Sponsored Post Cash is the lifeblood of a business. According to Hal Shelton, angel investor, SCORE mentor, and author of the best-selling The Secrets to Writing a Successful Business Plan, one of the primary reasons companies go out of business is “cash flow mismanagement.” It can be challenging for small businesses to get a grip on their cash flow, but it’s essential you do so. After the year we’ve all been through, you may feel like the situation is out of your control. There are ways you can better manage – and even boost – your cash flow. Here are a few. How to Increase Your Cash Flow 1. Monitor and Document the Process You can’t manage, improve or increase your cash … [Read More...]
DIA Chart as of 10-02-20
The chart below shows the daily prices for the year-to-date through October 2, 2020, for the Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF, DIA, after closing the week at $276.80. DIA is trading more than five percent below its recent high from a month ago and 52 percent above its intraday low on March 23. The recent price drop removed some of the euphoria from the rally and caused the large-cap ETF to fall below its trend line of higher lows. Since then, this same trend line has acted as a point of resistance, limiting the range DIA can bounce off of its lows from the prior week of trading. DIA’s 100-day moving average acted as support to stop the price decline, but might come back into play soon … [Read More...]
Month End Summary – November 2020
November kept the trend going for me and added to may gains for the year. The bounce back in QQQ was a big help and more than made up for the paper losses on my short TLT shares. I remained too timid after the election and missed some upside, but didn’t want to blow my gains for the year if I was correct in my hesitation. I’d love to see a solid 10% correction so I could dive in deeper, but that might not come for a few months based on the euphoria that’s still out there on election finality and vaccine expectations. My account ended November with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $111,798.00 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending October with … [Read More...]
Why You Need a Prepaid Debit Card Even If You Have a Bank Account
Many people think prepaid debit cards are just for people who don’t have a bank account. After all, checking accounts usually come with a debit card that can be used just like a credit card. Why would someone with a bank account need a prepaid debit card? Why You Might Need a Prepaid Debit Card for Business While prepaid debit cards are useful for those without a bank account, the following benefits apply to everyone. Private transactions When you need to make a private transaction, a prepaid debit card is the best solution. Technically, you can also use cryptocurrency, but not every merchant accepts crypto. You don’t need a specific reason to keep your purchases private. Maybe you don’t want advertisers to know what… [Read More...]
Options Expiration – October 2020
I expected the final monthly options expiration before the election to provide some volatility and we got a little, but not as much as I thought we might get. My only concern for this account today was how TLT behaved. My October options finished well out of the money. My five TLT October $155 covered puts expired worthless along with my one TLT October $165 naked call and my three TLT October $170 naked calls. My covered puts gave me a realized gain of $222.41 after I deduct the short dividends payments of $176 I made in September and October from the $398.41 I received in premiums. I made a realized gain of $1,319.02 from my three $170 strike naked calls and an additional realized gain of … [Read More...]
Month End Summary – August 2020
August was an incredible month for my account thanks to the drop in TLT’s price and the rise in QQQ’s price. I’m still short 500 shares of TLT and have short options on both sides. I’m also long 100 shares of QQQ with no covered call. I’ve planned to sell a new covered call on QQQ for months, but I haven’t seen a reason to cut off my gains yet. As I’ve said a few times earlier, that day seems to be getting closer. My account ended August with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of $108,108.24 according to Interactive Brokers (IB) after ending July with a balance of $99,283.20. I had a gain of $8,825.04 (-8.89%) on paper for August (better … [Read More...]
Sold QQQ Covered Call
After missing opportunities in late August to sell a covered call on my 100 QQQ shares, I finally pulled the trigger today after seeing QQQ recover most of its losses from the past month and a half. While QQQ was trading at $294.70, I sold one QQQ December $305 covered call for $10.76 and received $1,075.34 after paying $0.66 in commission. I bought these 100 QQQ shares after being assigned the stock at $225 from an April naked put that I sold back in February when QQQ was trading at $231.67. Contrary to my typical trading plan, I opted to hold onto my shares without selling a covered call as I saw QQQ as the best opportunity for growth. That plan has worked out for me so far, but … [Read More...]