Selling cash-secured puts to lower cost basis

You could buy 100 shares of $AMZN right now for about $26,600. Or you could sell the $250 put expiring January 15, 2027 and get paid roughly $720 to wait. Amazon sold off after its October 29 earnings report. Earnings missed estimates, and management said it expects to spend meaningfully more on capital projects in 2027 than this year's roughly $220B. The stock fell as low as $229 the next day and has rallied about 16% from that low. It now trades around $266, about 7% below its 52-week high. The business keeps growing. AWS revenue grew 39% to $46B last quarter, with a $578B backlog. A stock that moves like that pays you to wait. Implied volatility on this put is about 33%, and the $250 strike sits about 6% below the current price. Amazon's next earnings report is expected in early February, after this put expires. The plan: close at 50% of max profit by buying the put back around $3.60. That's half the credit, often in a fraction of the time. If $AMZN drops toward $250 and the thesis still holds, you could roll down and out for more credit. If you get assigned, your cost basis is $242.80, about 8.7% below today's price, and you could start selling covered calls. The setup: $250 strike, 0.29 delta, 65 days to expiration, 2.9% return on capital (about 16% annualized). Only sell this if $242.80 is a price you'd genuinely want to own $AMZN at. Not financial advice.