The weather is warming up, summer is nearly here, and stocks are….cooling down?

There is some truth to the adage that you should ‘sell in May and walk away’, but stock analysis is a lot like the weather - you don’t have to be right, you just have to say words. As long as you aren’t too specific, the audience will stay engaged.

But we’re not here to talk about using vague phrasing to drive sales, nor are we here to talk about selling stocks. The only thing we’re selling is calls, of the covered variety. See Covered Call Tutorial

This week we increased our Treasury Securities holdings, so with that in mind, let’s start with…

1. SCHZ - $46.80/share, the Schwab US Aggregate Bond ETF is at one of the lowest price points since its inception. The 2.71% yield is what you would expect from a bond fund.
   
   A great time to get exposure to US Bonds without the hassle of buying direct (or the cost of buying bonds through a broker).
   
   

2. FLGV - $21.22/share, 2.68% yield, the Franklin US Treasury Bond ETF is just about the same as the Schwab fund above, but with slightly less evil attached to it.
   
   

3. GOVT - $23.37/share, 2.06% yield, this is the iShares US Treasury Bond ETF.
   

4. TBIL - $49.96/share, 4.76% yield. The US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF has less history than the bond funds listed above, but that is of little consequence. This gets you exposure to Treasury Bills. Bills are like bonds, but short-term issues (4 to 52 weeks, in this case 12) that are sold at a discount.
   
   If you’ve ever wondered what a 1099-OID is, it’s for these (primarily). Instead of earning interest over time, you simply purchase the bill at a discount to its face value.
   
   Six in one, half a dozen in the other, the main feature being that your money isn’t locked up for too long. The returns also fluctuate much more quickly when compared to Notes or Bonds.
   
   

5. TIP - $109.42/share, 5.21% yield. The iShares TIPS Bond ETF gets you exposure to TIPS. TIPS are nice because you -cannot- lose money. You might end up leaving money on the table, but you won’t lose.
   
   With this ETF you can get exposed to that stability of this particular US Treasury security without locking up your money for any great length of time.