Stock Option Investment Advice

Wachovia to acquire A.G. Edwards – Financial Sector Covered Calls

Wachovia Corporation (WB) will acquire the A.G. Edwards Inc. (AGE) brokerage in a deal set for execution later this year. The merger will create the nation’s second largest brokerage after Merrill Lynch (MER). The overall cash and stock value of the deal is estimated at $6.8 billion.

Stock Option Trading News

The Sopranos Finale Nears – A look at Waste Management Stocks

In the first episode of HBO’s ‘The Sopranos,’ Tony Soprano presents himself to his therapist as a waste management consultant. Immediately, his psychiatrist reveals her understanding this is synonymous for Tony’s real, and substantially seamier, occupation.

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CME Bull Put Spreads Strategy – +12.4% in May 07

In article, “CME Buying CBOT”, we analyzed Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s (CME) purchase of CBOT (BOT) with an eye for a bullish strategy for CME. We continued the CME bull put credit spreads saga and for the month of May, the strategy returned a very nice +12.4% return. This strategy has returned over 52% in only six months. The bidding war between CME and ICE for CBOT continues as outlined in the article, “Two Exchanges May Enter Bidding War to Acquire the Chicago Board of Trade”. CME recently upped its bid for CBOT, but its bid is still not higher than ICE’s bid. Even if the CME/CBOT merger does not come to fruition, CME is looking bullish and using PowerOptions powerful stock options tools to search for potential candidates returned the following bull-put credit spreads stock options position:

Stock Option Investment Advice

Jim Cramer’s Advice: Invest in Rest of World

Jim Cramer’s acronym for the hot places to invest is BRIC ME. This stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and the Middle East. But, in his usual hyper kinetic reasoning, he often clarifies this by saying the Rest of the World really includes nearly every country but Japan and the United States.

Stock Option Trading News

Rail Sector and Franchises Deliver Profits of 2.6% to 5.9% in May Covered Calls

The PowerOptions WeBlog accurately predicted the following trades in the articles “Entrepreneur Magazine Announces Top Franchises for 2007” and “Berkshire Hathaway Buys up Rail Stocks – A look at Covered Calls in the Railroad Sector”: Audio Podcast: An audio podcast of this article is available at: poweropt.com/podcasts/2007_05_22_May_Results.mp3

Stock Option Advisory

TPG Capital & Goldman Sachs Bid to Acquire Alltel – Covered Calls in the Telecom and Wireless sectors

Alltel Corporation (AT), the nation’s fifth-largest cell-phone provider (largest in terms of geographic area) announced Sunday night it has agreed to a deal to be acquired by the private investment firms TPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group) and Goldman Sachs Capital as part of a $27.5 billion deal.

Stock Option Trading News

Banking Industry Investments – Covered Calls

Another industry we’ll consider which has a tendency to hold up well during an economic malady is the banking industry. The idea of banks performing well during tough economic times seems counterintuitive, but the reason banks are non-cyclical is due to lower interest rates. Generally, the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates during periods of economic slowness in order to stimulate activity and help prop up the economy. And banks generally do very well in an environment of low interest rates, as their costs for borrowing money are significantly less.

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Investing in Tobacco – Covered Calls

Continuing to evaluate industries with a tendency to hold up well during tough economic times, today we will consider the players in the tobacco industry. Even when the economy isn’t doing so hot, the tobacco industry generally continues to perform well, as tobacco smokers tend to continue to indulge in the product.