New Yorkers

I wanted to pass along a great experience that I and my wife and daughter had when we were recently in Manhattan. My wife and I were chatting about our trip to western Massachuesetts and our visit to the Norman Rockwell museum. Very cool place to go by the way. It's in Stockbridge MA, just across the border from New York. A gentleman in the bar overheard our remarks and joined our conversation. He was dressed in a tuxedo and ready to go out for his evening. He asked us where we were going to eat and when we told him he frowned. He then asked me where we were from and when I said "California" he was a bit incredulous. "You buy Paul Stuart shirts in California?" Why yes I do I said. "Let me see if I can get you into Bar Americain, Bobby Flays restaurant just up the street." Mind you this was at 8:30 pm on a Saturday night. It turns out Jim eats there several times a week. He phoned the restaurant and spoke to the manager and got us a reservation within the hour. When we arrived the restaurant was packed but we were led immediately to an open table. What an experience! And all due to the kindness of a complete stranger. The dinner was terrific (the chips with warm blue cheese dressing, yum) and the restaurant beautiful and elegant. An evening we won't forget. Thanks again Mr. Lehrer!

Movies

Do not go see The American. No, really. Don't do it. Even if the thought of looking at George Clooney for an hour and a half makes your loins wet, it's not worth it. Trust me. Actually, trust the guy next to me at the end who stood up while everyone else was still seated in stunned silence, and yelled "fuck you" at the screen. Seriously.

Back in the Saddle

The title reminded me of Blazing Saddles which was a film that brought me to my knees. If you have not seen it, and you are male, you must rent it immediately. Hilarious.

I'm back from a vacation that was not great. My mother in law is just an absolute abomination. Despicable woman. Cannot stand her. Everyone lets her get away with egregious behavior because "she won't ever change." Nobody disputes her faults, just modify YOUR behavior because she won't change. What horseshit. People change if they are motivated to do so. She has no motivation because her husband gave up his balls either on his wedding night or during the first week. And his real crime was not protecting his daughters from the emotional warfare waged by his lunatic wife. Guh. Well I'm done. She attempted to correct me on something and I unloaded on her. I hope to talk to her again very soon and will unload again and then, with any luck, that will be the last time I ever see or speak to her again.

Can't give enough mad props to Mark Roberts and his short call on Strayer Education. From $240 to $140 in the month of August. Just an outstanding short call.

I have been making hay with the CBOE weeklies. Primarily AAPL and GOOG. I had a very good week this past week on expiration. Pinning continues to take place and is to be taken advantage of. For whatever reason, CBOE decreased the number of stocks that they write weeklies on to 12 this past week. The current week, issued today, is back up to 13 with the newest member being NFLX. I think that they are alternating names to gauge volume from the customer. AAPL and GOOG and AMZN etc have been offered consistently and I think they are just trying to find a few more names where the volume will justify continued writing. Oh and the ETF and index contracts continue to remain fairly consistent from week to week.

I read three books while on vacation which is nice. The new Annie Lamont, Imperfect Birds, The new Carl Hiaasen and a mystery. All good but nothing outstanding. Read The Atlantic, multiple New Yorkers, Mother Jones and Barrons cover to cover. I never have time to do that much reading while at home and that was pure joy.

I am short AAPL 250 calls and puts, double position on puts single on calls, short GOOG 460 puts, double position and short 470 calls double position. I closed my GOOG 460 put short earlier today to take the gain and then have reentered. I will likely close the 470 call short as it is plus $1300 right now and look to short the 460 calls for tomorrow on the pin.

Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strayer Education, a name I mentioned a few posts ago, has plummeted. I did not short as I wanted to have time to do a little research. I'm also on vacation, which makes it difficult to watch things closely, especially a new name. Since the article in Barrons, the stock has dropped 60 points. Ouch. How I wish I had just gone ahead and purchased a few puts.

Not doing to much even though this is monthly expiration week. I have made a couple of quick trades in GOOG but not much else.

Visiting Boston and noticed an article in the Globe announcing the third baby by Kiki a Western Lowland Gorilla. Kiki is one of 7 of this type of Gorilla at the Franklin Zoo. The species is extremely endangered. Zoo officials used an over-the-counter home pregnancy test to verify her expectedness. The very same test used by people. Take that creationist 'tards. AND. While taking a Duk Tour, (which I highly recommend) I was seated next to a guy that, on his right arm, had a tattoo on the inside of his arm, the word Jesus and the figure of Jesus, and on the outside of his arm, in cursive, the words "waiting for you." Yeah, keep waiting bud. It's going to be a loooooong time.......

