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Monday, June 16th, 2025
Hi everyone,
If you weren’t entirely offline this weekend, you probably saw the headlines: Israel and Iran are exchanging strikes, and other nations seem to be quietly—or not so quietly—getting involved. I saw reports of countries offering military aid, shipping munitions, and posturing in all the familiar ways.
Given the scale of the news, I expected oil and gold to spike this morning. But when markets opened… not much. Pretty subdued, actually.
Watch the video above for a peek at my usual Monday routine: scanning for weekly options I can sell—cash-secured puts or covered calls—on positions I’m happy to own long-term.
🛠 What I’m Looking At
Here’s a quick walk-through of how I approached today’s trades.
I pulled up the gold chart and zoomed in to 10-minute candles. We came into the weekend around $3,450, and instead of a panic spike, we saw a pullback to around $3,410. Gold didn’t act like war was breaking out. Same with oil.
This divergence between geopolitics and market response can create interesting opportunities for options sellers. Especially if things take a turn. In any case, volatility increases premiums.
🧾 My Watchlist
I'm still bullish long-term on:
- Uranium (URA, URNM, URNJ)
- Gold and silver miners (GDX, SILJ)
- Chinese tech (especially Alibaba)
- Oil Volatility (USO, CL futures options)
I'm not making directional bets here. I'm looking to collect premium by selling puts 5% out-of-the-money or ATM, expiring 18th of July. Here's a sample of what I found using the app I created, available at https://premium.coverd.io/ if interested:
At The Money Cash Secured Puts Premiums. Head over to premium.coverd.io to create your own calculations.
5% out of the money cash-secured-puts
URNM is tempting, but the liquidity is thin and bid-ask spreads wide. I've traded URNJ recently too, but going forward I'll stick to URA and URNM unless liquidity improves.
Across the board, you are looking at more than 20% ROR in essence to queue up for a better entry position to a long term hold.
💭 A Note on China Risk
With Alibaba, I remain cautious. The US-China relationship is an ever-present shadow. But ironically, with global attention shifting to the Middle East, this might be a window where Chinese tech doesn’t get as much heat.
Famous last words, maybe—but I’d be okay holding BABA at these levels if I get assigned.
🧮 Wrapping Up
Today’s focus was income generation: collect premium while managing risk in a world that isn’t always rational. I’ve entered a few of these trades and will check back Friday with a short update on how they played out.
Thanks for reading—and if you’re trading this week, stay sane and keep your position sizing under control.
—Jason
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