Anyone know how one starts in cryptocurrency? I don't want an ETF because I want to hold the investment behind the protection of the blockchain. I guess what I am asking is how does one obtain one of those 'wallets'?

The easiest way would be through PayPal or Square. Although, I don’t think you can sell them for cash through those platforms. Edit: they only use Bitcoin.

Coinbase is also an easy way. They can store it for you through their wallet or you can download a wallet to your computer and send it there. This is hot storage. You can buy a dedicated wallet as well. Kind of like a usb drive for offline “cold” storage. You would then send your crypto to your wallet.

There may be others.

cold = more secure but more difficult to transact
hot = less secure but easier to transact.

Coinbase can sync with fidelity.....so you can see your crypto balance if you already use fidelity investments.....but you cannot buy or sell it on fidelity.

I use Gemini. Up and running in 10mins. I was even able to purchase before my bank funded the account. Winklevii are smart dudes.

Easiest I know of is the Voyager app...

https://www.investvoyager.com/

Is there any way to purchase bitcoin without a bank transfer? In other words... without a paper trail.

i wanna say only by mining it

(some) Bitcoin ATMs take cash.

I'll sell you some for cash. Meet me behind the La Quinta on Virginia Ave.

You bringing a hotspot? And we can meet in the lobby.

They made the news today:
https://www.coindesk.com/voyager-dig...ng-cyberattack

Looks like a pretty slick app and outright owning VYGVF might be a more lucrative proxy to crypto.

The options traders have had enough influence that I signed up for a paper trading account on thinkorswim. Tastyworks or Tradestation will be the likely destination for the actual account. It seems like Tradestation charges for data feeds, but I couldn't find that info on Tastyworks. Any traders care to chime in on fees for data feeds? Do you do the bulk of your research on the platform?

I've really enjoyed the TT education series. The Beginners course was a great review and I found the two series on Managing a Large/Small Account useful as well. I'm optimistic about successfully trading, but still not sure managing an options account is a better use of time than reviewing PPMs for passive CRE deals. Time will tell...

im doing the same thing! Trying to start trading in a self directed IRA. Question for the pros:

If simply holding stocks for long term (such as Motley Fool stock Advisor picks), do you still do covered calls on your long stocks, or cash secured puts if trying to get buy a dip in price? If so, 30-45 days out? When picking the strike do you try to maximize the premium (one strike OTM) or put the strike far enough OTM to make likelihood of excercising less likely, but still collecting a little premium?. Sorry if this makes no sense I’m still learning here...!

TradeStation Salutes - If you qualify for this, it's worth looking into. I can't speak for tastyworks platform/data fees.

Thanks. TradeStation just moved to the front of the pack

Yesterday I sold some puts that close this week, (in two days) and some that sell next Friday. I also have some longer term stuff (Feb 19). I do a lot of trading though. In 2020 I will wind up with somewhere near 1700 trades. I think I said in another post, but I TRY to make an average of $75/week for every $20,000 that I am leveraging, whether or not it is thru puts or calls. Some days you are the windshield, some days you are the bug. I am long and underwater in a position right now, but I will keep selling calls on it until it returns. If the pain goes on long enough, I will punt and move on. That's the art in all of this... Hope this helps.

I bought some on a whim when the najarians invested. It’s up about 500% in 2 weeks. Silly. I wish I could capture this lightening in a bottle.

there’s a guy I follow, John carter, he’s big time options dude. About $18 mil in profits this year so far. Anyways, he just left trade station due to uptime issues. They have a tendency to be “down” when things get a little bonkers. He moved his trading to Tastyworks, for what it’s worth.

Tastyworks is pretty simple, which is why I went with them. Lightening fast data, nearly 100% uptime and $1 to open $0 to close (+a few cents for regulator fees). No confusing data fees etc (interactive brokers does it this way too) l.

As for writing covered calls, I NEVER write calls against shares I want to hold long term, eventually they may get called away and I don’t want to trade a few hundred bucks in premium for 10000% gains in the long run.

The nice thing about tastyworks, is that when you select a strike, they give you a POP and P50, that is probability of profit (making at least one penny) and probability of making 50% profit. This strike is usually called a “30 delta”, but don’t let that confuse you; what you want to do is pick a strike that shows up with a 70% POP. This is the tastytrade way, small trades often aiming for 70% POP.

Long term stock CCL, Carnival Cruises? What you think? Got enough cash to last till 2022

I do nothing and start that at 10am. Qball, probably not many caught the "plastic" reference.

