rayman

Thursday's Options Recap

I'm long a JUL MA Butterfly call spread @200 strike.....we shall see....
Longed V LEAPs before earns day before earns

Understanding How the Dow Jones Is Calculated

URL for the sheet didn't work for me for some reason, using Excel 2003 sp3 here (maybe that's part of the problem lol).
Anyway, great idea, the same for Excel also works if you create a Yahoo Finance portfolio and export it too Excel, it works really well even for quotes.

Thursday's Options Recap

I like these pair trades as well for quick intraday profit.
Was going to get HGG (H.H. Gregg off of BBY news, missed it)........or SYY (Sysco) off of CAG news. Too many other positions to manage today though, but missed out on the HGG short squeeze today.
Bah humbug, but Happy investing, Ray

Monday's Options Recap

i hate whatstrading.com.....lol, they are "watching" me.....Fred, just kidding awesome site, that's me on the mini FTSE calls.....btw, not listing the index here though for privacy reasons

Monday's Options Recap

long rvx puts.....still peckin away.....

Friday's Options Recap

FRED, you STINK
(being sarcastic of course)
nice day in the markets today, thanks for all your contributions, they are absolutely INVALUABLE ;)

Friday's Options Recap

ahh tried to get some MS long today with a cheap shot $21 MAR call
no dice, oh well, couldn't hold that level....
out $55.......maybe next time, felt more comfortable with that risk/reward than holding it long over the weekend if the market couldn't see any strength
teens maybe? who knows......still like MS for some strange reason. I thought about shorting MAC puts today, but not quite yet.

Tuesday's Options Recap: Risk Perceptions Fall Sharply

I need to due some more delta neutral (well - *kind of* trades. Doh, one more thing I thought of (of course). 50 shares of stock - then of course get 1 put. Same math I guess as 2 puts, but if the stock is expensive, simply keep the same ratio. If you like the stock, buy more on weakness or strength, rinse, lather repeat and if you make gains, try to use some of those gains to purchase another put. Could be really good for momentum stocks, and also very good downside protection.

Monday's Options Recap

liked the price action on RTN & LLL, starting some back month .DFX index calls......

Tuesday's Options Recap: Risk Perceptions Fall Sharply

The delta neutral also sounds similar as well to this method: www.theoptionsguide.co... that I like as well. Good notes, keep up the great work! Seems almost worthwhile these days to get 2 puts against a position esp. if they get cheaper.

On Mar 11 10:31 AM Frederic Ruffy wrote:

> Thank you for the comments. Sounds like the KIE calls are working
> out well for you Rayman.
>
> One clarification to the comment: "something like 80% or more of
> all block option trades are delta neutral".
>
> Delta neutral implies that a position is perfectly hedged. For example,
> 100 shares of stock, which have a delta of 1.00, can be hedged with
> two puts that have negative deltas of -.5. This results in a position
> delta of 0 or delta neutral.
>
> Over the 15+ years I have been active in the options market, including
> on an institutional trading desk, I can tell you with certainty that
> 80 percent of block options trades are not delta neutral. Options
> trades are initiated by buyers and sellers for a variety of reasons--sometimes
> to hedge, sometimes to speculate. True, a lot of the activity is
> tied to shares, but it is often on positive or negative deltas.<br/>
>
> We monitor the activity throughout the day and write about the most
> interesting and noteworthy activity. Whether or not you feel it has
> predictive value is up to you, but consider a recent example from
> Friday--a surge in call activity in Schering Plough that occurred
> before the takeover announcement Monday. This was not a coincidence.
>
>
> If you want to find out more about the tools we use and how we track
> the activity, we have a FAQ section on our web site that addresses
> many of those questions.
>
> Good trading!

Tuesday's Options Recap: Risk Perceptions Fall Sharply

lol, out KIE calls....probably saw em on your site *wink* *wink*
150% return on the squeeze Fred...held for a few days I believe, but wish I kept my IBM/UYG calls, phenomenal day

I ike the notes on Delta Neutral Fred.
I went Delta neutral on EFA (well kind of) with a 33 strike straddle on the front month today. A wee bit upside, but I might pull it at a 10% loss if things don't work out right away. Looking for 20% upside.
I might be doing some conversions soon if I can find some (shouldn't be too hard to do if some more volatality comes in).

Tuesday's Options Recap: Risk Perceptions Fall Sharply

that was me on the KIE calls btw Fred......;-)

Foreign Bank Stocks: Irish, British Lead a Sea of Red

I disagree completely with the negativity of this article. This article fails to mention that some banks are actually doing well, and it's taken completely from a chart basis with no fundamentals to support the facts. Actually BBD raised it's dividend. UBB actually did a stock SPLIT last year because their stock was so high and it's actually done not too bad for the year (*disclaimer, I don't own any of them now, but made some pretty good money from the *long* side whilst watching US banks plummet, or as they would say in Brazil *el tanko*).
As far as the comment: "In fact some of the global bank stocks have performed equally poorly or even worse than US banks."
Yes, you should say "some" and not present a complete list with high quality banks.

Unfortunately this article may have been written also right after the big Stanford Financial scenario.
If I were in an investor, I would start small positions, but, however, I think pullbacks in some of these banks present buying opportunities, especially some of the larger emerging market banks such as UBB & IBN.

Friday Options Update: WFC, C, BAC, EL, TRA, CY, FXI

There was some positioning it looks like on a straddle for EFA as well as FXI.
I don't know what's going on in Asia, I had a CHL straddle last month, the chart just looked ok to enter in @55, Jan 55 straddle was a 80% return (mainly due to puts). I don't hold anything currently in China now though. You never know with options, it might be someone trading around a core position too seeking some protection.

Highest Yielding Stocks Going Ex-Dividend in December

btw .....a zero cost collar is excactly what it says