Yep futures are up nicely. I'm just saying I'm going to scale back my gambles and start to think about hedges. They could just as easily have missed and we could be looking at a down day. I once took a big gamble on Google earnings and got burned to the tune of a 100% loss
As often happens, I didn't take my own best advice here. Holding a few grand in calls and getting a fairly brutal haircut today. Now the big dilemma - Whether to sell out for a big (50%ish) loss or hold and hope for some upside on Monday.
Rolled it over to next month at the same $15 strike. The price is 35 cents higher than the position it replaced, so I'm basically going double or nothing. Unfortunately, I entered my spread price as a net debit instead of a net credit, so it executed at market and cost me about $3. Not a big deal though..
Rolled it over to next month at the same $15 strike. The price is 35 cents higher than the position it replaced, so I'm basically going double or nothing. Unfortunately, I entered my spread price as a net debit instead of a net credit, so it executed at market and cost me about $3. Not a big deal though..
I have an account where all I do is write short puts on GE. What that means is, I promise to buy 100 shares of GE at the agreed strike price, in this case $15, and collect a fee for the contract. I am required to hold $1500 in my account at all times while I have this contract open. At any time before expiration the person who buys it from me can exercise that option and then I am sold 100 shares of GE for $1500. At expiration, if the stock is trading at less than $15, I am automatically sold the shares. If it's $15 or more, then I get the money and don't have to buy the stocks. Either way, I keep the money paid to me for the contract.
I have an account where all I do is write short puts on GE. What that means is, I promise to buy 100 shares of GE at the agreed strike price, in this case $15, and collect a fee for the contract. I am required to hold $1500 in my account at all times while I have this contract open. At any time before expiration the person who buys it from me can exercise that option and then I am sold 100 shares of GE for $1500. At expiration, if the stock is trading at less than $15, I am automatically sold the shares. If it's $15 or more, then I get the money and don't have to buy the stocks. Either way, I keep the money paid to me for the contract.
I have an account where all I do is write short puts on GE. What that means is, I promise to buy 100 shares of GE at the agreed strike price, in this case $15, and collect a fee for the contract. I am required to hold $1500 in my account at all times while I have this contract open. At any time before expiration the person who buys it from me can exercise that option and then I am sold 100 shares of GE for $1500. At expiration, if the stock is trading at less than $15, I am automatically sold the shares. If it's $15 or more, then I get the money and don't have to buy the stocks. Either way, I keep the money paid to me for the contract.
You can normally use the same account, you just need to ask for permission and at first they'll only let you do short covered calls (meaning you contract to sell stocks you already have). I have two retirement accounts with E*Trade, and one is in stocks, one in cash with short option positions. The one with the short options is miles ahead of the stocks. I may liquidate and do the same with my other account too.
You can normally use the same account, you just need to ask for permission and at first they'll only let you do short covered calls (meaning you contract to sell stocks you already have). I have two retirement accounts with E*Trade, and one is in stocks, one in cash with short option positions. The one with the short options is miles ahead of the stocks. I may liquidate and do the same with my other account too.
I'm actually not doing that bad in this market. After starting back up a little over a month ago my portfolio is only down $17 (after today's massacre). Funny, I was up $100 yesterday but it's all good. Best performers for me so far have been BIV and DEP. I would say that over 90% of my portfolio pays either monthly or quarterly dividends. As a result, such a volatile market isn't making me feel worried at all.
This weekend I'll do some research on stocks that should perform well in deflationary periods. Again, I'll only be looking at quality stocks/ETFs that pay dividends.
How do you guys find stocks to invest in? Do you look into them after hearing about them in news articles? Or is it based on some sort of personal connection to each company? Or something else?
How do you guys find stocks to invest in? Do you look into them after hearing about them in news articles? Or is it based on some sort of personal connection to each company? Or something else?
Simple. I use stock screeners/filters to search for specific criteria. Then I usually go through the company's financials and look at it's competitors. Then I look at the charts for price movements. All research for the stocks that I purchased over the past month or so was done months in advance.
Some stocks have a personal connection to me. Others were mentioned through various media outlets.
A good start would be to look up the companies within industries that interest you. The first stocks I ever purchased were Activision and Electronics Boutique in 2004
How do you guys find stocks to invest in? Do you look into them after hearing about them in news articles? Or is it based on some sort of personal connection to each company? Or something else?
I'm an diversified stock index fund investor. Really only concerned about long term at the moment. I opened my first IRA account with vanguard, and they seem to have a good selection of low cost index funds. When I select a new fund for my portfolio, I just make sure that it's in a different sector of the world economy (market capitalization, industry, nationality, growth/value), that the fees are generally < 0.3% without any crazy big sale fee, and I generally buy the underperformers when I choose a new fund because in generally they all perform the same long term so buying the losers is buying low. My only exception to this rule is Japan. I've avoided Japan because they have consistently underperformed for so long (20+ years) and I don't understand why.
When I'm done creating my portfolio it will just be a matter of re-balancing every year or so and when there's a significant change in valuation between funds.
Sold out of everything right at the open, save a few hail mary positions. 95% cash now. I'm trying to save for a down payment on a house so I need to get out of volatility for a while. Going to look for opportunistic positions as they come still.
I have an account where all I do is write short puts on GE. What that means is, I promise to buy 100 shares of GE at the agreed strike price, in this case $15, and collect a fee for the contract. I am required to hold $1500 in my account at all times while I have this contract open. At any time before expiration the person who buys it from me can exercise that option and then I am sold 100 shares of GE for $1500. At expiration, if the stock is trading at less than $15, I am automatically sold the shares. If it's $15 or more, then I get the money and don't have to buy the stocks. Either way, I keep the money paid to me for the contract.
