straddles...........25 put .......30 call .................2 year leaps/ comfotable.....MSFT???? feedback please???thanks........
msft long term horizon excellent play imo; forget 'bout da puts, risk on downside very, very lmtd; buy calls, 30strike would do just fine. stock has been range bound for yrs, very soon will be launchin' new version of windows and is already takin' mkt shares from goog and the likes...things are lookin' very perky for da stock; analysts are so excited 'bout msft they will not allow short sellers to make any profits: will prop it up on weakness if there'll be any.
I ALWAYS BU Y PUTS ........WON'T SUFFER ANOTHER TECH WRECK AGAIN.....ALWAYS BUY LEAPS.........SAME THEORY.......2 YEARS IS COMFORTABLE I AGREE DOWNSIDE IS LESS LIKELY BUT I LIKE TO BUY 08 CALL AND 07 PUT FOR CHEAP AND ANOTHER PUT WHEN FIRST EXPIRES IF NECESSARY AS DOWNSIDE IS LESS LIKELY.........JUST MY THOUGHTS BASED ON SUCCESS TURNED TO FAILURE ONCE UPON A TIME AND NOW I SEE HOW COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED VERY EASILY IF GREED HAD BEEN HEDGED...........WITH PUTS.......
That explains why I don't trade retracements. However, retracements occur more often than TT (True Trend), so exploring it is worthwhile. Consider the recent moves by AAPL and SNDK. What's not visible on the daily is crystal clear on the intraday. There is a short entry signal somewhere on the chart. A drop to 52 is likely, that is if the stock doesn't turn around in the morning. That is correct! I'll be glad to buy Calls when long entry is signalled!
please don't think I am being ornery, just got so burned with one way options.....calls only...........i started with 18000 in acct.......in 2 months acct was 44-000............though t it was all my skills as a new options trader.......wrong it was the bull market.....i thoug t my brother who went from 50 to 450,000 in 1 year was doing same was brilliant........we bombed when tech wreck caught us in all call positons short term with enormous greed factored in........learned my lesson.....i buy lots of time now and never am without insurance............just my lessons learned for my account only........no advice given.........thanks..........
What an experience!! It's good to discover one's psychological make-up and risk tolerance through trading. Did you trade any market before options? If yes, for how long?
can u give us da logic for preferrin' to long all that delta/IV? u think any upside move will be lmtd? if u are a bull on msft and expect a big move makin' use of otm calls is the correct approach; greek risk is magnified on atm/itm. atm are good to long if da stock does a lot of churnin' back'n'forth, not so good [at least not as otm] if a big rally takes place. talkin' 'bout 2-3/1 ratio comparison.
I recently discovered this forum, (and options for that matter). Seems like a helpful group posting here, so I thought I'd fire away.... I attended a trading seminar 6 months ago, saw the light ... ("900% returns!!", etc ...), and have been obsessing about trading since. It's encouraging to find out it is actually possible to make a go of it. Unfortunately, I started out throwing money around at everthing that moved, fairly unsucessfully, which probably goes without saying. Since then, I've been developing software, and a trading system(s) .... I've had some success, but my exit points are something to be desired... Basically, I look for things that "don't make sense", (in my limited experience anyway) and trade against it. I look for stocks that move upruptly out of its trading range, (bollinger bands) and trade against it. The software I developed can capture these moves, I pull data from INET's web services (nasdaq) and data mine. For instance, I shorted FNM after a 3 move on little news, at 58.41 on 2/23/2006, 20 March puts at .30, it went to 2.20 in two days .... (but unbelievably, I didn't close out, and am selling today at hopefully 1.80 .... arggggh) I wanted to short SHLD at 133 on 3/16, but didn't have the balls, I would have tripled the money in 30 minutes ... Any thoughts, suggestions, comments, nasty statements? Bill P.