i hear microsoft shares are a good buy, possibly undervalued. . . but what do i know?!

The ones they're selling may have been managed by people like SB :winkwink:

If the state won't allow that, what about having a pawn store?

And the guys who actually know how to put the work into finding deals that juicy AND get the work done right and in a timely manner... they are just everywhere, right? I'm not buying that... most people who want to "flip properties" think that they can pay 70 and spend 10 on rehab work because a house down the street is selling for 100

I am not going to argue that hard money will EVER be inexpensive - but I find it difficult to believe that the guys with the talent to come in at 60 of FMV consistently are paying points and close to twenty

I would like to do some flips, but even a HML won't touch me with a borrowed dick made of fools gold... it is too bad, too, because I would be one with the sense to get bleedingly recent comps and put the work into finding deals where I could come in well under sixty (including purchase+rehab)

So yeah I can imagine a lot of guys like me would be willing to pay quite a bit.. I'd pay whatever percentage I had to, honestly, but I couldn't afford any points or service the loan while waiting for the sale

that's the worst advice, I really doubt you can get 1:6 margin account ( i don't even think they exist) usually margin is a 50% of your money and also based on which stock you buy, many stocks have different margin ratios... and even if somehow you do get that account, loading up all 6mill at 1:6 on margin is a sure way to loose a lot of money and possibly end up owing some... if your investment starts going up right after you bought then you good, but as soon as it sinks below banks acceptable level they will start dumping your shares to cover your margin calls... and you also need to be careful about the price of an actual stock, if it'll dip below $5 on margin you loose all your margin level and you're toast... there's also a bunch of other shit, but I'm tired of typing all this..

If you're leveraged that badly, buying common shares, just paying the spread is going to put you well behind.. you had better be sure you know that the shit you buy is going to go up

This thread has added to the reasons not to do anything mentioned in it. :1orglaugh




.

Agreed. And unless you get a stock that pays monthly dividends, the whole plan can go to shit if something happens within that year. Anything can happen over the course of the year, even with historically safe stocks.

If you're looking for an income generating strategy, covered calls are definitely the way to go.

It's funny because traders (ie, active traders who aren't necessarily 'investors') or wannabe traders generally don't like the strategy because earning 1.5-2% is not sexy enough. They's would rather flip contracts in the hope of making large gains, but the majority just end up losing.

Normal people that want to invest some money, but aren't necessarily experts when it comes to investing, freak out when they hear 'options', so they don't even consider the strategy.

It's really simple, though. Think of it this way. A stock can do 5 things. They are as follows:

1. Go way up
2. Go up just a little bit
3. Remain the same
4. Go down just a little bit
5. Tank

Using 1000 Bank Of America shares priced at $10.54 as an example.

This is what today's option chain looks like for calls with a July 16 expiration.

http://www.google.com/finance/option_chain?q=NYSE:BAC

Strike Price Change Bid Ask Volume Open Int
11.00 0.28 -0.03 0.27 0.28 16394 36520
12.00 0.08 -0.01 0.07 0.08 14671 144348

Traders/investors purchased 16,394 contracts which will allow them to purchase 100 shares of Bank of America for $11.00 per share provided that it closes at or above $11,00 on July 16th. They paid approximately $0.28 ($28) for each contract, which means that their break even point is $11.28.

By and large, they are either banks/funds that have a complex hedge strategy, day traders, and amateurs who read a few articles and think they know what they're doing, but are pretty much just idiots. Many from that last group are just hoping that if BA has a strong week next week, they can maybe sell the contracts for a quick double digit percentage gain before the time decay accelerates.

When you're selling covered calls, you're essentially just helping them feed the monkey.

You own 1000 shares at an outlay of $10,540. You sell 10 contracts for $28 each and pocket $280. After transaction fees, let's say that you actually pocket $210, which is about 2% of your outlay.

Now, here is what happens for each of the 5 scenarios.

1. Stock goes way up
If the stock closes at $11.00 or above on 7/16, your shares will be 'called out' and automatically sold for $11.00 per share. Factoring in the $210 that you made when you sold the calls, you actually get a total of $11.21 per share on the sale. If it closes above $11.21, the lost 'opportunity' might upset you for a little bit, but then you'll realize that it was likely an anomalous situation and you still made over $0.67 per share before taxes, or 6%, you'll be fine, and you can just buy more shares on Monday and repeat the process.

2. Stock goes up a little bit
The 'sweet spot' is if it closes at $10.99, because you keep your $210 from the calls, earn an extra $0.45/share in appreciation, and keep the shares. That's $0.66 per share without the short term cap gains, and without having to deal with repurchasing the shares on Monday. Likewise, if it closes at $10.70, that's a net profit of $0.37 per share.

