1820. You were probably safe no matter
Mine is 1950. Roller coaster

I’m wanting to get into the stock market and I’ve been looking at the cyber security market lately. I’ve been noticing a lot of cyber attacks and was thinking the demand for cyber security will increase in near future. Any suggestions or opinions?

If I didn’t write the November puts, then I would’ve left those options alone. 15 puts at $1,820 is a huge liability if the shit hit the fan.

That’s allot to be on the hook.
I’ve been a week or 2 weeks ahead with puts. But 55 for November is nice premium
And I wouldn’t sell naked call on any, only
Covered. Just my comfort level.. Not sure if you had all those covered. With the China talk, never know what market may do.
At least safe to assume
Bezos won’t be making inappropriate tweets

I’m selling puts.

They either expire or I’m forced to purchase the stock.

I get it. But that’s allot of shares to buy if it somehow tanks november is what I meant to say..if you don’t mind owning 1500 shares then I guess it’s not a worry.

But I thought earlier in the thread you were selling naked calls as well.. those make me nervous

I don’t sell naked calls.

You don’t have to buy 1500 shares, you can always pay the difference and buy the puts back. Still not cheap but may be better that buying the shares if it means taking a margin loan.

I will say this I was forced into buying 4000 shares of VZ earlier this year and it’s up $6-7 a share since then. So it’s not always bad to buy something that is temporary low.

Also if you don’t want to keep the shares long term you can sell close to the money calls to gain a little juice.

You definitely can buy them back, but then you could be locking in a huge loss..?
My thinking is if I just take the assigned shares, I still have a chance to come out ahead if it turns around
I try to only sell the amount of contracts I can cover if assigned. Then if I get stuck with them try to wait it out and sell a call... doesn’t always work
But I understand what you are doing... just seems higher risk ( higher reward as well)

Anyone here follow the Gene Editing Stocks for example....Crispr (CRSP), Intellia Theraputics (NTLA) or Editas (EDIT)? Very interesting sector of biotech and I think over time the ability to edit genes will become a platform for not only human gene editing but plants as well. In theory they will be able to grow plants, trees and other things in cold weather climates where they can't do that now. Anyone have any further thoughts on any of these?

I follow Crispr in a health related perspective. The possible diseases that could be cured or treated seem to huge. Its one of those areas that I worry about restrictive laws, and havent invested. Some people get worried when we have something that could be used for immoral purposes. Which is too bad bc people afflicted with some of the diseases that could be treated in the future with this tech may not get a chance to have a better life.

crazy stock tlry... pot stock...its gone up huge for what reason?

You guys ever get into these exchange offers?

https://investors.fortive.com/press-release/acquisitions-divestitures/fortive-commences-split-exchange-offer-its-automation-and

I've never heard of that exchange offer..

I get told about them all the time by my buddy who works for a big financial institution. Supposedly he makes decent money on these. They are always different.

I read it briefly, I admit I dont really get it. Would have to figure out what its all involved

My understanding of the exchange offers are when a company or part of a company gets sold or spinned off and what happens to the shares of that company. If the company gets sold you can receive either cash for the shares you own or that value in stock of the new company based on the purchase price of the company. If it is a spin off you get a percentage of the spinoff in the new company as they say the spin off is valued at x% of the company.

Not really sure how your friend makes money on this since it basically looks like a stock split or cash out. The profits to be had are prior to the public announcement of the sale/purchase/spin and trading on that knowledge prior to the announcement is illegal.

He said he was buying 99 shares of FTV and selling AIMC when he received them.

Our communication summed up: "Well its a short term trade and its attractive because of the odd lot feature and the premium theyre offering. Its important to buy at least 99 per tax ID and tender all shares. Otherwise you can be prorated and the purpose is lost. Any time I see attractive deals with odd lot preference on them, I get in. Theoretically you make 8% on this deal if you play it right."

His family has done a bunch of these over the years, some times making 10's of thousands of dollars in the deals. Ive never had the cash or balls to do it.

JCP at $2.00.......just saying.

A made a quick 14% on your advice. Only invested a small amount just to make following this thread a little interesting.

How many days did you own it for?

I’m still in on it. I have a feeling Christmas will exceed all expectations for retailers.

have to figure amzn will benefit from holiday shopping hugely

I bought it on 9-7 and sold today 9-20. I suspect it will still go up.
I was doing a little reshuffling so consolidated some smaller holdings.

Canada will legalize recreational cannabis use effective October 17th. In the run up to that, a number of commercial growers did listings on the exchange, even before it was for sure going to be legalized, so it wasn't a sure bet. Lots of people made massive (10x+) gains on them but Canopy Growth has been on an acquisition tear and that huge jump on the graph was tied to a $6B investment by Seagrams in their bid to enter the market.

No plans on selling anytime soon.

Nobody has any real opinion on that exchange offer? Im disappointed...

I think it was the Corona brand (whoever their parent company is) that bought into Canopy Growth. I believe the word is Seagram's is still shopping for a grower agreement. Last I heard they were eyeing 3 different companies and when that news come out it caused a jump in a few of the Canadian growers.

The big jump in TLRY this last week (9/19/18) was because they had reached some sort of import agreement in Europe (Germany I think). That made for a pretty crazy spike and drop.

I found it interesting that I just had 4 Calls assigned to me (executed).

Here is the deal 4 MO $62.50 (called) at the price of $62.55

So the grand total for the assignment was -$20. And it's not for the ex-dividend date because that passed on 9-13. In other words the guy saved $20 over the price of buying the stock on the open market.