Intra Day Sha la la la la

Short GOOG 500 calls for a mere pittance but it's $400 for ten so hard to pass that up. Short $490 puts for $7.30. These are both weekly. Which is just an absurd amount of premium me thinks. Short 20 AAPL 250 puts for an average basis of $1.65. This is a double position and I should have traded it today ie closed it and resold but I missed the boat a little bit. At this point I will leave it be, it's positive about a grand. My CME continues to implode. Must the stock go down EVERY day? I mean this is crazy. What a hideous chart. Why did I buy calls? Through the 20, through the 50. Gaped down yesterday on serious volume. How much more evidence do I need? This could be my worst trade of the year.

Holly won Hells Kitchen. Good for her. I thought she and Autumn had a chance with Autumn being a long shot but deep down I thought it was Jay's to lose. As long as Ben was sent packing, all was right with the world.

CSCO

John Chambers used the words "unusual uncertainty" when describing the economy and combined with a slight miss on revenue (100 M on $1.9 B) the afterhours investors (speculators) ran for the hills taking CSCO down 10%. Really? CSCO's business is now worth 10% less than it was yesterday? To say I think this is overdone is an understatement. This will cause selling tomorrow morning in AAPL, AMZN, GOOG etc and if you are looking to add to positions, buy calls (long) short puts etc there should be good opportunities to trade manana. I have no position in CSCO. I am long AAPL, GOOG calls, SIVB and CME calls. The CME calls have absolutely imploded and I expect them to be a complete loss. I don't usually lose 100% on any one investment decision but I think I will on this one...

YouTube. I had no idea. I had no idea the amount of lunacy on YouTube. I watched a video the other day by a guy (who I will leave nameless for his sake) that has decided to sell his house and his cars because all debt is bad and he wants to live debt free. When challenged about having to pay rent for a home for his family he tried to argue that rent wasn't debt because you could always choose somewhere else to live. He actually stated that once you had paid first and last you were good to go. As if somehow rent wasn't debt because you didn't have a payment due right then and that you could choose at that point to go somewhere else. When notified that FASB and GAAP require that entities capitalize leases as both current liabilities and long term debt, he didn't respond. His lack of critical thinking ignored the fact that landlords can raise rent, rent never expires etc etc. Yet, to him, it wasn't "debt." Debt being, for him, nothing more than a tool of the "banks and the brokerages." Aye carumba.

Good Friday

No, not the Catholic kind. I'm curious about something though. I was raised Catholic, went to catechism, got confirmed. Never really did understand the Holy Trilogy. Haven't been to Catholic church for eons. Why are you Catholic because your parents were Catholic? Is it something I can undo? Sort of a reverse baptism kind of thing? As Russell said, Que lastima.

Speaking of True Blood, and I will get to talking about trading in a minute, dreadful episode last night. Guh, this show is maddeningly inconsistent. Please stop forcing Sookie and Bill to do scenes together. It's torture. There is negative chemistry between these two. It's painful to watch. More lesbian scenes with Pam. There, I said it. Ya'll want that too, you just are afraid to say so....

Friday. First full week of trading the August week one contracts for GOOG and AAPL. I was short the 510 calls for GOOG the 500 puts and 500 calls and the AAPL 260 puts. It worked to perfection. I was getting a little concerned midday but the institutions came in for the afternoon and bought and drove both stocks to strike. GOOG closed at $500.22 and APPL at $260.09. I cannot state it enough that when this pinning takes place it is great to be short both sides of the strike. I would have been short the 260 calls on AAPL as well but I was out of margin.

Updates

Closed my AMZN long call for a base hit. Leaving my MA short put to work, currently positive. I may let this option expire. Basis is poor to hold for another 2 plus weeks with the margin requirement associated with a $200 stock. We are now post the earnings release and I think the chances of MasterCard getting anywhere close to $195 based on the chart is essentially zero. Unless I can find a better trading thesis for the use of this margin I will leave this position open. I am short the weekly GOOG 480 put. Still long AAPL, with a weekly covered write, long SIVB also with a covered call write though this is the August monthly and long IBM call and long CME call. The IBM call has recently turned green while the CME position languishes.

Barrons had a good interview in this past Saturdays paper with Mark Roberts whoose bias is short. Please bear in mind that everything you read with respect to folks that manage money in any capacity are talking their book. And there is nothing wrong with that as long as you realize that that is part of the equation. I am drawn to folks with a short bias, just very interested in those ideas. I have added Strayer Education to my watch list. Mark has them pegged to decline to $150 from the current $230. I may jump on the coattails of this trade after I put some time and effort into researching them.

