beginners corner

Timeline

2012

May 26^th Playing the Bid-Ask Spread When Selling Covered Call Options 1 comment
May 19^th Analyzing a Covered Call Trade by Barry Bergman, Director of Research, The Blue Collar Investor Corp. 19 comments
May 12^th Covered Call Writing Premiums: Intrinsic Value + Time Value 23 comments
May 5^th Entering Our Covered Call Positions Mid-Contract 27 comments
April 28^th Covered Call Writing and the Blue Collar Premium Report 29 comments
April 21^st Covered Call Writing and Stock Option Expiration Cycles 40 comments
April 14^th Beta: Another Tool to Enhance our Covered Call Returns 18 comments
April 7^th Covered Call Writing and The Yield Curve 18 comments
March 31^st Covered Call Writing and The CBOE’s Volatility Index (VIX) 47 comments
March 24^th Covered Call Writing: Types of Customer Orders 26 comments
March 17^th Using Multiple Exit Strategies in the Same Contract Month 32 comments
March 10^th Covered Call Writing- Using the Multiple Tab of the Ellman Calculator 31 comments
March 3^rd Technical Analysis: How to Use Volume in our Covered Call Decisions 27 comments
February 25^th Mid-Contract Unwind Exit Strategy: A Real Life Example 46 comments
February 18^th Covered Call Writing: Stock Options with Additional Expiration Months 42 comments
February 11^th Covered Call Writing Using The Blue Collar Methodology 51 comments
February 4^th Portfolio Management- Organized Lists To Improve Our Option Profits For Covered Call Writing 38 comments
January 28^th Covered Call Writing: Factors That Affect The Value Of Our Option Premiums 30 comments
January 21^st Covered Call Writing: Mid-Contract Unwind Exit Strategy 41 comments
January 14^th Covered Call Writing and Holding a Stock Through an Earnings Report 33 comments
January 7^th The Stochastic Oscillator- A Momentum Technical Indicator 38 comments

2011

December 31^st Strike Price Selection- A Critical Covered Call Decision 19 comments
December 24^th Covered Call Writing: Managing Stocks That Have Gapped Down 17 comments
December 17^th Constructing Your Covered Call Portfolio During Earnings Season 36 comments
December 10^th Setting Up a Covered Call Portfolio-Diversification and Cash Allocation 31 comments
December 3^rd Constructing a Covered Call Portfolio Using Select Sector SPDRS 30 comments
November 26^th The Case for 1-Month Options 35 comments
November 19^th Pump and Dump Scams 24 comments
November 12^th Rolling Strategies On Or Near Expiration Friday 26 comments
November 5^th What is “Left Tail Risk” and How is it Impacting our Stock Portfolios? 49 comments
October 29^th Investor Psychology and the Need for Structured Plans 25 comments
October 22^nd Dollar-Cost Averaging- An Investment Technique for You? 40 comments
October 15^th Stock Splits and their Impact on our Option Contracts 30 comments
October 8^th Penny Stocks: I’ll Have the Salad 28 comments
October 1^st How to Read an Option Chain 24 comments
September 24^th MACD Histogram: A Lagging and Momentum Technical Indicator: Part II 28 comments
September 17^th MACD: A Lagging and Momentum Technical Indicator: Part I 26 comments
September 9^th Special Cash Dividends and Our Covered Call Positions 30 comments
September 2^nd The CBOE BuyWrite Index (BXM) vs. The BCI System 22 comments
August 26^th Stock Option Expiration Cycles plus a Technical Analysis Example 22 comments
August 20^th Dividend Capture Strategy 26 comments
August 13^th Trading Decisions- A Real Life Example 25 comments
August 6^th Setting Up a Technical Chart for Covered Call Writing 27 comments
July 30^th Margin Accounts and Covered Call Writing 30 comments
July 23^rd Setting Up Your Portfolio Using the Ellman Calculator and the Premium Report 33 comments
July 16^th LEAPS and Covered Call Writing 33 comments
July 9^th The Case for 1-Month Options 34 comments
July 2^nd Common Stock vs. Preferred Stock 37 comments
June 25^th Fundamental Ratios: P/E, PEG and PEGY 30 comments
June 18^th Exchange-Traded Funds- How they Operate and the Pros and Cons 32 comments
June 11^th Inverse Exchange-Traded Funds and Covered Call Writing 39 comments
June 4^th Flash Trading- The Pros and the Cons 42 comments
May 28^th Bar Charts vs. Candlestick Charts 26 comments
May 21^st What is Our Edge? Plus Stock Chart of the Week 33 comments
May 14^th Complex and Leveraged Exchange-Traded Funds 33 comments
May 7^th Early Exercise and Assignment of Options 25 comments
April 30^th Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Covered Call Writing 36 comments
April 23^rd Portfolio Overwriting- Selling Covered Calls on Stocks You Want to Keep 54 comments
April 16^th Buy-Write Orders: The Buy-Write Combination Form 38 comments
April 9^th Using Covered Calls to Increase Dividend Yield 48 comments
April 2^nd S&P Futures and Fair Value 38 comments
March 26^th Volatility Skew + An Important Premium Report Update 39 comments
March 19^th Factors that Influence Option Value + The Black-Scholes Model 45 comments
March 12^th “Hitting a Double”- A Bullish Mid-Contract Exit Strategy 35 comments
March 5^th Bernie Madoff Revisited 44 comments
February 26^th Compounding and the Time Value of Money 52 comments
February 19^th “Pinning the Strike”: Manipulation or Market Forces? 45 comments
February 12^th Delta and Our Covered Call Decisions 61 comments
February 5^th Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT)- How to Enhance your Portfolio 54 comments
January 30^th Short Selling: Positives and Negatives 70 comments
January 22^nd Support and Resistance 60 comments
January 15^th The New Stock Market- Algorithmic and High Speed Trading 95 comments
January 8^th Selling Naked or Cash-Secured Puts vs. Covered Call Writing 93 comments
January 1^st The Risk-Reward Profile for Covered Call Writing 54 comments

