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made it sound like since they got the cash infusion they were no longer considering being acquired. If they did get swallowed, I cant see it being a positive thing though :(

Granted I probably no less than many about options on this board. But truth be told I dont give a damn about R.A. or Mav or this silly hissy fit, just wanted to give congrats on his becoming a father.

Congratulations Risk!

Sheldon Natenburg's book helped me alot in understanding the basics. Ive also heard Allen Jan Baird's book Option Market Making is really solid as well. Personally Ive been reading Option Theory, by Peter James (which Id recommend to anyone looking for a more advanced book [assuming you have a...

Buying a put, gives you the right (but not an obligation) to sell the contract's underlying. So all you could lose is the premium you initially paid. The market value just dictates whether you'd want to exercize your option or not. Now if you sold a put that would be different :D

I for one have never heard of the book. What is the gist of the model that is being discussed?

but since we dont know whether we are in 1 or 2, doesn't that basically leave you with Mav's strategy of long further out straddle while selling near month premium.

My biggest question with straddles and strangles is how best to exit and enter them effectively. Where I dont trade straddles or strangles often they often appear to me to need a relatively large move in the underlying to expire profitably. So under the assumption that were buying straddles...

Well maybe it would be useful if we list some basic (and non-basic strategies) that are helpful for vega positive strategies. I guess the two most obvious plays are to either buy atm strangles / straddles or buy otm options (I kind've like the idea of buying leaps here and legging them into...

what seperates thinkorswim from the other online brokers? I currently use optionsxpress (which I like but honestly Im a beginner trader and dont have alot to compare them against). Id love to hear why you guys use TOS...

Im not sure I agree with that assertion. And if that assertion is not true, how does that affect what you would be willing to pay for the perpetual option?

it seems like your talking about question b right? Because the payout of question a number of heads / number of throws def. approaches 1/2 the longer you play.

ok for giggles I'll bite on A (b an c require thinking and Im not about to start doing that today :D ). Id pay < .50 which is what I'd expect to make if i played the game forever.

I wasn't trying to say that LTCM was or wasn't selling options (since I obviously got my story screwed up). Im sure your right btw, its just that I dont have the story straight myself so I personally wouldn't know. Sorry for any confusion this caused. :D

Somehow I got the LTCM and VN stories stuck together. :( LTCM is really the situation Im alluding too. but I think short selling of the tail still amounts to a Black Swan problem

Really, correct me if Im wrong but New Yorker ran an article sometime back saying 'Just a year later, L.T.C.M. sold an extraordinary number of options, because its computer models told it that the markets ought to be calming down. And what happened? The Russian government defaulted on its bonds...

I agree that Nassim is overly pessimistic at times and does miss out on many profitable situations. But if Victor Neiderhoffer understood the "No Black Swan's" problem then he wouldn't have blown up. :p So I guess I'm long the tails :D

I'm not sure if I'm following exactly what your asking about, but still if your looking to price options, particularly American Options I'd do a little research on binomial tress (either the Cox, Ross, Rubenstein or Jarrow and Rudd models) or monte carlo simulations. Another thing to note, is...

I'd have to agree with Mav here, the risk reward seems poor. and I think the expectancy of the trade is likely negative. If you do choose that strategy, a stop loss might make it somewhat more attractive but still not overly attractive.

optionsXpress does not to the best of my knowledge.