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Looks like I have some learning to do about terminology. Yes, that's the idea. Focus on trading the underlying (without risk) both long and short. Goal being to scalp enough times to overcome the cost of the option premiums. After the premiums are paid for.... anything else you can make is...

I seem to have better luck trading underlying than options, (although I have written plenty that expired worthless). I was trying to think of a strategy that uses options "as intended" -- a hedge, not as a profit-making strategy. Let's see if my logic on this works. Buy a long call and a...

Wondering what the group's opinion of AON orders is. Do you do this regularly? How large on order would you do it? How much less likely are you to get a fill when you mark your order AON? Do the specialists have any "disdain" for handling them? :confused: I'm still with Waterhouse...

If you sell them all at once, I would consider the entire position one round-trip trade. You accumulated, then exited. Like others said, use the average basis of all the purchases. It gets trickier when you accumulate and disperse over several trades. The general accounting/tax-wise...

I tried trading from 1993 to 1995. I made a little money, but not enough to justify the frustration. It cost $30 to $100 a trade then, even with "discount" Charles Schwab, and it just wasn't practical with the money I had. So in 1996 I put it in funds, and left it alone. In 1997, the asian...

I've just tried QQQ this week, shorting it in the high 24 area and scalping 15-20 cents. I've pulled off 3 or 4 of these. But I've noticed that QQQ's chart looks a lot like MSFT. It appears MSFT may have too large an influence on QQQ for the cubes to really be considered a "market" indicator...

Yeah, I started "dabbling" in trading in 1993. But I said "less than a year" since that's how long I've been trying to do it for a living.

The payment of a dividend is a neutral event, since the stock price will open lower, by the dividend amount, on the ex-date. However, stocks are traded by human beings. And human beings like to "get in" before the dividend. A lot of newbies trading stocks don't understand how the ex-date...

Regarding TeleChart (TC2000) -- I use it, although I complement it with instant charts from my broker, and free charts from www.stockcharts.com. TeleChart has "a little of of everything", and it's not a bad place to start. But if you're a programmer-type, you'll quickly exhaust it's script...

Stocks that are in a flat trend, with a lot of people in them "just hanging around for the dividend", can drop by more than the div amount by the close of the ex-date. And they can keep dropping for a few days. I guess the question is whether people think it is possible to identify such...

Anyone have any comments on this strategy? I have not been doing this, since it means paying the dividend to a holder. I have instead tried buying puts on stocks prior to ex-div. This can work, although it seems like bid/ask on the options makes it difficult to turn a profit. Usually the...

Well I figured I should get my money's worth from this $500 lesson. This position was instructive in a couple of regards. 1) Option writing is a false sense of security. Even though I knew, going into the trade, that it was possible the underlying could drop quickly... the written option is...

One of the best arguments against averaging, in my opinion, is that it weds you even tighter to that stock. You are making a mental effort to turn that position around. Every new purchase is an additional tie. If you had just bought a boatload of shares in the first place, would you stay in...

This stock dropped $1 today. I set a mental stop at 30.80 and acted on it. If it can drop that fast in a day, it certainly could be below the strike by expiration, with an ex-div date in between. Of course, I timed the low of the day perfectly. That figures! Although, writing that call...

True, the covered call position still carries downside risk below the strike. This stock in particular has been in a 1 year downtrend, and that's why I wasn't willing to hold the underlying naked while waiting for the div payout. Since the dividends are an anticipated part of the option...

I gave this a try today. Bought 600 EMN at cost basis 32.24 Wrote calls at 2.3 44 cent dividend within 3 weeks. This position should return 1.36% for just a 3 week hold. (I've generally been playing divs "the typical way", buying a few weeks before the div, with the intention of selling...

I vote with the "learn by doing" crowd. Scrape up $2000 and open a basic cash account. Buy 50 shares of something and give it a shot. :cool: Better to risk a little now, and learn how to manage losses right away. A 25% whacking will feel pretty bad to you if it happens... but you'll learn...