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That part in italics can't possibly be right. There's no way a straddle will do equally well whether the index moves 1400 points up or 700 points down. Even if the index is as likely to move up 1400 or down 700, the strike prices you're looking at are so much closer to the money than 700-1400...

What do government expenditures have to do with anything? They don't send you a bill for the expenditures, they tax you according to the tax law. The tax law is public and there are many experts in the field who will sell you their time. If you understand the tax law, you know the rules of the...

The situations when it makes sense to exercise an option are so rare that you may as well begin with the assumption that you should NEVER exercise an option. You can learn the exceptions to that rule later on, and they will make more sense to you when you have more experience. If you buy a...

I can understand that making a difference for a $30 stock, where zero is much, much closer than infinity. For an underlying as expensive and low-volatility as an index, zero and infinity should look like about the same distance away.

When you trade on a timescale of years or decades, the newspaper is as good as real-time quotes. I agree that the guy could use fewer fanbois, but of all the people who are overexposed on television, at least Buffett has done something with his life and has informed opinions (whether you...

They're not. Except to the extent that you consider all taxation to be "punishment". People are rewarded for structuring their affairs in tax-advantageous ways, because when you are trying to succeed at a game, you are rewarded for knowing the rules of the game and playing by those rules...

Ask them all you want, they're silent.

The cost to carry is much more visible on a 1400 strike than a 35 strike.

I am? Thanks for telling me. I'll have to write that down, or I'll forget. I guess if I favour taxing rich people (which I didn't even say, I was simply defending Buffett's right to hold that opinion), that proves I want the rich to get richer. Why is that the only alternative to estate...

As long as they stay silent, it's risk-free for him to claim that they hang on his every word.

I agree. We should reward people who are superstitious or who fail to plan well. A business owner promoting his own business interests? The horror! You could say the same about any tax, but the government isn't going to stop taxing any more than Buffett is going to stop selling...

There's only one K.C. Googler in the Kansas City phone directory.

Well now, that depends. Do the children own the family business, or did they simply w**k for it? People who w**k for a company don't earn the right to own the company. No matter how long they w**k. The cashier at McDonald's doesn't get to keep the company when Ronald dies. If the children...

The tax increase he advocates isn't for charitable people like him. Charitable rich people can always find somewhere good to put their money. He wants all the other rich people who are not as charitable as him to pay their fair share for the infrastructure of the country that allowed them to...

I'm not sure why those sound like two different things to you. If you buy 100 shares of GOOG and the stock goes up and you want to sell, you sell those 100 shares of GOOG. Your profit is what you sold it for minus what you bought it for, and you're now clear of the position. If you buy a...

If the dividend is larger than the time value, you should expect to get assigned.

Do you think it's fair to have to pay taxes just because inflation put a bigger number on the stuff you already owned? Or, for that matter, to reward the government with a big pile of money for its "crap government policies"?

It doesn't matter. Nonzero-sum is nonzero-sum.

A good intuitive understanding of how options w**k is more valuable than all the graphs, charts and software in the world. Why? Because a bad understanding will get you arbing covered calls against vertical spreads.

There is, but for heavily traded issues like the major indexes you'll probably see hundreds or thousands of contracts right on the bid/ask. Your trades will never make it into the "depth".