IMHO:
Stock price too expensive for me. All the cruise lines’ forward bookings are predominantly cancelled-cruise-of-2020 credits. Earnings will only come from ancillary revenue (drinks/excursions/on board up sells). With countries like Grand Cayman throwing people in jail for breaking quarantine, I think 2021 cruise sector earnings are going to be very very weak. I think RCCL did one test cruise and had to return to pier after too many onboard Covids. Without any ships actually cruising yet, it’s too early and too risky for me to jump in. Maybe after summer.

I like CCL for the shareholder discount on cruises. I liquidated early this year around 40 as I was consolidating my brokerage accounts. I bought back in around 15 just for the shareholder discount on cruises. My wife likes (or at least used to like) cruising on Princess.

-How much are you leveraging your $20,000?
-How do much time does it take reporting 1,700 trades on your tax return?

$75 per week comes out to $3,900 per year, which is a respectable 19.5%. A few days of being the windshield vs the bug can take that down to the mid teens very quickly. An 80% success rate at the often touted 2% monthly returns is 19.2%. You seem to be in the ballpark with the research I've done. I'm still uncertain about the time commitment, bookkeeping requirements and the tax liability of trading outside of a retirement account.


In the past, I've just rolled the covered calls out to the next expiration cycle. You could also buy back the shares after exercise, which creates a CG problem in a taxable account. An exercised ITM option isn't the end of the world. I recently sold FEB 725 CC on a portion of my TSLA position. I'm planning on rolling out to March in about a month.

Thanks for all the TW pointers. There are lots of similarities between thinkorswim and tastyworks. I just figured out that Tom Sosnoff is the connection between the two.

Futures and options are 1256 contracts. There is no single trade reporting like there is with individual stocks. You just get a 1099. 60% long term capital gains rate, 40% regular income rate. Get your tax advice from an expert but that is the treatment for options and futures.

It sucks. I pay my taxes quarterly, taxed as ordinary income. Paying Uncle Sam and the state 4x/yr sucks. As for the End of year tax, it’s fairly simple. All brokerages I’ve used send a summary of capital gains and that all you need to plug in. They do usually send a statement broken down of all 5000+ trades I’ve done, but ultimately the summary of P/L is all you need

Broken stock or broken company? I had the thought as well the other day though. When rationality returns to the world, people are gonna go cruising in droves. They have the money saved. I'll bet prices will soar. But what do I know? dyodd, ymmv, etc etc etc...

I am supposed to pay quarterly, but I tell them to pack sand. The money I would waste giving to the .gov makes more in my accounts. I take the penalty. jmho, dyodd, ymmv, etc etc.

I'll bet my return is like yours. My accountant weighs it. To answer the other question somebody asked, I use Ally and they send me a breakdown of all the trades on some tax form. I don't think it actually has to be filed like that though. I'll do some research and edit this if I see something different.

FIFY (he types in a polite, respectful manner, not often seen on the interwebs)

I could have been a little more specific in the original tax question. I'm still at the equity option level, I'm saving futures for when I really hate my kids and want to blow their inheritance. Options on equities are not 1256 contracts based on my pilot level understanding of the tax code. Options on ETFs and individual equities are taxed as ST CG. The difference in tax treatment is one reason it may make more sense to sell options on SPX vs SPY (index vs equity). I'll ask my CPA the next time we talk, probably Jan/Feb. It looks like single trade reporting summed up in an annual P/L is the requirement for my trades.

You are correct. I didn't even think about options on equities. I only trade options on indices because I like my money. The indices are far less volatile than individual stocks and are more ranging in nature. Even when trending as they are now the indices tend to do it in a controlled way. The 1256 tax treatment is key to keeping gains if you are successful. It can be as much as a 15-20% savings.

I love iron condors on SPX.

Care to give an example of the trade? I put on a spread earlier in the week, and bailed on the buy portion when I saw the security going up, so I need to be convinced of these 'exotic' trades...

I've been playing with ICs on SPY, but see the value in changing to SPX. I'm surprised Tastytrade uses SPY vs SPX options in the videos I've seen. Perhaps it's geared toward smaller traders that can't tie up the capital required to cover SPX. Larger bid/ask spreads on SPX could be another reason.

I'm trading a paper money account right now to get comfortable with the more complex strategy mechanics. Tomorrow's paper trades will be an SPX IC and maybe a short straddle/strangle on BRK/B.

The only live trading I've done so far is CC on TSLA at 725 and 750. The premium is crazy high and the recent price rise is likely a little bump in price from the window dressing portfolio buyers. If I end up ITM, I'll roll to Mar. I should have my TSLA basis down to 0 by the spring.

Thoughts on strangles vs IC on SPX? It looks like a wider profit range at the same strikes and you could manage losses vs spending $$ on the long side of an IC.

