Older Men, More Whiskey, Options Trading, Less Money

I was thinking it was Waylon or Willie that sang that song alluded to in my title, but it was Tom T. Hall.  
For a while now, I've been curious as to how options trading works.  A friend of mine has taken a course, at considerable expense, in trading in options.  This was a couple of years back and he did quite well with it.  I assume that means in the millions of dollars or at least the high hundreds of thousands.  He told me and another friend(yes, I have two friends) that he used a strategy called the Iron Condor.  One surrounds the current position of the stock in question with puts and calls and as the expiration date approaches you will make a profit if the stock's price stays within this boundary.  

First problem, couldn't remember the name of the strategy.  Second problem, don't want to spend money learning about options trading.  I do want to learn about it though.  Another friend(really) Phil Huyck, says he bought a program a few years back.  Roughly 3K but it's on VCR.  I didn't ask and he didn't tell, so that is a possible means to learning.  

Just a couple of days ago I went to the library to see what they had available and came across Jim Cramer's book "Getting Back to Even."  He includes two chapters in there about using options. I wouldn't call Cramer a great or even good communicator,  but eventually he does get his message across if you stick with it.  So, I've gotten a bit of the puzzle figured out.  I still have about 90% more to learn.  There are a lot of strategies out there.  You don't have to know all of them but you really have to know the one you are going to employ very well.  Cramer gives one, Deep in the money calls.  He then tells how you can insure your gains, if the stock has moved up.  This is very clever and makes you realize that there are many smart people out there figuring out how to make money.  Many of them doing it illegally, not Cramer.  I feel like a target.  

If you ever listen to Options Action on CNBC you will soon discover, there is a language you must understand to know what they are talking about.  It starts with puts and calls and how one is just the opposite of the other.  It will take me a while to get the concept of when stocks go down, that can be a good thing.  You can sell it at the higher strike and capture the downside.  

Don't know how long I'll stick with this but if my Blog title is looking prophetic I think I'll stick to, " Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey and More Money." Repeat at least 2x.

Two Birds With One Stone

Here I am again.  I just read an entry at the restricted Omni Hypnosis forum from my teacher Gerry Kein.
He recently announced that he will no longer be regularly scheduling his beginner through advanced hypnosis class after April of this year.  Many Omnigrads have been concerned over his health and he answered these concerns and told of his plans for the future.  He is quite an inspiring man.  I told him, when I was in his September of 2009 class, that someone should make a movie of his life.  He said,"No one would believe it."   

He was a close friend/protege of the famous Hypnotist Dave Elman. Jerry was a pilot in the Navy.  He was a stage hypnotist in his youth.  He had a very successful hypnosis business in Fort Lauderdale. That just scratches the surface. He is a wonderful speaker with great conviction and energy. When we attended classes there in Deland, FL., we all felt tremendously energized and positive about the future.  What else could you ask for from a teacher?

Jerry developed a new method of Hypnosis which he termed, "Ultra Height."  I spoke of this in an earlier blog on "The Hometownhypnotist".  In Ultraheight the person who is seeking a solution to some problem is first taken to a very deep state of hypnosis called the coma state.  Not the medical coma.  In the coma state you would be so relaxed as to be nearly uncommunicative.  You would have a natural anesthesia and the hypnotist can put your limbs in positions which you would hold like a jointed doll.  Then, leaving your body in this state, the mind is brought up to a highly euphoric (my word) state where you are seemingly in touch with your spiritual essence.  Here, you find the causes and solutions for your problem. 

Jerry has been working on a book about Ultraheight and said he has had a possible breakthrough in it that, if duplicatable, could be important to the future of hypnosis.  

Who knows, but that's the positive and forward thinking nature of Gerald (Jerry) Kein.  

Why the title of this blog? I will also post it on my other blog, if I can figure out how.

Bangs House History

While looking for a lost bible, I came across a file that had some of the accumulated historical documents relating to our house.  Gloria had stored most of these away(maybe all).  She loved the history of The Benjamin Bangs House.  She did all of the things one must do to get the house on the state and national registries of historic places.  The letters stating our house indeed made it are in the file. A letter of commendation from the Fenton Beautification Committee is there and notably the head of the committee was John Gerych.  

Other newspaper articles are archived also.  One article is a story of how Ray Rausch's students all
wore paper bags over their heads, and switched seats, so he couldn't identify them and direct comments to them individually.  Ray was one of the great B.S.ers. They had a short discussion and adjourned to the cafeteria for coffee.  Ray was a great coffee drinker also.  The article appeared in the Mott CC Post.  

Another story saved was written by the late Jan Rynearson in the Fenton Independent(also no longer with us).  The story was of a woman who found and framed an old 1890 copy of The Independent.  That copy happened to include a story of a horse and buggy accident written by none other than Benjamin Bangs.  He tells of how he was giving a ride home to the church pastor(named Mr. Parson).  The horse was frightened by a donkey pulling a toy express wagon with a boy mounted on the wagon.  The horse turned short around dumping the buggy and it's occupants in the ditch.  Injuries were minor.  

What a nice bit of history.  I think I will copy and frame those two stories so our many guests can read them when they visit.

Back to Wheat Thins and Easy Cheese.  I believe I have perfected the exact proportions of cheese to cracker.  

Alone

We had a houseful of guests on Super Bowl Sunday.
Jake had people over for a goodbye party.  My daughter's family was here too so there was a lot going on.  Monday morning everyone left.  Emma to Canada and Brooke and Jake to California.  What a change.  I was left alone with the dog and two cats.

I took the first day doing nothing.  There was a kitchen to clean and a lot of cooking paraphernalia to be cleaned.  There was also a short list of things to do left by Brooke.  Nothing that couldn't wait until Tuesday. It takes a while to decompress after most week ends.  The party was a little surreal for me because my right ear was blocked and everything sounded strange.  I hope I didn't make more of a fool of myself than normal.

Tuesday was the big day to tackle the list.  It took almost the whole day to clean the kitchen.  I had a dentist appointment in the morning.  Everything went pretty well and I checked in several times on the GPS Tracker that Jake had installed on my tablet.  It was working well but since Jake is driving on all surface roads, it's hard to tell where they are.  You just see a map showing their location on county road 53 or 212 as examples.  You have to do some detective work to figure out where they are.  They have made good progress so far.  Today at about noon they were in New Mexico.  It's nice to be able to track them.  They sent a picture from Columbia, MO. a day or two ago.  I'll try to post it here.  Brooke is standing in front of her first apartment, where we met, on Chandler Court.  The place hasn't changed in all these years. Brooke looks good, too, I think you will agree.

Well, I applied for a new passport today and figured out how to unlock the oven door, so that completes my list.  I still have to pick up a prescription.