a believer

Income in a Zero-Rate World

Re your second strategy:

"In the ‘worst’ case, the stock price rises to the point where the option holder will exercise and Joe will have to sell his $500 shares at $35/share."

No, no, NO.

"In the ‘worst’ case, the stock price falls to the point where it is worth pennies on the dollar, and, not having developed an exit strategy that allows you to consistently make money using covered calls, you lose most of your initial investment."

The Hidden Cost in Inverse ETFs

The short-long index ETFs are a losers game because of hidden fees, inefficiency and probably outright theft by the market-makers. The best pure plays are stock index commodities, but thet're highly leveraged. The efficiency of the index ETFs is so terrible relative to their commodity counterparts that it doesn't even make sense to trade them. For proof, just look at the decrease in the historical 'SH+SPY' price (or any other such pairing).

On the other hand, the double and triples seem to be a daytrade's dream, but I have nver gone there.