Some quick thoughts--
Barb's Ameritrade parody is perfect, especially for those who've heard the damn commercial a hundred times.
Four11 will probably dump the shares as soon as they can. Almost every company that gets acquired for stock does this, that I've seen. At these levels, a no-brainer.
Losses will help offset one's quarterly tax payment, I believe. And kudos to Barb for pointing out that most of us are supposed to be paying these taxes on a quarterly basis. Certainly the institutions are. One exception is if you are doing well enough with your money you can delay paying the IRS until the following April 15. Perfectly legal, but you do owe 9% interest. That's what I'm doing right now. (I got this from an AOL Motley Fool tax guide last spring. Do your own homework before assuming this is a fact.)
And, copied from another thread: Wash sale. Lasser 1997 Section 30.7 "Under the wash-sale rule, your loss deduction is barred if within 30
days of the sale you buy substantially identical stock or securities, or a "put" or "call" option on such securities". The wash sale period is both before and after the day of the sold securities and applies to spouses as well.
The latest issue of Fortune has an opinion piece about data broadcasting, saying that the majority of people will be getting their stock quotes and sports scores over the airwaves, not the internet. If true, it really cuts into the projected growth of our favorite tulip. That was my thought as I was reading it--and then even better, later in the piece the author stated specifically that Yahoo and America Online would be hurt by this.
I appreciate the options discussion going on lately and as always, the overall humor of the board. I'm not even worrying about the price running away from me. If it gets much higher I'll just short some more. If you've got the margin power, my advice is just to relax, at least until Friday . . .
Marc |
