Great, rather than debate the narrative portrayed by Zero Hedge with a reasoned rebuttal, we'll instead just talk about their postings read like a conspiracy theory.

If government data is so reasonable, why the 2:00 drive effort by all powers involved to prevent a Fed audit?

2/12/2010 5:32:59 PM

anyone know how much stock market losses affect your tax return?
anyone recommend a good tax person who knows this stuff?

2/12/2010 5:49:57 PM

Why are you worried about that? Weren't you staked with 100k and allowed to trade on that? Shouldn't have any losses to report that way.

2/12/2010 5:57:26 PM

Fully expect a 200 point down day come monday

[Edited on February 12, 2010 at 6:15 PM. Reason : ,]

2/12/2010 6:12:30 PM

haha you can write off a whopping $3,000. Other than that carry it forward to next year.

If you have LOSSES in 2009 you should definitely quit trading, that is just plain embarrassing.

As Barry Zito and Tim Hudson would say, "Wear it".

Only in this case you have yourself to blame, not your teammates.

2/12/2010 10:28:42 PM

Quote :

"Weren't you staked with 100k and allowed to trade on that?"

yeah but like i said the first $5,000 was on me.

2/13/2010 12:07:14 AM

Good to see you're sticking to one of the lamest troll attempts the Stock Market threads have ever seen.

2/13/2010 12:22:43 AM

how 'bout we both put some money on it to find out who's right?

2/13/2010 1:43:50 AM

Show any scanned statement with your name on it. Not some shit you dug up google searching, or some other bullshit. If you had any semblance of balls, you would have said what website it was months ago.

2/13/2010 8:34:58 AM

like i said i'll bet on it, with a 3rd party judge
put your money where your mouth is

2/13/2010 4:43:38 PM

Why would any rational person take a bet as stupid as that you ape? The fact is, you didn't find any company that would allow you to lever up 20:1 with your terrible track record at stock picking throwing a dart at a stock board..

2/13/2010 5:25:05 PM

apparently you still dont get it, the first 5 grand is your money and your loss and they can pull out if they see you as being reckless
but still you're too chicken to place your bet

2/13/2010 8:11:33 PM

No one believes you brohab.

2/13/2010 10:25:01 PM

we may see a few up days here, or even a week; do do set your trailing stops to prevent getting hammered when the ensuing down move comes

2/14/2010 2:34:36 PM

Quote :

"Fully expect a 200 point down day come monday"

Stupid faux holidays.

2/15/2010 10:53:39 AM

trailing stop hit on BUCY.


fyi: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35370135

2/16/2010 9:52:32 AM

KO raised their dividend from .41 to .44.

2/18/2010 11:35:57 AM

Sold Feb 65 calls on NFLX at $1.30 on Jan 28 and had it called away on Friday.
Bought it back today at $65.20 and sold Mar 65 calls on half of it at $2.55.

2/22/2010 4:31:02 PM

^ Why not sell 65 puts at and free up the huge maintenance requirement? Same risk with much less $$$ tied up. NFLX had some sick intraday trading, what was that all about?

I think you'll be able to count on your hand the days in 2010 when the market finishes below 9900 or above 10,800



[Edited on February 22, 2010 at 6:00 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2010 5:58:52 PM

Quote :

"Why not sell 65 puts at and free up the huge maintenance requirement? Same risk with much less $$$ tied up"

Do you understand how options work?

2/22/2010 6:40:11 PM

^ Yes, I've been studying options for 3 years, and a lot more in depth than single leg trades. I see your previous comments in this thread and I think everyone would appreciate the high and mighty to be left out.

Since you don't understand my question, NFLX was purchased at 65.20, and a call(s) was sold at a strike of 65, with a premium of $2.55. This means that his max gain is $2.35 on the shares he sold call(s) on. If he had sold puts on the portion he initally sold calls on instead of longing the stock, he could have taken in roughly $2.60 with a maintenance requirement that is a fraction of the cost to long the stock, thus tying up less money while earning more ($2.60 is greater than $2.35) allowing him to seek other trades, % return on investment is my question here.

[Edited on February 22, 2010 at 8:33 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2010 8:30:17 PM

Fair enough, I didn't know you were equating his buying the stock as "huge maintenance requirement" because we don't know if he is simply looking for a trade or does he have other intentions.

The reduced margin is nice for sure but if you deploy that capital into other trades and you're unlucky enough to be short the put during a big move and get assigned then you could end up being proper fucked thanks to margin calls. If he is trading these in his IRA then he won't be able to write non-cash secured puts anyway.

