Once you've identified certain stocks that you're interested in, you can learn more about a specific covered trade by going to these 3 places:

2. Covered Call Tables - We've selected a few stocks from each sector to profile on this table, which gives you current prices, price changes, and call bid premiums for these stocks, plus the dividend amounts per share you'd collect in each specific trade. In addition, we give you the annualized yields for these dividends, call yields, and potential assigned yields. (Please see the glossary for definitions of these and other important terms).
Generally, investors use the covered call strategy to increase their yields and downside protection on stocks. This strategy is neutral-to-bullish. For an additional discussion of this strategy, click here to watch our 5-minute video, which takes you through 2 actual trades, step-by-step.

3. Covered Put Tables - We've also selected a few stocks from each sector to profile on this table, which gives you a second strategy for profiting from these stocks. This table also lists annualized yields for these dividends and put yields.
HOWEVER, we only list the dividends here so that you can compare them to the put yields.
PLEASE NOTE: Unlike Call sellers, Put sellers do not receive dividends.

All-or-none order (AON): A type of option order which requires that the order be executed completely or not at all. An AON order may be either a day order or a GTC (good till cancel) order.

Annualized Yield: A yield figure commonly used for comparing investments of differing time periods. Annualized yield is calculated dividing 365 by the amount of days in an investment's time period, and then multiplying the resulting number by the nominal yield.

Ask / ask price: The price at which a seller is offering to sell an option or a stock. See also Assignment

Assigned (an exercise): Received notification of an assignment by The Options Clearing Corporation. When selling covered calls, if the underlying stock's share price has risen beyond the value of the strike price plus the call premium received by the seller, his shares will be sold, (assigned), by his broker at the sold call's strike price, usually at or near the expiration date.

Assignment: Notification by The Options Clearing Corporation to a clearing member that an owner of an option has exercised his or her rights there under. For equity and index options, assignments are made on a random basis by The Options Clearing Corporation. See also Delivery and Exercise

Assigned Yield: Assigned Yields occur when, on or near the expiration date, the underlying shares do rise to or above the price represented by the call strike price plus the call premium. The assigned profit yield is calculated by subtracting the Stock's Price from the Strike Price., and then dividing by the Stock's price. Example: If you sold a $25 covered call for $2 against shares that you owned at $24.00, AND the underlying share price rose to or past $27.00 to trigger an assignment/sale of your underlying shares, you'd achieve an assigned profit of $1.00, (the $25 strike price less the $24 Stock Price). To determine your assigned yield, divide this $1.00 profit by the $24.00 Stock Cost, which gives you a 4.2% Assigned Yield. You'd then add this figure to your dividend and call yield %'s to calculate your TotaI Static Yield (See also Total Assigned Yield and Total Static Yield).

At-The-Money: A term that describes an option with a strike price that is equal to the current market price of the underlying stock.

Bid / Bid Price: The price at which a buyer is willing to buy an option or a stock.

Break-even point(s): The stock price(s) at which an option strategy results in neither a profit nor a loss. While a strategy's break-even point(s) are normally stated as of the option's expiration date, a theoretical option pricing model can be used to determine the strategy's break-even point(s) for other dates as well.

Buy-write: A covered call position in which stock is purchased and an equivalent number of calls written at the same time. This position may be transacted as a combined order, with both sides (buying stock and writing calls) being executed simultaneously. Example: buying 500 shares XYZ stock, and writing 5 XYZ May 60 calls.

Buy to Close (BTC): The action of closing out a short option position, such as a covered call.

Call option: An option contract that gives the owner the right to buy the underlying security at a specified price (its strike price) for a certain, fixed period of time (until its expiration). For the writer of a call option, the contract represents an obligation to sell the underlying stock if the option is assigned. Each Call option contract normally corresponds to 100 shares of the underlying stock.

Call Bid Premium: The current price that call buyers are offering for a given call option. The premium bid price times 100 is the amount of money that a call seller will receive for each contract sold. (Also see Bid/Bid Price).

Cash Reserve: The amount of cash that a broker will require for selling cash reserved puts. This amount varies from broker to broker.

Close: A reduction or an elimination of an open position by the appropriate offsetting purchase or sale. An existing long option position is closed by a selling transaction. An existing short option position is closed by a purchase transaction. This transaction will reduce the open interest for the specific option involved.

Closing Price: The final selling price of a stock or option in a trading day. (See also Market Close).

Closing transaction: A reduction or an elimination of an open position by the appropriate offsetting purchase or sale. An existing long option position is closed by a selling transaction. An existing short option position is closed by a purchase transaction. This transaction will reduce the open interest for the specific option involved.

Cover: To close out an open position. This term is used most frequently to describe the purchase of an option or stock to close out an existing short position for either a profit or loss.

Covered call / covered call writing: An option strategy in which a call option is written against an equivalent amount of long stock. Example: writing 2 XYZ May 60 calls while owning 200 shares or more of XYZ stock.

Covered put / Covered cash-secured put: Cash secured put is an option strategy in which a put option is written against a sufficient amount of cash (or T-bills to pay for the stock purchase if the short option is assigned).

Day order: A type of option order which instructs the broker to cancel any unfilled portion of the order at the close of trading on the day the order is first entered.

