Just google it, there is more than enough information on the internets to learn options from basic to fairly advanced strategies.

1/17/2011 8:02:58 PM

I'd rather hear about it firsthand. I didn't understand it 10 years ago so there's no reason to think that all of a sudden it will become intuitive now.

1/17/2011 8:06:33 PM

Are you trolling?

1/17/2011 8:31:50 PM

All you need to know about options is that its really just gambling not investing. Basically you are leveraging to make bets against other people making bets (typically on short term market moves).

If you really think a stock like AAPL is going to go way up or way down in the short term its a great way to bet on it.

There are a few times it makes sense to trade options as an investor (typically b/c of tax reasons) but for the most part its just for people looking to gamble.



Anyway the rest of my portfolia is AIA (asia), FNI (china-india), PKX (korean steel company), and some small positions in ADRE (emerging), SPY (s&p 500).

Also ive got close to 10k in GM that i bought the day after the IPO, but i will be selling that within the next month that was a pure short term play for me that didnt quite leap as much as i thought it might. I guess all the GM lovers are either burned for life or still trading that worthless old stock haha

1/17/2011 8:48:33 PM

Quote :

"There are a few times it makes sense to trade options as an investor "

I've read dumber stuff from you, but only barely.

1/17/2011 9:38:29 PM

^.

I'll post a long response tomorrow.

1/17/2011 11:59:35 PM

^ not really, options are gambling on price movements, for the most part its a risky endeavor.

And yes I'm aware you can decrease your downside risk but typically you increase your upside risk as well which again is a form of risk

Your best bet is to stay away unless you really just enjoy trading and that's wha you want to do

1/18/2011 4:16:57 PM

By your definition, you're also "gambling on price movements" whenever you buy or sell an equity.

Option plays are just a part of a larger investment strategy, not the crack-cocaine of investment that you think it is. From your statements it sounds like you're not familiar with any strategies other than naked puts and calls.

1/18/2011 4:30:03 PM

I posted in the other thread but the bulk of my gains last year were from selling puts on either

1) quality stocks that took a little bit of a beating on an earnings realease
2) selling puts on GLD at inflection points

For me, it's way easier to define risk/reward with options (via verticals, typically) than it is to buy a stock and set stops that can easily be gamed or will get smoked thanks to overnight gaps.

1/18/2011 5:35:33 PM

Im pretty familiar with them i mean i have a 7. Not that I can necessairly define all the various types of iron crosses and condors, etc...

Options are a negative sum game (after you take commissions). There is a winner and a loser on each end of the bet. Investing isn't necessairly.

Of course you can make great money trading options, you can also lose it too.

1/18/2011 7:16:55 PM

The only losing trade I had last year was an impulsive buy of Micron in the 7.25 range that I hastily sold within days after I convinced myself I hadn't done enough due diligence. I didn't lose money on any option trade and I think I made ~30 of them.

1/18/2011 8:37:38 PM

^what was your ROI?




Also, if Steve Jobs weren't cancer-filled and frail, he would be fucking 10 porn stars right now after that last quarter.


[Edited on January 18, 2011 at 9:05 PM. Reason : .]

1/18/2011 8:56:16 PM

A pretty paltry 8%, underperforming many asset classes, though I wasn't really actively trading until about March. Generally though, I was a real fool in 2009 and had my ass handed to me on a platter. So I spent most of 2010 being pretty timid in my selections and keeping position sizes extremely small, fearing that whatever trade I had on at the time would be the one that got caught in the next leg down. I finally shook off the cloud of '09 and started moving into positions with more size and probably made the bulk of that 8% after July.

As far as how active I was, on average I probably had ~30% of my capital deployed in equities and the rest sat in cash (yes, not earning any interest).

[Edited on January 18, 2011 at 9:10 PM. Reason : .]

1/18/2011 9:08:36 PM

Oh yeah, read some negative things about GLD. They allegedly do not have enough gold to maintain the 1/10 gold-stock price ratio. In effect, their stock price is seeing the inflation that buying gold was meant to hedge against in the first place.

1/18/2011 9:57:57 PM

GLD is interesting, but i dont understand with the recent gold selloff how its now coming to light they dont maintain a 1:10 ratio?

Spot prices dont concern me that much, illiquidity doesnt concern me either considering i have like 4k in it.

What concerns me is all this bullshit where people are allowed to fudge their numbers with "accounting firms" verifying it.

If a simple ETF like the GLD isn't spot on the money with what they claim to possess how can anyone trust anything as complex as a hot dog stand?

1/18/2011 10:10:07 PM

Bitches...

Facebook: Goldman Sachs excludes US investors from deal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12212043

[Edited on January 19, 2011 at 9:20 AM. Reason : summary]

1/19/2011 9:19:53 AM

Added some TVIX this morning (double the VIX ETF) ... up 4 % already, ETF up 10% on the day.

Hoping for some increased volatility through the week ... what do yall think?

1/19/2011 11:13:22 AM

Considering adding a couple funds to my etrade account (I should state that these are non-retirement, non-tax sheltered investments here). Anyone have opinions on these? Was looking for no load, no fee mutual funds with relatively low turnover and then picked a few that I liked the returns on as well as the risk vs reward and minimum buy-in price:

Schwab Dividend Equity (SWDSX) - Large Value
Meridian Growth (MERDX) - Mid Growth
FBR Large Cap Investor (FBRPX) - Large Growth

1/19/2011 11:36:18 AM

19% for 2010 and 8.5% for the past 5 years.

