The Facebook Skit

hehe funny facebook stalker music video :p
Privacy on facebook? what privacy eh?





I like these facebook songs... fits my facebook-addict friends kakaka





And I think I have some gay friends too.....

kelvinko.com is not kevinko.com

hahahaha, since the start of my website, I have noticed a lot of hits from Hong Kong through Yahoo searches. After some investigation, I found out the searches were meant a rich and famous tutor in Hong Kong - Kevin Ko. (Note, it's Kevin, not Kelvin).

Anyway, he has pretty funny interpretations on economic concepts. For example,


I read on of this interviews on magazines before. Not only is he a successful economics tutor in HK, he's also well invested in high value real estate. He's quite a smart guy :) Wish I can be like him. Maybe I should take out the "L" in my name eh?

Straddle for earnings, part 7

I am still researching on how to get more success on straddles and I came across this article.

Four Steps To Trading Success

If you are serious about treating your trading like a business -- and you should be because it is -- here are four steps to trading success and how I approach them:

1. Select a stock with opportunity

Use volatility indicators to select a stock that is likely to break out. We are looking for a stock where we can make money in the options regardless of the direction that the stock takes.

Look for stocks that go flat temporarily for no apparent fundamental reason. Within two or three months after an active stock goes flat, the share price typically starts to fluctuate again.
Use software that allows you to analyze volatility history and options prices, along with free Internet news sources to find stocks where opportunity exists.
There are low volatility exceptions. For example, do not use this technique on stocks whose price is less than $10 because the edge you get is too small when the price is that low. The value of an option whose stock is less than $10 will not change that much, even if the volatility changes dramatically.

2. Select the right strategy

You want a simple strategy to exploit the opportunity that exists in the stock you select. The strategies in my arsenal include call and put purchases (directional), call and put debit spreads (directional), call and put credit spreads (directional/volatility) and straddle and strangle purchases (volatility). Strategies more complex than these are poor choices for individuals. For every option you buy or sell, there are margin considerations, bid/ask spreads and commissions.

Pick three-month to five-month options.
Keep your straddle simple -- use straddles and strangles. If the asset price is in the middle of two strikes, choose the strangle; otherwise, choose the straddle.

3. Select the right entry price

Determine an appropriate price to pay for a strategy that will exploit a stock with opportunity.

Use a mathematical method to balance risk, reward and probability properly. Use the Chicago Board Options Exchange option calculator to determine the right price to pay for a straddle.

4. Select the right exit strategy

Look at what prompted you to get into the trade. If you're right and you haven't hit your target, stay in. If you do reach your objective, don't get greedy, get out. If you're wrong, get out!!! Remember, getting out of a trade is what makes you money. This is, by far, the most overlooked aspect of option trading, but it is the difference between success and failure for most traders.

Have an action plan and a contingency plan.
If things go wrong and a straddle value declines by 50%, exit the trade.
If things go right, you can smash a home run:
If one of the options hits the purchase price of the whole position, sell half of the profitable options.
Use support and resistance to exit the balance of the position.

Straddle for earnings, Part 6 - YHOO and ETFC reported

A week ago, I wrote about getting straddles in YHOO and ETFC. However, I only managed to get a small straddle in YHOO. Here are my results for my YHOO straddle:



Yes... although YHOO regained shareholders' trusts and shot up 10% to around $29 after reporting, the straddle actually lost $200 right away. After a few days at Oct expiration day, I just got out breaking even. Here are the chart and value from today's end:




ETFC stocks dropped more than 15% after it reported this week. If you compared to chart last week, if I bought at Jan $14 straddle at $3, today the value is $4. Could've made a quick $1. :)

Next week, I am waiting for AMZN, which is reporting Tuesday night.

Should I get some CROX as well? :)

Toronto housing prices?

Like many buyers / sellers, I am worry about the never ending housing price increase, and if a bubble is forming. I was listening to bnn.ca and this commentator came on the show. I visited his website and found the following:

Is it a buyer's market lately? I heard there are still some bidding wars going on during middle of summer before all the subprime warnings in US. But I don't think the prices have flatten in 2007 yet. I will try to find more info.

Right Brain vs. Left Brain

THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking




For me, I saw it as turning counter clockwise all the time. I couldn't focus to change direction. How about you?

