There were indeed many cycles in the last few months, which many people took advantage of and made a bundle, including yourself. The short-term volatility can be played in the long/call side and/or the short/put side, which yourself had done.
I understand that you take short-term position and using the market trend as your friend, instead of riding the fundamentals of the company and taking long-term positions. That is totally understandable because fundamentals can change, especially if time frame is long.
In my previous post, I was not trying to "exchange barbs" and neither was my earlier posts. I just found some of your messages amusing and conflicting, and I simply stated my thoughts. Since you were generous enough to show us your cards, we had quite a good idea on how your OVERALL positions are doing. Therefore there were no needs to brag about you gains when you do not talk about losses. Thanks for clarifying your strategy (short-term plus collars to hedge) because I can learn from everyone's style and make my own.
Filing taxex to Uncle Sam is a pain in the butt, and I dont really enjoy handing my gains to the IRS. Seems like you/your clients are in the higher/est tax bracket so please do yourself a favor by doing so ahead of time.
My investment strategy changes from time to time, but my current strategy is summed up in the following written by Don, a NYSE broker, in the "Make REAL MONEY" thread: <<...I've been buying stocks since the early 50's... Was a NYSE Broker (licensed for both options & commodities) for 16+ years...and, I gotta tell ya - most of the people on these threads I've been reading are (sorry about this) - SUCKERS! Yes, you read it right...Many of these nice folks think that you can day-trade, or short, or option your way to a fortune...well here's a flash - they are DEAD WRONG! Any honest broker with at least 10 yrs. experience will verify this - if pressed....quick and easy money is the fools gold of the stock market. Oh sure, you can hit 'em a lick for a while...then without warning, the game "seems to change" and "the house" gets the chips back. Sometimes, as in the case of Vic Neiderhoffer - in ONE DAY! Most of these folks have regular jobs and foolishly believe that they can outguess and outmanuever the full-time pros. Most give no indication of knowledge of how the specialists work or even the house traders on NAZ. Those are big league fastballers. If these folks really undertood the competition - there wouldn't be some many truly stupid posts. Now then - hitting the right side on 50 calls will generate some green - BUT, it's all short term gains...same for shorting. If you don't think that the difference between long & short term gains means anything - you have all ready read too far!! The truth is boys and girls that: major positions that result in big, long term cap gains- is THE ONLY WAY TO GO. If you crave constant action (must bet every race) your bookie loves you and the maket will eat you alive.>>
So to put it short, I would rather ride out the majority of my positions thru bumps, while using short term in-the-money covered calls (which I used on JBIL and my other holdings) and OEX put/calls options to make a few bucks on the side, while remaining my core positions. Not to mention not getting ripped off by the nice specialists/Market Makers in the Exchanges by throwing in my towel.
Best regards,
Ben Yeung |
