Posts Tagged ‘stock’

Covered Calls, A Godsend in a Flat or Falling Stock Market

It is amazing to me that not many retail investors understand the concept of generating cash flow from their stock positions. When I tell people that I utilize covered calls to generate extra income, hedge my stock positions, and set strict sell disciplines they look at me like I am crazy. I was introduced to the concept from a stockbroker, Scott Masse, who runs Masse Wealth Management, in Smithfield, RI. Scott is also the owner of a few bars and one night over a few diet cocktails, ie. barcadi and diet cola, he explained the concept to me. The idea of writing covered calls is the only option strategy that you can employ at most of the major brokerage firms for your IRA investments. The reason is that writing covered calls is a very conservative strategy relative to other option strategies.

The strategy is very similiar to selling an option on a piece of real estate. For example, I’ll give you $10,000 now, if you allow me to buy your property 6 months from now at a set price. If I choose not to exercise my option, you keep the money and we go our seperate ways.

With a stock, if I buy 1,000 shares of ABC OIL at $10 and the stock goes to $11 in the following month. I can sell someone the “right” or option to buy the stock from me six months from now at $12.50. For that right or option, the option buyer has to give me some consideration, similiar to the above real estate example, let’s assume it is .50 per share or $500.

The $500 is immediately deposited into my brokerage account, but an option position also shows up on my statement. I can not sell the stock prior to 6 months unless I buy back the option in the open market. The option price can fluctuate from day to day, therefore, I typically hold my stocks until expiration.

Six months from now, two things can happen. One, the stock goes above $12.50 and the person “calls” me out of the position, which I am more than happy to do since I bought it at ten. Second, the stock has declined below $12.50 and the option holder is holding on to a worthless option. The option holder would not “call” the stock from me at $12.5 when he or she might be able to buy it in the open market at $11.50.
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5 Steps To Researching a Stock Trade Before Investing

Once you determine which business cycle the economy is currently in you can start researching for a trade. It is best to have some sort of a system in place that will be used before EACH trade. Here is a simple 5 Step formula to help get you started.

5 Steps to Investing Online:

1. Find a stock
This is the most obvious and most difficult step in stock trading. With well over 10,000 stocks to trade a good rule of thumb to consider is time of the year. For example, as I write this, it is the beginning of spring. It would make sense to consider stocks that traditionally make runs, or slide if you are bearish, during this time of year.

2. Fundamental Analysis
Many short term traders may disagree with the need to do ANY Fundamental Analysis, however knowing the chart patterns from the past and the news regarding the stock is relevant. An example would be earnings season. If you are planning
on playing a stock to the upside that has missed its earnings target the last 3 quarters, caution could be in order.
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3 Steps To Profitable Stock Picking

Stock picking is a very complicated process and investors have different approaches. However, it is wise to follow general steps to minimize the risk of the investments. This article will outline these basic steps for picking high performance stocks.

Step 1. Decide on the time frame and the general strategy of the investment. This step is very important because it will dictate the type of stocks you buy.

Suppose you decide to be a long term investor, you would want to find stocks that have sustainable competitive advantages along with stable growth. The key for finding these stocks is by looking at the historical performance of each stock over the past decades and do a simple business S.W.O.T. (Strength-weakness-opportunity-threat) analysis on the company.

If you decide to be a short term investor, you would like to adhere to one of the following strategies:

a. Momentum Trading. This strategy is to look for stocks that increase in both price and volume over the recent past. Most technical analyses support this trading strategy. My advice on this strategy is to look for stocks that have demonstrated stable and smooth rises in their prices. The idea is that when the stocks are not volatile, you can simply ride the up-trend until the trend breaks.
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$300 + 10 Minutes a Day = $30,000?!?

We all know the saying, “work smarter, not harder”, but could it actually be possible to work THAT much smarter? Working only minutes a day and replacing, Exceeding your current Income? Don’t worry, Its perfectly legal and people are doing it right this very second around the world!

Its FOREX Trading, and what you don’t know, could be costing thousands of dollars.

Forex stands for Foreign Currency Exchange Market, commonly referred to as FOREX, FX, and 4X. You may be familiar with the stock market, but there are a few reasons Currency Trading can blow Stock Trading right out of the water!

There are 3 Major reasons why Currency Trading can out preform the stock market any day!

There Is a Very low Investment of only $300 dollars needed to start. This is a lower investment when compared to the investment you would make with stocks, futures, or day trading. Of course you can start with something more than $300, but just start where you are, whatever that is and it will grow.
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