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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: robm   😊 😞
Number: of 21944 
Subject: Re: Getting complicated
Date: 08/13/25 7:35 PM
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First step is gathering up all the correct numbers.

Agreed! But I think your numbers would be more correct as follows...

Buy stock, sell call:
Buy share at 470 -470
Sell 500 call at 25 25
Deliver stock in June '26 500
NET GAIN 55
PERCENT GAIN = 55 / 445 = 12.36%

Sell cash covered put:
Sell 500 put at 39 39
Retain 500 secured cash
Interest on 500 @ 4.2% (10/12) 17.50
Put expires worthless in June '26
NET GAIN 56.50
PERCENT GAIN = 56.50 / 461 = 12.26%

The adjustments I made are:

1. There's no interest penalty on the buy-write. It's not costing you any interest, you just aren't making interest. So interest is a zero, not -15.58. That raises the gain and ROI % accordingly.

2. On the put write, you need to put up $461 of your own money, plus the $39 premium, to secure the put. So you're earning interest on that $500 commitment, not $539. This reduces the interest to $17.50 and the net gain to $56.50.

You're left with a .1% difference between the two trade ideas... basically in the noise of a bid/ask spread.

Rob
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This community has written 21,448 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
BRK: Why Not XOM? · 62 recs · 2024
Second quarter comments · 60 recs · 2023
Berkshire's Profit Contributors · 57 recs · 2023
Summary of 2Q 2026 · 54 recs · 2026
3Q Summary · 53 recs · 2024
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