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It's a good idea to paper trade strategies in order to get the feel of them. But the real lesson learned occurs when you have actual money on the line and monitor the position daily. More often than not, paper trading involves a cursory glance but an actual position involves an ongoing...

If I was an option buyer, I'd gladly pay a large spread for a double. Nor would I care how many option traded per day, week or month. Lliquidity criteria shouldn't be your primary consideration for long positions. You want to find stocks that will move and benefit them. If you're going...

FWIW, there are 20 trading days per month, unless it's a 5 week expiration (ignoring holidays). I addition, time decay is non linear so "what movement in the underlying stock/exchange rate/etc. you need in order to break even" is going to vary. Yes, you can do that but IV is verrry rarely going...

Though this doesn't pertain to the OP's repair question, I think that a viable strategy for an informed option writer seeking income is to slightly overwrite calls against long stock, particularly when writing OTM, seeking return. An extra short call on say 500 shares will provide a bit more...

If you felt that the stock was going higher, you could cover the short Apr call for a loss. But given that you haven't called the moves right (buy at 25, sell CC's on the way down, lock in at 17.50 and stock now 24), I wouldn't try to chase an opportunity loss. If you're anywhere near break...

Wow, a rare event. That must really add up to a good annual ROI on your portfolio.

Dayam. And I thought that I was the first person to think of this. OK, back to my crayons.

You've answered your own question: 1) I understand that it depends upon each investor of which strategy to use and which one manages risk to their taste. 2) The other conclusion that I came to was one strategy doesn’t work for every kind of market, it might work well today but doesn’t...

If the OP is is assigned and he buys the stock, he would set a stop loss. If the stop loss is hit, his shares would be sold. End of position, end of risk. A possible problem with a stop loss at $43 on stock bot for $44 is that there's no guarantee that you get a fill at $43. If the...

If you're modestly computer capable, you can get Turbotax for around 30 bucks. And if you're modestly capable, you can do it yourself. Options are no more complicated than stocks. Just pair them off and list your capital gains/losses on Schedule D.

NCC has some serious sub prime exposure and is looking for a buyer. It has cut its dividend and has eliminated jobs. It's facing a class action suit and has had its ratings reduced. And I think I recall some sort of regulatory investigation. The VISA IPO will help a lot of banks. But I...

Deep ITM calls move $ for $ with the underlying (read about the "delta" of an option). If the stock goes up a $ then the call goes up a $ (and conversely). OTM options provide leverage. With large move in the underlying, they can make a earn a greater ROI... and w/o it, they can lose 100% of...

The dividend is irrelevant. When all is said and done, the put protected stock holder who gets the dividend has the same result as the call buyer who collects interest on his principal.

I doubt that this has much relevance for someone who is looking to hedge long stock.

Put protection is like an insurance policy. You have to determine how much protection you want. The more the protection, the costlier the policy. The lower the protection, the higher the deductible. In option speak, the more OTM the put, the less costly the protection is but the more the...

No free toaster?

What would be the threshold of shares traded per day in order to have a realistic expectation of obtaining a lower equity commission?

Getting a margin account requires checking a box on an application. And even with that, the pattern day trading (PDT) problem isn't resolved. You're defined as a PDT if you execute 4 or more round-trip day trades (including options) within any 5 successive business days and that number...

LOL. And I've seen commercials where every day people get rich flipping houses. I wonder if they're going to add a sub prime mortgage/housing price crisis version? In order to day trade, you need an edge (timing, direction). In order to day trade options, you need a bigger edge in order to...

Yes, IF he could. But remember, this was presented as a worst case scenario = break even. Yes, my bad. Sometimes I put my head on backwards in the morning. LOL. that pesky word again, "IF"