Recent content by Wil Klem

... which is exactly why I am starting to learn about options ...

If I am reading all of this properly, in the long haul it boils down to zero sum if the all trades are thoughtful and reasonable. This a factor of a 50:50 chance of choosing direction correctly.

gotcha ... thanks

Then taking profits at 10% up and losses at 5% down would represent a reward:risk ratio of 2:1, right?

Something isn't making sense to me here. You said, "you have to subtract the value of the call every day ... also the value of your stock you have to add every day". Account balance includes cash balance, right? Would "value" you mentioned be the change in the call value and stock values? Would...

Thanks for your replies. cvds16: You are right. I am confused. I am a newbie attempting to learn by paper trading and recording everything on a spreadsheet. You said "everything is marked to market every day. That should be the key to your account balance." I thought that is what I did. What am...

This question is presented to learn how market movements and assignments are reported when viewing an account on a daily basis. I am presenting a hypothetical example to frame my questions. Commissions are intentionally omitted to simplify things here. buy 100 shares XYZ @ $48.50, sell 5/20...

Thank you for continuing this discussion. Once again, this is a learning process for me.The main purpose of my question is to determine realistic strategies under real market conditions in a real trading account. Let's use your example of 'take profits when your up 5% and take losses when your...

This entire endeavor is a learning process for me. A brief background may be helpful for you to understand my level of understanding before I address your questions. I have no previous experience in trading vs. investing. I have been paper trading for about 20 days to get a basic feel for...

gotcha

long stocks with perceived short term price increases (for potential covered calls in the future with greater profits and/or capturing dividends) and covered calls only some bias toward stocks paying dividends where record date and ex-dividend date fall within the term of the contract expiration...

Thanks again. This will be one of the questions for me to ask when I move from paper trading to opening a trading account.

Thanks for the quick reply. This checks one more thing off my things to understand list. Is the commission on the assignment the same as any other trade?

If I am holding an open long position and choose to assign the position, is it guaranteed that it will happen? Roughly how long does it take for the transaction to settle? Does open interest come into play? Thanks for your replies.