What are you buying today?

[frommi]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sell_in_May

 

But why sell the German index specifically?

 

This is my personal anti-home bias. According to https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=76248 Italy would work best, but i don`t think there is an active option market for that index. But when you look at the DAX holdings there are a lot of awful, overleveraged and cyclical businesses in it. The best is that no professional investor will ever use this effect, most investors i know laugh about it or dismiss it as a statistical fluke. (Should this change, i will probably reduce my position size)

[Spekulatius]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sell_in_May

 

But why sell the German index specifically?

 

This is my personal anti-home bias. According to https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=76248 Italy would work best, but i don`t think there is an active option market for that index. But when you look at the DAX holdings there are a lot of awful, overleveraged and cyclical businesses in it. The best is that no professional investor will ever use this effect, most investors i know laugh about it or dismiss it as a statistical fluke. (Should this change, i will probably reduce my position size)

 

The DAX has been traditionally much more volatile than the US stock market. I think some future traders like trading the German Dax futures because of the high volatility, the time difference and the relatively high liquidity. The old saying still goes that when wall streets gets a cold, Frankfurt gets a pneumonia.

[gjangal]

Added to FB , TCEHY

 

sold out of UBNT

 

I just found something interesting about tencent. TCEHY owns 48% of Epic games ( Now valued at 15bn) , which launched Fortnite.

[boilermaker75]

Boilermaker,

 

I just hope that you - some day in the future - will share your experience over time with these kind of trades here on CoBF. I bet it'll be educational!

 

John,

 

Nothing profound about what I am doing.

 

I am a LTBH investor.

 

First, I use writing puts to enter positions. All my current positions were entered that way. It gives me the discipline to wait for my price. I don’t have that patience with just limit orders. Besides I get paid while waiting to be exercised, probably why I am more patient, and it lowers my basis by the put premium. A criticism would be not acquiring a position because you don’t get put to. This has only happened to me once. I wanted to acquire some MCD at $50 and was never put to. So, I missed out on a three-bagger so far.

 

Secondly, I use puts to do some trading. Usually stocks I already own and at prices I would not mind if I were put to. 80% of my positions are written when the expiration is a few days to about a month out. For the other 20% the expiration is 1-2 months out when I write the put. I am selling insurance and collecting very nice premiums, but unlike insurance, if I have to pay a claim I end up with a stock I don’t mind owning at the price I am put to.

 

Third, it is also a way to be margined in the sense if I would be exercised on all my outstanding puts I would be on margin. From 2008-2016, if I were put to on all my outstanding puts, I would have been around 25% on margin. I only ended up slightly on margin a couple times and by writing covered calls (equivalent to writing a put) I was quickly off of margin. Since about January, I have been writing puts where I would be just slightly on margin if put to on everything. Currently I am short puts on BRKB with strike prices of 200, 205, 207.50, and 210; BK with strike prices of 50; WFC with strike prices of 54; BAC with strike prices of 29, 29.50, and 30; and GILD with strike prices of 70.

 

Fourth, I also like to write puts to play risk arbitrage. For instance, when BRK was acquiring BNI I was writing at-the-money puts on BNI. If I outright bought BNI, I would have to wait till the acquisition closed to know my return. By writing puts I was setting the date when my play would be completed and what my return would be. I then followed an expiration with writing more puts. I did this till BRK closed on BNI.

 

Mike

 

If I did not already have too many open put positions, I would use writing puts to play the IBM all-cash acquisition of RHT. (I probably will after some of my open puts get past expiration.)

 

For instance, this morning you could have written RHT 170-strike puts with expiration this Friday for $1.50 per share.

 

Then on Friday you can decide what your play is for the next week.

[JRM]

 

If I did not already have too many open put positions, I would use writing puts to play the IBM all-cash acquisition of RHT. (I probably will after some of my open puts get past expiration.)

 

For instance, this morning you could have written RHT 170-strike puts with expiration this Friday for $1.50 per share.

 

Then on Friday you can decide what your play is for the next week.

 

As long as you're picking up pennies in front of the steam roller, why not just sell $190 strike puts against RHT (2020 expiration)?  Surely the deal won't fall apart.  Seems like less work.

[Sharad]

 

If I did not already have too many open put positions, I would use writing puts to play the IBM all-cash acquisition of RHT. (I probably will after some of my open puts get past expiration.)

 

For instance, this morning you could have written RHT 170-strike puts with expiration this Friday for $1.50 per share.

 

Then on Friday you can decide what your play is for the next week.

 

As long as you're picking up pennies in front of the steam roller, why not just sell $190 strike puts against RHT (2020 expiration)?  Surely the deal won't fall apart.  Seems like less work.

 

 

 

Does China have to approve the deal? If so, then I suspect there is a lot of risk...

[FiveSigma]

Why would China have to approve this deal?

[james22]

BAM, BRK, VEMAX (Emerging Markets)

[boilermaker75]

 

If I did not already have too many open put positions, I would use writing puts to play the IBM all-cash acquisition of RHT. (I probably will after some of my open puts get past expiration.)

 

For instance, this morning you could have written RHT 170-strike puts with expiration this Friday for $1.50 per share.

 

Then on Friday you can decide what your play is for the next week.

 

As long as you're picking up pennies in front of the steam roller, why not just sell $190 strike puts against RHT (2020 expiration)?  Surely the deal won't fall apart.  Seems like less work.

 

Yes if you think the deal goes through and does so in a reasonable time frame. The reason I like options is that I set the date when the play is over. And if I get put to then I can decide whether to hold to conclusion of the acquisition, or write covered calls.

