"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws." (Mayer Amschel Rothschild)

"Most people are obsessed with money. Hardly anyone is interested in it."
(Wm. Shakespeare)

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Some Useful Links

FTSE 100 Shares Index (Value) 15 minutes delay. BBC Page
FTSE 100 Shares Index (Graphs) 15 minutes delay. BBC Page


eMail dr.ftse@gmail.com to learn more/how to get started as an Option Trader, or to ask for details of the hugely successful White Knuckle Riders Investment Club (wkr.inv.club@gmail.com) which deals largely in Traded Options, particularly Options in the FTSE 100 Index. The Club's objective is to make 1% PER MONTH for its members.
Since it's inception in August 2000 the Club has paid out £253,000 in profits to members. Members are strongly advised to withdraw accumulated profits regularly; trading options is always riskier than trading in the underlying securities (i.e the 100 companies whose shares make up the so-called 'FTSE 100 Index')


TEAM BLOG Fridge Soup

My Open Option Contracts

(Updated weekly on Friday at close of business, or whenever I re-arrange any of my positions - except I haven't updated them for MONTHS because no one ever reads the blog. See my comments above!)

FTSE INDEX OPTION CONTRACTS
12 x 6850 Short (*) Calls (November 2014 Series)
12 x 6300 Short Puts (November 2014 Series)
Index closed at 6495.6 on 07/10/2014
Expiry on 21st. November 2014

(*) "Short" in the context of option trading means the contracts were opened by selling them.
(**) "Covered" Calls means I have the shares to meet any assignment by the counterparty
(***) "Cash Covered" Puts means I have sufficient cash in my trading account to buy the shares if assigned by the counterparty.


Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Beans, Beans are good for the heart . . .

The post below this one informs us that  the BBC thinks "poor numeracy blights the economy and ruins lives."

Consider then this cameo pricing model that I grabbed from a well-known supermarket's on-line shopping site this morning when I sent in my weekly order.


I'll leave you to figure out which is the best buy and then to decide whether buying the wrong pack will ruin the economy.  Buying the wrong pack certainly helps the store's economy; whether it will blight your life is for you to say.  You might also think about why the store describes the six-pack as "Special Value." (Note "Add" above is not an arithmetic opertor. It means "Put the item into your on-line shopping trolley.)

Oops . . . I almost forgot!  Today I redeemed my open FTSE options position by buying 7 x September 6200 Puts and 7 x September 6750 Calls.  This position was originally opened on 8th. August 2013. The FTSE 100 Index did not stray outside this 550 point range while the contracts were in place.  Here's another little numeracy conumdrum.  If I had chosen to invest all my September profit in the better of the two offers above I could have ordered 2,222 packs with a few beans left over.  THAT'S how profitable option trading can be!

Having bought back the September contracts, I "sold to open" 7 x 6150 FTSE Index October Puts and 7 x 6750 October Calls.  The net of these trades (buying September/selling October) is not guaranteed profit yet - but it has temporarily stored a lot more tins of beans in the bank.  Listen out for more . . .

Monday, 2 September 2013

Fun With Figures

Today the BBC is telling us that "Poor numeracy blights the economy and ruins lives"  That's as maybe. (See examples below) What annoys me is how articles like this refer to "maths" when they mean "arithmetic."  Arithmetic is to maths as paintbrushes are to a J.M.W.Turner sunset. Now FTSE dismounts hobbyhorse to ask . . .

. . . 3 questions.  Do they test your ability at maths, your ability at arithmetic or simply your ability to think?

1.  If I tell you the average of two numbers and one of the numbers, can you work out the second number?  (Example:  Average of two numbers is 12.  One of them is 8. What is the other number?)

2.  The National Lottery asks you to choose 6 numbers from 49. What's the chance you choose the first number  i) correctly, ii) incorrectly? And the second number . . . and so on down to your 6th. choice.

3. How many different four digit PIN numbers are there -
    i)  If duplicated digits are allowed?
    ii) If duplicated digits are not allowed?