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To: Tommaso who wrote (169030)	5/30/2002 11:11:14 AM
From: KeepItSimple	Respond to of 436258

The transfer wasn't as big as you might think. As you will recall, the premium on options back in the mania days was GIGANTIC. Tech trash was going up 20 and 30 points a day, and as such an ITM put or call would often sell for 30 dollars or more. Leap puts and calls were insanely expensive, even if you were buying a 2 year LEAP put with a strike of 20 bucks, while AMZN was trading at $400 a share. ----------------------------------------- There were some enormous transfers of wealth via LEAP puts on the likes of Yahoo, Amazon, CMGI, and so on. I got some of it, though my timing was always far from perfect.

To: Tommaso who wrote (169030)	5/30/2002 11:41:25 AM
From: Earlie	Respond to of 436258

Tommaso: I agree on all counts and while I heard of folks being left in the lurch on put positions in 1987, I was never able to track down anybody who actually had it happen to them. As noted, I'm probably just a bit too paranoid. I loved your analogy and will likely shamelessly steal it for future useage,.... especially being a Canadian. (VBG) Best, Earlie

To: Tommaso who wrote (169030)	5/30/2002 6:46:04 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

Tom I disagree that there were "frightening losses" on the put writers. They hedge by going short. I doubt they lost much if anything. If they did no see it coming we have the snapback rally to resistance where they go short and get out of the way. I remain convinced that the option sellers seldom if ever lose cause they delta hedge. Then we rally to max pain or fall to max pain as appropriate but I bet the overall amt of leap puts on CMGI etc is so tinny compared to the CSCO DELL QQQ MSFT options that such crap was nothing but a side show anyway. I had someone today refer to Max Pain on HGMCY looked it up and biggest position was 160+ options. Had to laugh. Small crap like this is totally 100% meaningless. Do you have counts on CMGI? If you got in near the top and paid 20-30 (50?) points the stock could fall that far and all the seller had to do was short anywhere on the way down to hedge. Since brokerages most likely sold those I am sure they did. M