Doctor Jack's Stock Medicine

[Jack Haddad]

Tso

Bought 3 blocks at 57.65, and wrote 300 Oct 57.50 calls for 1.75 contract. This is one of the juiciest premiums I have seen in little under two weeks left for expiration.

Sold the shares at 58.99 and bought back the calls at 2.40/contract.

[Tatnic]

Sold the shares at 58.99 and bought back the calls at 2.40/contract.

Gross of over 20k in a day. Not a bad day's pay...congrats! I'm beginning to see the merit of this type of strategy. Not that I can swing that kind of margin. Any ideas of the optimal trade size that this type of strategy works best with? I would venture a guess that you need to trade at least 5000 shares to eek any kind of a meaningful gain from this methodology...am I in the ballpark?

[Jack Haddad]

Tso

Gross of over 20k in a day. Not a bad day's pay...congrats! I'm beginning to see the merit of this type of strategy. Not that I can swing that kind of margin. Any ideas of the optimal trade size that this type of strategy works best with? I would venture a guess that you need to trade at least 5000 shares to eek any kind of a meaningful gain from this methodology...am I in the ballpark?

I have averaged 1 to 3 block per trade on TSo, 1 block being 10,000 shares. you can do quite well with spreads without tying that much equity in underlying shares.

[Tatnic]

I have averaged 1 to 3 block per trade on TSo, 1 block being 10,000 shares. you can do quite well with spreads without tying that much equity in underlying shares.

True, but with a pure option spread you can lose 100% of your position. I know, I've done it. At least with your buy-write trade its impossible to lose that much of your position. I've gotta go back and see how you set up your tol short.

[Tatnic]

Covered 29.77

Jack, have you ever sold puts to hedge your short plays?

[Jack Haddad]

Jack, have you ever sold puts to hedge your short plays?

No, I don't like puts and it's really a personal preference. Their decay has really not done me the justice i deserve.

[Jack Haddad]

Intc

Added 7 block of intc at 20.99 to 21.01, and wrote 700 Oct 20 calls for 1.20/contract, in hope that my shares will get taken away. Considering the short and intermediate term technicals, should my underlaying shares remain with me after expiration, the addition of those block would have been a strategic accumulate in an incremental manner.

I now have a total of 335k shares.

[Jack Haddad]

Opinions on INTC

Intel’s general manager for Asia-Pacific, John Antone, reportedly made the following comments at a press briefing at the Intel Developers Forum in Taipei: Intel which reports earnings after the close tomorrow, will report higher than expected third quarter revenues as a result of market share gains from AMD and the fading of concerns about the ship date for Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system, according a company executive quoted by Bloomberg.

The shares are on the rise, as analysts sound increasingly upbeat ahead of the company’s third quarter earnings report coming up on Tuesday. Here are excerpts from a trio of research notes from this morning, two bullish, one bearish.

Joe Osha, Merrill Lynch: All indications are that the company’s transition to more profitable products is proceeding smoothly. Reducing AMD to its former marginal status is not going to be possible, but we do think that Intel is positioned to have a much better 2007 than many investors realize. Some of that should be apparent on the upcoming call. We think that investors who are focused on next year should come away from the results satisfied that Intel is on the right trajectory…Consensus estimats seem to give Intel minimal credit for either market share stabilization of margin expansion. That makes little sense to use, and we’re confident in out above-consensus $1.30 estimate [for 2007]….Maintain Buy. For the third quarter, he expects revenue of $8.6 billion and earnings of 17 cents a share.

Tim Luke, Lehman: Our checks suggest that Intel is likely to post solid [third quarter]results…revenue may be slightly ahead of our high-end sales estimate of $8.73 billion and we believe it is ahead of consensus EPS of 18 cents…While we expect shares to edge upwards into year end and remain encouraged by Intel’s progress on cost reduction and new product development, we retain our longer term reservations on share traction of rival AMD (AMD). Rating: Equal Weight.

Krishna Shankar, JMP Securities: We believe that Intel may beat street EPS estimates despite lower revenues than expected for the quarter due to strict operating expense controls, better-than-expected manufacturing efficiencies on 65 nm technology on 12-inch wafer production and a resumption of revenue growth in the high-margin Xeon server product line with the new Woodcrest dual-core Xeon server chips. Our consumer and corporate channel checks suggest renewed momentum for Intel PC and server chips at aggressive price/performance points versus AMD platforms. Nonetheless, he trimmed his 2006 forecast to 85 cents a share from 90 cents, while maintaining 2007 at $1.25, and he cut his numbers for the third quarter to $8.3 billion and 19 cents from $8.6 billion and 21 cents, reflecting lower average selling prices. (He has been above the Street consensus.) He maintains his Market Perform rating.

[Websman]

Fascinating. I feel dumb compared to you Dr Jack. I should read your posts more often.

[Tatnic]

Fascinating. I feel dumb compared to you Dr Jack. I should read your posts more often.

well...he is running a hedge fund and its not often one gets to talk to a real hedge fund manager. I'm guessing though that these trades are not in the hedge fund but in his personal account. Jack, how do you manage to trade both..ie isn't it too distracting?

[skiracer]

Fascinating. I feel dumb compared to you Dr Jack. I should read your posts more often.

I've been following his thread closely for awhile now once I realized who and what he is. If you only made his plays as he posts them you would be up alot more that you probably are right now. Apparently he does real well and I'm sure that he is exposed to all the right inside info and moves on the street.
No reason to feel dumb next to him but to miss out on what he is doing while it is right in front of our faces could be considered somewhat dumb.
What I don't really understand is what he is doing here with us turkeys. Maybe he just likes slumming.

[Jack Haddad]

Tso

Bought 1 block at 56.50

Sold at 65.96

[Jack Haddad]

Tso

Bought 1 block at 58.31

Sold at 66.01

[Jack Haddad]

Tso

Added another block at 65.40

Sold at 65.92

[Jack Haddad]

well...he is running a hedge fund and its not often one gets to talk to a real hedge fund manager. I'm guessing though that these trades are not in the hedge fund but in his personal account. Jack, how do you manage to trade both..ie isn't it too distracting?

It's not at all... I have both set up in a manner that when I buy in blocks, I allocate some to my personal account. And it's perfectly legal thus far. This is the beauty of a private placement industry.