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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard F Hanover who wrote (92990)	1/30/1999 12:03:00 PM
From: arthur pritchard	Respond to of 176387

Richard: <options> I am not in options. They are, believe it or not, too conservative for my desired degree of risk, and also I do not feel able (nor am I sure anyone can) take a 3 million dollar position in options the way I do with the stock. I don't care how good the math looks with options, I do not feel comfortable at all with the execution systems with options, nor do I feel comfortable with the way the real time information is presented. (don't tell don martini,I keep in touch with him, because he is such a good therapist...)

To: Richard F Hanover who wrote (92990)	1/30/1999 2:30:00 PM
From: Jake0302	Respond to of 176387

Richard, your options moves are absolutely right. I am no expert, and this is all FWIW.... but... an option newsletter that I follow has rules... one says to always sell when you go over 100% profit... when you take a profit, no one can take it away from you (except the government at 39% or whatever)... if you still like the play, then buy at a higher strike price... exactly what you did. I have used this technique several times in the last month, to very good effect, shifting between big gains in MSFT, AOL, DELL options. This has allowed me to shift gains from one option into another, until, now I am heavily concentrated in DELL anticipating the run to Feb 16 earnings. Made a great gain on Friday too. On my options trading pool, I have made a 400% gain in January, and I expect to put all that, or at least most of it, back into cash on or about Feb 17... which leads me to the second part of your question: hold over earnings/ stock split? I personally am planning to hold over earnings (which is NOT advisable) for two reasons - Earnings will be absolutely steller, with unexpected growth demonstrated in server sales and in foreign sales - Split at around 110 is almost a sure thing. MSFT, INTC, AOL, IBM, AMGN, YHOO, EBAY are all splitting. Mike is NOT going to miss the party. When we blow earnings out and a split is announced, the stock will probably gap up the next day, like AOL and MSFT, even though some stocks (IBM) saw a different result. In our case, earnings are going to tell a story of phenomenal continued growth, which will attract more institutions, and the splitsky will attract JOE DOUBLECLICK the new force in the market. And here is another thought: Look at the DELL chart in August. That's right, August, when the market tanked hard. DELL held up. We are going to correct in late Feb/ March. It is just in the cards. But, that said, where do you want to be if the market is almost certainly going to dip? That's right, in a stock that has just announced a stock split and awesome earnings and that fared far better than average in the last global currency crisis. DELL. By Feb 17, I see this stock at 115-120. 110-115 on Feb 16. I love the effect of gap ups on options prices. It smells like... victory!

To: Richard F Hanover who wrote (92990)	1/30/1999 4:25:00 PM
From: JBird77777	Respond to of 176387

Re: How long to hold Dell options My approach on this is the same as it is for any other holding: If I had all cash, what would I invest my money in today? If the answer is that you would buy this option at today's price, then you should continue to hold it. If not, you should consider selling it and buying the security that you would buy with your cash. I would temper this process with these additional considerations. 1. Tax considerations. Not a factor here, given that you presumably will realize a short term capital gain on your option position, sooner or later. 2. Transaction costs. Hopefully, you are using a deep discount broker at low commissions that are not significant. However, you should also consider the bid-ask spread, which can be significant in option transactions. In other words, if you decide to hold your current position, you in a sense are "buying" your current position at the "bid" price (because this is all you would get for it if you were to sell it) and you are paying no commission. Obviously, if you trade for another security, you will pay the "ask" price and a commission. JB