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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Real Man who wrote (59234)	8/2/2002 9:38:40 PM
From: William H Huebl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 94695

Vi, I agree with everything you say... and on top of it, every time some newbie gets on this thread wanting to trade options, I try to discourage him or her. I have lost my shirt and then some to options... probably in excess of $100,000 in my lifetime. But there ARE some things you can do to make options profitable... and I am not recommending anyone trade them. - You get very volatile options... at least over 50. - You identify patterns and/or indicators which tell you when the option will move in a particular direction and do it within a week or so. - And you use a money-management strategy which, hopefully, will limit or minimize the impact of losses. Options are not for everyone... and I am not saying that like in one of those ads for Camels in which smoking is a manly thing. I am saying it because if you do not have the discipline nor the system nor the money management strategy you will surely lose. YOU GOTTA HAVE ALL THREE! And sometimes luck helps a bit also. Oh, and you gotta have some smarts as to when to close your position in real time! I typically put in a close order for the most optimistic price I think is half-way reasonable. Then I when the market gets near (within the last 25% of the move) I check, as I am sometimes able to do, and close the position immediately when it looks like the worm is turning. And today I closed my position within 5% of the end of the move... Making money with options IS possible... and in fact a better way of making money than being tied to general market moves. I am firmly convinced of that. I hope those that can find out how to do the same thing don't take most of a lifetime learning how! PS No guarantees my success will continue, as they say!