Is the Jon Stewart goatee a joke or is it permanent? Hate it.

Ka-Ching

Closed my AAPL long and my GOOG call long for basehits. IBM call long is coming around as is the AMZN long call. Shorted MA puts on the weakness today and in advance of their earnings release tomorrow. The 195's, for $3.40.

True Blood: Another strong episode. Love me some Lafayette.

How to Make the World Better

At the risk of offending a zero audience, my three things that would ease strife around the world. No, I'm not being flippant. Number one: Everyone has a garden. Number Two: Everyone gets a nap of at least 45 minutes every day. No matter what. Number Three: Women stop verbalizing every, goddamn, thing. That's it. Those three things right there and we would be on the way to world peace.

New Stuff

The CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange, henceforth to be known as the CBOE) has initiated weekly options contracts on a very small, select group of stocks. GOOG, AMZN, AAPL, BIDU are a few of the names. These contracts are issued on a Thursday and expire the following Saturday. They are issued every week EXCEPT for the week of normal options expiration the third Friday of the month. Covered call writing as a way to generate additional income from a core position that is being held will be one of the uses. Selling puts at a strike for a position that you want to own is another idea that will work with these. The shorter time to expiration makes the ability to generate income over shorter time frames attractive. They have had these contracts for index options since 2005 but the individual stocks are new. The CBOE extended the expiration by a day on contracts beginning July 1st. Anyway, another arrow in the quiver. Not sure how much trading of these I will do, depends on the premium for the strikes but if I was a fund manager with traditional core buy and hold positions I would be looking to these contracts to increase my return via covered writing and by selling puts to reduce my basis for acquisitions. There are only 14 stocks that these contracts are available for currently but as time goes on and interest takes hold I think they will expand with additional stocks.

Long AAPL, SIVB, IBM calls, AMZN calls, CME calls, covered call write on AAPL.

Bread and Butter

Most of my trading profits come from a handful of companies. I trade a lot (2600 trades last year) and it is too difficult for me to focus on more than 8 -10 companies. I've tried in the past and I just end up losing money. GOOG accounts for much of my trading success. I watch it continually and have a pretty good handle on how it moves and it's chart. Here is an example of the type of trade that I try to do on a daily basis if the trade presents itself. This is a base hit in my world. Nothing flashy, just steady income.

GOOG is down to start the day, the market is decent, volume is mediocre, it has recently closed above both the 20 and 50 day moving averages, I just didn't feel, based on my history with this stock, that this selloff was going to stick. I bought calls. Not super deep in the money because we are far enough away from expiration, but with enough premium that if the stock elevated I might get a point. My vision for this trade was intra-day with perhaps holding overnight given the action. I was able to gain the point by the end of the trading day and so I closed the trade. Not complicated, I felt I bought close to what the low of the day was going to be and I think I closed given my parameters of the trade at the right time.

GOOGLE
07/26/2010	O	STC	GOOG Aug10 480 Call	10	$16.80	$9.00	$16,790.61
07/26/2010	O	BTO	GOOG Aug10 480 Call	10	$15.80	$9.00	($15,809.11)	981.50
Total Realized Gain/Loss for GOOG					$981.50

Gold

I wanted to make a few comments about gold because it's been on a bit of a tear and there are a lot of questions about whether or not to own some gold, trade it, etc. I'm not a big fan of gold as an investment, it pays no interest or dividends and can be expensive to store (physical gold, not an etf.) I do not trade gold but I do own some. The reason I own gold is the same reason I own fire insurance on my house. It's an insurance policy, that's it. If we somehow end up in some sort of Ayn Rand/Book of Eli armageddon, the wheels have completely come off and folks are pushing wheelbarrows around, that kind of thing, then having some one ounce gold coins around might be worthwhile. So if I pay $1200 an ounce and in three years it's worth $850 I don't care. It's simply a cost of insuring my financial life against a worst case scenario, like fire insurance is a cost of owning my home.

Now I don't subscribe to the whole survivalist, fundamentalist christian, the end is near stuff. I really don't. I think the likelihood we have to take the hills and start speaking Latin is about the same as getting hit by a meteor. Actually, the meteor strike is a higher probability. But, just the same, I will be happy to pass the gold I own on to my daughter when I'm dead.

