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Technology Stocks : INTERNET MANIA! Day Trading Net Stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wiley murray who wrote (34)	11/28/1998 4:03:00 PM
From: William H Huebl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1054

Wiley, I am not an expert in these things, but PREDICTABILITY and especially VOLATILITY are most important, right behind TIMING and LIQUIDITY as characteristics I look for when I trade options. Remember, I am an interday, not intraday trader of options. Normally, I use high volume stocks... ones that trade millions of shares - day in and day out... THAT normally insures liquidity in options... so you look for the higher volume options for opportunities. Interestingly enough, I recently plotted both MSFT and INTC with 144 day TSMAs and in 5 years, the MSFT MA turned down 3 times while INTC MA turned down 6. That demonstrates predictability, in a way. If you have a stock that is jumping all over the place, with no apparent reason other than volatility, IMHO, the best way to play that puppy is through option short spreads (selling both puts and calls). Of course, if the pattern is directional, you almost HAVE to be an intraday trader to take your profits whether your spread is short or long, unless you have factored direction into your positions. Since I am an interday options trader and buy long options and longer term periods on major high volume stocks, I place limit orders for the sales as I cannot cover the minute by minute activities of the markets. In the early part of my trading "career," I lost a lot of money as part of my education "learning" options. Now, I win some, I lose some and I have a lot of fun at it. Where formerly I placed 10 and 100 contract orders, I now place 1 to 5 contract orders. And I am STILL learning! I have seen and entered the YAHOO contests... and have both made funny money and lost some in them. But I come nowhere near the guys who double and triple their funny money accounts in a mere month. They do it with these hot internet stocks and I am sure they have either some fantastic resources in the way of intraday charting software OR they are incredible traders in their own right. I encourage anyone trying to time the markets to learn charting techniques and to develop his or her own indicators. And read... I recommend Norman Fosback's "Stock Market Logic" which is in it's 3rd or 4th printing. It will debunk most of the popular indicators that only serve to separate the investor from his or her $$$. And tips??? They may work out for you but I wouldn't bet the farm on one. In fact, I have NEVER invested in a tip. (Maybe that is why I am not rich and famous???) Wll that is my 2 cents. Good luck, Bill