Germany – As Far As East Is From West – Covered Calls

In recent articles, we have focused on Japan, “Land of the Rising Sun is Looking Up”, and on Mexico, “Cure for Montezuma’s Revenge – Covered Calls”, and today we will examine Germany.

Germany has the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Japan. After World War II, Germany was split into the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). In 1990, the two countries were reunited into one country.

But the marriage of the two countries, even though related by a common ancestry, has not been a bed of roses. After many years behind the iron curtain, East Germany’s economy was woefully behind the economy of West Germany. East and West Germany knew reunification would be difficult, and the people of West Germany knew they would have to pay a large price in order for their Eastern relatives to catch up economically.

After seventeen years of West Germany forking out billions of dollars to help East Germany, the East Germany economy is still significantly behind the economy of West Germany. The continuing disparity between East and West has resulted in a large number of East Germans migrating to West Germany in order to find employment and economic opportunities.

It is expected Eastern Germany will eventually catch up with Western Germany, but the final completion of German reunification is projected to take several more years. The East/West dilemma will continue to have a negative impact on the economy of Germany, but the overall outlook, even though muted, for Germany is positive.

Some German companies with optionable stocks are shown below.

Using PowerOptions stock options search tools, we discovered the following covered calls stock options positions for German companies.

For the table of covered calls positions, the first DCX position, the first DB position and the SAP position are all in-the-money with potential returns of 2.6%, 2.1% and 3.4%, in only 36 days. These positions have downside protections of 5.7%, 5.6% and 4.1%, respectively. In-the-money covered calls positions generally have more downside protection than out-of-the-money covered calls positions at the expense of smaller potential returns.

The remaining covered calls positions are out-of-the-money with % if unchanged potential returns ranging from 2.5% to 3.8% and % if assigned potential returns ranging from 3.6% to 7.1%.

The in-the-money/out-of-the-money tradeoff for covered calls stock options positions allows investors to tailor their investments according to their own personal risk/reward profile.

Competitors:
Competitors for BAY include: BASF AG (BF), Dow Chemical Co. (DOW), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Baxter Intl. Inc. (BAX), BioVeris Corp. (BIOV), du Pont (E.I.) de Nemours & Co. (DD), ICOS Corp. (ICOS), 3M Co. (MMM), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), and Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (SIAL).
Competitors for DCX include: Ford Motor Co. (F), General Motors Corporation (GM), Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (private), and PACCAR Inc. (PCAR).
Competitors for DB include: Citigroup Inc. (C), UBS AG (UBS), Dresdner Bank AG (private), ABN Amro Holding NV (ABN), and Credit Suisse Group (CS).
Competitors for IFX include: STMicroelectronics NV (STM), NXP b.v. (private), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (private), DSP Group (DSPG), IXYS Corp. (IXYS), Power Ints. Inc. (POWI), Silicon Labs (SLAB), Sirenza Microdevices Inc. (SMDI), and Triquint Semiconductor Inc. (TQNT).
Competitors for QI include: Micron Technology Inc. (MU), Hynix Semiconductor Inc. (private), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (private), Atmel Corp. (ATML), and Rambus Inc. (RMBS).
Competitors for SAP include: International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Oracle Corp. (ORCL), Agile Software Corp. (AGIL), Ariba Inc. (ARBA), Aspen Tech. Inc. (AZPN), CDC Corp. (CHINA), Concur Techs. Inc. (CNQR), Epicor Software Corp. (EPIC), Itron Inc. (ITRI), i2 Technologies Inc. (ITWO), JDA Software Group Inc. (JDAS), Kronos Inc. (KRON), Lawson Software Inc. (LWSN), Optimal Robotics Corp. (OPMR), and RightNow Techs. Inc. (RNOW).
For more information about how to identify and research great option trades, visit the PowerOptions website. There you will find the data you need to make quick, clear, and informed decisions. You can trade knowing you have found the best investment. Also, PowerOptions will allow you, with a few quick clicks, to quickly and accurately compare trades. PowerOptions‘ premium customer support is second to none in the industry. They can be easily contacted when you need them at their toll-free number to answer customer questions. Call them now toll free at 877-992-7971.

PowerOptions provides a free 14-day trial of its service. So join PowerOptions today, and you too can start reaping the benefits of the covered call investment strategy.

PowerOptions‘ sister company PowerOptionsApplied provides expert stock option trading recommendations. PowerOptionsApplied specializes in covered calls, naked puts and iron condor stock options strategy recommendations. PowerOptionsApplied provides a 30-day risk free trial of its service.

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