Trying My Hand at Options Trading in December (Building Profits for 2026)

I will summarize the results of the options trades I initiated last month and the results of building positions for next month. This covers the results of the December expiration date and the plan for building positions for the January 2026 expiration.

My positions at the time of expiration were:

• Put selling on HAL (Halliburton)

• Put selling on T (AT&T)

• Call selling on HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise)

• Preparation for call selling on HRL (Hormel Foods)

I repeat this every other month. I hope this serves as a reference for those curious about what happens when you actually implement covered call or CSP (Cash-Secured Put) strategies.

What I am trying to do with options.
An article summarizing what I am doing and my way of thinking

Last month's trading record

This month's results (list)

As a wheel strategy, I repeat put selling or call selling every other month.
I built the positions within this week. I am assuming a period from around 12/22 to 1/16–1/23.
I will consider the indicators based on “Delta 0.25 × IV Rank 30% or higher (choosing a reasonably high option premium that has about a 25% chance of being exercised)” for my thinking.

I have summarized the reasons why I did this in a past article here.

The prices are based on 12/19 (the expiration date for the November trades) before the positions were built.

HAL (Put selling) → Paused for now

A change in plans is necessary here for HAL (Halliburton).

• Last month's result: Not exercised. CSP (Cash-Secured Put) continued.
  Against the strike price of $21, it is $27.72.

• This month's plan: Pause

• This month's premium: None

Over the past month, stock prices have continued to rise steadily, and with the strike price around $21, trading volume has become low and premiums have thinned out completely. I am debating whether I should raise the strike price. Therefore, I will not force anything and will pause trading on HAL until it returns to around $21.
The stock I traded instead is DOW.

DOW (Put Sell)

DOW is a materials and chemical company. It belongs to the materials sector. In other words, it is a cyclical stock that is easily influenced by the economy.

DOW announced a 50% dividend cut in July 2025, and its dividend payout ratio is quite high at 178.34%. It is a stock where there are some doubts about its ability to maintain dividends. Personally, since it does not seem suitable for long-term holding, I built this position as a stopgap while I am not selling puts on HAL.

• Last month's result: -

• This month's plan: Continue CSP (Cash-Secured Put)
  Strike price is $21

• This month's premium: $28.00 Actual amount received
  $25.71 (Result after deducting $2.29 in fees)

• Single expiration yield: approx. 1.22%

Looking at the delta, around $21 or $22 is the level I am looking for. $22 would have been fine, but this time, since it also serves as a stopgap for HAL, I did not intend to aim for an overly aggressive strike price. Therefore, I chose $21.

Since I traded right before Christmas, there was not much liquidity. When placing a limit order, the key in this situation was to specify a loose mid-price for the premium.

T (Call Sell)

Since I acquired T through a $27 put sell, I was aiming for exercise via a call sell at $27 or higher, which was the price at which it was exercised when I sold the put. From here, I am changing my strategy to aim for increased premium acquisition.

• Last month's result: Not exercised.
  Against a strike price of $28, it became $24.15

• This month's plan: Continue covered call
  Strike price is $25

• This month's premium: 20.00 dollars. Actual amount received
  17.80 dollars (result after deducting $2.20 in fees).

• Yield per expiration : approx. 0.66%

Since my acquisition price for T is $27, setting the strike price at $25 will result in a loss. However, I am prioritizing the acquisition premium and intentionally selling calls below my acquisition price. The strategy is to recover the capital loss through premiums by running the wheel strategy at a high speed.

This is a record of building the position. I am trading this on Webull Securities.

If the strike price is too high, the delta drops extremely low. Therefore, I chose $25 this time.

In terms of the covered call position, it would be ideal for T not to reach $25 next month and to remain stagnant at the current price around $24.

HPE (Sell Call → Sell Put)

My covered call on HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) ended easily. I think this clearly shows the characteristics of a stock in the high-volatility information sector.

• Last month's result: Exercised at $23. Furthermore, early assignment. Covered call ended. Returning to CSP. As a result, against the strike price of
  $23, it became $24.49.

• This month's plan: Resume CSP. Strike price
  $22.5

• This month's premium: $24
  Actual amount received 21.71 dollars (result after deducting $2.29 in fees).

• Yield per expiration : approx. 0.97%

This is a record of position building.

This time, since I just sold at $23, I decided to set a slightly lower price of $22.5.

For HPE, I expect continued exercise of CSP and covered calls as is.

HRL (Premium Reinvestment)

For HRL (Hormel Foods), I am steadily accumulating shares using the premiums I have earned.

• Number of shares added: 1 share (at purchase 1 share$24.34)

• Total number of shares: 3 shares

Since I cannot sell calls until I have 100 shares, this will be a long-term task. If having positions split between Webull Securities and moomoo Securities is hindering efficiency, I should consider consolidating them. Also, I want to actively allocate surplus dollars to HRL.

Summary of this month

The biggest change this time is the temporary switch of the target for CSP from an energy sector stock (HAL) to a materials sector stock (DOW).
This is because I could not find an option that met the Delta 0.25 criteria when trying to maintain a strike price around $21 for HAL, so I looked for an alternative candidate from the materials sector, which has similar cyclical attributes.

Both are cyclical sectors, but the roles required of the energy sector and the materials sector are different.
Generally, the energy sector is expected to rise during economic downturns, while the materials sector is expected to rise during booms.
I want to see how the impact of this sector change plays out in the future.

Also, this transaction will be added as profit for 2026.
This year, 2025, because I increased the number of stocks I traded midway through, the yield earned grew as the year progressed (I plan to summarize the annual results for 2025 separately). I will need to calculate the annual yield and use it as a basis for thinking about what level I should aim for.
Moving forward, I want to continue by thinking about how to set up trades based on the results obtained.

For those interested in option trading with moomoo Securities, I have provided a referral link.