Phil's Stock World, Stock Options Trading & Information

hil, I hit my targets for the year in my 401K (thanks in no small part to your site), so I cashed out of all positions a couple of weeks ago. Feels good... I'm conservative with this money –looking for 2% per month, which i’ve been able to do… thx.

- Lunar, Dec 31, 2009

Phil…..You have absolutely NAILED IT! This is not a bull market, nor is it a bear market. It is a Rangeish market, and it’s going to stay that way for a long time (the latter is my prediction. I love the word. What I love more is the fact that I’ve found someone with some investing intelligence greater than mine who can assist me in playing this type of market. Your description today of how it’s playing out is right on. I predict some media ‘guru’ will steal your word and your description within the next few days and we’ll all get to read about what ‘they’ discovered about this market. Thanks Phil!

- Iflantheman, Oct 5, 2009

Phil - Wow…wow. The vision and inate grasp of the options world you posess is rather staggering. It’s this type of experience that I really hope to develop. I’m afraid I still can’t see the moves, but I WILL learn. I cannot thank you enough for the patience, knowledge and effort you put into this place. Please keep it going!

- Where, Sep 24, 2009

I can’t believe it. After 2 Months of reading every post of every section on this site, the light bulb finaly went on. I was begining to think this was beyond me capacity to understand. Thanks Guys. Specifically Phil, Pharm, Cap, Matt. Im still Green as a leprechaun but I pulled the trigger on that SRS Vertical you laid down yesterday Phil. Very Clever. Now if I can just figure how to roll I migh make some money. Thanks for sharing, This community you have here is quite remarkable.

- Zucko, Sep 4, 2009

I am a Registered Nurse, so is my wife. We work hard to take care of seven kids that are the joy of our lives. The cost for a basic membership is ALOT from our our monthly budget of spending and saving…but well worth it! Phil has allowed me to really ramp up the savings we put away for our children’s college funds and our retirement.

- David , Jun 6, 2009

Thanks for the oil tip Phil: Bot & sold the USO May 29 calls for net $125. Not bad for few minutes work.

- JWick1981, Apr 7, 2009

A truly great website with a lot of information for investors. Whether you are a novice, seasoned, or a professional there is a lot to be gained about stock options and options trading from this very informative website.

- ZKatkin, Mar 21, 2009

I have been with this site since the beginning and i have learned more the past 3 years than the previous 10. Information and great commentary are abound. The traders on the site are second to none and my portfolio has benefited greatly.

- Kustomz, Mar 21, 2009

Sold out my AAPL mar95 calls. Up over 100% today on them!

- Singapore Steve, Mar 17, 2009

Great calls this week!

- SNS1, Feb 6, 2009

Beginner's Guide to Options Trading. Free PDF Guide. Where & when to trade, how to prevent stock or option loss and how to make money!

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Archive for the ‘Random Thoughts’ Category

Introduce Yourself

by k1 - February 24th, 2008 7:31 pm

Go to the K1 Project Main Page

We’ve been kicking around the idea of having a place to post a small biography

Posted in Random Thoughts | 40 Comments »

Affiliation Made Easy

by Greg - April 18th, 2007 11:59 pm

I’ve just updated our affiliate program. Here’s the deal: refer someone, and get $25 when they subscribe. To participate, just login to your Member Page and go to the Affiliates area. There, you can get code for text links or banners, which you can put on your blog, website, or on the side of your car.

We’d honestly rather have new members who are referred by current members, because you are smart people and you are probably friends with other smart people. So if you signup 4 new members, we’ll throw another $50 your way, and will keep doing so for every fourth paid referral. Again, this last perk is only for current members.

Posted in Random Thoughts | No Comments »

Site Changes

by Greg - April 6th, 2007 8:58 pm

A few items you might not be aware of:

Our Links page has been updated to include some helpful information about options-friendly brokers. Hint: you won’t get far trading options with Scottrade (I know, I tried once).
You can edit your membership information, password, or subscription status at any time by going to your Member Page.
You can reach me (Jared) anytime I’m online through any of the major instant messaging services. See the Contact Us tab for more information.
For some of you, 2 posts a day and 250+ comments still isn’t enough, and you occasionally find yourself browsing through our archives, yearning for more. Well, today’s your lucky day: our archives now extend all the way back to January 2005! Note: if you come across any old posts that aren’t formatted properly, please let me know.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 4 Comments »

Confessions of a Phil’s Stock World Neophyte

by Greg - March 24th, 2007 10:24 am

[Ed: member gumbaphil submits:]

Confessions of a Neophyte “Phil Groupie”

“So, Cory old buddy, whadya get for your birthday???”

