Jameson Triplett

Retirement

2006-08-03T20:03:15Z

According to recent data from the Employee Benefits Research Institute, more than two-thirds of workers have less than $50,000 set aside for their leisure years, and more than half have less than $25,000.

That's a scary thought. My tax money is going to go into helping these people retire in some amount of years while I'm still working.

Realogy and Wyndham

2006-07-25T19:45:53Z

Too big for my taste. They are both being added to the SP500, if the spinoff doesn't go well, it might be worth watching to see if they fall off the SP500 which might make them a really good value.

Morningstar is a good place to search for spinoff candidates.

Windstream Corp was a recent spinoff of Alltel, something worth looking at.

Tim Horton from Wendys

Phillips Electronics spinning off its semiconductor.

Realogy and Wyndham

2006-07-25T14:53:01Z

Spinoffs from Cendant

Realogy is NYSE Ticker H
Wyndham Worldwide is WYN,

Trading to publically commence on Aug 1, shareholder distribution on July 31

Spinoffs

2006-07-25T14:04:37Z

Looking for Spinoffs
*Altria may be spinning off Kraft
*Halliburton spinning off KBR, Kellogg Brown & Root, 6-9 months from now
*This one is interesting, Verizon is spinning off its verizon directories business, there's some complex debt along with it, but its worth some study, by year end. "Verizon Information Services"
*First Data and Western Union, needs more digging.
*Cendant to spinoff Realogy, its real-estate business, in June or July. By October, Cendant will be gone, replaced by four "pure play," publicly traded businesses focused on real estate, hotels, rental cars and travel-distribution services.
*Sara Lee Corp to spinoff Hanesbrands, HBI. (HBI is also the acronym for Heartless Bitches International and others)

Options

2006-07-20T19:14:29Z

Horrible horrible options month

The FTEK 15 Calls I bought at .55 are not worth nothing
-100%

The Ctrip 45 puts I bought are now worth nothing

the GM 27.5 puts I bought are now worth nothing

Sold the IWM 69 puts today at .85
-60%

Well folks, that was all the money I made available for options, Mr Market bent me over and gave me a whollop.

Sold More VPL

2006-07-17T19:06:11Z

I sold a bunch more VPL today from my ROTH. Turned that money around and into LGBT UTI RSTI and PXR. The reduction in international exposure I think will help my returns. I see a lot of volatility in the international markets especially the Asian ones in the next year or so. The small growth stocks I've held in my taxable account have done well in the past 6 months, holding their own against the tide. Almost all the indexes I held have done very poorly. I'm concluding that what I need to do is hold individual stocks over the long run.

On the options front, I'm still holding my IWM and GM puts, I'm still hoping for a little more downturn before friday. I'm hoping IWM will go down to about 66. I don't have that much hope for a GM profit unless we get a good downturn tomorrow, though atleast I can take some decent money out if GM hits 27, albeit a slight loss.

International Exposure

2006-07-17T17:25:58Z

I realized my international exposure is a little too high. I sold off some of my VPL shares infavor of investing in some good Hidden Gems recommendations, I've got limit orders in for BPOP, UTI, and NUAN. I like the prospects behind these companies, I think I'll probably look toward holding them ad infinitum. These were all listed in July Hidden Gems, and are all below the rec price.

I also traded my IWC shares for SPY shares, only afterwards realizing that I should have bought a different SP500 fund. SPY is no longer the best deal for the 500, oh well, the differences are very subtle, .02% expense ratio difference. This is another fund that I should hold to infinity re-investing dividends, I may trade it in for a mutual fund of the same index, but currently I don't have the $3000 min to allocate to it.

UP

2006-06-29T19:31:44Z

Things are up everywhere after the feds raise, and while my investment portfolio looks good, my puts are starting to degrade in value a lot. I'd really like to see another temporary low to cash in on the puts and put the money into some good investments on the cheap.

Nuan

2006-06-19T16:04:47Z

Sold july 7.5 calls NUAN at 1.35
+24%

Limit order for July 27.5 puts GM at 2.05

IWM

2006-06-15T15:19:20Z

Bought July 69 IWM Puts at $2.20

If the fed increases the rate, small caps take the worst hit, plus this is insurance against my portfolio a bit, since almost my entire portfolio is small caps.

SPY CTRP

2006-06-15T14:46:26Z

Sold 123 June SPY Calls at $1.6 +58%
June 126 SPY calls will expire worthless I suspect. Coulda sold them last Friday for a profit but funds settlement wouldn't let me.

That puts my total for June SPY options at
+22.5%

Bought July 45 CTRP Puts at $1.8

JOSB

2006-06-15T14:14:59Z

Sold June 30 JOSB calls at $1.65

+1.43%

I think the mistake I made yesterday of purchasing those calls at $1.3 made it easy to come out of those calls breaking even. *whew*

Lots of green

2006-06-15T13:52:59Z

Seeing lots of green this morning, I've got limit orders on almost all of my short term options, heres hoping a few of them sell. If JOSB and SPY could edge up a bit I would be very happy.

