Investing, Stock Market and Retirement Planning Thread

[mikey]

"When it absolutely, positively needs to make you work into your 80's..."

[mikey]

Finally...go down you dumb ****...

[NTP66]

Shut up, idiot

[willeyeam]

Bad vibes Mikey

[mikey]

I just 8 to 10x'd some options...drinks on me.

I'm hoping we rally until 10 am tomorrow, so I can stock up on some more puts...and then another nosedive through 460...

[mac5155]

Source of the post well not NOW now cause our shares just dipped significantly lol

FedEx is the S&P 500’s worst performer today

Yep. Something about an economic bellwether. I dunno.

[mac5155]

I just 8 to 10x'd some options...drinks on me.

I'm hoping we rally until 10 am tomorrow, so I can stock up on some more puts...and then another nosedive through 460...

Serious question though, how do you make so much jingle on a 1.4% drop?

Options trading befuddles me.

[mikey]

Because there's a time factor involved too.

It's going to be difficult to explain options trading here if you don't have some background on it...but basically, if I say, "SPY is at 475 now, I think it's going to go down to 465 by 12/29"...if the market immediately plummets hours later down to 467, well, it's so much more likely that I'm right and so little time has elapsed that the contract (option) is worth so much more now.

That's like the most concise way I can say it haha

[DigitalGypsy66]

Marcus up to 4.5%. Did not see that coming.

[willeyeam]

Because there's a time factor involved too.

It's going to be difficult to explain options trading here if you don't have some background on it...but basically, if I say, "SPY is at 475 now, I think it's going to go down to 465 by 12/29"...if the market immediately plummets hours later down to 467, well, it's so much more likely that I'm right and so little time has elapsed that the contract (option) is worth so much more now.

That's like the most concise way I can say it haha

Also options are a high number of actual shares too so it's somewhat exponential

[mac5155]

Because there's a time factor involved too.

It's going to be difficult to explain options trading here if you don't have some background on it...but basically, if I say, "SPY is at 475 now, I think it's going to go down to 465 by 12/29"...if the market immediately plummets hours later down to 467, well, it's so much more likely that I'm right and so little time has elapsed that the contract (option) is worth so much more now.

That's like the most concise way I can say it haha

OK makes sense. So you're selling off the contract itself as it has value. Are you always looking at contracts about a week out?

[NTP66]

Options is just another form of high risk gambling. Hard pass.

[mikey]

Because there's a time factor involved too.

It's going to be difficult to explain options trading here if you don't have some background on it...but basically, if I say, "SPY is at 475 now, I think it's going to go down to 465 by 12/29"...if the market immediately plummets hours later down to 467, well, it's so much more likely that I'm right and so little time has elapsed that the contract (option) is worth so much more now.

That's like the most concise way I can say it haha

OK makes sense. So you're selling off the contract itself as it has value. Are you always looking at contracts about a week out?

Yes to the contract thing. No to the "about a week" thing. Sometimes I buy ones that expire the same day, sometimes ones that expire months in advance. Depends on the trade...

[King Colby]

Options rookie here.

If I buy SPY options and what i bet on never comes to fruition and I end up stuck with the contract at its expiration, what's the max downside? Does that mean I would have to buy 100 shares at the price that never hit?

So let's say it's $450 and I buy $475 options and it goes down to $425 instead. Do I have to then buy 100 shares at $475 a share even though the stock price is $425?

So effectively I lose $50 a share x100 shares? And also need to have $47,500 available to execute the trade?

[mikey]

No, they expire worthless.

I never execute the trade...

[King Colby]

So what do you lose? Just the amount of money it cost to purchase the options?

And if that's the case how are people losing big money on options?

[MrKennethTKangaroo]

That’s why it’s called an option

You pay to have the option to buy or sell stock

[mikey]

Yes, plus any brokerage fees...

There are several different types of options trading...some of which are done on margin, with more money upfront, blah blah blah...the simple stuff of buying a few calls or puts, you're only losing what you bet. You're gonna be fine...no different than betting on an underdog in an NFL game, but with higher upside...

Just make sure you check your order status before hitting submit...never assume that it has your best interest in there by default...

But it's not that tough...

[Willie Kool]

[NTP66]

Assuming nothing crazy happens today, my average rate of return for all investment accounts for 2023 is 23.14%. My brokerage account led the way since it's a straight up equities account (VTSAX and AAPL), with my Roth IRA coming in just behind, and my work's weird ass 401k third. My wife's accounts are where most of our safer holdings are, as she has target date funds in her 403b (20%) and Roth (17%). So, a very nice year that puts me well over my estimates according to my spreadsheet. Another year sliced off the retirement date.

[mac5155]

Time to redeem those 9% I bonds from April of 22. A nice 12% return over the course of 21 months, not too shabby.

[NTP66]

Yeah, all of ours were redeemed a few months ago, and moved to 5.50% CDs and paid off our solar panels.

[Beveridge]

Next month is my month to clear them out and move to a CD.

[NTP66]

I just moved my daughter's matured CD over to a new 5.50% APY 1-year CD with Marcus. A few better options at like 5.7%, but wasn't worth opening a new account for that.

[Beveridge]

Found a $50 savings bond from 2003 that matured in 2020 when cleaning out some files in my firesafe. Made an an additional $2.90 on interest in the following 4 years. I'm buying the first round tonight, boys.