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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mr Logic who wrote (1632)	2/20/1998 7:11:00 AM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

OK, maybe buy AMZN (ugh!), write covered calls against those, have them called away. If they go into a margin account, I can immediately borrow them back and short them. Hmmm... Failing that, let's have a 5 point run up to shake a few shorts out! Poking fun Patrick? If not, be careful what you wish for. If so, though I didn't suggest writing naked Feb 60s, the idea isn't too far off. To get the most short-like position when you can't borrow shares but can trade options, write longer term, deep in the money calls. The July 40s perhaps (gee someone thought of that already). In addition, buy some out of the money puts. The July 40s perhaps. You now have a synthetic short position with little risk of the calls being exercised for nearly five months (i.e. no forced cover). If the stock continues higher for a while, simply roll the position to a farther out expiry. The only difference between this and a short position is any net time premium you might pay (net meaning that on the long put less that on the short call) and with a strike this low on both, the time premium should be small. If you weren't poking fun, sorry for the options lecture. Bob