Quote :

"I thought you could only do #3 with certain types of mutual funds."

Yeah that sounds right now that you mention it.

1/8/2008 2:41:44 PM

Quote :

"Options are for action junkies."

Eh maybe, especially short term, but you can buy leaps just as well. It's the same thing as longing or shorting stock, just much less capital invested with the major difference being time decay. If you wanted to buy 100 shares of stock and you plan on holding it for x amount of time, why not just long a call for whatever time frame you're considering longing it in the first place? The thing of it is, you have to identify you're entry and exit before you purchase an option, or time decay will be a factor. I just think it's much more structured because you're almost forced to act (getting out or staying) and much less gray area as if you're just flat out longing stock. They also work great around earnings when you know a stock is going one way or the other and you can straddle/strangle them with you're risk outlined before you execute the trade in the cost of the trade.

1/8/2008 3:43:00 PM

What the hell happened at 3pm?

1/8/2008 4:17:49 PM

i am in the house of pain

Quote :

"Housing Woes, AT&T News Sink Stocks- AP"

http://finance.yahoo.com/


seems like when ever any given CEO picks his nose the entire industry dumps out 5 points.

[Edited on January 8, 2008 at 4:41 PM. Reason : a]

1/8/2008 4:40:01 PM

^ I was actually relieved. I sold calls on all of my T at $40 and had to look at it every day.

Quote :

"if this was a security he had planned to hold for a long period of time it turned out to be a decent hedge, but if he didnt then "

I bought this batch of VMW at $57 so I'm still in the green. I was actually pleased that it dropped. When something has that high of a risk premium I like to just sit on it and sell covered calls every month until it gets called away from me.

If I'd been smart I would have bought the calls back yesterday and then sold a new set at $85 when the stock climbed a bit higher.

1/8/2008 4:49:47 PM

i'm wondering if the premium on the calls is indicating a rise in price of VMW, same thing happend to RIMM options the last time it went to 120

1/8/2008 5:00:00 PM

I don't think so. The puts share similar prices. The stock hasn't been around very long and has a good deal of volatility as a steady price hasn't established itself. It's basically oscillating until it stabilizes.

1/8/2008 5:06:10 PM

been thinking about shorting the gold market... this shit cant continue

1/8/2008 5:52:00 PM

The lady on the tv said it could and I should invest in it.

1/8/2008 5:55:39 PM

haha who is this lady

1/8/2008 6:06:44 PM

You know, the one that says its gone up like 500% in 5 years, the chick in those infomercials

1/8/2008 6:09:43 PM

Alright kids.

Here is our generation's chance to get rich. Fucking bear down, don't make any purchases, and get in this market now.

Just make sure you diversify your everliving testicles off.

1/8/2008 10:16:10 PM

Hopefully maxing out the 401K + roth again this year...

1/8/2008 10:20:44 PM

Quote :

"Here is our generation's chance to get rich. Fucking bear down, don't make any purchases, and get in this market now."

Unfortunately:
All my money is in the market, and was there before this current drop.
I don't have a job.

1/9/2008 12:23:28 AM

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22556561

1/9/2008 3:48:05 AM

Quote :

"Alright kids. Here is our generation's chance to get rich. Fucking bear down, don't make any purchases, and get in this market now. Just make sure you diversify your everliving testicles off. "

1/9/2008 6:55:14 AM

so thats the real question ... is it time right now?? another few percentage points on the downside?

Lots of questions right now, and lots of housing issues still.

BUT, im waiting in the wings, ready to invest... so, Heres to putting money in at the right time~

[Edited on January 9, 2008 at 11:32 AM. Reason : .]

1/9/2008 11:30:59 AM

Is there any way to use google portfolio or some other program to enter in my portfolio and see the change during a specific time period?

1/9/2008 12:04:59 PM

If you do your trading through online brokers is it a good idea to collect dividends into your general money pool or to reinvest dividends.??

1/9/2008 12:15:22 PM

I reinvest them.

1/9/2008 12:48:23 PM

check out which etfs are doing well

http://finance.yahoo.com/etf/browser/mkt

it think the emerging economy stocks are officially diverging from the US market

of course if our economy gets hammered, everyone will feel it. it doesn't seem like we'd get hammered. Goldman thinks the recession will be mild.

1/9/2008 1:25:47 PM

$3700 in brokerage account, what should i buy? COUNTRYWIDE!!??!??

1/9/2008 1:31:45 PM

I'm still thinking about aapl

1/9/2008 1:33:19 PM

170 right now, could easily see 200 shortly for a nice 12+% gain.

1/9/2008 1:42:01 PM

Wouldn't that be a 15% + gain?

1/9/2008 1:53:40 PM

it could be a 1%+ gain i added the + b/c i was busy and just went off the top of my head.

1/9/2008 2:11:29 PM

took some profits on IBN, INP, and IAU

1/9/2008 2:13:44 PM

Psh. You're comp sci. You should get 15% computing it off the top of your head.

1/9/2008 2:14:09 PM

nice little last hour run.

i'm still liking NIHD and CHL

and the 3 i took some profit on - i still like and own those too

1/9/2008 4:22:14 PM

Apple got down to 170ish, wish I had had some cash to put into it

1/9/2008 4:24:14 PM

i'm done with AAPL for now

1/10/2008 12:43:26 AM

TTM looks compelling

1/10/2008 2:06:33 AM

my picks for '07

ADBE
AET
BUD
BBY
GLW
FCX
HON
MCD
NWS.a
OXY
X

and i'll give you the reasoning tonight

1/10/2008 7:12:39 AM

'08?

