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Pastimes : The Naked Truth - Big Kahuna a Myth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MythMan who wrote (12181)	12/1/1998 5:32:00 PM
From: yard_man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86076

IBM alone is not necessarily easier to play than the indices, but it may be. The idea is to diversify. I think you or I can do better picking no more than 5 or 6 issues and sticking with a 1/3s type approach and winning no matter what Mr. Market does as opposed to index puts. Do you consider puts or calls outside of tech issues? There are a number of reasons that individual issues are easier than indices: 1) The universe of individual options and prices are much larger -- much easier at any given time to find anomalies in prices which can allow one a better than average oppty to profit. 2) External factors affecting company performance on an individual basis easier to predict (before making any assemssments as to value). 3) Certain sectors or Companies are much more over (or under) valued than the entire market or a larger subset (NDX, SPX, OEX etc). 4) Easier to get wider beta with individual issues. There's probably a lot of other reasons. Index puts give you a lot of bang, but how often have you bought index puts 3 or 6 months out? It's a lot of money and if you don't have a lot like me you are probably tempted to get less time -- makes it harder.