3. Stock remains at $10.54
You keep your $210. Keep in mind that this is something you'll be doing every month. $210 per month for a year equates to a 24% annual return if the stock remains the same!

4. Stock goes down a little bit
Since you keep the $210 no matter what, your break even point for the 7/16 expiry is $10.33 ($10.54-$0.21).

5.Stock Tanks
This is the only situation where it can get tricky. If the stock starts plummeting and you need to sell ASAP, the only way you can do so is if you buy back the calls. If there's an overwhelming negative catalyst and the stock drops 15-20%, you would buy back the calls at a fraction of what you sold them for, so let's say $0.02 per contract ($20) and then sell the shares at $9 each. All that means, though, is that at the end of the month, you'd end up with $8980 instead of $9000. If you want, you can also factor in that it will likely take you a little bit longer to sell the plummeting stock, because you have to buy back the calls first. Maybe you could of sold for $9.20 instead of $9.00.

In sum, you will be fine in 4 of the 5 possible stock movement scenarios and, if it tanks, you will be only slightly more fucked than you would have been had you not sold the calls.

Can you sell these covered calls on shares you bought using leverage?
I hope I am saying what I mean .. lol!!

I would think that you probably can't... but would be interesting as hell if one could do that, yeah?

I've heard pretty much the same regarding state owned tax liens.

If you're talking about just selling the call, which in this case would be considered 'Naked', as opposed to covered, you actually can, but you have to meet the "Risk Level 5" requirements to be allowed to do it at Trade King.

Minimum Annual Income: $50,000
Minimum Option Experience: 3 years
Minimum Account Equity: $100,000

Here's, a PDF that lists all the Risk Levels.

Trade King Option Levels

I'm only approved for Risk Level 4 tades, so I wouldn't be allowed to do it. There may be some brokerages that aren't as strict, but it would make me wonder what kind of other shit the bank was up to if they just allowed anyone to do that trade. Kind of like my same reaction to sponsors who offer a high PPS. lol

Anyway, here's a summary of how the trade would work.
http://www.optionsplaybook.com/optio...es/short-call/

So, using that same example from the earlier post where you'd net $210 selling calls at the $11 strike price, the safer play would be to just sell the $12 strikes for $80 each. See here.

Strike Price Change Bid Ask Volume Open Int
11.00 0.28 -0.03 0.27 0.28 16394 36520
12.00 0.08 -0.01 0.07 0.08 14671 144348

There are quite a few different types of trading strategies, all of which have their own unique set of variables. The most advanced trade that I've ever done is an Iron Condor.

http://www.optionsplaybook.com/optio...s/iron-condor/

why 5% when you could be earning 20% with AGNC:thumbsup:pimp

I was doing quite well with Iron Condors a few years ago. I only traded the indices rather than individual stocks. Unfortunately since the "crash" I gave up on Iron Condors due to the volatility that has taken hold in the "post-crash" market.

Prior to the crash it was pretty easy to make consistent profits (mostly on the S&P and the RUSSEL) because the market didn't jump all over the place every time some small piece of economic data was released. Sure it moved on the major reports however these days you get the same size moves on even the most inconsequential report or even some news story of political unrest in some country that has absolutely no impact on the U.S. economy.

Yeah, the premiums were a lot lower back then due to the lower volatility however I'll take lower premiums that are consistent winners month-after-month over larger inconsistent premiums any day of the week. It's all about risk/reward. Even with the most complex repair strategies I've had a really hard time making any money with IC's since the crash.

Have you been trading them in the post-crash market? If so any particular tips?

Buy up intellectual property rights and start patent trolling.

http://www.intellectualventures.com/Home.aspx
Same concept on a smaller scale...

you know point 5 and 7 are the same right.

gold is only good in a recession when people lose faith in stocks, bonds and the banks.

when the economy picks up again the price of gold will drop a lot.

twinkies.

I'm not smart enough to win on the market, I've tried time and time again and admit the market plays me more than I play it. Yeah some stocks have done well and in good times most picks do well but when a correction comes the market taketh what it giveth. Everyone can make millions when it's play money and there's no emotion, try with real money then we'll talk.

What has worked for me and is working is real estate. I recently bought 3 houses in the phoenix area and am getting a great return. I'm not going to worry about the when and if on the appreciation, it'll come and until then the rent is keeping me mighty happy.

To answer Dereks question about GFY members with a real estate license I know of one and I've bough through him already on numerous occasions!

Real estate, stock and gold.

Very lame! why not book your room in the old people's home early?

$1,000,000 is perfect to START A BUSINESS!

Find some commercial real estate for a shop, cafe on the beach, nik naks, vibrators..

