On July 30th I mentioned how I thought Bank of America (BAC) stock at $47 was attractive with a 5.4% dividend yield. The shares moved above $52 since that post, but today are falling back sharply, to $48 each, after the company posted poor third quarter results, just like every other bank has thus far. The dividend now stands at 5.3%, and I think it is very safe.

If you want to generate even more income on this trade, you could buy the stock to collect the dividend and any capital appreciation, while simultaneously selling out of the money call options on the shares to collect more cash. For example, the May 2008 52.5 calls are selling for about $1.75 each right now. Buying the stock and selling those calls would result in a breakeven point of ~$45 per share over the next 7 months or so. Conversely, your upside would be up to $52.50 on BAC stock, plus dividends and option premiums of around $3 per share (up to 15% in total gains).

If you think the stock will trade within the recent range of the high 40's to low 50's, this trade would be a great way to make a double digit percentage profit if BAC can make up the few points of recent losses in coming months.

Full Disclosure: Long Bank of America at the time of writing