(I suppose I can use triple question marks…in keeping with the “Phil” lexicon)

“Well”, sez I, “I bought myself a subscription to PhilsStockWorld.com. Figgered I oughta find somethin’ interesting to do while recuperating from back surgery. Sitting is a might more comfortable than lying around in the bed doncha know; and I don’t care much for no soap operas on TV.”

“PhilStockWorld?…What’s that?

“Good question. I’ve been a member now for 12 trading days and it appears to be part Options trading education, part trading “hints” (he don’t give no “advice” since he’s not a registered securities “advisor”), and a whole batch o’ political and economic commentary”.

“That’s it? You just glue yourself to a computer monitor all day, and READ stuff?”

“No way man. I launch my Ameritrade Control Panel which is a poor man’s trading platform and do my best to mirror the stock option trades (hints) that Phil posts on his commentary Phorum. “

“And that’s not all either. I discovered that the second by second monitoring of some the more “risky” positions was an excellent way to test out this little heart rate monitor that my son gave me. So far, it sez I’ve registered about 99 million calories by just sittin’ at the keyboard.”

“So, ya made any money?

“Well…yes…and…no.”

“Whaddya mean yes AND no?

“Well, I FOLLOWED PHIL’S DISCIPLINED APPROACH on most trades, which is basically the 20% rule, and took my gains off the table. But I made the classic mistake of DENIAL on my oil PUTS and let my losses pile up, without directional protection, to the point that my losses on them may well exceed the gains on my closed positions.”

“HOWEVER, I still have some time on my side with those oil PUTS (Apr 21st) and I’m so d@&mn far underwater with them that I may let them ride and hope for a miracle.”

Here’s the 12 trading day breakdown:

Portfolio Balance	$25,000
CLOSED Positions (24)
Net Gain	$3,870	15%
Total position trades	24
Avg value per trade	$600
Avg gain per trade	$161
Avg gain per trading day	$283
Percent WINNING trades	58%
OPEN Positions (10)
Net gain (loss)	($5,541)	(22%)

Note: Some of the open positions currently stand at 68% net loss

LESSON LEARNED

I think that I shoulda cut losses at 20% on ALL of the currently open losers, (as recommended by good ole Phil)

On the other hand, they may well turn out to be winners since they have…

Posted in Education, Random Thoughts | 27 Comments »

Confessions of a Phil’s Stock World Neophyte

by Greg - March 24th, 2007 10:24 am

[Ed: member gumbaphil submits:]

Confessions of a Neophyte “Phil Groupie”

“So, Cory old buddy, whadya get for your birthday???”

(I suppose I can use triple question marks…in keeping with the “Phil” lexicon)

“PhilStockWorld?…What’s that?

“That’s it? You just glue yourself to a computer monitor all day, and READ stuff?”

“No way man. I launch my Ameritrade Control Panel which is a poor man’s trading platform and do my best to mirror the stock option trades (hints) that Phil posts on his commentary Phorum. “

“So, ya made any money?

“Well…yes…and…no.”

“Whaddya mean yes AND no?

“HOWEVER, I still have some time on my side with those oil PUTS (Apr 21st) and I’m so d@&mn far underwater with them that I may let them ride and hope for a miracle.”

Here’s the 12 trading day breakdown:

Portfolio Balance	$25,000
CLOSED Positions (24)
Net Gain	$3,870	15%
Total position trades	24
Avg value per trade	$600
Avg gain per trade	$161
Avg gain per trading day	$283
Percent WINNING trades	58%
OPEN Positions (10)
Net gain (loss)	($5,541)	(22%)

Note: Some of the open positions currently stand at 68% net loss

LESSON LEARNED

I think that I shoulda cut losses at 20% on ALL of the currently open losers, (as recommended by good ole Phil)

On the other hand, they may well turn out to be winners since they have…

Posted in Education, Random Thoughts | 27 Comments »

Quick Note

by Greg - March 14th, 2007 5:06 am

We’re trying to improve the speed and reliability of the site, so the comment browser software is temporarily unavailable. We’ll keep you posted.

