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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Gordon who wrote (22905)	3/21/1998 11:10:00 PM
From: James F. Hopkins	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 97611

Mike; When I chart them it's just to see were the biggest part of the volume was, and at what price it went off..and or get a rough idea of the average that sellers got and buyers paid, as to were they wound up at ex date.. Writers do come out better over all.. then they are traded, sometimes many times over and that's the rub AS I can tell by open interest about when the original writers came in..and what they got..each time these babies trade there is a sizable spread..and a commission..follow this now, that option you wrote and say got $3 for may trade 10 to 20 times before ex date each time the bookie is getting his spread..and commission, and it may or may not end up worthless but most of them do. ------------------------ Heck say a $1 option has an 1/8 spread on it..and trades 10 times and even if your commision is low , my guess is on an average it's another 3% for each trade..as they collect from both parties, it's not hard to see who makes the most money off of options, what a racket. ------------------------ With the charts the best I can do is an eye ball guessamatiom.. and look at the open interest vs volume and price sure not pin point or fool proof but it is revealing enough to see as to who makes the most money. Its not a balance between winners and losers as one might think, the ( over head often inflates the price and later drops it but that repeated trading of most of them..eats up one big bite, a chunk at the time. So as if 85% of the buyers lose..it's no were near 85% winners on the sell side..looks less than 50% to me write that other 35% off to the over head maybe more.. This is more true on out of the money stuff ( percentage wise to price the over head is much more on out of the money options ) And you will see more action there. When I was in real estate, I saw homes sell over and over again, some of them turned over almost once a year..do you know that in those cases factored into the price of that house after 10 years and ten turnovers there were at times more commissions, and discount points ( front end load on a loan ) made by the agents and S&Ls than the origial price of the home. Heck lots of times over half the going price was nothing but repeat commissions and discount points. Let me tell you bankers inflate stuff in a way you would not belive, of course they blame the Government and or wages for all inflation..daah.. Jim