2/22/2010 9:32:58 PM

Quote :

"I didn't know you were equating his buying the stock as "huge maintenance requirement" "

The entire premise of buying and selling options is to leverage stock at a fraction of the cost to outright buy/sell stock. Since he essentially executed a buy/write at the money, he can't gain any more than $2.35 between now and March 19th, because he bought the stock 20 cents in the money compared to his option he sold ($2.55-.20 = $2.35). If he shorts a March put for $2.60, he can take that in, which is more, and put up less.

Quote :

"but if you deploy that capital into other trades and you're unlucky enough to be short the put during a big move and get assigned then you could end up being proper fucked thanks to margin calls."

Then you don't take the capital into other trades and let it sit in your broker money market. While it will return a pathetic % right now, it's better than zero, which is what it is while tied up in longing the stock over shorting a put. And should you get put, you'll have sitting right there to purchase the stock.


[Edited on February 22, 2010 at 9:55 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2010 9:47:04 PM

It's still just a question of risk tolerance and how much you want to manage the trade.

With the Put, in the event of the downmove you end up having to pay for the (usually) increased volatility as well as the delta to get out of the position if you get nervous. Assuming he can be naked on the calls (which he couldn't be in an IRA) he could just set a stop loss and eject the stock and then let the call expire if it didn't look like it was going to recover. If it was just a jittery market downmove (actually similar to todays action) then he could just as easily re-enter the position at his sell point and he'd be out a whopping $10 commission on the exercise.

2/22/2010 9:54:51 PM

Quote :

"With the Put, in the event of the downmove you end up having to pay for the (usually) increased volatility as well as the delta "

The delta of the put option would be less than one, which is what the delta of outright longing the stock would be, when you own the stock and it goes down 20 cents, you're down 20 cents. If he's shorted the put, and the stock goes down, the delta will pick up steam more quickly yes, but it will never be more than one.

Also, setting a sell stop would be ok except if you get stopped out and your price was the bottom and the stock turns around for the positive while you're naked on the call, which is even more of a maintenance issue than the original question. That to me is risky business


[Edited on February 22, 2010 at 10:07 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2010 10:03:30 PM

Quote :

"Why not sell 65 puts at and free up the huge maintenance requirement?"

I considered it. I'd like NFLX to be a long term position, so I'd rather buy than I would sell puts and potentially lose any upside.

I sold the calls on half of it on the possibility that it might drop in the next few days or stay flat for a week or more and allow me to buy to close at a lower price. This would net me a small short term return where I'd otherwise lose money or just stay flat. In similar situations like this in the past I've closed and reopened the same position several times before the strike date and gotten a fairly decent return though the stock has hardly moved.

Besides, if the stock stays above 65 and I don't close it, I've earned a 4% return on my cash in one month. If it drops, then my bottom line is 62.65 and I'll write calls on it again next month.

It's just a mildly conservative way of hedging my bets.

Quote :

"NFLX had some sick intraday trading, what was that all about?"

Walmart announced that they were buying Vudu, one of NFLXs big competitors.

2/22/2010 10:26:26 PM

The same can be done with the put, if the stock goes up, you can buy it back cheaper, and then wait to let it come back down and sell again and again until exp. This assumes we don't know which way the market is going to go, which I don't think anyone on here does in a given week. Also, your bottom right now if the stock is under 65 on exp. by selling the put would be 65-2.6= $62.40, if it stays above the 65, you take in $2.60. By selling the call, you can make 2.55-.2= $2.35 if it's aboe 65, or own it at 65.20-2.55= $62.65 . So you can own it cheaper by selling the put, and put up less money. Or if it stays above 65, collect 2.60 with the put, or 2.35 by selling the call and putting up all that money to buy the stock.

[Edited on February 22, 2010 at 10:42 PM. Reason : .]

2/22/2010 10:41:54 PM

I'm very familiar with puts. I generally prefer that the bulk of my positions be covered calls rather than naked puts. Most responsible investors would agree with me.

Like I said, I'm bullish on the stock so I decided to buy now and open a short term call on half of my position to immediately put some cash in my pocket. A put would give me some cash, but if the stock climbs higher I'll miss all of the upside. On the other hand, if the stock falls lower, the put will go up in value and I'll lose money trying to close it or I'll have to sit it out and then get put the stock in a month, regardless of how low it is. Right now if the stock goes to shit I can sell it as low as 62.65 and still come out even. Besides, I got the feeling that we would see a big down day before we would see a big up day.

