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Covered Call Strategies: One Fact and Eight Myths Roni Israelov and Lars N

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Covered Call Strategies: One Fact and Eight Myths Roni Israelov and Lars N Financial Analysts Journal Volume 70 · Number 6 ©2014 CFA Institute PERSPECTIVES Covered Call Strategies: One Fact and Eight Myths Roni Israelov and Lars N. Nielsen A covered call is a long position in a security and a short position in a call option on that security. Equity index covered calls are an attractive strategy to many investors because they have realized returns not much lower than those of the equity market but with much lower volatility. However, a number of myths about the strategy—from why it works to why an investor should or should not invest—have surfaced, and many of them are erroneously considered “common knowledge.” The authors review the underlying risk and returns of covered call strategies and dispel eight common myths about them. covered call is a combination of a long posi- For obvious reasons, strategies that may offer tion in a security and a short position in a call equity-like expected returns but with lower volatility A option on the same security. The combined and market exposure (beta) generate strong investor position caps the investor’s upside on the underlying interest. As a case in point, covered call strategies security at the option’s strike price in exchange for have been gaining popularity: Growth in assets under an option premium. Figure 1 shows the covered call management in covered call strategies has been over payoff diagram, including the option premium, at 25% per year over the past 10 years (through June expiration when the call option is written at a $100 2014), with over $45 billion currently invested.2 strike with a $25 option premium. Recently, a strategy with similar performance The covered call strategy has generated atten- objectives has piqued the interest of investors: low- tion because of its attractive historical risk-adjusted volatility investing. However, the sources of returns returns. For example, the CBOE S&P 500 BuyWrite for low-volatility investing, unlike those of covered Index (BXM)—the industry-standard covered call call strategies, have not been subject to so many con- benchmark—is commonly described as providing fusing and distracting myths. average returns comparable to those of the S&P 500 Low-volatility investing is based on the low-risk Index with approximately two-thirds the volatility, anomaly, which runs contrary to textbook finance supported by statistics like those in Table 1.1 theory: Low-risk stocks, as defined by their volatility, Although the BXM has historically demonstrated idiosyncratic volatility, or beta, do not have lower total returns similar to those of the S&P 500, it has average returns than their high-risk counterparts.3 done so with a lower beta than that of the S&P 500. This characteristic may be used to construct a port- However, it is important to understand that the BXM folio with average returns comparable to those of an is more exposed to negative S&P 500 returns than to underlying equity index but with lower volatility. positive S&P 500 returns. This asymmetric relation- The resulting portfolio provides investors with two ship with the S&P 500 is consistent with the BXM’s sources of return: the equity risk premium and the payoff characteristics and results from the fact that low-volatility anomaly.4 a covered call strategy sells optionality. What this Although the low-volatility anomaly portfolio means in simple terms is that although drawdowns is generally understood to allocate to two sources of are somewhat mitigated by the revenue associated return—the equity risk premium and low-volatility with call writing, the upside is capped by those same excess returns—the covered call strategy is rarely call options, as shown in Figure 1. described according to its two sources of return: the equity risk premium and the volatility risk premium.5 Rather than transparently identify the covered call’s Roni Israelov is vice president and Lars N. Nielsen is compensated risk exposures, it is more common to principal at AQR Capital Management, LLC, Greenwich, improperly describe the strategy as a method of pro- Connecticut. ducing income or obtaining downside protection. November/December 2014 www.cfapubs.org 23 Financial Analysts Journal In this article, we identify and debunk eight such in using a covered call strategy must first understand myths about covered calls. To begin, we suggest that an important fact, which is summarized, along with investors and portfolio managers who are interested the eight myths, in Exhibit 1. Figure 1. Covered Call Payoff Diagram A. Long Stock B. Short Call Option Payoff ($) Payoff ($) 200 50 175 25 150 0 125 –25 100 –50 75 –75 50 –100 25 –125 0 –150 