The Back Alley Archives

see, I thought I messed it up and then tried doing another order on those shares...

so now I have double of each of those two stocks.

Sometimes you want to have multiple lots of a position, Jim. If you pick a winner and it starts going up and stays uptrend, you can add to your position--that's called pyramiding your trade.

Same thing if you're shorting and the short is going well--short some more shares to add to the position. Then you can ease out when you're ready to close.

And each time you make a buy or sell, the entry points you establish on the trades are your tax lots. See all the jargon we're throwing your way today!

jargon overload for sure, some of it I'm picking up on, some of it I hope to later.

how useful is it to pay attention to my Annual Return %?

damn...I went short on crocs and it's up 4% right now...fuck.

see, I thought I messed it up and then tried doing another order on those shares...

so now I have double of each of those two stocks.

I managed to do the same thing.

There aint no way Im buying anything in the face of an FOMC meeting. Now tomorrow...after this nice suckers rally er...runup...I may have to go as short as a fuckin penguin.

There aint no way Im buying anything in the face of an FOMC meeting. Now tomorrow...after this nice suckers rally er...runup...I may have to go as short as a fuckin penguin.

I bought my straddle this morning on the anticipation that the market would bid up hoping for the rate cut. I sold the calls to close that side of the position about thirty minutes before the announcement. Made a nice profit there. I'm expecting the pattern this year to hold and the market will come back down within a few days and then I'll close my puts.

I'm up 1.48% for the day just on straight purchases. I'm going to dabble in some of these other strategies (straddle or whatever) tomorrow.

I'm sorry, it's 1.90%. I forgot about the 20 minute delay.

I still haven't figured out what straddle means...but I'm up 2.51% on my straight purchases (none of them down), but my shorts aren't working out so well...one was down big all day and was making up for my crocs nightmare, but it just rallied and is up now.

Straddles are a good play for volatile markets. You buy and equal number of calls and puts in anticipation of a big move to either side. I was expecting the move up today, so I got my profits on that side. Now the market just needs to follow through on the other side, so that I can close the puts and get paid on the other side.

that said, I'm only down 1% ($93.00) on the shorts, but I'm up almost $1,800 on the straight purchases.

How come when i go to rankings it says that there are no players to rank yet?

So a1, you bought long and short. The market went up today so you got paid on your bullish outlook and you hope your stock will go down tomorrow to pay off on your bearish outlook. Correct?

So a1, you bought long and short. The market went up today so you got paid on your bullish outlook and you hope your stock will go down tomorrow to pay off on your bearish outlook. Correct?

Exactly. That's called a long straddle. It's simply a play on volatility.

finished the day at 2.91% gain ($2,063.40), no change on my short sells...not a bad first day for a first timer.

All right - I'm registered! I don't know a lot about Wall Street so I guess the best way to learn is with Monopoly money ... I'm going to bed now before the twins have me up, I'll look into some stocks to buy tomorrow [img]{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif[/img]

how's everyone holding up today?

and when does this thing start ranking us?

this is a trial run...we should reset and have a formal contest once josh figures out how we can check standings.

good thing today. all the stocks i bought overnight are tanking.

I'm down a little today, but not much...and I'm not down nearly as much as the S&P...

the good news is that my "short" sells are looking good today.

I'm still looking good.

I've been reading the tutorials on Investopedia for the last 2 days now. Good stuff--nuts and bolts info, which is exactly what I need.