[bizaro86]

I doubt the Chinese (or anyone else) will block the deal by Friday...

[frommi]

*EDIT* I also bought a TSLA bear call spread 300/400 MAR2019 for 47$ credit because i just love the drama.

 

Sold the spread for +-0 because i don`t like how strong the stock behaves in this market. Bought more KMI (reached my personal position size limit now) and MSM.

[Lance]

IBM

 

Thanks

Lance

 

[Spekulatius]

GOOG, FDX and FB.

[frommi]

Bought some MXP and EUR futures and hedged the rest of my $ exposure back to €. Currency exposure is now 40% MXN, 60% € (home currency).

 

Small update on currencies, since the spread between long term and short term interest rates in mexico has widened its currency is not in the top spot anymore. CAD and USD are still in the top 5 so i sold all currency hedges over the past weeks with a small loss.

[frommi]

Sold PG,EIX,NNN,IBM and bought more SRC,MSM,FAST,ENB,OXY,TAP,KIM.

PG,EIX and NNN reached fair value and IBM just suxx. Took my tax losses because i think that the Redhat deal was a huge value destruction and probably an act of desperation. Maybe that marks the bottom, but i don`t have to make back my money the same way i lost it. And the realized tax losses allowed me to buy more of other stocks.

[Lance]

TKC (Turkcell Iletism Hizmetleri)

 

 

Thanks

Lance

[gfp]

Boilermaker, I confess that I stole your ideas again.  Sold BRK 197.5 November 2nd Puts at 1.70 yesterday and Sold RHT November 2nd 170 puts at 2.10 right after you mentioned them...  Still a couple days to go

 

Looking forward to Saints-Rams!!!

 

THANKS!

 

 

If I did not already have too many open put positions, I would use writing puts to play the IBM all-cash acquisition of RHT. (I probably will after some of my open puts get past expiration.)

 

For instance, this morning you could have written RHT 170-strike puts with expiration this Friday for $1.50 per share.

 

Then on Friday you can decide what your play is for the next week.

 

As long as you're picking up pennies in front of the steam roller, why not just sell $190 strike puts against RHT (2020 expiration)?  Surely the deal won't fall apart.  Seems like less work.

 

Yes if you think the deal goes through and does so in a reasonable time frame. The reason I like options is that I set the date when the play is over. And if I get put to then I can decide whether to hold to conclusion of the acquisition, or write covered calls.

[flesh]

Buying Ibkr, bld, vsto, ads.

[boilermaker75]

globalfinancepartners, I know you have been writing puts for a while, maybe as long as I have. Those BRKB and RHT plays should work out well for you!

 

Geaux Saints!

 

Boilermaker, I confess that I stole your ideas again.  Sold BRK 197.5 November 2nd Puts at 1.70 yesterday and Sold RHT November 2nd 170 puts at 2.10 right after you mentioned them...  Still a couple days to go

 

Looking forward to Saints-Rams!!!

 

THANKS!

 

 

If I did not already have too many open put positions, I would use writing puts to play the IBM all-cash acquisition of RHT. (I probably will after some of my open puts get past expiration.)

 

For instance, this morning you could have written RHT 170-strike puts with expiration this Friday for $1.50 per share.

 

Then on Friday you can decide what your play is for the next week.

 

As long as you're picking up pennies in front of the steam roller, why not just sell $190 strike puts against RHT (2020 expiration)?  Surely the deal won't fall apart.  Seems like less work.

 

Yes if you think the deal goes through and does so in a reasonable time frame. The reason I like options is that I set the date when the play is over. And if I get put to then I can decide whether to hold to conclusion of the acquisition, or write covered calls.

[John Hjorth]

Added a bit to SCHO.CPH & BAM [in the early hours of both markets] today.

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

It's good to read good mood among fellow board members in these volatile days!

[frommi]

Sold CHD (reached my definition of expensive),VTR (reached fair value). Bought more MSM and ENB. Bought back the puts i sold on FB pre earnings. (value collapsed from 6.7$ to 1.3$ in just 3 days!) Sold 145$ puts on FB again with expiration date 12/21/2018.

Hedged currencies this morning into JPY and EUR, but with tight stops. (Stop on EUR is at break even already, so this hedge is essentially free now.)

[frommi]

bought more SYF, looks like an overreaction to the WMT news.

[gfp]

Man, I used to be interested in this company but they are not looking good.  They will lose Sam's when that comes up for renewal and I would not be surprised if Amazon drops them at the first opportunity.  SYF is basically the antithesis of 'relentlessly focused on pleasing the customer.' 

 

bought more SYF, looks like an overreaction to the WMT news.

[frommi]

Man, I used to be interested in this company but they are not looking good.  They will lose Sam's when that comes up for renewal and I would not be surprised if Amazon drops them at the first opportunity.  SYF is basically the antithesis of 'relentlessly focused on pleasing the customer.' 

 

bought more SYF, looks like an overreaction to the WMT news.

 

If it looked rosy, you wouldn`t get it that cheap. But at a 2019 P/E of 6 a lot of bad stuff is already priced into the stock. But its also still a small position for me, a recession next year may derail the investment.

[John Hjorth]

Started tiny positions yesterday in :

 

LVMUY - LVMH - Moët Hennessey - Louis Vuitton SE [CoBF Investment Ideas topic] [Company Website]. Bought it at its primary market place at Euronext Paris [ticker: MC.PA],

SBRCY - Sberbank of Russia [CoBF Investment Ideas topic] [Company Website]. Bought it at London Stock Exchange [ticker: SBER.L], &

EXO.MI - EXOR N.V. [CoBF Investment Ideas topic] [Company Website].