Trades

[timjustice]

Lets start a thread devoted to trades. I can't tell you what to do but if you want to discuss with the group you may want to post them here.

Lets start to use this thing!

Tim

[timjustice]

Is anyone trading as of yet? Either virtual or live?

Tim

[blancoarismendi]

Yes. I started vitual trading today. I took positions in both ATHN and BAS. Their financials come out tonight. So I straddled them both at $25. Then I sold calls and puts to offset the purchase price. I know this limits my upside potential, but this is the strategy that really got me into wanting to do this. So I'm trying it out.

[VegasCharlie]

I've been paper trading for about 2 weeks. I'm only buying/selling straight stocks at this time. I still do not understand options enough to leverage.

[blancoarismendi]

Well.. I had a learning experience today. I made about $50 on one options straddle position that I took. But then I also lost $300 on another one... So it is definitely possible to lose on a straddle...

But I learned alot. First of all factoring in the cost of the commission you have to pay is very important. And 2. you need to get into a options position with a stock at least 2-3 weeks before the earnings come out or you end up paying more for it.

I think most importantly I learned that I don't understand options nearly enough, so I think I'm going to stick with straight stocks for a little while.

[timjustice]

we'll cover this in depth during a session later but let me touch on it a little bit here. Straddle trades are best put on 2-6 weeks in advance of earnings. The reason is that implied volatility is spiking in anticipation of earnings and that's driving up the cost.

Secondly, after the earnings come out the implied volatility drops like a rock so it brings out value from your straddle.

Just food for thought.......

I'm glad to see you guys trading though!

[jchavez]

I have a brokerage account open along with a virtual trade account, but I haven't placed any trades yet. I'm watching a few stocks on the Edutrader, however the scans that I am most familiar with at this time are not availabe with my version of the software so I am working in getting this resolved so that I can move forward.

[jchavez]

Question: Is there a place in Edutrader where the Earnings release date can easily be located for any particular stock?

Thank you.

[blancoarismendi]

I personally haven't found an option in edutrader that lets you look up earnings release dates, but I wouldn't consider my myself an expert on the software... Here's the link to the website I'm using and it seems easy enough to use.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor.../earncalendar/

[timjustice]

Click on "Tools" then highlight calendars and click earnings.

You can also use:

www.earnings.com

www.earningswhisper.com