Option is a contract in the future to buy or sell a stock at agreed price (strike price). Options are used to hedge (insurance). (detailed explanation for beginners)
Other uses:
Buying PUT option – betting that stock will go down.
Buying CALL option – betting (with leverage) that stock will go up.
The new concept that I have been introduced by Michael is Selling PUT options
Selling #Options is one of the best ways for investors with larger portfolios to generate #CashFlow. It’s like getting paid for having limit orders in the market. Time works in your favor. I’m selling cash-secured puts and covered calls on a monthly basis to generate income. đź’° https://t.co/p87yNwJbdL
I was lucky to exit the stock market and crypto (exited BTC at 6700 euros) before huge drop. I am not selling any of my real estate investments through the platforms. Housers secondary market is dead. EstateGuru secondary market is dead and expensive to trade. EvoEstate secondary market is active as never before, but i am holding my investments. I am checking the markets mainly sp500 and ibex35 daily and even though i do not have any positions I feel frustrated with big swings in the market. On one hand a big recession is coming. On the other hand US announces 1.5T and later 2T money printing – stimulus package. Universal Basic Income may start sooner – US government is thinking of giving 1000 USD for each citizen.
I will be coming back to stock market on March 23 making 0,3% of my net-worth investments weekly. I will be buying
BTC (Crypto – Bitcoin)
LYXIB – Spanish index
WBA – Pharmacies in USA
BOL – Ports in Africa and 3 potential spinoffs
TEF Telcom for Spain and LATAM
TEL Telcom for Nordics and SE Asia
SCHB Media company from Norway
The U.S. shouldn’t bail out billionaires and hedge funds during the coronavirus pandemic, Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya says. “Who cares? Let them get wiped out.” https://t.co/dIbizumtqGpic.twitter.com/u8BSVvr0B1
Zoom vs Google Meet is the difference of a singular company and product focus vs just thinking you are building a feature as part of an enterprise suite. https://t.co/ofTcCVmk41
The reason to short (buy put options) Zoom is that i do not know any person paying for paid version. Zoom gives 40 minutes free sessions and then you can just restart a new session – not a big pain to pay for. (more pain to look for your credit card in the pocket). My personal circle uses Google Meet, which comes for free if you are buying Google Suites. The competition is huge. And UX is a fragile competitive advantage that can be copied and made better in days. (example Whereby in my opinion has even better UX)
Oil
With global lockdowns the demand for oil plunged. The tankers have been filled soon and there was no place to put oil. USO ETF stopped tracking oil price. And near expiration oil futures started trading at negative 37$. (Lesson about oil futures: if you do not execute contract before expiration – you have to take real oil)
I am starting to write this on March 20, when corona virus pandemic is at the peak in Spain.
During first two weeks of February I am reading a lot of warning on Twitter. Some events are being cancelled in the world already. I urge my wife to stock up some basic food in case of total lockdown.
February 17th to 22d I fly to Riga (with connection in Frankfurt) to Startup Wise Guys graduation and Techchill event. Before leaving I buy 6 FFP3 mascs for my family after I notice Chinese woman in the post office sending big packs of surgical mascs to China. At the moment there are plenty of FFP2 mascs.
Lidl meat section midday of March 13
March 12th Spanish government announces that country lock-down begins on Monday – March 16th. That nigh, after an argument with my wife, I decide to not take kids to school on Friday. Friday and Saturday we go for walks with kids (skipping the playgrounds and crowded places). The news are worsening every hour. When the kids go for Friday nap, I go shopping. Some sections are already empty and people are buying a lot – i wait 30 minutes in the line. The lock-down begins 2 days earlier on Saturday night. March 18th my wife goes shopping – the shops are full of food, including toilet and hand paper.
What is the life in quarantine?
In general the life did not change much: I work and have meals at home as usual. The good things:
I do Yoga / Stretching daily
I sleep better (Oura ring average sleep and readiness over 90)
Have time to write and read (though i read mostly about covid)
Rethink my life: Set your values, goals and principals (Ray Dalio).
First, I think that renting is always better than buying. Especially in Spain, where you pay 10-12% buyers fee. So if the rent is 4% – so you can rent for 3 years just of the buyers fee. Secondly your family situation changes and you have more flexibility renting. And thirdly changing places is fun.
The reason why we have started building a house in Valencia, Spain is that we wanted a house next to kids school and there was nothing decent to rent. And the purchase prices seemed ridiculous of the houses that we liked.
Brief overview of the benefits of building a single family house in Spain
Mention that the process can be complex and requires careful planning
Choosing a location
Discuss the importance of selecting the right location for your single family house in Spain
Consider factors such as proximity to amenities, climate, and local building regulations
Designing your house
Discuss the importance of hiring a reputable architect to design your single family house in Spain
Talk about the different styles of architecture in Spain and how to choose the right one for your house
Mention the importance of considering factors such as energy efficiency and accessibility in the design of your house
Obtaining building permits
Explain the process of obtaining building permits for a single family house in Spain
Discuss the importance of working with a professional to ensure that you have all the necessary permits and approvals
Construction
Discuss the process of constructing a single family house in Spain, including hiring a contractor and overseeing the construction process
Mention the importance of maintaining good communication with your contractor and staying on schedule
Finishing touches
Talk about the final steps in building a single family house in Spain, including decorating, landscaping, and obtaining final inspections
Discuss the importance of working with a professional interior designer to ensure that your house is finished to your liking
Conclusion
Summarize the key points of building a single family house in Spain and encourage readers to carefully plan and execute their own project.
UPDATE. (2019) You can not buy USD Index funds in InteractiveBrokers if you are EU citizen/company.Â
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“BUY 16 CHIC ARCA @ 23.89” No Trading Permission, Customer Ineligible; Ineligibility reasons: This product is currently unavailable to
clients classified as retail clients. Note: Individual clients and entities that are not large institutions
generally are classified as retail clients. There may be other products with similar economic characteristics  that are available for you to trade.
I have invested in Billion To One a startup that is trying to make prenatal testing easy/cheap and safe. Even though i stopped my first ”fund” of startups, I have chosen to invest in this particular one because i believe and support their mission:
Our mission is to make prenatal diagnostics safe and affordable for all.
If there will be 1% advance in prenatal testing made and  i will lose all my investment – I will be happy with the outcome
Everybody agrees that the crisis or correction will come. I can not disagree with that. My idea is that investing (dollar cost averaging) should be more beneficial (Schwab study) than waiting for the crisis to come. It may come but it may be very short and recover very fast. Technically we are in second longest bull market not affected by recession. But the bear market of 1987 was only 3 months.
1987 August 21 the highest was 335.90
1987 December 4 the lowest was 223.92 (33% fall). From that moment The bull market started again.
1989 July 21 it crossed the 335.90 again
Conclusion: timing market is not a good idea.
Prediction: no one knows if crisis will come this year or in next 10 years. And for the reason that there is hugeanticipation that the crisis is near, for that reason I would bet that it might not come soon. Reason #2 is that people still remember 2008. Reason #3 People have too much cash and moderate debt (look at the insane ICOs)
After reading a dozen of articles that low cost index funds beat individual stock pickers, i was not convinced, that i can not pick individual stocks better.
I was very bullish on Rocket Internet RKET. I was buying RKET at 15-19€ and selling 19-23€.
Why i am not buying individual stocks anymore:
It takes too much time to monitor the news, rumors and stock price.
There is high risk with individual stocks.
S&P 500 at the same time made +25% compared to mine 19%
Another great example is TV series Billions, that shows stock market manipulation by billionaires.