Monetize your blog

I was reading a featured article last week on Ming Pao's magazine last week. It feature John Chow's website: http://www.johnchow.com/

In the article and his blog, John teaches people what he did to monetize his blog, and how and what he posts. He managed to turn a $300 profit a month to $12000+ a month today.

I never really thought about the power of advertising on my own website, so I just put on some basic google ad's. So far, it's making $100 for two years haha, just enough to cover my hosting expense.

Anyway, I will be adding more features to my site - RSS feed for my photo pages, my contents in my blog, comments and ratings, and of course, more ads :p. Come back often, and subscribe to my RSS feed, and post lot's of comments, I love to hear from you. Any questions, just ask me.

do the dew!

hahaa so funny

Buy Infrastructure, oil, and gold on pullbacks

See comments in this video:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1155328549/bclid1111449338/bctid1243636005

Take a look at YRI.to, XGD.to. Gold is a good hedge for lowering USD, and you can hedge with CAD. :)

Straddle for earnings, part 5

Wow quite a violatile today. Dow was way up the morning, my EMC option actually hit a double today! Woo hoo. Too bad it's down a bit at the end of the day.

click to enlarge - EMC 5 days:

click to enlarge - EMC 1 year:


I just got in during Aug down week and Thursday before VMWare IPO'd. Quite a lucky timing I guess. The options didn't go below the level i bought at ever since.

click to enlarge - VMW after few months:


Anyway, to see if my straddle strategy will work, I bought 1 straddle of AMZN $95 January straddle today for around $19.57 after commission. AMZN was down $5 today alone. So we'll see what happens after earnings.

click to enlarge - amzn straddle:


As for my YHOO that I bought last week, both Call and Put premium increased today. Even though YHOO swinged downwards today, My profit winged from CALL's side inthe morning to PUT's, but both were gaining. I know this is greedy, but earnings is next week. Hope it will move the stock.

click to enlarge - yhoo straddle:

Straddle for earnings Part 4

I am still getting used to my new blog engine... I was hoping I can set different categories of posts like I did in my old blog...


Anyway, continuing my trading/investing journey... On last earnings, I experimented straddles with real and paper money. My paper trades did extremely well (on AMZN, CROX, PCLN, BZH), especially longer term straddles.


Real trades on CROX did well as well and the stock has gotten much pricier and less short selling. I imagine a short squeeze this season won't be as explosive as the last. My shorter frame JPM, NVDA ended up losing $. (Although greed and time were the main factors, it was positives at a few points)





This earnings, I am going to check out YHOO, ETFC, CROX, AMZN, and PCLN.

YHOO has a really low Beta, but earnings is coming up and tech sector is quite hot right now because subprime issues, I think it *might* get violatle again. And the premium on both calls and puts are not extremely high.. if the stock swings 10% either way, given a months time, I think there's a chance of making $. I will bet some money on this one. Note the recent increasing width of Bollinger Band as well...

Click on each image for larger view:

ETFC sank a lot recently, due to subprime concern. The premium is not overly high on this either. Although short and beta ratio are low, this one might be worth a risky bet at for a longer timeframe out. Look at the recent huge width of the Bollinger bands, ths is becoming a violatile stock.




CROX was a violatile one. Probably because their shoes are ugly but kids love them. There were a lot more short sellers before. Now only 24% of the float. With beta = 2.48. I think this might be a good candidate for straddle again.





PCLN is my favourite hotel booking site!! Last earnings I only did paper trade, whereas my friend did a real trade and earned some $. Congrats!! Sometimes this stock explodes after earnings! I have been booking with PCLN since the stock was at $17 back in 2004 Asia trip. Now it's wayyyy up! The beta is small, but I think this stock can be violatile, especially if there's a short squeeze. There is 20% short float last month. Look at the huge width of Bollinger bands around earning times in the past two earnings.





AMZN is a violatile one at every earnings season. I lost lot's of $ betting against this stock when it exploded up the 2nd time this year. Who knows what will happen this season. Last season was 15% short on the float. This time around it's 12.4%. The beta is large at 3.53. I think this is probably a good candidate too.






My disclaimer: I am not a pro trader, I don't have fancy tools to do any analysis. These are all my personal opinions. If you lose money replying on the info here, I take no responsibility. If you make a few bucks with my info here, you can treat me a coffee (or just click on some ads witll do)! Good luck!

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