Hi Mich: ABOUT THE CAP GAINS TAX and I have one account ( the ira ) that is only good for covered calls..but my regular account is good for put/call buying
to open..selling to close..I can also write calls but not naked..,
and I can write naked puts..but I have to keep a cash or
margin balance large enough to accept the stock I write puts on..
if you didn't ask for this, or fill out and sign
the paper work to start with you should be able to go back
and do it..they don't just do it automatically..as you have
get approval..after all options are risky and they want you
to read the warning package first..
Most every one who learns options learns the hard way..it takes
a lot of nerves and tolerance for risk..( I should say loss )..
I'm still asking my self if it's worth it, as to make it takes
a lot of work too..the spreads are more than they look and
commissions can eat you up..playing the way I do you must
have a discount broker..and be tied to real time quotes and
e-trading, as getting in and out you have to be fast, and it's
not a get rich fast thing
I had Jbil, Avid , MSFT , INTC..Adbe, AOL ..XCIT ..XLNX, Scop,
PSIX, and TDW all going at onec..it was a load..have closed
all but JBIL TDW AOL XCIT...may lose my shirt on XCIT..or
any of the others except TDW..I'm fairly safe on that one..with
more profit already in than I have hanging..most of these are
real short term. I was so busy I missed AOL at 53..
and also missed ADBE when she turned..grabbed at some AOL a little
late..may have to dump that for a small loss..options are not as
easy as a lot of people make them out to be..it takes time to
get the feel for them..more than anything else..I would say it
takes a feel..as they can act different..depending on who the
specialist is..and how much he has on the ball..sometimes you
will see the puts/calls leading the price..sometimes it's the
other way..( easter to play if the stock leads )..AOL don't,
the options will always tip you to the reversal in price with
AOL..( that's a good specialist )..if you find one who is asleep
on the job you can do good..but with AOL..( don't ever chase the
option price..it must come to you , or pass , you may get away with it
a time or too but you got to be ready to get run over too ) <G>
take like bidding 5 contracts,..at $3
when they are asking $4..she can come to you ..and keep going
to were you have to jump back in and take 15 more at $1 to average
them down to $ 1.50..in some cases you need one more reserve..
so you can move to the next strike price..if on 3 trys you mess
up..fold and study your mistakes good before you get back in.
------------------------
It's more an art than a science..sure you know about were she
will turn..but what do you do if she don't..it's faster than
most people think to..as soon as I buy a set..I turn around and
set a (GTC ) good till cancel sale price..and offer them
back..I can do a cancel and replace faster than putting in the
original order..so I set sell price higher and well out of range
at first..but if need be I can go to market order in a flash..
like sometimes the price I really had in mind gets run by..just
like I can get run over..so I'm out of range enough..I can just
wait with my finger on the trigger..and hit market as the momentum
slows..I don't buy at market..well almost never..but I do sell
at market a lot now...( and I once said I would never do that )but
more often than not it gives me an edge..and so far I'v not been
ripped off..guess they know with all the trades I'm running that
I have to be looking..my order sheet today was 3 pages, 13 buys
and 6 sells executed, and I have 13 more sells GTC open..and
that was just the options..on the IRA I put up 4 sells..and bought
200 shares of SO..at 21-1/8 and as soon as I got it I put a sell on
it at 22..but can toggle that up some tomorrow..BTW, ( SO )
will go into the DOW utilities Monday..and it was the best looking
one of the bunch to get inducted, that's is it has some room to move
up..I guess the word was out as all the others already popped before
the news..
-----------------
NOW forgive me but I'm on a TAX tear..the "WAY" they did this stinks
to high heaven.
With this retro active cap gains break..be careful as you see
some people may take profits they didn't take last year..but that's
not the big problem.
With all the yak about it they have not said a word about the
effect it will have on the "tax free bonds "...as it will devastate
them..changes like this need to be incremental..and every one put
on notice up front so they can plan..this is nothing but a rip off
some retirement money that's in tax free bonds..and they know it
in fact that's the reason it was "set up" ..why the heck buy a tax
free bond if they are going to undo the cap gains..so many of the
"tax free bonds " will lose resell value. You can bet the insiders
shorted them all week.
I have some old fashion US savings bonds
6% tax free till you cash them..but why keep them now ? At least
I don't have to sell them..and the GOV has to give me the floating
rate if I cash them in..and I likely will too..they just played
hell with a lot of the bond market. There was only 3 reasons
for the big boys to make the cap gains retro active
"greed greed greed"...I had reservations about it to start with but when
they came out with the retro-active thing..that cinched it..they make you
think your getting a good deal..they tell you it's a good deal..but they hide
the real truth..a hand full of insiders are in a position to
exploit the devalued bonds...now you know why the bond market went
down even as the feds up interest rates..they had their good old buddies
shorting them from the time they knew it was going to pass.
They ought to be tarred and feathered, and handed over to Castro,
it really makes me mad to see such high handed tactics with out
a drop of right or wrong attached to it. Meanwhile the blind will
just say o well..it don't effect me.."not so"..it will hurt every one
that's not "in on it"..you may not see the harm..but it's there.
Why in heavens name if they were going to make such a drastic
change..were not the ramifications explained to people..and a date
set so that people could plan,,and have it to take place in increments
so that "shorting the bonds" would have cost them more in interest
than they could have made..no it was not done like that..so the
right or wrong of the tax break means nothing, the procedures used
amounts to huge windfall for a handful of people, it's a rip off
scam of retirement money as big as any they have ever pulled.
This Republican administration is as sick as any government has
ever been..half of them don't even know what they played into, but
just lapped up and drooled over the words of some velvet tongued Central Bankers who think they know what's best for every one..mainly that all
the money keeps running up hill to them.
I don't care one or the other about CAP GAINS..it came from the Reblicans
to start with..it's the "WAY" they are going about cutting it..it sets
a the insiders with a real windfall..they get to reach into the cookie
jar..deeper than any of us can see..and give us a few crumbs..as we go
on with their right wing trickle down ecomomy. God they make me sick.
Jim
|
