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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: freeus who wrote (19829)	12/14/1998 8:22:00 PM
From: manohar kanuri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Any idea what would be a "good" price to buy a Cisco 2001 90? It has traded from around 18-21 lately. (ZCYAR) Depends on what you're trying to do - all of that 18-21 is pure premium. If you're comfortable with that the only thing left to do, imo, is just jump in with a clear idea about your targets, and your strategy if it goes against you for a few months (or the entire time you hold them!). Some of my biases are here: Message 6724238 That said, to answer your question, a "good" price to get in would be when volatilities are low and you're not paying too much by way of premium. Given market conditions that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. Another way is for the stock to zoom up, but that sort of defeats the purpose of waiting for a "good" price, if by that you mean the absolute dollar amount and not the math involved in the pricing. In general, my take is the more explicit you are in stating your dollar and time targets, the more specific the options strategy you come up with, and the higher the probability that you will get it right. A specific question to ask is - can you achieve your target by using fewer contracts of an in-the-money option? And why you would/could/should prefer one over the other, or not. I find out-of-the-moneys are good for playing splits. And in-the-moneys if you want a stock "proxy". The caveat, as always, being that the economy and/or Cisco don't tank in the meanwhile for whatever reason. I guess with options that's an eternal given? And my disclaimer - BWDIK, I just tinker with these things in funny money, a fool and his money are soon parted, everything I say is definitely (not just probably) wrong, so don't invest any real money based on anything I say! There, I hope that covers it all. :) mk ps: the cboe site has an options calculator if you need one.