Recent content by jbperez

:D When it comes to tips on how to become a good trader, you have two choices: either generalities or specific instructions (e.g. systems). The reason people become tired of generalities is that they seem to be the same things repeated over and over (to me that is an indication that they...

Proshares does not offer an inverse counterpart to the VIXY. But since XIV inverse ^VIX is from Velocityshares, I realized Velocityshares must have a product that tracked the ^VIX long and this is VIIX. I was curious about its performance then and as it turns out: http://goo.gl/cCqLM...

A closely related question is that if the VIX stays _mostly unchanged_ at its current low level for a long period of time, will the XIV keep rising during that period (rather than staying put) ? In other words, is backwardation in VIX futures the current norm when the VIX is staying low...

I found this Motley Fool article to be a very good explanation of why the VIXY is not tracking XIV very well at all ( http://goo.gl/KmLVY ): http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/03/04/contango-1-key-reason-not-to-buy-these-etfs.aspx My question now is will shorting XIV rather than...

Of course he would say that, so that he will make money on his position, the tout. :D For a much more erudite discussion of ideas similar to Taleb's - e.g. that mainstream risk models are just plain wrong - Benoit Mandelbrot's (of fractals fame) book "The (Mis)Behavior of Markets" is going...

Taleb might have some valuable insights to offer, but his books are frankly, terribly written and all about his own ego and very short on actual useful information. I have read both Fooled By Randomness and The Black Swan, I should have cut my losses after the first book because the 2nd book...

The way I understand it, in our current money system, money is borrowed into existence. The Fed creates money ("out of thin air"), but in order for the Fed to inject it into the economy it has to be borrowed first from the Fed by either the Treasury or the commercial banks. Because this...

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expiration_%28options%29 and other sources, it says that options expire "on the Saturday that follows the third Friday of the month". Other sources ( http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/expiration-time.asp#axzz2HxvkJJQd ) state that "A public holder of an...

I didn't lose anything. Like I said this was a theoretical question. Are you saying that if, on expiration Friday, GLD ends at $172, both legs of the spread would still be executed even though the $170 strike is actually OTM? Furthermore, why should I lose $400 if I should only be losing...

How have your other bets in the market been turning out lately? Considering your general crabbiness, it doesn't look like your intuition is working that well for you at all. :) The truth is that I have searched high and low for the answer to this question, short of asking a brokerage firm...

^ I guess you are yet another person who doesn't know the right answer either... rotflmao!!!! And here I was thinking that the whole point of having a trader forum was to be able to get help with tricky questions such as these...

No. These are theoretical questions. (and I don't understand the snarky attitude of _some_ of the people who can't seem to help at all but have a lot of snide comments) The original question was rather simple: If I sell an equity put and get assigned, is it possible to just settle the...

Ok, a lot of people seem to think it's a bad idea to sell a put without having enough cash in one's account to cover the entire assignment amount. But what if this was part of a put spread? Consider: * sell 1 contract GLD put @ 174 strike price * buy 1 contract GLD put @ 170 strike...