Not that I focus on my IRA here, but I just made two trades that I hope will perform well for me. I bought 300 shares of CSCO at 31.40 and 200 shares of EBAY at 36.62. I have mentioned a couple of times that my IRA hasn’t performed as well as my brokerage account. …
Month: October 2007
Stocks Picks and the Put/Call Ratio
I haven’t made it through this week’s Barron’s yet and don’t see it happening. I read more than half of it, but couldn’t get into it with most of the stocks they highlighted. I was surprised to see Michael Santoli moving away from being a solid bear and even hinting towards a bullish lean soon. I…
October Option Expiry
As I mentioned earlier, October was another very good month for me. I had options on NYX, AAPL, CHTT, JOYG, PCU and CRDN. All finished out of the money for me, even after the strong pull back last week. I never even had to do a gut check on what was happening with so much…
Dow Jones Chart ($INDU), October 19, 2007
I thought last week was fun, you? In my DJIA charting post last week I said I thought the Dow was ready for a pull back to the 10 and 20 week moving averages. Not that this blog is about self praise (or is it?), but did you notice the ending point on this week’s chart? …
Don’t Forget Your Limit Orders
These are the days that can really help out a portfolio in the longer run. Just like in previous days where we got a big drop in a single day, fear takes off as stocks tank. The VIX is up over 21 at the end of the trading day meaning those limit orders on naked…
NYX – A Lesson in the Benefits of Selling Options
I’ll be selling my NYX shares with options expiration upon us this weekend. I am exiting the position with a profit as I planned when I wrote my most recent covered calls on NYX, although the stock itself is down from when I first started trading on NYX with a naked put last December, over 10 months ago. …
Selling Naked Put Options on Diana Shipping Inc. (DSX)
Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show headlined dry shipping companies last night. I took a deeper look at four of them that he mentioned: PRGN, OCNF, GNK and DSX. The first two don’t trade options so I stopped there. The latter two are optionable and both offer fairly “rich” premiums. Of course these are the ones he…
5 Reasons Naked Put Selling Beats Covered Call Selling
For anyone interested in covered call selling, consider understanding naked put selling as a better option. The risk/reward graph of both methods will show writing naked put options is the same as writing covered call options. (selling = writing, for those not familiar with the term.) They both pay you up front to limit your upside…
Ditched the Dish
I exited my naked puts on DISH that I sold three weeks ago. I only had two days and 2 hours to go before the put options expired, but the WSJ had an article yesterday that seems to be gaining belief. They say no buyout is coming soon. DISH has been sliding all day and…