LLY expects to make $7.5Bn with their weight-loss pills but MRNA can come up with a vaccine so you don't gain the weight in the first place.  That's not where Moderna's focus is, however, their current pipeline looks like this:

We'll hear more about it on their May 4th Conference Call but these were the original goals for the company – Covid was just a bonus that proved their methodology could lead to workable vaccines – why abandon them now?   Traders (not investors) are certainly feeling the pressure as the stock is 66.6% off it's highs but that's a sign to invest, not divest.  

All Biotechs are taking a beating this quarter and yesterday, in our Live Trading Webinar, we were discussing putting more eggs in fewer baskets and MRNA is still our favorite (not counting PFE) but we have a severe loss in our Long-Term Portfolio on that spread:

In context, of course, we promised to buy $280,000 worth of MRNA stock and we're down $82,288 though we did buy back the short calls with a net $24,000 gain so that's a net net $52,288 loss, which is only 20.8% of our commitment to $280,000 worth of the stock.  Also, notice the stock is down 25% since January so we were better off with the options play than owning the stock.  That's because our short puts were PROMISES to buy the stock if it got cheaper, rather than paying $200 at the time.  

If we do intend to stick with MRNA for the long haul – it is beyond foolish not to improve the LTP position.  Our 20 2024 $150 calls are $44.28 ($88,550) and the 2024 $130 calls are $52 and of course it makes sense to spend net $7.72 to push ourselves $12 in the money and gain $20 in strike.  That will cost us $15,440 but we can offset that cost by selling 20 of the $200 calls for $30 ($60,000).  Since that would put us +$44,560 and 20 more longs only cost $104,000 – why not sell 15 more of the 2024 $200 calls for $45,000 and buy 20 more of the 2024 $130s for $104,000 and then we will have spent net $14,440 to move from 20 long 2024 $150 calls to 40 of the 2024 $130 calls, covered with the $200s.

This is also good as a new trade, of course. 

At $200, we would recover $280,000 and, since we have 5 open calls, we can sell 5-10 short-term calls, like the July $170s for $10, to pick up some extra income along the way.  Selling 10 July calls for $10,000 would use 78 of the 631 days we have to sell and 5 extra short calls carry very little risk.  Perhaps we could make $50,000 doing this consistently while we wait – but not yet – let's see how earnings go before selling short calls. 

As to the short puts, $200 is still our target so we'll wait for earnings as we are in the puts at net $175 and net $140, which is where we are now, the rest of the loss is paper premiums, which shouldn't bother us as long as we REALLY want to own the stock – and we do!   There are about $100,000 worth of short puts but the 2024 $150 puts are $45 so we could bump up to 20 of those at $90,000, paying $10,000 to drop to the lower strike and, as we collected $52,000 originally, we'd be in the 20 short puts at net $42,000 or $21 per put so our net entry would be $129 – even lower than we are now.  And that's before we roll out to the 2025 puts, which should come out in July.  

This is how we "fix" a trade but that only works if we were right about the long-term value of our stock and that remains to be seen but MRNA is one I am happy to take a chance on.  Most of our other Biotechs we will be pulling the plug on in favor of this spread, which hopefully will get us our money back and more for the whole group.

JXN/Stock – They were spun out of Prudential (PUK) so people aren't really pricing them properly and analysts aren't covering them properly.  Seems like the company and insiders are taking advantage and buying their stock back (10% buyback recently authorized).  Seems like they are generally variable annuities, not fixed – so shouldn't be too much danger in holding the stock (which is a holding company).  The risk in such a recent spin-off is that the numbers aren't what they seem to be but they have had two independent earnings report – the last on March 2nd and they did indeed make $7.48 per $43 share for the Q.  They are also paying a 5.5% dividend – so very interesting.  

I think JXN is a good add to the Dividend Portfolio since there's good premium in those options.  Let's add a block:

• Buy 1,000 shares JXN at $43 ($43,000) 
• Sell 10 JXN 2024 $40 calls for $10.25 ($10,250)
• Sell 10 JXN 2024 $40 puts for $9 ($9,000) 

That's net $23,750 and we get called away at $40,000 or we get assigned 1,000 more shares at $40 ($40,000) to average $31.875 per share, not including the expected $3,850 in dividends.  That brings our net net down to $19,900 for the 1,000 shares and we'll be disappointed to be called away at $40 (almost 10% lower than it is now) with a double in 20 months.