I also support the idea of taking some money from a portfolio and owning gold as a diversification from other financial instruments. I think many people have the vast majority of their wealth tied up in home equity, retirement accounts and brokerage accounts that are equities and bonds. Why not take a percentage of that and own art, cars, horses, gold, something that you are interested in and has value. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's a lot more fun to buy a painting or a bar of gold then another 100 shares of IBM. IBM is probably the better long term investment but it isn't very fun or interesting.

Professional Cycling

I used to race bicycles in the 80's, a sport I was spectacularly unsuited for, as an amateur. I grew to love the sport even though I had little success. I was a very good swimmer when I was young but that sport was cut short by parents that didn't understand athletics nor did they try to understand me and my talent for it. I regret that I never got to realize my potential for swimming and resented my parents deeply for their ignorance, indifference and stupidity. Because of that mindset I tried desperately to achieve some measure of success in cycling. I understood the use of drugs in the sport and rationalized that use because of the extreme physical toll the sport takes on its participants. I never took drugs because of my Polycystic Kidney Disease and I was not a professional. But I understood why the sport was rife with supplements.

With all that being said, I cannot believe that Lance Armstrong is clean. I have never met Lance. I have followed his career from inception, the death of Fabio, his 7 tour wins etc. He has never failed a drug test. He has denied illicit use for his entire career. So why doesn't this go away? The problem that Lance has is that there are a lot of people that dislike him. Intensely. He has a way of speaking that is more than just a little bit off. It's more than cockiness or arrogance. In fact, I wouldn't use either of those adjectives to describe him. He speaks in a way that is different from the way that most people communicate and it offends people and is extremely oft putting. Lance then makes you aware that he doesn't care that you are offended. I hope that Floyd Landis is wrong and that nothing comes out of this latest indictment. Lance has had a fabulous career even though he was not a classics rider and didn't do much in any of the other grand tours, the Giro or the Vuelta. He still is the Tour champion 7 times in a row a feat that will likely not be duplicated in the foreseeable future. Even though I doubt he is innocent, I hope that he is vindicated.

Closed my MA put short. Did a quick intra day GOOG call short that worked today. Closed my long AMZN call position in one account for a nice win but left the same position open in another account. Guh. Well, I think it is overdone and will wait for the selling pressure to subside before exiting. Still long IBM calls, backwards a little bit, and long SIVB stock.

Goldman Sachs

I am not a fan of Goldman and have not been for a long time. This feeling is based upon the fact that they have unfair access to the federal government. Too many ex-Goldman employees work in positions of influence in government and in particular positions that relate to Goldmans business. The $550 million fine indicates that the folks that thought Goldman was not completely terrific were in some way validated. Whats interesting to note is that many Goldman apologists have been silent with respect to this agreement. Goldman was, is, and will continue to be, in my mind, dirty. I short them at every opportunity when I feel it is prudent.

Hell's Kitchen

This so infuriates me that it deserves it's own post: Ben, who makes it known he is better than everyone else, occasionally says "Oui" Chef. Actually, not occasionally, he does it all the time. What a pompous, self-affected prick. He should get kicked in the balls every time he says that. Very telling last night when Gordon told him he could cook but that he couldn't lead. He isn't going to win. I think both women have a strong shot.

Apple

Wow. All I can say is wow. What a quarter. I mean I thought they would crush but One Large more in revenue? And $.50 more per share in net income? PhenomenaI execution. Not just great products but the ability to manufacture, market and distribute. I am long calls and the stock and I am going to hold both. I think tomorrow will be a big day and I don't see any reason for this stock to slow down before $300. Volume has been good and it is now through both the 20 day and 50 day moving averages. The recent closing high of $270 I think will be broached summarily and I will look to take some of my positions off the table past $300.

I am going to long AMZN before their report later this week. I think they are going to blow the doors off this quarter as well. They have dropped a couple of hints I think in terms of the number of books they have sold on the Kindle and a couple other tidbits. AMZN is tight lipped about Kindle sales and this is an interesting bit of information they have released. I may increase my normal position buy of ten contracts to 20 or 30 as I think it may be that good.

GOOG and MA also are attractive and I may be active with them as well as CME. CME has been coming back a bit and I may enter a long position with them tomorrow. Support sure looks good at $265 so instead I may generate a little cash and short puts at that strike and deploy the cash generated for the longs I am interested in.

Pop Culture

I'm a little late to the game. Let me blame that on the fact that I have a 7 year old. But I am getting around to catching up on the prior episodes of Mad Men. Roger has to be one of the best characters on television. Hilarious. What a cad. And so funny. I'm up to speed on Breaking Bad and Nurse Jackie. After Mad Men I will feel like I am up to snuff culturally.

