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Strategies & Market Trends : Options 201: Beyond Obi-Wan-Kenobe -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dan Duchardt who wrote (15)	8/11/2001 1:17:35 AM
From: BDR	Respond to of 1064

<<Not sure they are 100% reliable, and I tend to use mental stops, but they are available.>> My mental stops aren't 100% reliable either.(g)

To: Dan Duchardt who wrote (15)	8/11/2001 11:13:50 AM
From: alanrs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1064

Dan (or Dale or mathman or anybody with an opinion) Started going thru the list this morning, looking for ratio call spreads or diagonal ratio call spreads (I made up that last name I think). Anyway, found NTAP March 02 calls with strikes between about 10 and 20 had some possibilities, but found buying the Jan 04 10 for $8.40 and selling the Jan 03 15 and 20 for $9.80 total to be the "best" in terms of the payoff diagram. I ran a lot of combos using the 7.50-20 strikes and all expirations between Sept 01 and Jan 04. Of course, this exercise raised a lot of questions. First, what disadvantages do I have going so far out in time for the calls sold. Am I better off not going for the entire cost of the bought call in one transaction, or writing less time more often to try and cover that cost. Second, given that the March 02 series also shows promise, are there other disadvantages to the LEAPS that would lead me to just set something up in March for less potential profit with the hope of repeating. Obviously, the answers will depend on what happens in the future, so I am really asking for a general experience or "feel" kind of answer-or if I've completely missed something, a very specific one pointing that out. TIA I'll try to do the other 6 I singled out to look at tomorrow-did 4 this morning-if no one points out any foolish mistakes, or obviously better ways to skin this cat. ARS