Posted in Random Thoughts | 1 Comment »

New Comment Browser

by Greg - March 12th, 2007 11:30 pm

Hi everyone. Today we’re introducing a new way to view comments on the members site - a special comment browser that you can download and run from your desktop. It works like this: simply follow this link, download the file available there, and then launch the application from your desktop. You’ll be presented with a login window - just use your normal login and password. From there the controls are pretty straightfoward.

This will save you from having to constantly refresh your browser window, and hopefully makes keeping up during the day a little bit easier. We’ve tested this version and it seems to work well, but if you encounter any bugs or problems, please do let us know.

Download

Many many thanks to member Stephane, who created and developed this application!

Posted in Random Thoughts | 14 Comments »

Poll

by Greg - March 5th, 2007 7:01 am

We really never expected to develop such a knowledgeable and convivial group of members so quickly. You all continue to surprise us, and as we grow we want to attact the kinds of members that will contribute to what we’re building here. So:

As always, mentioning us to your friends and collegues is a great way to help build the community, and we do offer a generous affiliate bonus (get one month free for every 3 months your friend subscribes).

Posted in Random Thoughts | 1 Comment »

A Poll

by Greg - February 19th, 2007 1:53 pm

No promises here - but we really would like to know what you’d like to see us add (if anything) in the future. If there’s something we haven’t thought of, just mention it in the comments.

Best,
Jared

Posted in Random Thoughts | 27 Comments »

Vista’s So-So Debut

by Phil - January 30th, 2007 11:21 pm

In comments today we discussed how the launch of Microsoft’s Vista operating system was a "sell on the news" sort of event.

We already have our close calls off the table but we still have two longer plays and I came very close to closing out our April position on today’s dip but we already called a top there and sold the $30s for .95 against them, a call that, unfortunately for MSFT, seems to be on the money.

As with Apple’s IPhone announcement and, it seems, anything popular, there are always critics anxious to take them down. Today it seems that it was time to complain about the fact that Vista doesn’t run certain downloadable games because they look like "malware," a form of virus that Vista’s beefed up security just says no to.

There was a noticeable lack of lines at the stores for the "Vista Release" as it turns out that most serious people who want it either got the beta months ago or simply downloaded it rather than sit outside Best Buy in freezing weather waiting for the store to open. From the coverage given by the press, you would think Microsoft had remade Ishtar in 3-D!

We know Vista is already under attack in the EU, a rehash of that same old anti-trust suit that was such a yawner in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. IBM, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Adobe, Oracle, Corel, RealNetworks , Linspire, Opera and Red Hat are all getting along on this issue - something needs to be done about Microsoft!

"Vista is the first step of Microsoft’s strategy to extend its market dominance to the Internet," the ECIS statement said. It said Microsoft’s XAML markup language was "positioned to replace HTML," the industry standard for publishing documents on the Internet. XAML would be dependent on Windows, and discriminatory against systems such as Linux, the group said.

"The end result will be the continued absence of any real consumer choice, years of waiting for Microsoft to improve—or even debug—its monopoly products and of course high prices," said Thomas Vinje, lawyer for ECIS, in the statement.

I can’t say I really disagree with them. While it’s good to have a "universal operating system" it is not good for it to ruthlessly crush competition and stomp out innovation. Speaking of innovation - check out this totally cool Linux desktop! No wonder Microsoft is concerned…

MSFT hasn’t seen $30 since the 11th and has pretty much stayed…

Posted in Random Thoughts | 22 Comments »

Phil's Favorites

The Threat to Muddle Through

March 20th, 2010 4:56 pm

The Threat to Muddle Through

Courtesy of John Mauldin, at FrontlineThoughts.com

If the Chinese allowed the renminbi to rise, would that make the USA better off? That is the contention of a cabal of critics from Senators to Nobel laureates. Paul Krugman wants to see a 25% tariff on Chinese goods. Today we examine that idea, and look at the real problems that we face. If only it were so easy. The numbers just don't add up. The fault, dear Brutus...