Closed my MA put short for a win. Hanging in on my AAPL long and my IBM long. Both of which are south.

Earnings

Big week for earnings announcements. IBM kicks off this afternoon after the close followed by AAPL tomorrow afternoon.. Many more to come including JNPR, AMZN, SIVB to name but a few. I bought and sold some GOOG calls today because of the very deep sell off on their earnings release and because of the very positive write up in Barrons from Saturday. Nice, quick, intraday trade good for $2500. I sold some MA puts this morning because I think the sell off in Master Card is way over done, support looks to me to be in the $190 to $195 range, and they report on the 3rd of August. Assignment at $190 would not be the worst thing in the world. The puts I shorted are the August 190's by the way. I also bought some IBM August 110 calls as a play on the earnings release. Pure speculation. Over the past 12 quarterly releases for Big Blue, the stock finished above the prior close 7 times. I think it will be a good report and depending on guidance, this may be good for a couple of points.

On to more interesting and pressing matters: True Blood. Last nights episode was a delight. If I may; more Bill, Russell, Russells lover (don't know his name), Lafayette, Franklin, Eric, Pam and Jessica. Less Sookie, Sam, Jason and much, much, much, less Tara.

Espana!

Hats off to Spain. I think they were the best team and they prevailed. The Dutch, realizing they were outclassed, resorted to thuggery and intimidating play. Classless move by the coach to remove his silver medal as soon as he exited the stage. Nice message to send, the ONLY thing that matters is winning. He would be nominated for douchebag of the day but that honor goes to either Mel Gibson for his profanity laced tirade at his wife OR to the cleric anwar al-awlaki for threatening the life of a Seattle cartoonist for making fun of Mohammed. Let me think, let me think. Ok, the superstitious, religious, dickhead that believes in fairies wins hands down in this space every time. Anwar? Please, go kill yourself. But just you, nobody else. Thanks.

Closed my GOOG 460 put short and will look to reenter on a pull back or perhaps a higher strike. This trade was good for two points with enough time before the earnings release on Thursday to perhaps take advantage of some profit taking and reshort. This is the fourth straight day of gains in GOOG so a pull back would not be a surprise.

I'm percolating on buying some shares in TSLA. Not because I think it would be a good investment, I don't, I think it probably would be a terrible investment, but because it's the first American car company to file in IPO in 60 years. I've made dumber investment decisions.

Big Week

This week is a big week for trading. Options expire this coming Saturday with the last day to trade on Friday. INTC and GOOG both release earnings this week and will set the stage for the coming earnings season. I put a toe in the water and sold some GOOG 460 puts and will likely add to that position roll to $470, $480, or buy some calls as the Thursday release date gets closer. GOOG's semi resolution with China saw a continued bounce in its stock price back to it's 20 day moving average on decent volume. This chart looked horrible a couple of days ago and was terribly oversold, primarily, I think, on the uncertainty with respect to it's license in China, and now looks much better. I think they will report a good quarter and there is room to the upside near term perhaps to the $500 -$510 neck of the woods.

Paul the Octopus and variance...

Hats off to Paul the Octopus in Germany for going 6 for 6 in predicting how Germany would fare in each of its world cup matches. He picked the right clam every time. Now if we could just put the symbol for APPL on one box and the symbol for GOOG on the other box.... I'll go out on a limb and predict that Spain will prevail. They beat a very good German team and the outcome was never really in doubt. They had pressure on the Germans from the outset and it was just a matter of time before they scored. I think the same game will unfold against the Dutch. The Dutch absolutely, positively, must score the first goal to have any chance.

I mention variance in the header because it's a term used in poker and the World Series of Poker is going on right now with the preliminary events completed and the main event underway. I played in the last preliminary event, the $2500 No Limit Hold Em event and did not make it to dinner, losing most of my stack with KK against a Canadian internet monkey named Evan Lamprea who thought he was in front with AK when I raised 4X in early position for the first time in two hours. He just shoved it in and prayed with ace high because that is so much easier to do than to have to make a decision on the board, and caught an ace. The vast majority of the time my KK will hold but variance raised her ugly little head and put an ace on the flop.

