This was a very good week.

I completed eight option transactions across six different stocks and generated $3,060.60 in net option proceeds after commissions and fees.

Interestingly, it wasn't my best week historically.

It was my third-best.

I mention that mainly for perspective. I didn't start the week trying to beat a record, and I wasn't trying to generate a certain amount of premium. I simply watched my positions and the market and acted when I thought the opportunities made sense.

And there were quite a few opportunities this week.

All of this happened while I continued traveling through Italy.

Tuesday was the busiest day of the week.

While I was in Florence, four trades developed fairly close together.

I rolled my SPCX (SpaceX) covered call to the October 2 $152.50 strike, generating $198.67 net.

I rolled my TSLA (Tesla) covered call to the September 25 $365 strike for another $161.65 net.

Last week, I had allowed my six SOFI (SoFi Technologies) $18.50 calls to expire because I didn't think there was a reason to manufacture another trade.

This week, the opportunity changed.

I sold six October 2 $18.50 calls and generated $146.01 net.

Finally, I rolled my MU (Micron Technology) call to the September 28 $965 strike for $748.47 net.

Those four trades generated $1,254.80 net.

One of the orders took a little longer to fill, so rather than sending several alerts, I waited and combined the four trades into a single Trade Alert.

From the time the trading was finished until the alert was published was about 15 minutes. The email arrived in my inbox about two minutes later.

That was another good real-world test of what I'm trying to build with Options Income Journal.

I don't want documenting my trades to become a full-time job. I want to make my trades, explain what I did and why, and then get on with the rest of my day.

That worked pretty well from Florence.

On Wednesday, I found a different type of opportunity.

I sold one C (Citigroup) October 2 $130 put for $134.34 net.

I'm comfortable owning Citigroup at $130 if assigned. The premium effectively reduces that potential purchase price further.

If the put expires out of the money, I keep the premium and can look for another opportunity.

That's essentially how I think about cash-secured puts: I'm getting paid to accept an obligation I'm already comfortable accepting.

One of the most interesting developments of the week actually wasn't a new trade.

My two INTC (Intel) covered calls were assigned, and all 200 shares were called away—100 shares at $100 and another 100 shares at $103.

I had originally purchased 100 INTC shares on May 5 at $109.86 and added another 100 shares on August 28 at $89.82.

That gave the 200 shares an average purchase price of $99.84.

Before assignment, I looked at rolling the calls again.

I could have done it.

But the premium simply wasn't attractive enough to me to keep roughly $20,000 of capital committed to the position.

So I didn't roll.

I let the shares go.

This wasn't a trade that got away from me. Assignment was an outcome I had already agreed to when I sold the calls.

And now that the position is complete, we can look at the entire INTC campaign rather than just one trade.

From May through assignment, my covered-call activity on INTC generated $4,064.65 in net option proceeds after fees.

The shares themselves produced another $332 realized gain.

That brings the completed INTC campaign to approximately:

I think this is a good example of why I don't judge a covered-call position solely by what happened to the stock price.

The average purchase price of those shares was $99.84, and the average assignment price was $101.50. The stock itself only generated $332.

Most of the economic result came from repeatedly collecting and managing option premium.

Here's where the story gets more interesting.

After allowing the 200 shares to be called away, I wasn't finished with INTC forever.

I was simply finished with that particular position.

On Thursday, I rolled my MU call again—this time to the October 2 $975 call—and generated another $911.48 net.

I particularly liked that roll because I was able to raise my strike from $965 to $975 while still collecting substantial additional premium.

I also rolled my TSLA call to the October 2 $365 strike, generating another $433.65 net.

Then on Friday, while traveling near Pompeii, INTC presented another opportunity that I liked.

I purchased 100 new shares at $124.53 and sold the September 30 $125 call for $326.33 net.

That's a completely new INTC position.

I didn't roll the old calls because I didn't think the economics justified keeping the capital tied up.

Then the situation changed.

So I changed with it.

That's an important distinction.

I'm not attached to owning a particular stock. I'm interested in the opportunity that stock is offering me at that moment.

Here's where the $3,060.60 in net option proceeds came from:

MU accounted for a little more than half of this week's option proceeds.

That's not something I planned. It's simply where some of the better opportunities happened to be this week.

We've now completed four weeks since I began documenting the results for Options Income Journal.

September 1–4: $2,544.66
September 8–10: $2,981.18
September 14–18: $2,466.31
September 21–25: $3,060.60

That's:

Or an average of approximately $2,763 per week.

I'm pleased with those numbers, but I don't expect every four-week period to look like this one.

There will be slower weeks. There will be weeks when very little happens. And there will certainly be trades and positions that don't work as smoothly as I would like.

I'm not trying to produce a certain amount every week.

I have a strategy, but I don't have a quota.

There's another part of this week that has nothing to do with the $3,060.60.

I've continued trading and publishing Options Income Journal while traveling through Italy.

I've made trades from Florence and near Pompeii. Earlier in the trip, I made a trade while waiting at the airport. This week I even published the INTC Position Update from my phone while in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

I don't mention that because Options Income Journal is becoming a travel newsletter.

It isn't.

I mention it because this trip has given me an opportunity to test whether the process I've built actually fits the life I want to live.

So far, it does.

I'm not spending my vacation sitting in front of a computer all day looking for trades.

I'm watching my positions.

When an opportunity appears, I evaluate it.

If I like it, I make the trade, document what I did, send the alert and move on with my day.

The trading fits around my life. My life doesn't have to fit around the trading.

That's exactly what I hoped this would look like.

Last week I wrote:

This week provided several examples of both sides of that statement.

Last week, I didn't immediately sell another set of SOFI calls because I didn't like the opportunity.

This week, I did.

I didn't roll the INTC calls because I didn't think the available premium justified keeping the capital committed.

So I let the shares go.

Then INTC presented a different opportunity a couple of days later.

So I bought it again.

MU offered me an opportunity to move my strike from $965 to $975 while collecting another $911.48 net.

So I took it.

None of those decisions required me to predict exactly what the market would do next.

They required me to decide whether I was comfortable with the economics and the possible outcomes.

That's the process.

I'm not attached to a position. I'm attached to the process.

Going into the coming week, I'll continue managing MU, TSLA, SPCX and SOFI, along with the new INTC position.

I'll also watch the Citigroup $130 cash-secured put and see what opportunity, if any, develops as the October 2 expiration approaches.

And I'll continue doing it while traveling.

I don't know how many trades I'll make next week.

Maybe there will be several.

Maybe there won't be many at all.

That's okay.

I'll watch the market and my positions, and I'll look for opportunities.

If it's there, it's there. Otherwise, I wait.

There will always be another trade.

Options Income Journal documents my own trading activity, including actual trades, fills and results. It is not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. I don't know your financial situation, objectives or risk tolerance, and you should make your own decisions regarding your investments.