options

The trade that broke the market's back

May 11, 2010

In a thoroughly ridiculous analysis, the WSJ is trying to pin Thursday's crash on a single options trade. Conveniently, the trade was made by Universa, the fund advised by black swan devotee Nassim Taleb. The body of the article uses phrases like "contributed" and "along with likely dozens of other trades", but the title's unanswered [...]

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Stock is more efficient than options are more efficient than stock

November 18, 2009

Investment decisions can hinge on how risk and exposure are defined. Here, the choice determines whether an insider should trade in stock or options.

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Yet more reverse convertibles: positive sum games?

June 19, 2009

Did Felix Salmon really just write this in defense of his reverse convertibles stance?? For one thing, stocks generally go up over time: they’re a positive-sum game. ... Retail investors, as a rule, have no business buying instruments with limited upside but 100% downside — I’d even include individual bonds in that, despite the fact that [...]