The basics: what you can do in different account types, general strategies, suggestions, and things to avoid.
I’m don’t pay much attention to the month of the year predictors for the stock market such as “As January goes, so goes the year”. As this post points out, the statistics are hardly overwhelming. There are tax and cultural reasons (year end, lots of time off/holidays) that reasonably give December and January some seasonal effect, but as far as predictors go, it is …
Neither the bulls or the bears have gotten the upper hand this week. The specter of another debacle, similar to last year’s, hangs out in the back of our minds, but the fairly constant stream of good earnings reports provides a counterbalance. I think this correction has pretty much run its course. I’m putting some more chips down… Did a covered call of SPY–bought …
I created a covered call position with SPY for a net investment of 108.43 per share, bought SPY at 110.298 and sold Feb 111 calls ( SPY 02/20/2010 111.00 C in Schwab speak) at 1.87. I sold out of the money calls because I’m pretty optimistic the market will retrace the recent drop-off. Best case profit would be 2.57 per share or 2.3%. …
USO has dropped from recent highs around 41, down to the mid 36s. I did covered calls at a net debit of 35.59. Bought USO at 36.57 and sold to open Feb 37 calls ( or “-UBO100220C37” in Fidelity speak) at .98.
I believe the best way to understand the ebb and flow of the market is to view it as the interplay of fear and greed. Of course, economics are important, but I view human psychology as even more fundamental to the movements of the market. Tonight fear has the upper hand. US markets have been down two days in a row, the Asian markets …
