Binyamin, I haven’t considered the idea of buying protective UVXY calls ahead of time, during low volatility, for a future short UVXY position when volatility spikes. That’s a really interesting strategy.

Retiredmarine1214, I completely agree with you: Mixing personal political beliefs into one’s trading is hardly a recipe for success.

Well played with BABA, Guillermo. I am confident that you will do well with all three: BABA, FB, and AAPL.

Well played, Ricardo.

kellykline, with SVXY at 134 and creeping upwards as I write this, you might want to take profits if you sold calls on it…

Hello ultrafeel, and thank you for participating in the forums, all the way from Switzerland! I would be amazed to see bitcoin go down to $1,000-$2,000 USD but anything is possible in the Wild West world of cryptos. BTC is above $10,000 USD now, so at least there may be some stabilizing in the works — perhaps even a buying opportunity for the gutsy….

I must admit that I have no current position in GBTC. Actually I feel that’s a good thing because I can be more objective in my assessment of it. I considered buying GBTC before the split in anticipation of small-account traders piling in after the share price becomes more affordable… but now I’m realizing that’s a risky trade because the price…[Read more]

Indeed, pretty much all cryptos are down today. No worries, as the most popular cryptocurrencies have always gone up within a few days or weeks after scares like this.

You could try the “poor man’s covered call” strategy with those LEAPs that you purchased, by selling weekly calls every week. Sometimes if you use that strategy, you’ll end up paying for those LEAP calls after a few months simply by collecting small premium payments every week.

I sold some 30-strike calls and some 35-strike calls on UVXY, all expiring in exactly a month, before the closing bell rang. I would have no problem getting assigned at those strike prices….

Richard, that is a well thought out strategy, much appreciated.

Good question, Jason. Only Moses knows! I just react, never predict.

Thank you for the info, Richard; I’ll need to check out that resource.

Well said. Excessively large position sizes were my biggest mistake in 2017, and I’m not planning on making that mistake again this year.

Hello Brad, for a while I’ve been thinking about treating UGAZ and DGAZ like I’ve been treating UVXY: a leveraged ETP with plenty of drag, and a possible candidate for a short position. Maybe even short UGAZ and DGAZ at the same time! Maybe I’m just crazy?

I like your LEAPs strategy. LEAPs are an effective way to participate in a long-term play without having to buy hundreds of ETF or stock shares.

Those are all good questions, opsinin. As Seth alluded to, price changes based on sentiment tend to occur before price changes based on fundamentals. As Ben Graham once said, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”

You’ve make some excellent points, RonTurkey. It’s pretty much all or nothing with altcoins, especially for position traders who plan to “HODL” (hold on for dear life). That’s why I would have a preference for swing trading these things, buying on dips and taking profits frequently.

I’m just like you, RetiredMarine — I never get the new phones when they come out. When I was a high school teacher, the students would say, “Mr. Moadel’s got a ghetto phone!” LOL

I like it. Credit spreads usually have a nice statistical edge to them in terms of probability of profit