OR EVEN BETTER GO ONLINE!

CAPITAL = BUY BUSINESS
BUSINESS = ONLINE BUSINESS
ONLINE BUSINESS = PORN
PORN BIZ = CAMGIRLS

Hey!

I would buy farm ground.

They arent making any more of it, and there sure is alot more getting covered up by "progress" everyday.

People still are gonna need fed.

:2c:

skin gfy :)

Ballers.

I just like the phrase "liquid assets". heh heh

Glad to hear those properties are working out for you! From what I've seen on-line, based on the current asking prices, it looks like you can't go wrong with a lot of the Phoenix area properties.

I would go and party Charlie Sheen style! With a Million bucks he'd probably even party with you.

with properties there are a lot of fees/taxes when buying, then you will need to spend to maintain them over the years.... then you need to deal with renters and their bs, if something breaks you need to be there to fix it, unless you get a manager(but that will defeat the purpose).. over a LONG term you should defiantly make money, but let's say you need cash in 5 years (shit happens), you will need to pay alot to sell it, hopefully housing market improves (people been saying housing bottom since two years ago, and now it went even lower), now your houses seen as investment and you will need to pay capital gain tax if you make a profit, etc, etc....

If you bought them right and factored everything in (especially vacancy rate) and qualified your tenants properly.. you should be fine.. This can be done even with the steep management company costs but you definitely have to buy right and on the right terms..

If you didn't buy at a stupid price in a stupid area to buy in, after five years, you should have a lot of equity you can go back in and borrow against. That way you get that "cash" you needed out of the properties WITHOUT paying any taxes (you may even end up writing the interest off)

If you have properties it's always good to have an open HELOC here and there for your "just in case" money

Buy this house

http://images.domain.com.au/img//201...=101223-150113


Do some free land clearing

http://assets.panda.org/img/105830_322905.jpg



Sell beach front house for $5 million!

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...front-view.jpg

I can't believe you're serious. Oh wait, yes I can.

http://i.imgur.com/NQ63Q.gif

In case you really are too stupid to understand: if you had $1 mill to buy tube.com you would be doing the exact same thing you did with camgirls.com - sitting on a nice domain that is totally useless with no traffic.

About 1,340,000,000 results (0.10 seconds) for "tube"

a billion results should have a type in or two to get started! :thumbsup

Or just buy tube777.com for $9 and spend $999,991 on traffic

To be quite honest, I've only done 3 iron condor trades. All with SPY weekly options within a 4 week period earlier this year. Here's a sample trade for March that I found in my email.


Put Side:
Sell SPY March 126 Put +.64
Buy SPY March 124 Put -.37
Net credit = .27

Call Side:
Sell SPY March 135 Call + .10
Buy SPY March 133 Call - .03
Net credit = .07

All 3 trades were successful, but the last two were pretty stressful to wait out,so I've decided to just stick with writing covered calls on EEM every month,as boring as that may be, until I have more non-investment related income coming in and can trade with more confidence.

Yep. Once before my trip around the world and once when I get back! :thumbsup

$100k in bitcoins (it has huge potential)
$500k I would leverage to buy $2,5 million of real estate that is rented out for at least 10%/year profit so you keep half and pay the other half back for the loan
$400k Would be put in various startups that I believe in completely (probably do it myself)

I'd put $500k in the Hartford Director's Mutual Fund and $500k in Walmart stock.

WTF DOES THAT MATTER? NO ONE IS SEARCHING GOOGLE FOR "tube"! Do you see porn.com listed on Google for "porn"? More people type in "facebook" in google to get to facebook than people typing in facebook.com into their browser.

Get a fucking clue man and stop doing this to yourself. :2 cents:

I did the same thing, freaked out and took my money I had in APPL out. I would have about 2.5M in apple if I would have left it alone :Oh crap

3 years after the initial offering, price is double, an annual 33%

So cash out and you now have $2 million.

(1) Id put $500k in Alibaba

(at some point below the current market price $84 which isn't far from the IPO price)

(2) Id put $500k in Gold and Gold mining stocks (dirt cheap)

(3) $1 million on some decent real estate in a sweet chicky location.

For the next 3 years

Stock # RISK FACTOR Portfolio
CASH NONE 0.3
FB MID-HIGH 0.05
APPL MID 0.1
GOOG LOW 0.2
TSLA HIGH 0.03
BRK.B LOW 0.2
SP 500 INDEX LOW 0.12

it should bring a 15-18% annual avg return, if there's a mini stockmarket crash, hold for 1-2 more years. Not bad counting you keep 30% cash for opportunities arising like FB going public. I would bet against GoPro if it's not too late to do that