1/10/2008 9:16:03 AM

".a"

What's up with that?

1/10/2008 9:38:47 AM

if E-Trade sells out, what would happen to its stock?

1/10/2008 11:04:07 AM

Picked up some TTM

1/10/2008 1:27:46 PM

I still say I need to invest in hearing-aid companies.

Some guy just sat down 2 computers away from me in a unity lab with headphones blasting. I could plainly hear his music from 6-7ft away.

1/10/2008 2:15:20 PM

FCX only a buy for the potential buy out

1/10/2008 2:22:46 PM

all this price volatility is actually creating price efficiency

1/10/2008 2:35:46 PM

Quote :

"i'm done with AAPL for now"

Same. Of course, I said the same thing when I sold all of my AAPL at $35.

Quote :

"Picked up some TTM"

Did you see the piece about them on CNBC? Apparently they created a very efficient hybrid and are considering buying Jaguar from Ford.

[Edited on January 10, 2008 at 2:54 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2008 2:53:13 PM

Why are you guys done with aapl?

1/10/2008 2:54:31 PM

^ Nothing specific, I just feel like it's had a great run up and now is my time to jump ship.

Here are CNN's hot IPOs of 2008:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/10/markets/ipo/copeland_ipowatch.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008011012

Quote :

"Here are some IPO candidates to keep an eye on: MySQL. One of the most anticipated tech IPOs of the coming year, MySQL is the leading open-source database company on the planet. Its software might not have the bells and whistles of Oracle 11, but it also comes at a much cheaper price. According to the venture capitalist lunch chatter, MySQL is expected to file very soon. Ingres. From 30,000 feet Ingres looks like a competitor to MySQL, but actually focuses on another part of the database food chain that is more competitive with Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500). Another open source company, it has the heft, approaching $100 million in revenue and is cash flow positive. It is widely expected to file for a public offering by mid-year. SugarCRM. Yet another open-source company, it offers, as its name suggests, software for customer relationship management, things like sales force automation and customer support. It is also on-demand. Think of it as an open-source version of SalesForce.com (CRM). The word is that it is cash flow positive. ExactTarget. A slew of software as a service companies got out the IPO door in 2007, and on-demand e-mail marketing company ExactTarget has filed with the SEC to join that group in early 2008. And get this: unlike some of its on-demand peers, it's profitable. For the first nine months of 2007, revenues came to $34.2 million, up from $22 million during the same period in 2006. Earnings in 2007 were $2.1 million. The comparison here is competitor Constant Contact (CTCT), which went public last October. And although Constant Contact got out first, the chatter about ExactTarget has been nothing but good. Parallels (formerly SWsoft). The virtualization technology company has more than doubled revenues every year for the past eight years, so it's got the track record. And its products are giving VMware a run, especially in the small- and medium-business marketplace. Just find someone who uses Parallels and they will not stop gushing about it. Given VMware's successful IPO, you can bet the SWsoft executive team and their investors including Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Venture Partners are looking hard at their IPO options in 2008."

1/10/2008 3:26:09 PM

Market rally in part on CFC and BAC deal. However, I am suspicous about the terms. If very unfavorable terms are announced then Citi, Merrill, etc could be in for a shalacking.

Consider this: Suppose that CFC goes bankrupt by the end of 2009 and the executives could have seen it coming. Then in turning down even a $2 per share bid from BAC then they could be liable for failure to act in shareholder interest.

I am not saying the terms will be bad, they could be quite good. Or the deal could be rumor. However, even if true the deal is not necessarily a positive sign.

1/10/2008 3:39:26 PM

Oh man, I want to get some mysql.

Screw it, I bought some

BUY 6 AAPL $178.26 $1,076.56

1/10/2008 3:51:51 PM

Quote :

"Why are you guys done with aapl?"

same reason i said enought of GOOG a while back. they both can still go higher, but they can tank too. they've had a hell of a run, and i just want to secure my profits.

1/10/2008 4:03:38 PM

I'm doing a buy in hold with both of those.

1/10/2008 4:04:27 PM

aapl may still grow some, but they're not going to double again for a long time.

When you review AAPL's performance, even with booming sales, the key ratios are falling not rising. Comparing overall fiscal year 2007 (Oct 2006-Sept 2007) to the most recent quarter:

Net profit DOWN: from 14.56% to 14.54%
Operating Margins DOWN: from 18.37% to 17.05%
Return on Assets DOWN: from 16.43% to 15.43%
Return on Equity DOWN: from 28.52% to 25.96%

AAPL trades at a whopping premium to its peers. It has a P/E of 50 vs 40 for other growth tech companies. Price to sales is 7+ vs 5 for tech hardware. Price to cash flow of 45 vs 35. And on, and on, and on.

Is apple a growing company?

For now, yes. but that growth is already slowing. And with a consumer recession looming, global growth would have to pick up the slack. And Apple has not had nearly as much success in overseas markets.

I think we'll see $150 before we see $200 again

1/10/2008 4:42:59 PM

Set up my 2008 contributions today. It is nice I can do weekly withdrawals/purchases.

1/10/2008 4:49:27 PM

AAPL's decelerating growth is bad.

when the 2nd derivative of the growth rate of a growth company turns negative a correction is due.

1/10/2008 4:54:41 PM