$F

The trade (order placed Oct 12, working GTC):

• Buy 100 shares of Ford (F) at $11.98
• Sell to open the Mar 19, 2027 $10 call
• Net debit: $9.60/share ($960)

The math:

• Called away at $10: $0.40/share price gain
• Plus two $0.15 quarterly dividends (Nov + Feb): $0.30
• Total: $0.70/share = 7.3% in 158 days → 16.8% annualized
• Deep in-the-money (strike 16.5% below the stock): $2.38 premium banked, $9.60 breakeven - F can fall 19.9% before losing a dollar. Max loss $9.60/share vs $11.98 owning it outright.

Why this trade, why now:

F lost ~13.5% in the past month and is sitting right on the weekly demand zone ($11.78-11.11). The tape is full of priced-in bad news: the F-150 supplier disruption hit Q3 wholesales (resolved, per CEO Farley), August sales fell 10.3%, Hyundai is set to outsell Ford in the US for the first time ever in Q3, and UBS cut its price target to $15 last week. The 5% dividend yield pays us to wait, and the two quarterly dividends add ~7 points to the annualized figure.

The risks, plainly:

• Upside is capped at $10. If F snaps back to $14-15, we keep our $0.40 and watch the rest go by.
• Below $9.60, losses accrue like owning the stock - just from a $2.38 lower starting point.
• Early-assignment risk ahead of the February ex-div if the call’s time value decays below $0.15 - we’d lose the second dividend.
• This is a trade, not a balance-sheet endorsement: Ford carries debt ~340% of market cap with an LTM operating loss.

Order placed Oct 12, working GTC - not yet filled.