Introduction: I have been trading stocks for over 40 years. And yet mistakes are often made despite the years of experience. Just when one thinks things are going fine, something happens that humbles the trader. It is with this background that I relate a recent trading experience as a lesson we can all learn from. Background of the trade: Earlier in the year the stock Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) was traded for a 28% profit (as shown on the Fusion Track record at RadioActiveTrading.com). But after a market sell off it looked like a market opportunity to re-enter the position. RHT was purchased on 3/28/2018 for $145. A put option was also purchased following the rules in The Blueprint to create a Married Put for safety. RHT rose soon after the purchase into the 150’s and then shot up to the 160’s. The put was sold as it still had…
Tag: married put
No Free Money with Special Dividend
I am sure that you’ve heard Costco Wholesale (COST) announced a special dividend of $7.00 per share, plus an additional increase of $0.05 to its regular quarterly dividend. The special $7.00 one time cash payment will be paid on May 26th, to those who are on record as owning shares on May 8th, 2017. What do we expect to happen when a special dividend is paid? Well, we expect the COST share price to fall -$7.00 to reflect the $7.00 one time payment. So, is this a Free Money investment if I were to buy an Out of the Money or At-the Money put option? Since the stock is going to fall the put would have to gain in price, correct? Even though I did not receive the dividend, my put would still gain and I would have a nice, juicy, leveraged profit…right? Not quite. In fact, not at all….
Stock Insurance OR Portfolio Insurance – Revisited
With the addition of new and interesting securities to help hedge a stock portfolio, the question arises more and more: ‘Is it better to insure my stock directly or use a different hedge to insure my portfolio?’ This is a very important question which has many components to it. During a PowerOptions Open Forum Webinar on January 14th, 2014 this question was posed. The actual question was: