Category: Reading

CNBC is starting to sound like late night Cinemax with all the double entendres. I think I heard this report last night and actually double checked to see if I was still on the business channel.

Female Anchor (FA): We are going to need a really big package to make this worth the effort.

Male Anchor (MA): How big does the package need to be to make you happy?

FA: I really think we need something that can go deep enough to put …

Forbes had an article explaining why DRYS and other dry bulk shipping companies are a bad buy right now.  Forbes seems to be under the belief that the economy will never pick up.  I had to give DRYS some extra thought throughout the day yesterday.  I’m long (own) 200 shares and short (sold) two naked puts and six calls.  Two of my calls are so far out of the money I’m not even thinking of buying …

Here’s an interesting article on CNN.com’s site that I almost had for MyTradersJournal.com.  It’s written by a friend of the family who works at CNN, Paul Varian.  He sent me his story via email and said that he was sending it to the AC/360 team also in case they were interested.  He gave me permission to post his story if CNN wasn’t interested.  They were and posted it, so I’m just linking to it instead …

Today (even the past few days) has been interesting to watch how oil reacts to Ike, the hurricane, not Turner.

The AMEX Oil Index (XOI) is up almost 2%, but oil ETF USO is down a half percent.  I recognize they aren’t tracking the exact same underlying issues, but that’s a big difference when both are tracking oil.  INO has an interesting take on it.  Check out the video they posted yesterday:

Crude, wasn’t it …

Wiley Publishing sent me a copy of Profit from the Peak a couple of months ago and I finally finished reading it while on vacation a couple of weeks ago.  The short review of Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder’s work is that it’s a good book and worth the read for anyone investing actively now and anyone who wants to learn more about oil.

As would be hard for any book to deliver, …

I got this idea from Jim Cramer’s Mad Money show on Friday night.  I only watched about 20 minutes of the show, which is pretty much the norm for me if I get to watch it at all.  (I skipped Monday night’s show to watch some Eurocup soccer while my wife is out of town.)

Tidewater Inc (NYSE: TDW) is listed in the services sector under shipping industry, but is really heavily tied to the energy industry since those are the …

I created a new page that I’ll be using as my scratch pad for new option trade ideas on stocks I’ve read about through various sources.  The format isn’t set with how I’m starting it now, but I expect to list the ticker, date and source from where I found the idea. 

As I read various articles from magazines, other blogs, newspapers and traditional Web sites I write the tickers on whatever paper I have near …

I pulled this from “In Play” on Yahoo! Finance today. They referenced this press release from overstock.com’s Web site.  (I watch In Play throughout the day to get the short story on what’s moving the markets.)
9:08AM Overstock.com issues press release related to Reg. SHO (OSTK) 20.15 : Co announces that “yesterday marked the 800th trading day that the co has appeared on the Regulation SHO threshold list”. The CEO said “While this may seem paradoxical, the facts can …

I saw this article on money.cnn and thought it was worth sharing.  Basically it highlights the same thing that many of us have read for years – the roaring 80s and 90s won’t be seen again.  I take from this yet another reason to follow the naked put selling trading model. 

If the markets stay at a 8-9% annual clip, selling naked puts is the way to go.  Once you get closer to the …