By selling puts you'd be exposing yourself to much more risk for a very inconsequential amount of money.

2/23/2010 12:56:30 PM

Alright, serious question. I have about $2000 to start an online investment account this year, just want to dabble in some novice trading. Whats the best online brokerage. Sharebuilder, TD Ameritrade, and Fidelity all look solid to me.

I am asking based on fees, and customer service, but also research tools/potential.

2/23/2010 3:28:11 PM

Scottrade, and for 2K I'd just buy a mutual fund and let it sit, but that's just me.

2/23/2010 5:02:34 PM

Yeah, I'd say get your feet wet with an ETF or mutual fund.

2/23/2010 6:02:21 PM

eh, I can't explain that over the net...

Big Ben meeting tomorrow

[Edited on February 23, 2010 at 6:47 PM. Reason : Eh]

2/23/2010 6:38:28 PM

What are your thoughts on SIRI?

2/23/2010 6:56:09 PM

Well the housing and Freddie numbers are just staggering. Bonds seem like a bubble to me at this point.

2/24/2010 4:51:20 PM

Glad I bought some more RST yesterday before close.

Up 28% today.

2/26/2010 3:47:10 PM

Was that dumb luck or did you have a hunch they'd report well today?

I should have acted on one of my real life observations about Rosetta. I was at a local Mexican joint Wednesday and these three redneck chicks were being drunk and loud at the bar and at some point I overheard one of them say "I need to get me summa dat Rosetta shit up in here"

If the marketing has penetrated that well, you know the earnings are going to be good.

2/26/2010 6:08:02 PM

I'd been reading up on them lately, but the timing was dumb luck.

One of the big factors that I like is that they have very little international sales, but their product would take no tweaking at all to work overseas. Their biggest competitor is Berlitz, though there really isn't any competition from them.

2/26/2010 6:57:50 PM

I know this is kind of off topic, but does anybody know much about Valic Financial Advisors or working for Valic?

3/2/2010 8:21:41 PM

April 50 straddle on PM.

[Edited on March 3, 2010 at 3:57 PM. Reason : .]

3/3/2010 3:56:04 PM

What's the motivation for that trade? I assume you longed that?

3/3/2010 6:10:36 PM

jesus someone put a $400 million trade on google today. 25% of its avg daily volume in one trade.

Im not a technical trader, but wouldnt that be a huge reason to buy google stock? Seems to me a posiiton like that is apt to be either a micro short term play or a long term "value" bet...

3/3/2010 6:12:29 PM

^^ Nothing special, PM just looks solid to me. Covered short. I'll probably close out both before expiration.

3/3/2010 7:06:53 PM

Tivo? Fucking Tivo? Really?

3/4/2010 6:15:27 PM

CNBC suggests buying July 220 calls on AAPL at $14.70 while selling July 250 calls at $4.70.

Worth considering IMHO.

3/5/2010 5:40:11 PM

I've been looking into some calendars for a couple weeks but now that we've punched through 1125 it probably makes sense to just make some flat call buying or vertical strategies or even some more aggressive stuff like 1x2 ratio plays on some high quality names selling puts to finance calls.

I'm really kicking myself for not shorting SRS at the 8.75 level and not just buying some SPY calls yesterday. It seems like for the past 6 months, every time the market is bumping into resistance some economic number (be it NFP or GDP) comes out to trigger the algos to blast right through it.

I've seen a few of what I'd consider more reliable outfits calling for a final top near 1350 on the S&P before a real trend change and I'm starting to believe it.

3/5/2010 5:49:49 PM

Doing more of my taxes, would love to have this trade back:

DIREXION DLY FINL 3X ETF 25459W508 03/05/09 PURCHASE 500.00000 $2.9899 $1,499.90
DIREXION DLY FINL 3X ETF 25459W508 $6.1500 500.00000 03/23/09 $3,070.03 SALE

3/6/2010 5:23:56 PM

That's a long holding period for a levgd ETF - nice timing though...

3/7/2010 11:15:10 AM

I'm not going to pretend I knew what I was doing.

3/7/2010 11:53:22 AM

lol

3/7/2010 11:58:52 AM

And if I showed you the tax data following that transaction on FAS, you'd see a continued bites at the FAZ apple with stop outs in the 2-5% range expecting the market to turn back down at any moment. The smart money knew the bottom was in and that stocks were grotesquely undervalued. I was not the smart money.

3/7/2010 12:08:48 PM