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Technology Stocks : AOL Options for the Bearish -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Duke who wrote (15)	3/2/1998 5:19:00 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33

>>someone posted that puts are now more expensive than calls,<< This is not nonsense. Usually (->go back and read McMillan<-) puts carry more time premium. Its a fact. The ratio however is dynamic. When calls become priced so that there is more of an "equality" between premiums on calls and puts, it is usually a short term bearish indicator. Get in the habit of reading the options focus news items on Yahoo and you will see this mentioned -- it was mentioned last Friday. In a perfect world, arbitrage would make certain synthetic positions, e.g. short with a call vs. put, equivalent but sometimes there are advantages to one position or the other. Agreed you would have to be sophisticated to pick up on them, but overall market trends, i.e. are reported on.

To: The Duke who wrote (15)	3/2/1998 6:27:00 PM
From: White Shoes	Respond to of 33

Great to hear from you Duke, hang around OK? <eom>

To: The Duke who wrote (15)	3/3/1998 1:27:00 PM
From: Brian Moore	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33

Duke, You seem to know a lot about options, and explain how they are more complicated than they might first appear. I once got a three month trial subscription to the Value Line Options service. They mail something to you each week, having used their computer model to select options that are the best buy and have the greatest potential to make money, according to their model. They also have a list you can download each night that rates all available options. One feature I really liked was the ability to find, say, all the AOL options and get their ratings of which is best. Another great thing, that I have never seen written anywhere else, was their statement that 4 out of 5 options trades will loose, even if you are good. So if you are good, that 1 in 5 will make enough to cover your problems with the other 4 and then some. They say that if you use their system you might even be able to have 2 out of 5 trades be profitable. Options are so tricky. I believe you have to really know what you are doing, watch them like a hawk and have good luck. They are definitely not for the typical investor. Anybody who thinks they are so smart should try it on paper for six months. Anyway, I wonder if you have seen the Value Line Options service and what you think of it.