>I bought the Sept 25s. Unless you are some kind of a market guru
> or are a successful options trader, then you bought the wrong >option.
Bill, good advice; thanks. I have done some short-term trading on and off, and have generally been quite successful with calls, and quite unsuccessful with puts. The best I've done with puts is a few hundred bucks on a gap-down on Ascend; I've had the good fortune to make thousands on calls (mostly Intel).
I think my problem with puts is that I buy too soon in the future. But I hate having to pay a lot of time premium on a put, when stock prices tend to go up, not down. I can justify more time premium on a call, since the price is "supposed to" generally move up.
I put around $350 into my 4 puts. Not a lot of money, even for my meager portfolio. If we hit 15 before July expiration, the puts will be worth at least $2,000. IMHO, if it (tech downturn) is gonna happen, it will happen before August -- that's just the sense I get. If that's what happens, then your Sept puts will have been a waste of your money on extra time premium.
Feel kinda silly putting all this thought into a minor part of my portfolio, but this stuff is so much more exciting than the buy-and-hold work that the rest of my money does.
Thanks again. |
