How You Can Get Paid to Not Own Stocks

The announcement caught everyone by surprise.

Last week, China devalued its currency, the yuan, by 1.9%. According to Bloomberg, it was the currency’s largest single-day move in two decades.

#-ad_banner-#The move sent shockwaves throughout the global marketplace. Stock markets in Asia, Europe and the United States were down across the board. Nothing was spared.

Yet, despite the struggles in the global markets, there are always a handful of stocks that can buck the downward trend. And I recently found such a company in a sector that’s been hit the hardest: energy.

What’s more, my readers and I have made more than $1,910 without owning a single share of this company (I’ll explain exactly how we’ve done that in a moment).

The energy sector has fallen nearly 15% since the beginning of the year — making it the worst performing sector over the past year. But like I mentioned above, there are always some resilient stocks that continue to rise.

For example, there’s an oil refiner that operates six refineries in the western United States with a combined capacity of approximately 850,000 barrels per day. The company also owns and operates a network of approximately 3,500 miles of pipelines, as well as a handful of natural gas processing complexes, and its retail operations include over 2,200 gas stations.

And while the energy sector has tumbled, this company has climbed more than 30% year to date.

But what sets this company apart from many other energy firms is its integrated business model. That means it makes money at nearly every step of the process. Other companies pay this firm to transport oil and natural gas from the oil fields to the refineries through its extensive pipeline system. It then gets to sell the refined products to consumers at its gas stations.

The company I’m talking about is Tesoro Corporation (NYSE: TSO). And its strategic business model has helped it remain a market leader despite being in a lagging sector.

I first identified this stock as a market leader to readers of my premium advisory, Income Trader, in March 2013. That’s when we made our first income trade on the oil refiner. Since then, we’ve generated instant income from Tesoro five more times. Recently, we had our seventh opportunity, and my readers pocketed another $230 to bring our total $2,140… all without ever purchasing a single share.

We’ve essentially been paid to never actually own this stock.

Now this strategy isn’t for everyone, but if you’re interested in generating income then this is for you.

What I do is find a stock with great fundamentals, a great business model and is a company that I wouldn’t mind owning… for the right price.

I set a price at which I’m willing to purchase this company, usually at a good discount to where it’s currently trading. After all, who doesn’t like buying things on sale?

Then I go into the often misunderstood derivatives market. Now, I understand this word typically has a negative connotation, but don’t let that scare you away. The derivatives market that I participate in doesn’t involve complicated mortgage swaps or collateralized debt obligations (the kind of financial instruments credited with contributing to the financial crisis).

I then find someone in the derivatives market that’s willing to sell me shares of the company I want (in this case Tesoro) at the price I’m willing to buy it at. Once I find that person, we make a deal. Keep in mind, this deal is all done through my brokerage account, so I don’t actually have to go out looking for someone. My brokerage account facilitates the entire arrangement.

The deal typically goes something like this. First, I set my price. In Tesoro’s case, I was willing to purchase shares at $85 — a 20% discount to its recent price. And like most deals, there’s an expiration to my arrangement. In this case my offer is good until September 18 — about 44 days from when I made the offer.

In return, the seller pays me cash to seal the deal. Think of it like an earnest payment.

So to reiterate the deal so far: I’ve made an offer to buy shares of Tesoro at a $85, or 20% below its recent price, and in return I’ve received a cash payment.

You may be asking yourself why anyone would pay me to buy their shares at a discount. For the same reason we pay for auto or home insurance. Just in case.

Only in this case, I am acting as the insurance company. Although I wouldn’t mind owning Tesoro at $85 a share, I don’t think the stock will fall that far in the next 44 days, so I’ll take on that risk to collect an upfront premium.

If the stock does fall to below $85 in the next month, I’ll get a market leading company with solid fundamentals at the price I was willing to pay (as opposed to a busted up vehicle or burnt down house like an insurance company gets), plus I get to keep the cash I collected.

If the stock doesn’t fall to my offer price, I simply keep my payment and move on.

So far, my readers and I have made this exact deal six times (now seven) on Tesoro. Had you offered to buy 500 shares of Tesoro on each contract, you would have pocketed $2,140 (including this most recent trade). Had you offered to buy 1,000 shares each time, your cash payments increase to a total of $4,280.

It’s as simple as that. And we make this trade on numerous stocks, not just Tesoro, pocketing hundreds if not thousands of dollars with each deal we make. And so far my track record is pretty remarkable… I’ve closed over 100 winning trades.

Like I mentioned before, we use the derivatives market to transact these deals, and hundreds of thousands of these sorts of transactions happen every single day. But don’t let that scare you away from possibly raking in hundreds or even thousands of dollars, often without actually buying shares of any stock. I’ve even put together a quick 8-Minute Tutorial that will teach you everything you need to know to begin taking advantage of these sorts of deals. You can watch the training video, here.