Recent content by tropicaltrader

This is a good post, but it would only explain why those 799 stocks rallied hard and were so volatile. Why did everyone else rally?

This bailout is not only morally reprehensible but economically bad too. It will cause interest rates to go up which HURTS economic expansion and the housing recovery in the long run. It will cause either higher taxes or loss of government jobs, because you're gonna have to either raise taxes...

There's no such thing as a long-term money market fund. By definition, the maturity of their holdings must be 180 days or less. For your education, they don't only invest in Tbills. They can invest in agency bonds, govnt bonds, repos, CDs and corporate bonds. I suggest you look at the...

There are quite a few money market funds that invest in "safe" high quality debt instruments issued by agencies such as Fannie Mae. Are these now at risk?

This is the same pattern as early this year. In the beginning of January, SPX dropped almost daily but VIX stayed flat or declined. SPX continue to drop and VIX eventually caught up, spiking into the 30s suddenly. If the current SPX decline continues for several more sessions, we'll see the...

Yes I've read into cboe Flex options. I don't think it's right for me because you need pretty big size and even then, liquidity would suck. I'm big for retail but probably small fish compared to institutions... i was just hoping there was a way to synthesize using existing series so I would...

If I wanted to write puts at a strike of 80, but the options series doesn't go below 100, is there a way to synthesize this position?

The majority of jobs cannot be done from home. Also, I know people who telecommuted; they just run errands and go shopping or sleep in instead of really working.

I've placed orders of up to 400 on SPX. I prefer SPX over ES/SPY due to size which means effectively lower commission. The b/a spread is about the same when you adjust for the size.

After looking at these, I see a debit spread FRO is equivalent to a short IC and a credit spread FRO is long IC. So they're just the opposite of vanillas in terms of selling/buying premium. These don't seem like gambling any more than existing strategies.

So how does a single FRO differ from an otm vertical that you don't want to touch? Is the margin more favorable?

I buy little things ($30 or less) a few times a year from Ebay. I would never buy something expensive because (1) the feedback system is a joke as others have pointed out, and (2) a lot of these stores will describe an item as New but when you read the fine print it's actually refurb'd. It's...

You speak as if conservatism is a bad thing. I've traded options for 10 years and my worse month ever was -3%. I attribute that to being very conservative. Keep being conservative, it'll lead to longevity.