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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: re3 who wrote (66629)	8/23/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: Knighty Tin	Respond to of 132070

Ike, I was buying the PRST puts more often that that, about every 20 to 30 points. Some expired along the way, so they were no longer part of the thirds calculation and it took about 18 months before I ever saw a profit. Fortunately, I had some major profits in Picturetel and C-Cube to bolster me while I pursued that white whale. The thirds are a combination of price and time. They are also dependent on how well I am doing overall in the 90/10. So, with PRST, I started at $50, added more at $70 and more at $100. By the time the stock hit $130, my $50 puts had expired worthless, so I added more to fill the position. And that is the way it went up to $200. On a portfolio basis, I was up on the 10% part of the 90/10 about 1100% at that time, so I had the ammo to keep after Presstek until it came to daddy. Had I been down or up a lesser amount on the total portfolio, I would have given up the ghost on that particular issue and written off my losses to market morons. (I never blame myself <g>) But, when you are way ahead, you can chase a loser without much risk, and I believed in PRST as a total scam. The only other stock that came close to luring me that high was U.S. Robotics, but a bullish note from Fred Fahmy at the top kept me plugging away until I made nice money on that one. However, an object lesson. Presstek and U.S. Robotics had huge falls from grace, yet neither one is anywhere close to making my top ten list of puts for this manic phase. I may have been better served writing them off early and pursuing some other dog with the money. Citicorp, which had a similar parabolic move up, was a major profit center because it happened fast. I was still stunned by its move up and hadn't made a decision whether to keep putting it when it suddenly went to hell in a handbasket. Those types of situations work better for putting. I don't like Reits at these huge property prices. However, Washington Real Estate and New Plan are good, conservative choices in the area.