Phil's Stock World, Stock Options Trading & Information

Don’t expect to get rich quick here, but you can get easy 30 - 50 % per year, just by buying good stocks at discount (as we often discuss), selling monthly premiums of calls and puts.

- Tchayipov, Nov 25, 2009

The strategy you have laid out pretty much mirrors much of my trading activity. I also mix in some momentum plays and \"drop dead\" bargains that come across my radar. My YTD trading profit is 63%. Back in March when Phil said \"unless you think the world is coming to an end, then NOW is the time to start taking positions in Buy/Writes with the VIX so high.\" I jumped in with both feet - ( thanks, again Phil)

- Chaps, Nov 11, 2009

Phil: I am always able to figure out your trades, including the rational when put in the right context of previous comments, etc. Keep doing what you’re doing. It is much appreciated, and invaluable. Your hit rate of successful trades has been very high in my 1.5 months as a member, but even more importantly is your teaching of how to repair and DD positions that haven’t gone your way yet. As with most members, we all have our ‘pet’ trading interests, and learning how to think about trading is much more important than a specific trade, which could see the conditions behind it change an hour later. This is the classic case, of ‘Teach us to Fish’, rather than just giving us a fish once in a while. Thank you!

- Neverworkagain , Jun 7, 2009

Thanks Phil, I have adjusted my position by getting rid of the IYF puts, and selling the FAZ puts. You have so many of these awesome little tricks in your playbook that it really amazes me. I toally love your analogy by the way: Do you want insurance that you have to pay for, or do you want insurance that pays you?

- Craigzooka, Apr 25, 2009

I have followed along with your commentary and alerts and have been flabbergasted at your quick analytical skills and your journalistic skills to explain it clearly. In a little over three weeks I have cleared almost 1000.00 dollars and got an intensive education at the same time. I would like to immediately upgrade my membership.

- TokyoLife, Apr 23, 2009

You guys gotta give it to phil–the voice of reason yesterday, last nite and this morning.

- Corleone, Apr 22, 2009

By the way thank you Phil for the DNDN idea. 3x till this morning and will 4x my small investment by next OE THANKS !!!!

- Microflux, Apr 15, 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 picked up one of your recommended Gold plays, the July ABX 30s and sold the Feb 35s, which are now mostly intrinsic value. Is it time to roll these to the March 37.50s, or should I wait this spike out?

- Bill Hoffman, Jan 23, 2009

Praising PSW for enlightenment is a bit akin to praising the Pope for being holy. I've been reading PSW for about two months now and have learned more about investing technique and the world in general than I've learned from the books and seminars I've paid for. Thanks for the enlightenment, the education, the guidance and the truth, which is not a commodity these days, but a virtue in short supply.

- Andy Morris, Jan 15, 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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Posts Tagged ‘Dow Jones Industrial Average’

Digging in the Mud for Green Shoots - How Did We Get Here?

by Phil - July 11th, 2009 5:26 pm

I’m digging for green shoots but you have to sift through a lot of manure to find them this week!

A few weeks ago I complained that the MSM was irrationally exuberant and I couldn’t find any negative articles (outside of PSW, of course, where people thought we were too negative calling for a correction) and now, less than a month later, you can hardly find anyone who doesn’t think we’re going back to the March lows. I stand by my statement to Members in yesterday morning’s Alert where I said: "It’s ridiculous for the Dow to go back to 7,500 and ridiculous for the S&P to go back to 800. While it’s easy to make squiggly lines on a chart show 10% drops ahead (which seems like a normal 50% retrace of the gains overall) I just think it’s dead wrong from a valuation perspective so I’m not inclined to play it, especially when those valuations are about to slap you in the face over the next few weeks. Maybe I’m wrong and maybe earnings will suck and Q2 will be a miss and guidance will be lower but right now I say - Show me the misses."

So I said Cramer was an idiot to be herding his sheeple into stocks when the Dow was at 9,000 and now I am saying Cramer is an idiot for stampeding the herd out of stocks at 8,000? Am I that fickle? Not really, I just believe we are in a fairly tight trading range. On June 17th I warned on June 24th, as the market "rallied" back to 8,500 I warned we were simply in the midst of a "dead cat bounce" - using the following, very descriptive graphic:

We played oil to top out at $70 for a whole month before it finally fell and I had warned people to stay out of the USO oil fund on June 6th (20% higher than here), but perhaps the last straw was when I pointed out that China was buying oil in bulk for $16 a barrel and even that was a ridiculously expensive price that more sensible buyers would not pay. Not long after that, Iraq had trouble with their own oil auction, again, no one in the industry had any real faith that $70 would hold and now, not even $60 is holding. They talk a very good game but don’t put their money where their mouths are! On Wednesday, June 17th,…

Tags: CHINA, Commodities, Copper, Cramer, DIA, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Oil, USO

Posted in Portfolio Review, Uncategorized | 23 Comments »

Phil's Favorites

The Boredom Before the Storm (Time to Buy Volatility)

March 20th, 2010 1:08 am

John's thoughts on the relentless trend higher in stocks, with the languishing VIX.

The Boredom Before the Storm (Time to Buy Volatility)

Courtesy of John Rubino at Dollar Collapse

As eventful as the past few months have been (what with Greece, California, Illinois, Iran, the Lehman Brothers revelations, U.S./China trade friction, and record deficits just about everywhere), you’d think the financial markets would be agitated, to put it mildly. Instead, just about everything is range-bound, and the things that aren’t, like U.S. stocks, are trending slowly, reassuringly, higher. This has taken the VIX, the main measure of fear (i.e. volatility) in the options market down to levels last seen before the ...

Zero Hedge

Armstrong Economics: Entering Phase II of The Debt Crisis

March 20th, 2010 5:48 am

Courtesy of Chopshop

In succinct synopsis of what lays just over the horizon ~ "the cycle of economic implosion" ~ for the ill-conceived amalgam known *today* as the European Union, phinance's phavorite political prisoner, Martin Armstrong, cautions that:

- "the EU is in dire position", on the precipice of shattering into default and civil unrest;

- the sovereign debt crisis materializing across Europe will soon reach US shores;

- the CFTC will curtail currency speculation by slashing leverage from 100:1 to 10:1, which "can cause a liquidity crisis that backfires, magnifying everything."

Since "debts will never be paid and interest expenditures are the greatest transfer of wealth ...

Chart School

Quad Witching Expiration and a Pullback from the Long Term Trend

March 19th, 2010 12:05 pm

Quad Witching Expiration and a Pullback from the Long Term Trend

Courtesy of JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN

The front month on the SP futures has now switched from March to June as a part of the Quad Witching Expiration. (Technically it switched last week, but for charting purposes I made the switch last night.) The June Futures have essentially the same formations as did March, it's just that the earlier months have few trades to mark them. This is the first serious test for US equities since mid-February, as it has been on a spectacular rally streak, no doubt fueled by excess liquidity applied to a selling exhaustion in the funds. Curiously not among corporate...

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

March 2010
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Feb	«-»
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31

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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...

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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.

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