Delta: Measures the change in an option's price resulting from a price change in the underlying stock. Puts have a negative range, (-100 to 0), and calls have a positive range, (0 to 100).

Dividend Yield: Calculated by dividing the amount of annual dividend payments/share by the cost/share.

Dividend Payout Ratio: The % amount of earnings paid out in dividends.

Exercise/Strike price: The price at which the owner of an option can purchase (call) or sell (put) the underlying stock. Used interchangeably with striking price, strike, or exercise price.

Expiration Cycle: The expiration months in a stock's options contract. Normally, the current month, the following month, plus, the first, second, or third month of each quarter, and the following January. Heavily traded options often have additional LEAPS, or contracts 2 years out. (See Leaps also).

52-Week High/Low: The highest or lowest closing price a stock has achieved within the past 52 weeks. Often looked at to help determine if a stock's price is currently attractive or not.

Good-till-cancelled order: An open-ended order which allows a broker to roll over/re-enter the order until it is filled. These orders are not recommended for options trading, and also should only be used with great care when dealing with stock trades.

Greeks: The greek letters, Delta, Gamma, Vega, and Rho, to measure various factors that impact an option's value and pricing. (See also Delta).

Historic volatility: A measure of actual stock price changes over a specific period of time.

Implied volatility: The volatility percentage that produces the 'best fit' for all underlying option prices on that underlying stock. The market's expected volatility for a stock or index.

In-The-Money: An adjective used to describe an option with intrinsic value. A call option is in the money if the stock price is above the strike price. A put option is in the money if the stock price is below the strike price.

LEAPS/Long-dated options: In English, this means calls and puts with an expiration as long as thirty-nine months. Some equities have two LEAPS series at any time with a January expiration - Jan. 2010 and Jan. 2011.

Market Close: Usually 4pm Eastern Time in the US for options and stocks. After-hours trading occurs after the Market Close, and can be more volatile, as it often involves less volume, or more speculation.

MLP/LP: Mastered Limited Partnership/Limited Partnership. Companies which are allowed to forego paying US income taxes, but are obligated to pay at least 90-95% of their income out to shareholders, (known as unit-holders). These payments aren't normally treated as qualified dividends, and thus, are taxed at the unit-holder's personal tax rate. This can be mitigated somewhat by MLP's declaring some payouts as "Return of Capital". Investors should consult their accountant for further tax details. (See also REITS).

Nominal Yield: The yield of an investment, calculated by dividing the investment's return by its cost. To compare investments of differing time period lengths, use Annualized Yield.

Option: A contract that gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a particular asset (the underlying stock) at a fixed price (the strike price) for a specific period of time (until expiration) . The contract also obligates the writer to meet the terms of delivery if the contract right is exercised by the owner. (See also Strike Price).

Option period: The time from when an option contract is created by a writer of that option to the expiration date; sometimes referred to as an option's 'lifetime.'

Out-of-the-money: An adjective used to describe an option that has no intrinsic value, i.e., all of its value consists of time value. A call option is out of the money if the stock price is below its strike price. A put option is out of the money if the stock price is above its strike price.

Price-to-Book (P/B):  A valuation that compares a company's current stock price to its book value per share.  Book value equals total assets less intangible assets and liabilities.

Price-to-Earnings (P/E):  Measures a company's current stock price vs. its current earnings/share.

Price-to-Earnings Growth (PEG): Measures a company's current stock price/earnings ratio against its earnings growth per share over a given period, normally one year.

Price-to-Free Cash Flow (P/FCF): Compares a company's market price to its level of annual free cash flow. Similar to price-to-cash flow, but uses free cash flow, a metric which reduces operating cash flow by capital expenditures. Useful for determining if companies are over or undervalued, in terms of their current levels of free cash flow., particularly when compared to their peers and their past price/free cash flow history.

P/L: Profit/Loss. Used on brokerage statements to represent the current unrealized or realized profit or loss on a specific position.
Premium: Total price of an option: intrinsic value plus time value.

Put Bid Premium: The current price that put buyers are offering for a given put option. The premium bid price times 100 is the amount of money that a put seller will receive for each contract sold. (Also see Bid/Bid Price).

Put option: An option contract that gives the owner the right to sell the underlying stock at a specified price (its strike price) for a certain, fixed period of time (until its expiration). For the writer of a put option, the contract represents an obligation to buy the underlying stock from the option owner if the option is assigned. Each Put option contract normally corresponds to 100 shares of the underlying stock.

Put Yield: Calculated by dividing the Put Bid Premium received by the Put Strike Price.

REIT's: Real Estate Investment Trusts. A fund that holds real estate or mortgages. REITs issue shares that trade on stock exchanges like shares of common stock. There are three types of REITs: mortgage REITs investing primarily in real estate debt such as mortgages; equity REITs that primarily own real estate; and hybrid REITs. REIT's pay quarterly or monthly dividends, based upon the cash flow from their properties. Like MLP's, REIT's are required by law to pass much of their earnings to investors, and therefore bypass corporate taxation. REIT dividend payments also don't qualify for the 15% qualified dividend tax rate, and are taxed at the investor's personal rate.