Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

The Big One

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I have two trading accounts. One of them, my small one, is for dabbling in ETF options from time to time. Often it has absolutely nothing in it, and I don’t even bother having a watch list for it. My other account, the “big” account, always has positions, and typically has anywhere from 20 to 30 different put positions on equities, depending on how frisky I am feeling.

At present, my personal account is empty (I took profits on my XLB position this morning, although I am certain I’ll regret it mightily). My big account, which is what my watch list (that premium folks can see) contains, has 24 equity puts and 1 ETF put. I’d like to discuss that ETF put at length here, and the rest of this post will be visible to paying members only.

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Poker and Options

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I read Quora every single day, just to learn new things, and I was absolutely fascinated with an article which I read here. In it, a man describes how, in his teenaged and college years, he was a very successful poker player, but he ultimately lost it all. I can’t do the story justice (it’s rather long, but captivating), so I simply urge you to read it. I don’t know the first thing about playing cards, but this guy should write a book!

Huntington Success

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Well, it’s another terrific trading day, with financial weakness leading the way. I have puts on a variety of financial-related instruments (BAC, FITB, HBAN, MET, PRU, TD, WELL) and my best percentage gainer from all my positions (+137% at the moment) are my July $13 puts on HBAN. I’ve trimmed this by about one third, since I’m fighting being greedy. Bears and Banks are good friends right now.

This has taught me not to shun puts on stocks with nominally low prices. See, I usually like stocks that are expensive since there’s plenty of juice to squeeze. But HBAN is by far the cheapest nominal stock in my portfolio (only $9.54 right now!) but it’s done GREAT for me, whereas MDB, which is in the hundreds of dollars, has produced nothing but losses for me all year long, in spite of its ostensibly good pattern.