025 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 Asset Price ($) Asset Price ($) C. Covered Call Payoff ($) 150 125 100 75 50 25 0 –25 –50 025 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 Asset Price ($) Table 1. Summary Statistics, 1 July 1986–31 December 2013 S&P 500 BXM Annualized excess return 5.4% 4.4% Annualized volatility 18.5% 13.4% Sharpe ratio 0.29 0.33 Worst drawdown –61.7% –43.0% Beta to S&P 500 1.00 0.67 Upside beta 1.00 0.63 Downside beta 1.00 0.78 Note: Returns are excess of cash (US three-month LIBOR). Sources: Standard & Poor’s and CBOE. Exhibit 1. One Fact and Eight Myths Fact Covered calls provide long equity and short volatility exposure. Myths 1. Risk exposure can be expressed in a payoff diagram. 2. Covered calls provide downside protection. 3. Covered calls generate income. 4. Covered calls on high-volatility stocks and/or shorter-dated options provide higher yield. 5. Time decay of written options works in your favor. 6. Covered calls are appropriate if you have a neutral or moderately bullish view. 7. Covered calls pay you for doing what you were going to do anyway. 8. Covered calls allow you to buy a stock at a discounted price. 24 www.cfapubs.org ©2014 CFA Institute Covered Call Strategies Fact: Covered Calls Provide Long implied volatility. For this reason, this risk premium Equity and Short Volatility Exposure is commonly referred to as the volatility risk premium. The short straddle component is short volatil- To understand this fact, consider that a short call ity, but it also includes additional risk owing to its option has negative exposure to its underlying secu- options’ dynamic equity exposure. A short option’s rity’s return and negative exposure to its underlying equity index exposure is negatively related to its security’s volatility. Therefore, writing a call option equity index value in order to provide its intended to cover an existing position reduces the portfolio’s payoff profile. Israelov and Nielsen (2014) showed exposure to the underlying security while adding that although both short volatility exposure and short volatility exposure to that security. dynamic equity exposure contribute to the short At-the-money covered call = Long equity exposure + Short volatility exposure straddle’s risk, only the volatility risk premium . emanating from shorting volatility contributes to ½ long posiition ½ short stradddle ()()expected returns. Delta-hedging the short straddle This equation disentangles the two distinct expo- position substantially increases its Sharpe ratio sures provided by a covered call strategy: long because similar average returns are obtained at sig- equity and short volatility. Figure 2 reconstructs the nificantly lower risk. covered call payoff diagram using this long equity Table 2 reports the hypothetical performance and short volatility decomposition. of a covered call in accordance with the long equity Because options tend to be richly priced (ver- and short straddle decomposition. The covered sus the ex ante expected volatility of the underlying call writes one-month at-the-money call options on equity index) and transfer risk from option buyers option expiration dates and holds them until they to option sellers, they are considered to embed a risk expire. This strategy is similar to that of the BXM premium. This risk premium is earned when selling except that the BXM prices its sold call options options, which is commonly described as “selling using a volume-weighted average of intraday prices volatility” because (as depicted in Figure 2) the short whereas our strategy writes new call positions using straddle position is profitable when volatility is low reported closing midpoint prices. The short straddle and unprofitable when volatility is high relative to component is not delta-hedged. Figure 2. Covered Call Payoff Diagram Using Long Equity and Short Volatility Decomposition A. Long Stock B. Short Straddle Payoff ($) Payoff ($) 200 100 175 75 150 50 125 25 100 0 75 –25 50 –50 25 –75 0 –100 025 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 Asset Price ($) Asset Price ($) C. Covered Call (50/50 Mixture plus $50 Cash) Payoff ($) 150 125 100 75 50 25 0 –25 –50 025 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 Asset Price ($) November/December 2014 www.cfapubs.org 25 Financial Analysts Journal Table 2. Hypothetical Summary Statistics, 1 April 1996–31 December 2013 Covered Call Long Equity Short Straddle Annualized excess return 5.0% 3.3% 1.8% Annualized volatility 14.1% 9.9% 6.7% Sharpe ratio 0.36 0.33 0.27 Skew –0.3 0.0 –0.5 Kurtosis 20.1 8.0 21.9 Beta to S&P 500 0.64 0.50 0.14 Risk contribution 64% 36% Notes: Long equity versus short straddle correlation = 0.42. The long equity and the short straddle represent futures and option positions, respectively, written on the S&P 500.
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