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To: jazzcat2000 who wrote (95137)	3/3/2001 8:41:48 AM
From: alanrs	Respond to of 152472

As I said earlier, this is all new to me and I picked the option as far off in time as possible to reduce the time erosion, and a price near the high end of the trading range, and then relied on (hoped for) some give and take in the stock price. I then, in terms of my learning experience, switched to selling covered calls with a very short time horizon, and at prices that I would not mind the stock being called away, either because I had just bought the stock (using the proceeds from the LEAP exercise) and the premiums were reasonable at a slightly higher strike, or because someone out there as part of an options strategy I know nothing about was willing to pay way too much for way out of the money calls. I expanded the covered call experiment to 5 stocks (LSI, PRIA, QCOM, NTAP, and WIND), and had a great deal of success with this strategy in Jan and Feb. Now I do not find that call buyer with the deep pockets out there, but the LEAPS again look attractive. I view options with a great deal of trepidation, knowing that they have the reputation of turning large fortunes into small ones. So far the only things I've felt comfortable doing is buying LEAPS (and trading them), and selling very short term out of the money covered calls. It also worries me when I have a great deal of initial success that I am overlooking some obvious risk and that the patron saint of village idiots is covering my ass. Unfortunately, I don't have the time or inclination to read a lot of books on options and have found that I really only learn by doing-sometimes with painfull results. Therefore the thread bloat, and of course hoping to learn from someone who has spent the time reading those books. I will look at closer to the money options of intermediate duration as you suggest.