Sunday, July 5, 2020

Selling puts for "income"

Yesterday I received the following blurb in an email.  For those who may not trade options, buying calls and selling puts are leveraged ways of betting that markets will go up in a linear fashion.  Conversely, buying puts and selling calls are bets that markets will go down. 

All four of these trades have their place with experienced market gamblers.  But as someone with 25+ years experience in trading and 15+ years day trading I can tell you that options are a good way to lose a lot of money very quickly.  Without the benefit of Elliott waves I wouldn't even try it.

But look at what they are going to "teach" you to do: generate "income" from playing options and specifically from selling puts (betting in a very leveraged way that stocks at extreme overvaluations will continue to go up.  Look, if you need "income", get a job!  Income has connotations to me of being dependable.   For example, someone who has a house and a car payment each month needs dependable income.  That's what a job is for.  If someone is trying to tell you that you can "safely" generate income using options, laugh in their face and move on.

This is the kind of "kan't miss" bullshit that accompanies major market peaks.  It is akin to the shoeshine boy giving old man Kennedy stock tips.  People who think the fed can prop up markets forever are insane.  If they could do it there never would have been protracted bear markets in the past.  The fact that they have been getting away with it since dot bomb only means that when it blows up next time it will be one to watch from very far away, like watching the space shuttle take off or like watching the first nuclear test at Alamo Gordo.  Yes, it will be the economic version of that kind of energy release.



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