You get paid to buy the stocks? Interesting. I've only dabbled a little bit in educating myself on options. What is the risk in what you are doing with GE? Is there even a downside?
You get paid to buy the stocks? Interesting. I've only dabbled a little bit in educating myself on options. What is the risk in what you are doing with GE? Is there even a downside?
I can get stuck with 100 shares that are worth a lot less than I was forced to pay for them. But that's the same risk you have when you buy the stocks, so it's nothing exceptional.
Anyone else thinks GOOG might go down? Everything they do is a failure. They have a bunch of services they offer for free that no one even knows about because they are practically hidden on their site. They might make money from advertising but they can only lose ground from here on IMO considering nothing they do succeeds.
I got out of Trina today. I decided to use a Trailing Stop, which never crossed my mind before. It returned just over 25% for me. I was hoping for 40%, but I'm not taking any chances.
I had Nintendo at $32 earlier this year, and it was up to $42 at one point, but I didn't have any sort of Stop order on it. So I ended up selling it at like $33.50, only making like a grand off it. I'm never making that mistake again. Trailing Stops ftw.
I'm looking for any tips. I'd recommend watching Trina (TSL) in-case it ever drops back down to $20 or so. I'd buy it at anything under $20, unless the market is crashing. That's actually the reason I cashed out of Nintendo. I threw everything into Trina. To think, I had it at $6 back in '08. PEACE.
Anyone else thinks GOOG might go down? Everything they do is a failure. They have a bunch of services they offer for free that no one even knows about because they are practically hidden on their site. They might make money from advertising but they can only lose ground from here on IMO considering nothing they do succeeds.
As I have said in a couple of threads, Google is simply the leading contender for the cloud computing monopoly at the moment. If that happens then they could get to the market cap of MS, from several years ago.
I think that short term they will go down, but in that case it is an excellent opportunity for Dollar Cost Averaging.
. Simple reason is they are the best company in the world and managing, harvesting and creating data. There core competencies are the most translatable to cloud computing out of all the competitors, MSFT, AAPL, GOOG. MSFT could be but they are fucking bi polar in their production and AAPL is the best hardware company in the world, they are not primarily a software company, nor do they have the culture, open, or resources, human, for cloud computing.
Aside from the question of capabilities, in terms of current tactical position.
Google Has: Gmail, Android and is making a strong push with apps. They have the first mover advantage by a long shot.
What do their competitors have? MSFT clearly has strength in the business market, but they are not gonna jump over to cloud and render their massive it infrastructure obsolete. Additionally their many of their cloud products are redundant of one another and have messy integration.
Apple clearly has a strong following, but Mobile Me their one adventure into anything cloud is shit. They have a strong hardware position, but android has removed their advantage in terms of market share.
I punted, did a spread and traded my Jul $15 puts for some Aug $15 puts (at a higher price, since the stock was $14.70 or so then). Now it's over $16. That's like punting, catching the punt and winding up with a touchdown.
So after today's GDP report I will focus my energy into purchasing more of BIV. This ETF has been my hedge in this up and down (mostly down) market. On bad days this thing is always up so more will be good. Still up overall though.
Any thoughts on NVDA? They're near their 52-week low, and although they scaled back earning projections, I think they're still gonna turn a profit for the quarter. What's their viability for the mobile market? I see that as the future for the semiconductor industry. PEACE.
Well I have only a -.5 percent return on the year for my 401k. :lol :lol
My only stock owning is Texas Instruments. I bought it at 32 a share @ 10 shares on my dad's advice the company would do well over three years ago. What a load of shit.
GAF I have 2 thousand dollars. Help me learn how to invest it.
Well I have only a -.5 percent return on the year for my 401k. :lol :lol
My only stock owning is Texas Instruments. I bought it at 32 a share @ 10 shares on my dad's advice the company would do well over three years ago. What a load of shit.
GAF I have 2 thousand dollars. Help me learn how to invest it.
I should have had a 50% return since my first trade on 11/2008. However, I lost 40% on an ultrashort financials ETF *facepalm*. So it took Nintendo and Trina to dig me out of the hole, and now I'm back to a 25% return on the cash I've deposited. Considering compounding, it's not quite that 13.44%, but it's close. And that's with a colossal error. I should actually have a 50% return, if I had been more cautious with that one trade.
If anyone is curious, it was SKF that killed me. I recommended it a year or so ago because I was sure the banks were gonna dip again. The government bailed them out, and the stock went from $90-$25 in a few weeks. I averaged down, but I was still holding it at an average cost of $40 and sold it at $20-something. Live and learn. PEACE.
Sounds very familiar. That 2010 number is largely down to getting a huge burn from a 3x bear ETF over the past week (calls on TZA) (yes, after I said I was pulling everything out *sigh*). Danced with the devil and lost.
After I buy my condo in the next two months, I'm going to start rebuilding my stock holdings in two accounts. One for longs, and a separate one for options. I am addicted to playing the odds with options, but I'm finding that I'm too prone to going in overboard. I had two wins where I shoved in 50% of my portfolio. The third time I went in 75% and just got my ass handed to me.
Not a big surprise, ATVI has pretty much always been hammered regardless of the results. But Blur and Singularity were obviously going to tank. Anything decision unrelated to CoD or Blizzard has = shit.
This may be a stupid thing to ask but, I work at my company and have a vague idea when new products/versions are going to be released, is it considered insider trading if I decided to buy stock weeks or a month before a product releases? I never know exactly when its going to release, just when its getting close to passing QA.