O Canada

But first, and quickly, and in keeping with the spirit of the recent Oly...

Zero Hedge

Sprott's Jamie Horvat On "Gold"ilocks And The Three Bears

March 20th, 2010 2:56 pm

Courtesy of Tyler Durden

From Jamie Horvat and Charles Oliver, Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund.

...

more from Tyler

Chart School

Bears Emboldened By Low CBOE Equity Put to Call Ratio

March 20th, 2010 1:56 pm

Bears Emboldened By Low CBOE Equity Put to Call Ratio

Courtesy of Bill Luby at Vix and More

Truthfully, I have not surveyed our ursine friends this morning, so I really have no idea if they are emboldened by the low CBOE equity put to call ratio (CPCE), but they should be.

My preferred way of looking at the equity put to call ratio involves using an exponential 10 day moving average (EMA) as a smoothing factor. The 10 day EMA generates the dotted blue li...

Trading Goddess

Options and My Patience Expire Today

March 19th, 2010 9:29am

Well now we're officially cashed out!

As I always do before options expiration I reviewed our Buy List, which, this quarter, is a list of 37 stocks we've been playing since late December and, sadly, after reviewing 37 of our favorite investments very carefully this week - I could only conclude that cashing them out was the only decision I could be comfortable with this week. Of 66 trades we had on our 37 stocks, 64 are winners with an average return since 2/8 of 28% - since most of the trades were designed to make 40% for the year - it just seems silly not to take the money and run now, on March 19th.

You are not supposed to have 64 out of 66 winners in 6 weeks, you are not supposed to make 3/4 of what you anticipate for the year in 6 weeks - that is NOT how the markets are supposed to work! When the ma...

Oxen Group Trades

The Oxen Report: Five Keys to Fundamental Day Trading

March 19th, 2010 11:05 am

Identifying the Fundamentals

Stocks move under the influence various factors that we can use to identify stocks that are likely to move 3-5% in a single day. Even t...

The Options Report

By Andrew Wilkinson

Best Buy Option Investors Condone Broker Upgrade in Bullish Action

March 19th, 2010 4:41 pm

Today’s tickers: BBY, DNDN, GLD, BAC, AET, BA & NBR

BBY - Best Buy Co., Inc. – Shares of the world’s largest electronics retailer rallied 2% to $41.25 during the trading session after receiving an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at Goldman Sachs Group where analysts increased BBY’s target share price to $47.00 from $44.00. Options traders employed a few different bullish tactics to position for continued upward movement in the price of the underlying stock through expiration in April. Plain-vanilla call buyers targeted the April $44 strike to purchase 5,100 calls for an average premium of $0.55 apiece. These investors stand ready to accrue profits if Best Buy’s share price increases 8% from the current value to exceed the effective breakeven point on the calls at $44.55 by expirati...

Insider Zone

Insiders: March to Exit

March 15th, 2010 6:49 pm

By Ilene

Let's take a look at Insider Buying and Selling over the last week or so. These are screen shots from Finviz - the significant buys against a green background first and significant sells against the pink background second. All the buys fit into my screen shot but the sells did not. Click here to see all the sells.

Note that the largest buy in the group, for KITD was at a price of 9.73 (KITD is currently at 11.54). The buy was part of an Equity Offering rather than an open market purchase. Tuzman Kaleil Isaza's (KITD's Chairman and Chief Exec. Officer) history of buys is http://www.insidercow.com/ more from Insider

OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of March 15th 2010

March 15th, 2010 8:55 am

This post is for live trades and daily comments.

To learn more about the swing trading portfolio (strategy, membership etc.), please click here

- Optrader

...

more from OpTrader

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19,938 Newsletter subscribers

As Seen On:

About Phil:

Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...

Learn more About Phil >>

About Ilene:

Ilene is editor and affiliate program coordinator for PSW. She manages the Favorites backup site (blogroll, archives, more). Contact Ilene to learn about our affiliate and content sharing programs.

Favorites Site >>