It's not a big inconvenience to me, I can sell some forward puts and likely get the shares back cheaper, it's only an inconvenience to me because I have other future calls in waiting too.

Does anyone find this odd? I have never had anything that close to the strike price be assigned before.

I have had covered calls assigned to someone else when it closed right on the number. Not exactly the same but, similar event. I remember thinking it was. Strange

Not just that but I had other calls that were out to October assigned as well. It wasn't a big of a spread either, that was curious but I guess that's what happens you give up control when you sell the covered call.

See that is werid. I had the opposite where I sold puts on Apple that where way out of the money and they ended a few weeks early. Didn’t bother me but wasn’t sure why

That’s weird. I have puts on AMZN that I sold so long ago ANZN $600 January 2019 they’re so far out of the money I want to close to get it off the books but yet it’s still $6 or whatever I don’t want to spend. But I can’t say the owner of a put has ever canceled early on me, and I sell hundreds of puts.

With that far out why spend. Unless
It’s one, but if multiple adds up.
Amzn and Apple are my to play with puts. Amzn does get me nervous though

Got over my irritation having these called away close to the strike price, he could have waited and got MO for $61 today. But you never know.

back to amazon watch...would like a nice run-up drive the calls

I go in spurts with the option trading. Continue selling puts, selling calls while I see a profit. Eventually I take a big hit when I time it wrong or market has sustained drop.
Then months later when my loss is in long term memory I trade again. The reason I go back is because its enjoyable when you hit it right..plus the buy and hold doesnt have the same excitement..for me

Got another exchange type offer on the table...interested in this one maybe??

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4207645-time-consider-riding-blue-bird-bus-tender-offer-consider-now

YTD - up 35%
2017 - up 56%
2016 - up 86%
2015 - up 7%
2014 - up 2%
2013 - up 2%
2012 - up 34%
2011 - up 4%
2010 - up 16%
2009 - up 30%
2008 - down 16%
2007 - up 10%

Over a 12 year period (I'm counting this year as a full year), I average a little over 22% per year.

This is only for my trading account. My other accounts average a lot less, due to owning many more stocks, mutual funds and bonds.

My trading account represents 25% of my total portfolio. When I first started with it, it represented 5% of the portfolio.

****NOTE: I made a terrible calculation on 2014. I typed in the wrong number on the calculator showing a huge loss, when I was up on the year.

In other words, you enjoy gambling.

I’m up well over “average” stock returns in my trading platform but have not keept track, but when you own a stock that’s up 10x such as AAPL or other stock like MO $60 which give 5% div (current) but bought at $20 so overall pay for itself completely with dividend in the past 6-7 years while going 3x in price.

On options I have not lost except having to buy stocks at lower than face value but many times was blessing in that when I was forced to buy 4000 in VZ at $48/share when it’s now up to $53 in a few months.

I can’t say I never lost on an option trade but likely make money 5x for every 1x I lose money.

My trading platform is probably 1/3 of my overall investments the rest in stock/bond index funds.

**most** of my trades are sell put so the only downside is being long on a stock that might be under the strike price, some losers like GE which keeps going lower. But quality stocks like MO or VZ or AAPL I’m usually doing well. MO has lost value overall from its peak but 5% dividend helps make up for some of its losses.

I wouldn’t be all into my trading, most new money is in index funds but the trading fund keeps going up.

In fairness the majority of my savings has not done super great but I do have a good portion in bonds because I’m closer to retirement age.

It’s been described as picking up nickels in front of a steamroller. By selling calls you gain a few hundred or a few thousand on each trade but if a stock craters such as GE lost half its value this year. It’s possible for you to buying stock under the current price and you become long that stock. But you did sell downside insurance when you entered the put contract.

Long bull market makes selling puts very profitable but can be like musical chairs when the music stops you could be left without a chair to sit on.

Good point.

But often the selling puts is what I call a side hustle, I mean you have your core stocks in taxable and that gains whatever the market gains. The selling puts is more or less pure gain meaning you don’t really put anything on hold (like in cash). So while it’s true it’ll be taxed at short term cap gains, it does not mean his returns are not accurately stated. He did not state after tax gains but then most gains are stated in absolute terms not after tax gains.

Exactly! heading to vegas for college football in 2 weeks. Its for entertainment, maybe I get a hot streak. I dont expect to retire on gambling, or options

but on a serious note, selling puts doesnt have nearly the risk as other options. If you are doing it for a stock that wouldnt mind owning anyway, then even if you get it assigned, and hold it, you've generated the put premium as automatic gain.
Yes end of the year taxes are brutal, but if you plan for it, it can work out.

100%

071A42FB-39B6-4736-95E4-7F54BE506500 (resized).png

I don’t take taxes into consideration when it comes to investing (unless it’s December).

My rational is simple. I buy etoys for $5. Watch it go up to $120. Decide not to sell at $120, because I’ll have a tax bill. Watch it drop all the way down because I don’t want to pay taxes.

Taxes is a result of making the correct decisions. It is a necessary evil.

I think my returns far exceed the averages.

Granted, my trading portfolio takes on risk, doesn't have bonds, doesn't rebalance, etc.

When my trading portfolio becomes 50% of my investments, then half of the trading account will be moved over to my more conservative investments.

NOTE: I updated my returns from the last 12 years...calculator typo that has been bugging me all day...when I went back to re-check my math, I was off quite a bit on 2014.