1/19/2011 4:19:19 PM

16.7% for 2010.

1/19/2011 11:49:38 PM

I did some more review and am satisfied GLD owns the gold its supposed to own.

The recent articles about them not owning enough gold are written by people who thoroughly misunderstand how etf's work.

GLD doesn't buy more gold if I buy 100 shares lol.

I think its all the "synthetic" shares that are being lent and borrowed for arbitrage and short selling that are confusing these people

1/20/2011 2:03:08 PM

sold my $iwm march puts yesterday for 20%, sold my $spx feb puts for 10%, and flipped some $spx jan calls for 25% today (leaving a cool $8400 on the table ). thinking about picking up some $goog puts into the close, since it seems their stock always drops off a cliff after earnings...

[Edited on January 20, 2011 at 3:24 PM. Reason : ...]

1/20/2011 3:14:51 PM

Glad I didn't get any $Goog puts now. Stock up AH after killing estimates.

1/20/2011 4:28:28 PM

<3 goog

1/20/2011 4:55:23 PM

Quote :

"and flipped some $spx jan calls for 25% today"

Which security is that? Which strike?

1/20/2011 7:47:00 PM

$spx jan 1280 calls when it dipped. i picked them up at $2, sold for $2.50. they went down as far as around $1.30 on the bid and then jumped back up near the end of day to $6 or so ask.

[Edited on January 20, 2011 at 8:00 PM. Reason : $spx is the s&p 500 index]

1/20/2011 7:59:52 PM

I've been doing that with SSO options for ages.

1/20/2011 8:01:38 PM

yep, i've been buying puts on the $spx lately, and then when it dipped below 1275, i picked up some calls for a swing. not knowing it this was a head fake, before another leg lower, i locked in some profits and sold early. i like to get in and get out as much as possible on same-month options. longer-dated i can hold for a little longer, but i'm not into risking too much with the market conditions these days.

1/20/2011 8:08:43 PM

GE!

1/21/2011 10:34:17 AM

^

1/21/2011 11:11:30 AM

working the $spx short today from 1289

1/21/2011 1:12:33 PM

^^

How far do you think it's going?

1/21/2011 2:01:49 PM

Beats me. I'm pretty long on it. Some of my shares were bought below the $10 mark.

1/21/2011 2:21:34 PM

would use today to take positions off the table. we may see a few more down weeks

1/21/2011 2:24:59 PM

not stock related but I think this is still the most appropriate thread without starting a new one so...

Anyone ever invested in CDs with Ally? I have read lots of good things about them in articles discussing CDs. For starters their rates are about the best out there at the moment (1.52% for 2 years, 1.29% for 12 mos) and their early withdrawal fees are about the lowest (although barring a nuclear meltdown in my personal finances I shouldn't need to touch any money I would be putting here).

The 2 year option they offer is interesting because you get the opportunity to "raise your rate" once anytime during the 2 year period if rates go up. At that time you are supposed to get the highest rate they offered during the last 10 days. With rates potentially starting to creep back up this year, this would probably be the only way I'd consider investing in a CD with more than a 12 month maturity.

Once again, just looking for ways to invest some of the cash I have (I already max out my wife and I's Roth IRAs). Got a little bit in some mutual funds but was looking for some other investment options. 1.52% isn't much but it's better than my money market.

[Edited on January 24, 2011 at 10:47 AM. Reason : .]

1/24/2011 10:43:17 AM

Ever realized you missed a huge opportunity?

Ford, over the past 2ish years.

FML.

1/24/2011 5:29:47 PM

^ What's bad is that I was planning to buy back when it was $9ish and it didn't quite hit the low I was waiting for.

1/24/2011 5:43:26 PM

got another 20% intraday day gain out of the spx feb 1275 puts. also picked up a couple of v march 67.50 puts.

1/25/2011 2:48:43 PM

Did you buy and sell or sell and buy to cover on those SPX options?

1/26/2011 7:43:11 PM

buy put, sell put.

1/27/2011 8:14:49 AM

$spx shorts gain 100% intraday.

1/28/2011 12:06:38 PM

bought some QLD near the days low, as it was making a turn (84.60) ... up now ... just trying to get a point or 2.

1/28/2011 12:33:49 PM

just picked up a couple $goog march 615 calls.

1/28/2011 3:05:06 PM

resold some SSO puts
resold some USO calls

1/28/2011 3:11:36 PM

sold out of qld at 85.35 ... would have loved to see it pop more, but it seems like we may go lower after all ....

1/28/2011 3:21:32 PM

Has anyone picked up some EGPT?

1/28/2011 6:16:12 PM

Quote :

"I like F but I don't know if I like them at this level. "

1/30/2011 7:09:01 AM

I currently have a bunch of the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 fund VFIFX made up of

1 Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund 63.7%
2 Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund 26.2%
3 Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Investor Shares† 10.1%

I was thinking about selling it all off and manually resetting the allocation to

2/3 Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund
1/3 Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund

Thoughts?

1/31/2011 2:12:25 PM

Why not just leave it in there, and just start manually adjusting your contributions to meet your goals that you mentioned? Selling is going to mean paying taxes on capital gains.

1/31/2011 3:27:32 PM

It's in a roth ira.

1/31/2011 3:42:49 PM