Want to Earn Weekly Income Using Carnival?
If you buy shares of Carnival Corporation you can get $0.15 per share in dividends every three months. CCL pays a quarterly dividend. Well, we can’t know that for certain, because CCL was paying $0.50 per share up until 02/19/2020. Then the dividend was suspended until 02/20/2026. That is a very long dry spell. As a result I avoided CCL as an investment.
On March 12, 2026 I bought 100 shares of CCL for $24.25 per share. Therefore, I paid $2,425 for the 100 shares. Today the shares were trading from $25.28 to as high as $25.98. The share price really isn’t moving up or down in a regular pattern, and the next earnings date is June 22. Therefore, unless some serious problems develop, I don’t envision too much price movement on my shares.
What is the Annualized CCL Dividend?
The forward dividend rate is $0.60 per share. Therefore, if I hold my 100 shares for a full year, I can reasonably expect to receive $60.00 per share for the full year. That isn’t much income. There is a way to prosper using covered call options. Today, for example, using the options tools in Fidelity’s Trader+ I earned $59.35 trading a covered call option that expires on Friday.
The Trader+ Option Chain
I realize the following image may be overwhelming if you have never traded options. However, it is easy to use this tool once you understand some basics. First of all, I only want to consider an option that expires on Friday. I displayed the option possibilities for April 10, 17, 24 and May 1 because they are all “W” weekly choices.
I also displayed the calculator at the bottom of the Option Chain window. This tells me that the “Probability of Profit” is 28% if I “Buy to Open” an option contract to be able to purchase 100 shares of CCL for $26/share. In other words, it is not very likely that spending money on this trade will give me a good deal on the shares on Friday, as the total cost of the shares would be $26.63 to break even. However, if I sell a covered call contract on my 100 shares, I can make a quick profit and potentially keep my shares as well.
Entering the Sell Option Trade (2 and 3)
On the left side of the above image you can see my trade ticket. I’m asking $0.62 per share which is slightly less than the $0.63 current ASK price. This is a limit order, which means I don’t want to sell my contract for the current BID price of $0.55. The BID/ASK prices appear at the bottom of the trade ticket. My general rule of thumb is to start high and then gradually reduce my limit price.
The next two images show my “Preview order” and then the “Order Placed” screen.
The Trader+ Orders Screen (4)
As you can see, my order appears in the order status screen. The status is “OPEN.” This means no one was willing to immediately pay my $0.62 ASK price. You can see my ASK price in the order window on the far-right side of the order window.
Replacing My CCL Order (5)
After a few minutes I revised the price of my existing order from the $0.62 ASK price down to $0.60. Notice at the bottom of this screen that this would put my Ask price between the current BID of $0.55 and the $0.62 ASK. If I changed the price to $0.55 then it probably would sell immediately. However, patience pays when it comes to trading options.
Preview CCL Order Again (6)
Much like the previous “Preview order” screen, this shows me that my limit order could generate $59.35 in profit. Bear in mind that it would take a full year to earn $60 in dividends on my CCL shares. To get the synthetic dividend immediately is very attractive.
Order Placed (7)
I placed the order at the new $0.60 price. You can see my ASK price is now reflected at the bottom of the trade ticket.
Refreshed Trader+ Option Chain (8)
I refreshed the options calculator. As you can see at the bottom of this image, the “NET DEBIT” now shows the $0.60. The “Probability of Profit” is still very low: 29%. This means that it is highly unlikely that the shares will reach $26.00 by the market close on Friday. I like those odds.
Refreshed Trader+ Orders Screen (9)
As you can see, my order appears in the order status screen as FILLED. I made some money and I now have a position in my ROTH IRA with the ticker symbol -CCL260410C26. The “C26” indicates that this is a CALL contract with a $26.00 price tag for my CCL shares. The “260410” tells me that this contract expires on Friday.
What Income Might Be Possible Next Week?
Let’s assume that the price of CCL shares stays below $26 when the market closes on Friday. If that happens, I keep the option contract profit, and the current option will “expire.” That means I can do this again next Monday. If you can do this 52 times per year, you can probably make over $2,000 in options income just from this one stock. Of course there are no guarantees that there will be buyers that are interested in next week’s options contracts, but I’ve seen this often enough to know it is possible.
Bear in mind that I only paid $2,425 for my shares. If I can earn another $2,000 during the year, not counting dividends, this investment will really cruise for my ROTH IRA cash income. I wonder how much a one-week cruise would cost?
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