Cashing in my options

[maxtower]

The problems as I see them are with the market, not the individual companies. AMD stumbling is good for intel, but the further commoditization of the market places long term limits on growth.

[pig4bill]

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I would be really surprised if Intel stock matched market returns over the next 5-10 years.

How would I go about selling call options with the same strike prices and maturities as the ones I hold? Can this be done from a normal Scottrade brokerage account? Would this be smart if I believe that I'll be laid off in the future before the expiration dates?

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I don't know if Scottrade allows the selling/shorting of naked calls, you'll have to ask them. BTW, this strategy will not help you if you get laid off. The premise is that if the stock suddenly takes off, your brokerage account with the short calls takes a big hit. But your employee options go up by the same amount, covering your brokerage loss. If you get laid off, you lose your unvested options, and thus your protection against a rise in the stock.

[stinkypete]

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If you get laid off, you lose your unvested options, and thus your protection against a rise in the stock.

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yeah i didn't consider that. and obviously if you get laid off, that's when you least want to be stuck a lot in a hedge gone bad. you can still go ahead and hedge the vested options though.

[NajdorfDefense]

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FWIW, as I don't have any practical experience with employee options programs, but I'd sell it all ASAP if you are bearish on the company. In general, diversification argues against working for a company and holding stocks/options in that company since the two are going to be so strongly correlated. Combine that with your bearishness, and you really want to distance yourself from Intel the stock as much as possible.

But that's ignoring possible tax consequences which you wouldn't want to do obv.

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