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Strategies & Market Trends : The Options Box -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hobo who wrote (9978)	3/10/2001 10:11:36 AM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10876

Today (and yesterday), I closed a bunch of short calls too damned early... I have got to "learn" the fine art of letting the winners run... My strategy has been to "get the middle" but I am missing BIG as I buy back covering the short ... only to see the damned thing slide a lot more... Rest assured I have left far far far more on the table than I have made this past month. I have too much fear. I know it and I can feel it. Getting ripped out of my CIEN put for a small gain (very very very small) when I could have had a 150% gain or better. Poet did the same thing as well. So it it not just you and I. I did see my IBM puts that were hugely in the money actually go slightly negative. Rather than panic, however I doubled up. On than second double up, however, I took 15% profits when 85% profits or better were there. Fortunatly I let the rest ride and cashed out at 101. I had some strike 100's that I cashed out at 99 for a 100% profit for sure. Now, you tell me what went wrong here? Or did anything go wrong here. IBM rose back up from 98 to 104 or so faster than I could react, it was all done in seconds on a manipulated rumor. Was I supposed to have taken profits early (at 98) when I was waiting for the gap at 94 to fill? When I doubled up, was I supposed to take quick prifits and let the original batch run again? I believe that has to be right, but I was 1 (^(&%*&^% day early. So back to CIEN, with the whipsaws from 75 to 78 was it going to break up or down, I believe I did misplay that one badly. I got in at 77, it topped at 78 twice. On the third retry Heading back up, I said enough is enough and panicked out. I suppose I should have with for a break of 80 that never would have happened. With the trend heading down, as long as we are playing the trend, I think I will try and have more patience. But remember more patience can result in whipsaws like we saw in IBM. Finally, Zeev does a phenominal job of calling turns. He thinks the DOW will go down hard next month. I would ceartainly like to see the blowoff top on the DOW just like we had on the NAZ a year ago. I hope they can get this thing to rally just over 11000 so everyone brings out the DOW 12000 hats again and then I believe the far better plays will be on NYSE issues where PUT premiums are cheap. M