re: Options Trading Thread

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Do I even need to own equities?

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To trade? I used to. Don’t anymore. I invest in equities, bonds/notes, real estate, etc. But trying to trade stocks is too “flip of the coin” and directional for me to do the strategies that I’m doing with options. As premium sellers, we’re the casino, the house, the insurance company. Sure, we’ll get smacked with a loss every now and again. But over time and with many occurrences, the probabilities are strongly in our favor.

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Also, anyone thinking MSFT cools off a bit soon? Trying for a 5/12 credit call spread with a break even of 308.80

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Yesterday I would have said yes… and that’s why I didn’t buy shares to cover my 302.50 short calls when it was 296 and change. Well, I was wrong! So I ended up buying shares today on a dip at 302.94 and sold the long 315 call wings for a few pennies. I expect the 302.50 short calls to be assigned tomorrow and my stock to get called away. If so, counting the total premium from the jade lizard minus the loss from the 302.94 purchase and the 302.50 forced sell, I’ll come out with a very small net gain.

And if it doesn’t get called away, I’ll either sell slightly OTM 5/5 calls or just dump the stock at a (hopefully) slight profit in the near term. This account isn’t made to hold long stock for any lengthy period of time.