Quote from TD80:
What I really don't understand is why people get so emotional over James picking a top? By all means, post your analysis and opinion (trend is up, etc...), but why the attacks on the other thread? Is this place turning into a yahoo message board chalk full of blind zealots both bull and bear? Also if you are truely bullish and comfortable with your position, you should be doing everything to ENCOURAGE shorts to pick tops.
I like it when people post their analysis, but all this "holier than thou are" crap because someone goes contra to the crowd drives me nuts. It makes me ashamed to be a trend-follower on occasion.
I say post your analysis if you want, and trade em'. Who cares what someone else is doing. The people NOT comfortable with their positions are the people attacking James and others.
Just my 1/50th.
Quote from James Stock:
Well said. It's nice to see that there are a few normal apples here.
Now, I have three signals for this week (don't blame me--I bought walters course): one is down, one is up, and one is down. Then net signal is down. And so i'm holding short the Feb 1175 and 1200 calls.
Quote from SuperflySD:
Let him pick a top. I am curious you are short the calls, how do you do that? Do you have to be on the floor of an exchange I only know of buying a call and a put. My friend dabbles in options in fact he bought options long on Dell the other day. He bought 2 May 35 calls spent about 100 buck he said that he thinks his money can double in the the next 3-4 months. Just a tiip for those looking for fast money or slow money. He is very smart. Anyway how do you short a call?
Quote from James Stock:
Thank you for letting me pick a top.
If your friend "buys" calls, chances are he will lose trading options. You do hit a home run every once in a while, but overall you'll lose.
How do I short a call? Easy, sell it before you buy it, and make sure you have enough margin in your account to cover the transaction. And since brokerage firms view naked selling of options as risky, they want a fair amount of capital as margin.