2010

December 18^th The Out-Of-The-Money Strike- Pros and Cons 32 comments
December 11^th Tax Information by Guest Author Owen Sargent, CPA 45 comments
December 5^th Open Interest and Volume plus Non-standard Options 44 comments
November 6^th Implied Volatility and our Option Premiums 41 comments
October 29^th Penny Pilot Program 64 comments
October 23^rd Protective Puts- The Collar Strategy 60 comments
October 17^th The Greeks- Factors that Influence our Option Premiums 48 comments
October 10^th Should We Use Stop Loss Orders? Plus Technical Analysis of a Premium Stock 57 comments
October 3^rd How Our Trade Orders Are Executed- My Day On The Floor Of The New York Stock Exchange 49 comments
September 26^th Options That Expire Weekly and Conventional Expiration Cycles 92 comments
September 19^th Types of Customer Orders plus Update on BCSI 61 comments
September 11^th The CBOEs Volatility Index (VIX) 68 comments
September 4^th Volume- A Critical Technical Analysis Indicator 27 comments
August 22^nd Factors that Determine the Value of your Option Premium 32 comments
August 14^th Portfolio Management- Organized Lists Will Improve Our Option Profits 31 comments
July 9^th The Elite Calculator 19 comments
July 3^rd The Ellman Calculator- Single Tab: Selecting the Best Strike Price 32 comments
June 13^th Triple Witching Friday- Coming to YOUR Portfolio on June 18th! 21 comments
June 6^th Theta-Time Decay of our Option Premiums 25 comments
February 27^th Covered Calls and LEAPS- An Alternative Strategy 56 comments
January 10^th The Show or Fill Rule- More Cash for Us! plus a Spreadsheet for I-T-M Strikes 48 comments
January 3^rd Non-Standard Options- What they are and why we should avoid them 48 comments

