.33 option income + $0.00 dividend income - $693.00 capital appreciation)

Potential Absolute Return-on-Investment: +0.9%
= +$201.33/$22,798.67
Potential Annualized Return-on-Investment: +35.8%
= (+$201.33/$22,798.67) * (365/9 days)

Early Assignment of Covered Calls Position in Gap Inc.

This morning my broker (Schwab) emailed me that six Gap Inc. (ticker GAP) October 9th, 2026 Call options were exercised early.  Gap's stock price increased from $21.23 when this position was established to $23.79 at yesterday's market close.  The original $.30 time value in the Call options when the position was established had declined to $0.06 at yesterday's market close. So, with 2 days remaining until the 10/9/2026 options expiration date, the owner of these Calls exercised their option to buy the 600 shares at the $20.50 strike price in order to receive today's $.175 per share ex-dividend.  

The post when this Gap Inc. Covered Calls position was originally established is here.  

As detailed below, the return-on-investment result for this Gap Inc. Covered Calls position was +1.5% absolute return in 13 days (equivalent to a +40.8% annualized return-on-investment).

Gap Inc. (GAP) -- Covered Calls Position Closed by Early Assignment
The buy/write transaction was:

9/24/2025 Bought 600 Gap Inc. shares @ $21.23
9/24/2025 Sold 6 Gap 10/9/2026 $20.50 Call options @ $1.03
Note: the Implied Volatility of the Call options was 35.4 when this buy/write transaction was executed.
10/7/2026 Early Assignment of these six Gap Call options, so the Calls expired and 600 Gap shares were sold at the $20.50 strike price.

The overall performance results (including commissions) for this Gap Covered Calls position are as follows:
Covered Calls Net Investment: $12,124.02

= ($21.23 - $1.03) * 600 shares + $4.02 commission

Net Profit Components:
(a) Options Income: +$613.98
= ($1.03 * 600 shares) - $4.02 commission

(b) Dividend Income (Six Call options exercised early on October 6th, the last business day prior to the Oct. 7th, 2026 ex-div date): +$0.00
(c) Capital Appreciation (Gap Call options assigned early): -$438.00
+($20.50 strike price - $21.23 stock purchase price) * 600 shares

Total Net Profit [Six Call options exercised early]: +$175.98

= (+$613.98 options income + $0.00 dividend income - $438.00 capital appreciation)

Absolute Return-on-Investment: +1.5%

= +$175.98/$12,124.02

Annualized Return-on-Investment: +40.8%

= (+$175.98/$12,124.02) * (365/13 days)

October 2nd, 2026 Options Expiration Results

The Covered Calls Advisor Portfolio had three Covered Calls positions with October 2nd, 2026 options expirations and all three positions (Alphabet Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, and NVIDIA Corporation) closed with their stock prices in-the-money.  So, their Calls expired with no remaining time value and the Covered Calls were closed out by the stocks being sold at their respective strike prices on their October 2nd options expiration date. The return-on-investment details (in alphabetical order) for each position is as follows:

1. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) -- +0.9% absolute return-on-investment (equivalent to +38.1% annualized return-on-investment) for the 9 days of this investment.  This Alphabet Covered Call position had a $330.00 strike price and it closed at $343.50 yesterday.  The original blog post showing the details of this position is here. 

2. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) -- +2.0% absolute return-on-investment (equivalent to +74.1% annualized return-on-investment) for the 10 days of this investment.  This Hewlett Packard Enterprise Covered Calls position had a $58.00 strike price and it closed at $69.33 yesterday.  The original blog post showing the details of this position is here. 

3. Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) -- +3.3% absolute return-on-investment (equivalent to +81.1% annualized return-on-investment) for the 15 days of this investment.  This NVIDIA Covered Call position had a $220.00 strike price and it closed at $233.95 yesterday.  The original blog post showing the details of this position is here.

I look forward to receiving your emails with your questions/comments at the email address shown below on any topics related to the Covered Calls investing strategy. 

Jeff Partlow
The Covered Calls Advisor
partlow@cox.net

Covered Call Position Established in Akamai Technologies Inc.

This morning at 10:53 am, my in-the-money Covered Call net-debit buy/write limit order was transacted in Akamai Technologies Inc. (ticker AKAM) for the October 16th, 2026 expiration and at the $105.00 strike price.  Since Akamai's announcement last week that a new $11.6 billion 7-year commitment from Anthropic to support its CPU workload that will use Akamai Cloud's infrastructure, several Wall Street firms have raised their price targets citing a significantly positive outlook for Akamai's future revenue and profit growth estimates.  The average target price of the 20 analysts following Akamai is now $159.71 (+45% above today's stock purchase price).

This morning's net-debit limit order was placed at a $101.54, so the extrinsic value (which represents the maximum profit potential for this position) was $3.46 per share [$8.57 Call option premium - ($110.11 stock purchase price - $105.00 strike price)].  The Implied Volatility of the Call option was high at 58.9% and the probability that this position will be in-the-money and therefore assigned on its October 16th options expiration date was 61.9% when this order was transacted.

Akamai is a $16 Billion market cap company headed by CEO and Co-Founder Tom Leighton who was a Professor of Applied Math at MIT in 1998 when the company was founded and he has been CEO now for 13 years.  Akamai's business model is increasingly a cybersecurity and cloud-infrastructure company, with its traditional content-delivery business now becoming a smaller part of the mix. In 2025, Security generated $2.24B, or 53% of revenue, Delivery $1.26B, or 30%, and Cloud Computing $708M, or 17%; security was also the fastest-growing major business at 10%, versus a 5% decline in Delivery and 12% growth in Cloud Computing.  The shift is continuing in 2026: in Q2, Security represented 55% of revenue and grew 10%, while Delivery/other cloud applications represented 36% and declined 6%, and Cloud Infrastructure Services represented 9% but grew 39%. 

As detailed below, the potential return-on-investment result is +3.4% absolute return-on-investment in 18 days (equivalent to a +69.0% annualized return-on-investment).  

Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) -- New Covered Call Position

The simultaneous buy/write transaction was as follows:
9/28/2026 Bought 100 shares of Akamai Technologies stock @ $110.11 per share.  
9/28/2026 Sold 1 Akamai October 16th, 2026 $105.00 Call option @ $8.57 per share.

A possible overall performance result (including commissions) would be as follows:
Covered Call Cost Basis: $10,154.67
= ($110.11 - $8.57) * 100 shares + $.67 commission

Net Profit Components:
(a) Option Income: +$856.33
= ($8.57 * 100 shares) - $.67
(b) Dividend Income: +$0.00 
(c) Capital Appreciation (If Akamai stock is above the $105.00 strike price at the 10/16/2026 options expiration date): -$511.00
= ($105.00 strike price - $110.11 stock purchase price) * 100 shares

Total Net Profit Potential: +$345.33
= (+$856.33 option income + $0.00 dividend income - $511.00 capital appreciation)

Potential Absolute Return-on-Investment: +3.4%
= +$345.33/$10,154.67
Potential Equivalent Annualized Return-on-Investment: +69.0%
= (+$345.33/$10,154.67) * (365/18 days)