Variance is also a factor in trading which is the real reason I'm bringing it up. (Ok, aside from kevetching about 23 year old internet idiots.) The big day yesterday was not really a surprise if you had been looking at charts and recognized how much selling pressure had been applied over the previous two weeks. I was short some AAPL 240 puts and long some CME 270 calls. Both July expirations. I have closed the CME calls and rolled the AAPL 240's into the 250's. The market was quite oversold and very much due for a bounce. State Street released a good earnings report and that helped to jump start the day. Yesterday saw a very steady rise on fairly decent volume. Most of the earnings reports for the companies that I trade fall after the July option expiration on the
16th with one exception: GOOG. GOOG reports on Thursday, the 15th after the close. For now I'm content to be short the APPL 250 puts and will add to that short on any pullback. I will very likely go long in some fashion prior to the GOOG earnings release.

Expiration

This past Friday, the 18th of June, was options expiration. Actually, to be technically correct, the options expired Saturday the 19th but the last day to trade those options was Friday.

A phenomena occurred Friday that I want to discuss. This phenomena is called "pinning." Pinning occurs when a stocks price is driven to a specific options strike price. The reason for this is to drive out the value of all long holders of calls and puts at that specific strike price. The corollary to this is that if you are short calls and puts at this strike you will be able to cover for nominal amounts prior to close or let the options expire worthless. Naked shorting of calls and puts is a tricky and sometimes dangerous game but if you are observant of pinning you can take advantage of this phenomena and reap the rewards.

An example of pinning from this past Friday is Google. GOOG closed at $500.03 on Friday after opening at $502.51 and trading to a high of $503.47 and a low of $498.13. If you were short the $500 strike calls and puts of GOOG you were able to close those shorts in the waning minutes of the day for $.10 to $.15 a contract. These calls and puts, just the day prior, were trading for $2.50 and $3.00. That is the difference to be made, per contract, if you were aware of GOOG being driven to $500 strike and were taking advantage of it. I think that the institutions try to pin frequently but other market participants contribute volume that they cannot make up for or mitigate. It happens enough though and is so profitable that it will contribute handsomely to your trading profits if you can take advantage of it.

USA vs Slovenia

I have been wiped out this week with the worst cold of my life. The couch and bed upstairs have pretty much been my confinement. This has provided me with the opportunity to watch just about every game of the World Cup. At the risk of provoking ire from the soccer community, it's a great game to watch when you aren't feeling well. I would doze off for a nap, wake up, and chances were very good nothing had happened. Seriously, it's so difficult to score. Not sure how to change that without making it too easy to score. My second thought is that the penalty for infractions is way disproportionate to the offense. The accidental hand ball by the Serbian (?) player resulted in a penalty kick which resulted in a goal which resulted in a loss of the game. That seems ridiculous. I realize I don't know a lot about the game and that hitting the ball with your hand is a serious offense. But even if that is the most egrigious offense you can commit, having it result in an almost certain loss for your side seems a bit extreme. Last but not least I would like to see more yellow cards for diving. In particular, the serial offenders like Portuguese striker Ronaldo who goes down, according to one of the announcers, "with a puff of wind" need to be booked out of the game. With all that been said, I am on my coach, in front of my tv, watching: GO USA!!!

The Blahs

I'm a bit under the weather to start the week. I would like to make a quick comment now that the primaries have been decided. Meg Whitman is yet another Republican that thinks a government can and should be run like a business. It can't. Nor should it be. She is also contemptuous of government as evidenced by her disgraceful voting record, yet now wants the top post. I mean, what an insult to all the courageous veterans that have given their lives for our right to vote that she tarnishes by viewing voting as being beneath her and not worth her time. She is despicable. Proposition 13 destroyed our school system here in California and to refuse to discuss it with respect to solving our budgetary crisis is lunacy. Our budget mess will not be solved with spending cuts alone. It is very disappointing that the Republicans could not put forth a more worthy candidate.

Inaugral Post

I have been options trading for quite some time now and I have finally decided to start writing about it to see if I can articulate what I do in hopes of (at some point in the future) write a book. The goal being to help people with their trading, and, in return, to garner ideas from readers that will help me. My title is a cornerstone of my trading philosophy and something I think is so important that it cannot be overstated. More on that in the future.

I will attempt to talk about each of my trades and positions, and the rationale and strategy behind those trades and positions. My focus will very much be on the closing side of whatever the open position is as I feel that the "sell" or closing decision is not highlighted within the financial services community. There is much emphasis on the buying of a security and in staying long a security and I hope to balance that with assistance for the sell side and for shorting. I specialize in naked short selling of calls and puts and I will talk a whole lot about when to close those positions.

This blog will also contain discussions about politics and current events and other topics of interest to me and to my readers. So, welcome, I very much look forward to the evolution of this blog.

DV