Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (80365)	5/2/2000 6:10:00 PM
From: Tommaso	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 132070

When I actually did my income tax figures on options, I was amazed to discover that I had made what was (for me) quite a lot of money last year. This doesn't count holding some LEAPs that are not due until January 2001 and on which I certainly have some unrealized losses. But I am definitely ahead even counting those as total loss--and they aren't yet, and they still might well show a profit if these downdrafts continue. I think that what worked was buying LEAPs and selling every time I had a good profit. The volatility guarantees big swings--not doubles or triples, but regular short-term profits of about an average 25% which annualizes to a much higher figure. Of course, maybe what I did was comparable to taking, say, $100,000 to a roulette table, betting only on black, and doubling up each time I lost, and then walking off when I was ahead $25,000. I don't recommend it. The reason I didn't realize I was ahead on options was that I kept feeding money into margin to maintain a short XLK position. This acted as a kind of insane savings account, and as XLK has come back down I have put the money in an actual bank. Pretty weird way of doing things, but these are weird times. I plan to hold that XLK short for a good while and may have to put money back into it to do so.