Political & Elections

So I guess you own the scty stock and sold a itm call which means that the stock price was higher than the strike price, why would you do this?  I can see doing this for a call spread where you are playing the time value differential between the deeper itm call that you bought vs the other call that you sold but I see no reason to do this if you own the stock unless you think it is going to drop in value.  I don't think this is a good idea but I've been known to be wrong.

I guess I'm not certain what you're doing.  You own scty and you are writing calls against your position?  or do you have a call spread?  Why are you selling itm calls?

Yes it is difficult to stay in a high momemtum and volatile stock like tesla.  The market seems to be having difficulty breaking through the 1850 level.  Which way do you think it will go from here?  Up or down and how are you planning on dealing with it?

Commodity futures: JP4/kerosene/diesel/FuelOil, Refiners,  and for outlier  me, Solar companies.

Our beach house and mom's house are in Cooperatives/PUD with $0.065/kwh. so alternative heating energy has to be cheap in comparison. Our PUD/Cooperative/InvestorOwned electric cos are/were pushing   hard for PNW consumers to heatpumps, biofuel. and NG for heating and ho****er. Why-Because heatpumps are 3x more efficient than resistant heat and because most of WestCoast populated areas have very few days below 38 and mostly in 40-50's in the winter. Woodpellets could come into greater usage because of its simplicity. -

BUY pellets. http://pelletheat.org/pellets/compare-fuel-costs/

The DOE has a equivalent energy chart-calculator to compare energy vs cost/btu. 

SciAm, april 2013. Energy: EROI. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eroi-behind-numbers-energy-return-investment/

-- Edited by longprime on Thursday 20th of February 2014 11:11:53 PM

Pellet stove. The beach has HomeDepot/Englander brand stove. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Englander-1-500-sq-ft-Pellet-Stove-25-PDVCH/203485650 . It is a bit small for the 1400 sf house and I would recommend a size larger. The beauty of pellets is that you may still get a tax credit, a green resource, low pollution, domestic, and you control usage.  Propane could work but its efficiency decreases at subfreezing NE temperatures.  The big box stores are seasonally closing out pellet stoves. You may get a big discount if you shop.

Out of APPL, 2 days too late. Talking head at CNBC said that aapl should not have bought shares back (aka activist) but should have bought a company aka FB. He called aapl "Stodgy".  Made ~1% for ~30 days. For me AAPL ties up too much capital. 

I'm not certain what is meant by #2 oil.  I'm not short oil, I heat with oil and it is now costing me $1000 a month.

Anybody have good ideas as to how to hedge against higher heating oil prices - I'm getting crushed with the cost of oil.

You are right so far. Nat Gas has gone up and I am getting killed. Oh well. It's just money. My trades are usually a few days so the long term trend isn't that significant to me. I'm more interested in seasonal changes. I short nat gas using futures.

How do you short natural gas  - do you use futures?  I do miss the good old investment discussions in cc!

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/viewart/20140212/UPDATE/302120092/How-did-Oregon-Olympiad-Jacqueline-Wiles-fare-Olympic-Women-s-Downhill-

This is Jackie's rookie year, and was only selected to the Olympic team in Dec 2013.  Looking  for the Super G later in schedule.

I bought more aapl today.  I have more than I usually would feel comfortable with but hey its only money, what else are you going to do with it?

We is it that the companies I want to hold drop and the speculative companies that sold rise? Hate TSLA, Hate BGS-I need to buy some Mrs Dash. 

I don't understand NWN and PCG. Both +4.2% yields, regulated and with gas price recovery. NWN has underground gas storage and well known in buying cheap in the summer and selling high in the winter. If I can get out of AAPL, I'm going to do more of NWN and not look for 6 months..

AAPL-I am finally $54 in the black. Heard the CNBC analyst target AAPL at 575 but I think I will start liquidating at  my first buy, $550. This will give me a yield of 5.7%  (ignoring any divs), which really is not worth the risk/reward. 

Briefly ahead this am on AAPL.  Probly the last time I am getting into AAPL-this co has a good dividend, pretty good innovation, good product line, repeat business, smart people, lots of cash and income stream. Why isn't this company worth more.???

BTW-Olympics Opening Ceremony today-Look for Jackie Wiles (downhill). Before she was born we took her grandmother on  crabbing in one of our local bays-My mom freaked out when she saw Janey pulling up the crab trap wearing a 3carat diamond ring.  Alas Janey, has dementia and my mom is invalid.

This cold weather sucks except that I have been trading nat gas futures like crazy. They go up 10 percent and then crash back down. I have used limited orders to short and then wait for the contract to collapse. I have made about five or six trades and all have been profitable which is not something I can say for my emini trades.

I put risk reward heavily towards the reward - very small potential loss with much greater gain potential.   I also try to make certain that the odds for winning a trade are heavily weighted towards winning.

I don't follow Carter Worth and his worthless technical analysis using 86.5 day or maybe 77.629 day simple, exponential mvgs, head and shoulders, wedges or perhaps wedgies.

"so when do you sell?"  - I don't know or for that matter most of the time as to when to buy either

A valuable lesson - Icahn said a few days before aapl reported that it was a no brainer.  If he can't time it when he can call Tim Cook when he wants, what does that tell you?

So when do you sell?

I've noticed. Your lost Opportunity Cost must be very large. 

VA's are fully invested. Look yesterday and they are about 3% below the lockin value of Nov-Dec. and equal to value of Sept-Oct 2013.  

Have maybe 10% cash in trading accounts having bought NWN on weakness and true to form, NWN is up on 01/30. I am at even today and if I can get another 100-150 basis plus 46 basis from divs, I will be very happy on next couple of weeks.  I have been buying AAPL to average my costs down (521). I have never done well with aapl even though I have never bought anywhere near the top. 

-- Edited by longprime on Thursday 30th of January 2014 11:43:08 PM

Jackie Wiles, has made the US Olympic Alpine Ski Team, Sochi 2014. Jackie is a grand-daughter of my dentist (passed) and Jane Wiles (D-Day Nurse). Let's cheer her on. Congradulations, Jackie. 

#20.  http://www.nbcolympics.com/photos/meet-us-olympic-alpine-team 

Bought AAPL after close NY close and after announcement. 

presently 01/27/2014, NWN, has a 4.4% return. Typically jumps when it goes exdiv, about 60-75 basis pts. and stays there until divs are distributed. I can get the price jump and the divs with fairly low risk. A lower price means there could be a bigger price bump later. I can also sell after ex-div and collect the dividends but free up money for new opportunities. If I can make $100/quarter on each block ($400/yr) plus the 186 in dividends= 13.6% return if the fair average price is $43/sh. If I am patient and watch, sometimes the NWN will go to 45 and I will make another ~5%+ .