June Hike

2006-06-14T15:30:54Z

I don't think Bernanke should raise the rates, even he has published articles on the lag between interest rate hikes and their effect on inflation. Futures on the rate hike are near 100% probability. Personally I think a little inflation is ok given the increases in fuel prices we've seen. Let your hikes have some time to take hold Bernanke, no more rate hikes, those of us with investment portfolios are hurting already.

SPY

2006-06-14T13:44:42Z

SPY June 123 Calls at 0.95

Sold SPY

2006-06-13T19:57:26Z

Sold SPY June 123 Puts at $1.55
+39%

Bought July JOSB 30 Calls at 1.30
This was actually an order mistake, I didn't want to buy them I was putting in a limit order to sell my JOSB calls and somehow it went in wrong. Well in anycase, this allows me to limit sell at a lower price and still break even. I think I might have caught a falling knife on this stock, silly me.

SPY

2006-06-13T13:37:00Z

Long SPY June 123 Puts at 1.05

EEM

2006-06-12T21:10:01Z

I might grab some EEM puts for insurance, since I have quite a bit of exposure to the Emerging markets in my other investments.

Nuan

2006-06-12T20:04:46Z

Long Nuan July 7.5 Calls at $.75

Same as I bought before, but at a better price. I am still pretty sure this will go up.

Sold SPSS Puts

2006-06-12T19:12:41Z

Sold the SCSS Puts at $1.45

+156%

Since I'm trading in my IRA, I have no taxes, but I also have no margin, so I left some money on the table. SCSS split last week, and the options are undervalued, there is an arbitrage opportunity here that is not being taken advantage of because of the options converstion. But I can't exercise the option because I have no margin, and I don't have the cash to buy the underlying stock. Oh well, still a good profit.

jamesontrader @ 2006-06-08T15:04:00

2006-06-08T19:05:41Z

Long June SPY Calls 126 at $1.05

Can't Sell till tuesday due to funds clearing. I really need to keep some cash on hand to make sure that these options can clear faster, so I can flip them easier.

JOSB

2006-06-08T18:09:52Z

Did anyone see this? JOSB lost 11.59 today, a loss of nearly 30% Wouldn't that have been a fun Put, some people made some serious cash on that one. Kinda a pity that JOSB decided to release earnings that were less then expected today on a bad market day anyway. I think this is a market overreaction.

To take advantage of this, I'm going to make a bet that they will make some of that back by October. I only wish I could buy a $25 call that was in the money to begin with as opposed to a $30 that is out.

2 Call $30 OCT 20 Exp

I think the strategy here is to hold this one for a while, at $1.8 this is probably a long shot, I think some chance of the recovery is built into that price. But if we see it go back up to 30 or above in the next two months, it should sell for a profit in say August or September.

Bought VLCM, Call FTEK

2006-06-08T16:03:18Z

4 Calls, FTEK, $15 July Expiration, Total cost $231.95,

FQFGC

The deep discounts that the market is offering today looks to me like a great opportunity to buy a call on a highly volitile stock, FTEK. Its down almost 10% today, on a stock that I've seen WILD swings on since I've held it since January. This is my biggest bet so far in the options arena. FTEK is down 10% today on just market volitility, I think we'll see it regain almost all of that in the next month. Expecting a double, hoping for a triple.

I also placed a Limit order for VLCM, this was mentioned in the Hidden Gems as a good stock at 33, now its tettering on the edge of $28.

The market is sometimes fascinating

2006-06-08T13:36:01Z

Watching the Bid Ask spreads in real time before the market opens then seeing where that takes the trades is sometimes really fascinating. I was watching SCSS this morning to see how much it might drop after yesterdays peak. The Bid/Ask spread was fluctuating wildly before 9:30 but there was a much lower bid then ask reletive to yesterdays closing price, so my guess was it was going to drop. What do you know, down 0.40 in the first 2 minutes.

Of course all of this is much more interesting since I have money on it on my two put options. Its like watching horse racing with a bet on one of the horses, except that you want him to loose, not win.

Yea I'm still underutilized at work. But the RFIs went out yesterday and hopefully we should get some responses back by Friday so I'll be busy soon.

I would be jubilent if SCSS drops through the floor and I can sell those puts on Friday for some big profit. I made money on the up, now I make money on the down, what great fun.

SCSS Put

2006-06-07T18:29:44Z

Using the profit I got from the SCSS Call sale, I bought 2 Put options for June, at 0.50. Total cost $109.45, Strike $35.

QSLRG

Since SCSS has seen a high today of about 36.5, and given its recent trend downward, I think we will see it come off that high to about 34 or less in the next week, that means that I should be able to get $1.5 for each option. If that works that's a triple for me.