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Strategies & Market Trends : Tech Stock Options -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Triplett who wrote (35365)	2/23/1998 12:01:00 AM
From: Darth Trader	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 58727

Going into Friday you owned 500 shares of CPQ and 5 put contracts with a strike price $35?

To: Dave Triplett who wrote (35365)	2/23/1998 7:56:00 AM
From: Patrick Slevin	Respond to of 58727

Actually, you can be short options without owning the underlying security but your margin has to come under certain limits. For example, on 500 shares you may have needed SMA of $50,000 available. I'm not sure exactly how much. In any event, all you need to do now (barring raising your SMA) is buy in the calls or repurchase the stock. It may even turn out to be a profitable trade depending on where you positioned yourself on each of the trades. Your position was slightly bearish in the first place. Short Calls, Long Puts, Long Stock. You guessed right, the stock went down. Somehow, I don't think this makes you feel any better, though.