Articles Comments

Josh Maher's Blog » Options

ESPP Options – Account Configuration

January 24th, 2012 | Add a Comment

Ok, I get it. The account you have at Fidelity where your ESPP shares are dumped each quarter doesn’t allow option trading. Now you read my post on how to sell covered calls against your shares and are lost as to how to make that happen in your account. I thought about this and have been pretty hesitant to walk through the steps to make this work for everyone… If I have to walk you through how to make this happen in your account, are you really ready to start trading options? Well,. being a consultant though I guess I can’t help myself. Selling covered calls isn’t exactly putting on an Iron Condor or Butterfly option strategy. It is simply saying that you already own shares of a firm and … Read entire article »

Filed under: career, Covered Calls, ESPP, Investing, Options, Profit, stocks

You Have An Employee Stock Purchase Plan Now What?

January 16th, 2012 | Add a Comment

This seems to come up a lot in large companies and having been on the end of not knowing what to do as well as currently being on the end of having some thoughts about different strategies to manage ESPP participation, I thought I would share with everyone. I won’t say that I know everything about investing or managing an ESPP… but I definitely have been using a solid strategy that makes sense. The basic principles of the investment strategy are: Sell covered calls against the ESPP shares This puts cash in my account that I can use to invest elsewhere Ensures that if the stock is sold, it is sold for a profit higher than the 10% Collect the dividends from the shares (Assuming your company pays dividends) This provides money to be invested … Read entire article »

Filed under: career, Covered Calls, ESPP, Investing, Options, Profit, stocks

Retail Investment is Changing

December 17th, 2011 | Add a Comment

I don’t know if any one else has noticed the trend in retail investment advances that have been taking a crack at Wall St. lately – but I think we can forget what value the Occupy Wall St. movement will provide and start looking at what people with productive skills and a desire to change the world are trying to do. Over the last year I have seen a number of great products come out that are focused on reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of middle class investors. Of course all while taking some of the money (the fees at least) out of Wall St. I am not talking about peer to peer lending (I have been playing with those groups for a while and am not sure … Read entire article »

Filed under: Banking, ESPP, Investing, Options, Profit, Startups, stocks