2009

December 6^th Derivatives- Stock Options and More 24 comments
November 21^st Money Market Accounts and Money Market Funds- Where is Your Money Going? plus Industry in the Spotlight 25 comments
September 5^th Interest Rates and our Stock Market Investments 16 comments
August 22^nd Types of Customer Orders plus Industry in the Spotlight 15 comments
August 8^th Technical Market Theories:More Tools for the Technical Analyst plus Industry in the Spotlight 15 comments
July 18^th Using Leading Economic Indicators in our Covered Call Decisions 28 comments
July 5^th Using Covered Call Options to Increase the Value of Your Stock 11 comments
June 28^th Beware of Leveraged ETFs; The Changing Face of Exchange-Traded Funds 12 comments
June 14^th Using Moving Averages in Your Buy-Sell Decisions 19 comments
May 24^th Dark Pool Liquidity- Secrets of the Institutional Investors 20 comments
April 4^th Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Covered Call Writing 21 comments
March 29^th Reverse Stock Splits and How they Effect our Option Contracts 13 comments
March 22^nd Tax Treatment of Covered Call Writing in Non-Sheltered Accounts 13 comments
March 8^th Selling the In-The -Money Strike- A New Way of Thinking 19 comments
February 22^nd The Blue Collar Stock Market Meets the S&P 500 11 comments
February 15^th Triple Witching Friday- Coming to YOUR Portfolio on March 20th! plus Industry in the Spotlight 13 comments
February 8^th Selecting the Best Strike Price 13 comments
January 18^th The Option Buyer or the Option Seller: Which should you be? 10 comments
January 11^th Stop Loss Orders- Should We Use Them When Selling Covered Calls? 11 comments
January 4^th The Basics of the Call Option plus a Current Real Life Example 9 comments

2008

December 21^st The Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme: A Validation of our Blue Collar Philosophy plus Tony C. checks in on Cramer 5 comments
December 7^th The New York Stock Exchange: Part of a Global Conglomerate and a Stock to Watch 5 comments
November 23^rd RECESSION- A NORMAL Part of the Business Cycle 15 comments
November 1^st MACROECONOMICS-The Government’s Influence Over our Investment Success 5 comments
October 26^th BLUE COLLAR INVESTOR Q&A- Your Questions Answered 6 comments
October 19^th MUTUAL FUNDS – The Answer in these Volatile Times? 6 comments
October 12^th A RIDICULOUS SUBPRIME FAIRYTALE plus Tony C. Checks Out Cramer 6 comments
October 5^th Commingling of Asset Classes plus History Tells Us Not To Worry 4 comments
September 29^th THE MYSTERY OF CORPORATE BONDS 4 comments
September 14^th HEDGE FUNDS AND THEIR EFFECT ON OUR INVESTMENTS Plus CSH, a Gem in Hiding 5 comments
August 17^th Overnight Millionaire or Victim of the Rig? Plus: My Readers Pick their Favorite Stocks 8 comments
August 10^th WHEN TO BUY BACK YOUR OPTION – EXPIRATION FRIDAY DILEMMA plus Industry in the Spotlight 7 comments
July 27^th EARNINGS REPORTS ARE TELLING US TO BUY STOCKS! 6 comments
July 20^th THE FACTORS THAT DETERMINE THE VALUE OF YOUR OPTION PREMIUM plus Our Readers Pick their Favorite Stocks 19 comments
June 26^th BEING CEO OF YOUR OWN MONEY MEANS MAKING INFORMED DECISIONS plus Industry in the Spotlight 12 comments
May 17^th USING STOCK OPTIONS TO NEUTRALIZE NEGATIVE CASH FLOW PROPERTIES/ PART III- Evaluating our Investment 5 comments
April 29^th USING STOCK OPTIONS TO NEUTRALIZE NEGATIVE CASH FLOW PROPERTIES / PART II – Real Life Example 16 comments
April 12^th USING STOCK OPTIONS TO NEUTRALIZE NEGATIVE CASH FLOW PROPERTIES 10 comments
March 9^th RECESSION AND STAGFLATION- How do we respond? 3 comments
January 28^th DEALING WITH VOLATILE MARKETS-The Media Experts vs. The Blue Collar Investor 10 comments
January 10^th HOW A BLUE COLLAR INVESTOR MANAGES A VOLITILE MARKET 3 comments

2007

December 26^th BEWARE OF WINDOW DRESSING! Leave a comment
December 14^th Locating SAFE STOCKS in a VOLATILE MARKET 1 comment