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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: accountclosed who wrote (38284)	12/5/1998 3:34:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Respond to of 132070

AR, You don't need BK to make money on puts. I made a small fortune (too small) on MU dropping from $95 to $17, Citicorp from $180 to $80, and Presstek from $200 to $50 all while the market marched on. Also made lots of money, in fact more money than the bigger movers mentioned above, trading Picturetel is a saw-toothed fashion all the way down. I could give several hundred examples over the last 5 years of puts roaring up in value, despite the fact that the last 5 years was one of the greatest manic bull markets of all time. By a homerun, I am almost literal. I mean shooting for a quadruple. You will lose as often as you win buying options, puts or calls. Perhaps more often. So, you cannot afford doubles or triples. There are lots of exceptions, such as approaching expiration dates on in the money options, when I tend to roll them out and down on puts, or out and up on calls. Yes, I generally allow losers to expire worthless. You are buying time. If you pay $2 1/2 for a put, getting back $1/4 will not do you much good. But, that one time where their negotiations with Tellabs breaks down or folks discover our largest bank has huge exposure to hedge funds, right before expiration, more than makes up for the tiny amounts you could have salvaged.