True, but their are still retail property management firms, like Westfield Group that are bound to drop another 25%-50%.

Trying to squeeze the last drop of juice out of an Orange might not be that risky but doing it shorting stocks can wipe out your bank account.

A stock that's gone from 100 to 5 that you think is worth 0 has the same return from 100 to 0 as 5 to 0. Shorting is not for the faint of heart.

What about buying at-the-money puts?

They are very expensive.

Sell naked way-out-of-the-money calls?

Buying put + Selling Call is same thing as shorting the stock. Your example is a cute way of shorting stock but taking on more "tail" risk, ie, if the stock goes up 15-20% you might not lose anything but if it goes up 50% you will be wiped out.

Buying/Selling deep out of the money options in this market is pretty nuts. Vol is so high that the only thing that makes sense is selling them but then you are collecting small premiums for massive tail risk in a very uncertain environment. Good for big banks/diversified institutions; bad for people like us.

MITS5

Last Visited

Mon May 30, 2011 6:32 am

RIP

The Europe debt crisis has another victim...

my only trick or treaters tonight were day traders

MF Global is rapin' everybody.

The thread starter PM'd me his picks after he stopped posting here. I don't pay much attention to the markets, but I recall he was investing in some company called "Solyndra." Hope everything worked out for him.