Thats what I mean - exercise the Put - or sell the stock, after the dividend is paid. Btw, is there a good Options simulator out there? Where I could do these series of buying underlying, buying a Put, and see the results?
Also remember you have to have some intelligent opinion on the underlying stock when entering the option position. So in the example if you buy the $55 Call with the stock at $53 and it moves higher, it helps to have some sort of analysis on the underlying. Is there resistance at $60, was $58 a previous high, did the stock already move up a lot from $45 until now, is there a fundamental event on the horizon, is there some TA resistance or did it just break through support, etc. I think you will find this kind of underlying analysis will better guide you on when to close a position.