boilermaker75

Mine is Ampere's right hand rule ;)

I totally agree. For two summers when I was in college I worked for my city's street department, which meant riding on the back of a garbage truck. Talk about something that will motivate one to study!

Another engineer, electrical, here. I stumbled on Joe Ponzios's blog when he first started it, which was before his book. Unfortunately he hasn't posted since mid-2011, http://www.fwallstreet.com

Possibly OT: IB amended their 1099 on Feb 22. I was lucky that I did not file last week. Amendments suck. Hopefully they are done. I'll probably wait couple more weeks though. I did my taxes this weekend, but I am waiting till April to file in case my brokers amend anything and because Turbotax continually has software updates.

I don't know. I have never looked at the on-line version. I started using MacInTax at least 15 years ago, so I am just used to going with the desktop version.

For you Mac users, the exact same issue, and fix, this year when trying to download, and then import into TurboTax, the IB TXF file. Actually I had to search for this post of mine from last year to remember how I got it to work.

So this market drop is all because of single white females liquidating their portfolios? Seriously, what are SWFs? Sovereign Wealth Funds Of course, thanks!

So this market drop is all because of single white females liquidating their portfolios? Seriously, what are SWFs?

Their clients are going to start referring to them as Goldman Sucks.

Do you remember this one? I find it just as funny,

I was a great investor for the 5 years 1995-2000. Stewart is that you?

I think the president has a lot less influence on the economy and markets than we like to give him/her credit for. At least that is what I hope with the set of candidates we have!

Just finished The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge. http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Everything-How-Ideas-Emerge-ebook/dp/B00U1T9OSO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454436288&sr=1-1&keywords=ridley I liked it, but it matched the model I already have of how things work. Most great innovations, events, discoveries, etc. actually result from an evolutionary process and not the result of some great plan. No plan survives the first encounter with the enemy.

Thanks for bringing the book to attention.I'll check it out Yes, thank you.

I was a long-time user of Turbo Tax Deluxe until last year when they moved the stock gain/loss functionality to the Premiere version which cost about $80. I switched to H&R Block software for about $30 and was able to import my Turbo Tax data from the prior year. Turbo Tax and HR Block software are almost the same in ease of use, but the price difference was huge. I was not happy when TurboTax moved the stock gain/loss to Premier but I continued to use TurboTax because of importing data from previous years. I did not know you could import data from TurboTax into H&R Block. I already bought Turbotax for 2015 but next year I'll take a serious look at H&R Block.

I have always used TurboTax. I do a lot of option trading, so it is very nice, essential, to be able to import all my trades directly from my brokers.

A PowerBall ticket

I haven't had any of my students tell that about being in my class, lol.

Scott that is a great quote for this topic. I'm sure the number of people in the developed world who would agree with that is quite small. I enjoy owning a couch, a good reading chair, a computer desk&chair, and a bed. I really can't imagine living without any/all of those things. A good reading chair is one of life's great pleasures, imo. So you can count me in the "most everyone" who would disagree with the 'no furniture' statement. I would add to that bookcases!

I would think that the posters on this board are in the top 1% as far as self-motivation and can educate themselves. I am not so sure the majority of the population could do this without some mechanism such as grades and the subsequent fear of being dropped from school. So they probably need to go to college. I have found most students don’t study till right before an exam. So the more exams you give in a semester the more the students will learn. With that said, many of the top rated universities in the US will not give Ds and Fs. The result has been rampant grade inflation, http://www.gradeinflation.com So I suspect there is a lot less learning today then there was 30 years ago at universities. Let me give two examples. Example 1. We hired a faculty member who was a faculty member at an Ivy league school. His first semester with us was this Fall 2015 semester. A couple of weeks ago he came to see me. He asked, “I have two students who have not done anything this semester what do I need to do?” I told him, “Give them Fs..” His response was , “Can I do that? I couldn’t give Ds and Fs at my previous institution.” He said, “In similar cases they would officially drop the students from the class even if it was the last day of the semester so that they did not have to give Ds or Fs.” Example 2 One of our students got his Ph.D. and went to a prestigious private university, not an ivy, as an assistant professor. He was not my student, but we collaborated when he was a graduate student and published some papers together. So I know him well. This is the story he told me. He would give Ds and Fs. Then he would be called in to meet with his department head and the dean of engineering. They would tell him, “We do not have D and F students here.” His response was “They would get Ds and Fs if they were at the university I graduated from.” He was asked to leave. He has been successful at another state institution.

and that would be a Tesla, https://www.teslamotors.com/blog/model-s-achieves-euro-ncap-5star-safety-rating

I am doing this also with AAPL, plus BAC at 17 and below, FAST at 40 and below, and BRKB at 131 and below.

I just finished Alexander Hamilton. I have read a lot about the American revolution, but I new the least about Alexander Hamilton. This book sure changed that! I just started Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction.

You have covered the down- and up-sides. But why not do this with a particular stock? With an individual stock you could have a better understanding of price to intrinsic value. For instance, I have been doing this with BAC at prices of $16-17 and currently with BRKB at $130-131. I actually start by writing a naked put. If it expires I try to do it again. If I get put to I write a covered call. Good point. It's mainly volatility. The probability of the SPY swinging +10% in a given week is lower than a single stock. What premiums and returns are you seeing by doing it on single stocks? Thanks. Here is how the 17-strike options turned out for me on BAC in 2015, Wrote 1/9/15, 17-strike puts on 12/12/14 for $0.24 per share. Put to on 1/9/15 Wrote 1/17/15, 17-strike covered calls on 1/12/15 for $0.19 per share. Wrote 3/20/15, 17-strike covered calls on 2/6/15 for $0.36 per share. Wrote 6/19/15 17-strike covered calls on 5/13/15 for $0.15 per share Called out on 6/19/17 Wrote 8/21/15 17-strike puts on 7/15/15 for $0.20 per share Put to on 8/21/15 Wrote 9/18/15 17-strike covered calls on 8/24/15 for $0.16 per share Wrote 10/30/15 17-strike covered calls on 9/25/15 for $0.15 per share Wrote 11/6/15 17-strike covered calls on 11/2/15 for $0.16 per share Called out on 11/6/15 Wrote 12/11/15 17-strike puts on 11/9/15 for $0.20 per share Put to on 12/11/15 Wrote 12/18/15 17-strike covered calls on 12/14/15 for $0.26 per share Wrote 12/24/15 17-strike covered calls on 12/21/15 for $0.21 per shared 12/24/15 called out

You have covered the down- and up-sides. But why not do this with a particular stock? With an individual stock you could have a better understanding of price to intrinsic value. For instance, I have been doing this with BAC at prices of $16-17 and currently with BRKB at $130-131. I actually start by writing a naked put. If it expires I try to do it again. If I get put to I write a covered call.