At some point, even Rip Van Winkle wasn’t going to return from that final sleep.
But here I am, 9 months later and not a single blog post.
Not quite the 20 years that Van Winkle allegedly slumbered away, but based on my life expectancy, still, a pretty big portion.
Actually, I dreamt that I wrote a book.
My publicist tells me that while I was gone, people now Tweet and Poke..
And so, he strongly suggests that if I want to push sales of the OTP Book, I need to Tweet and Poke.
So I started slowly. Figuring that I could get into less trouble by Tweeting, until he explained to me what those actually meant.
So now I am @TheAcsMan and I’m being told to get a moniker for all of the friends that I really would rather shun, but now must Poke and be poked.
I spent the day in Hershey, Pennsylvania yesterday. It reminded me a little of the time that Ned Flanders and his kids moved to the town that made the Hummel figurines. It was as idyllic as he had imagined it would be and somehow, it became maddening in its perfection.
Hershey looks idyllic. I wonder?
I spent about 4 hours driving yesterday, but not before making my 2010 SEP-IRA contribution, just in time for taxes.
Now, with this new piece of change sitting in the account, readers of the OTP newsletter, or those smart enough to have already purchased the book, and yes, there are some of those, can probably guess what I did.
RIverbed Technology was an old favorite of mine, but I haven’t owned it since about $28.
So now I own it.
In fact, I did something that I don’t usually do, but the money was really burning a hole in my pocket.
I spent the entire amount on RVBD and I bought all of the shares in one chunk.
That in itself wasn’t bad, but as I started my drive, with SmartPhone using the E*Trade app and my netbook logged in to E*Trade, I just just watched RVBD tumble about $2.
I know, you’re thinking how “uncool” I am, because I don’t have an iPad.
Listen, there are lots of reasons that I’m not cool. Just add that to the list.
OK. I know that there are other readers that are aghast at the safety concerns of being so plugged in while driving.
Eh, what’s life insurance for then?
But it got worse. I had left the house without being able to get my sell order for the $33 April call option executed. Again, a broke a cardinal rule, in that I got hung up over a penny or two between bid and ask.
As I was heading home by 3 PM, things hadn’t gotten better, with the Dow still down over 100 points and RVBD leading the retreat.
So it came as a little surprise that in the after-market, what should I see, but RVBD move up about $5 from its close on an unexpected announcement a week ahead of earnings.
With the excitement of being able to get a second chance at selling the call options, but now at $35.
With 2 days left until options expirations, I hope my shares get assigned. Then I promise I’ll follow my own rules.
I did take the opportunity to buy back my $80 Mosaic contracts. With a cost basis of about $76.40, I netted about $1.20 on the call contracts. I’m hoping for an upward move tomorrow, as Mosaic came back from down $1 to even, late in the session and then selling $77.50 call options.
That’s what the milking is all about.
Speaking of which, if I was still writing the original Option to Profit Newsletter, I would be putting out a buy signal on Goldman Sachs at $160.15, with the sale of an April 160 call option at a premium of $1.38.
Although I don’t currently own any Google, it announces earnings tomorrow. Older readers may remember some of my Google rants. I personally am very reluctant to pick up shares right before earnings announcement. Fortunately, I don’t have any spare cash right now. But if I did, I would purchase Google at $576 (give or take) and sell a $580 call option at an $11.60 premium.
Google usually acts explosively when they announce earnings, always on the first Thursday or earnings season.
If you look at the historic price action on the few days before earnings are announced, they seem to be in the direction opposite of where Google goes after the announcement.
Most recently, despite a small price climb today, Google’s action has been decidedly negative.
I think it will go up nicely after hours on Thursday. If I’m right, an shares get called, you would have a $1500 profit for 2 days.
Or not.
If I am wrong, Google typically goes down between $30 and $40 and then recovers about 50% or more of the retracement in a week or so. At that point, you would strongly consider selling May Google calls.
I’ve never owned more than 100 shares of Google at a time, but it is a great stock on which to repeatedly sell and then buy back option contracts
If you were a subscriber, you know that I would usually give 4 or 5 short term trades on the Wednesday before expiration, but without the explanations.
I’m too tired to do that, but you know what to look for.
Wake me up in about 19 years. Maybe a gentle poke would be sufficient.