Besides SPX, what other indices do you trade? Is there a bond index similar to the TLT ETF?

Iron Condors are very safe compared to naked puts or calls. You sell an out of the money put and call then buy a put and call farther out of the money and collect the difference in premium. Example Jan 8:

Sell 3800 call and buy 3815 call collect (10.20-7.06) 3.14 on the call side.
Sell 3600 put and buy 3585 put collect ( 12.66-10.90) 1.76 on the put side
Total premium collected is 4.90 or 490.00 per contract and loss is limited to difference between strikes minus premium collected.

490.00 per contract for a one week strike. You can adjust the strikes per your risk tolerance and expectations with respect to capital used. I don't have my trading software up but I can tell you the margin on this is better than on naked trades and return on capital is very good. I usually look to make my trades at somewhere between 80 and 90% probability of success. Last year I had only one condor go bad and I took the loss early instead of letting it go to max. I usually take profit and put capital back to use at around 65% of max profit. In an uptrend like we have had for the past few months I look for a bigger down day to enter so I can get really good prices for the put side and widen the calls for the inevitable rebound.

This is not trade advice. Use paper money to experiment and get comfortable before risking real money. Seek professional investment advice before risking money. Etc, etc, etc.

I only do the condors on SPX. The bulk of my trading is ES futures and ZB which is 30 year bonds. I love futures but it is very hard to learn and very dangerous unless you are religious in taking small losses.

I took this trade earlier today. I like the hourly rate of this.

I have looked everywhere on Fidelity site for a form that gives us permission to sell covered calls and cash secured puts in our 401k. Can’t find it and was on phone for 45 min today waiting for a rep until I had to punt. Anybody have gouge on the best way to allow option trading through our Brokeragelink? Thanks

You can’t trade options in your 401K BrokerageLink.

You can double check me if you want... let me know if you see something different. In the NetBenefits app, select your brokeragelink account (this basically takes you to the webpage version, so you can just do this from the web if easier). One of the banner links on the top is “Investment Products.” Under that link, select “Options”. Select the orange button that says “Apply to trade options.” On that screen it says that my BrokerageLink account is ineligible for options. This checks with the list of eligible account types (401Ks are not listed as eligible).

Nice. It's on par with 7ERA flying a greenie. If you ever turn from day trading into real estate, you could get that hourly rate a little more often. ;)

​​​​Which platform are you trading on?

I have quite a few different accounts at fidelity and haven't invested much time checking the veracity of all this "can trade options , can't trade options" but....

from the directions posted above my acct says....

BROKERAGELINK NQP accounts with DELTA PILOTS PLAN, and FMTC

"The following account types are eligible to trade options:

• Traditional IRA
• ROTH IRA
• SEP IRA
• IRA Rollover
• Money Purchase Keogh
• Profit Sharing Keogh
• Voluntary MP Keogh
• Voluntary PS Keogh
• Non Prototype IRA
• Non Prototype Trust
• Individual
• Joint
• Investment Club
• Corporate
• Unincorporated Business
• Partnership
• Sole Proprietorship
• Trust
• Estate
• Custodial
• Fiduciary
• Health Savings Account"

additionally,....

BROKERAGELINK NQP accounts with DELTA PILOTS PLAN, and FMTC

Account Option Level Action a BROKERAGELINKxxxxxxxxxx Level 2: Buying calls/puts, long straddles/strangles, selling cash-covered puts

Seems like maybe I can?


All I know is , if it's something you want to do, I would pursue it first on line and follow up with a real person. Today was a bad day to talk to a broker at Fidelity, prolly due to year end tax strategies.

Not sure if this provides any insight or just muddies the water. Best of luck....Happy New Year

Cheers

I do futures on Tradovate. Options on TOS but I am looking into switching to Tasty Trade. I haven't been very happy with TOS since the buyout.

That trade was just a quicky as I didn't have a lot of time today. I was out with errands most of the day and I generally don't trade the last two weeks of the year due to Christmas and New Years. I just happened to look and there was a perfect setup and I had a few minutes. When I have a full day I can do very well. Some days are better than others, of course not every trade is a winner.

I work for a trader who manages a LOT of money. He has been very helpful with my trading journey and since he has the need for good data the plane, houses, boat, and even his car are wired with the fastest internet available. I have been lucky to be able to listen and learn from him. The flying is a side benefit of my main agenda which is to learn as much as possible from him about trading and wealth.

I wrote 2 covered call contracts in my Brokeragelink account this morning. You just have to apply for options trading. Sorry, I don’t have the link or know who to call. Start with the Delta Service Center at Fidelity and follow the trail from there.