Dear Friend,

Last week I wrote two Seeking Alpha articles on earnings plays - How To Play The Costco Earnings Announcement and How To Play Joy Global's Earnings Announcement.  I expected that Costco would fall after earnings because expectations were unusually high and that JOY would move higher because expectations were quite low.

I was right on with the COST call and our positions gained 16.6% after commissions for the week.  JOY fell marginally, less than $.50 and we gained 7.8%. It is a good feeling to be wrong and still make a profit (that’s why I love options).  If you would like to see the details of both trades, go to Blog update.

These two profitable earnings trades made it 12 consecutive gainers for this Terry’s Tips portfolio. The odds of making 12 successful profitable trades without a single loss is comparable to flipping a coin and getting heads 12 times in a row. The odds of that happening are one out of 4096 times. Either I have been incredibly lucky or maybe there is some merit in the Expectations Model I have developed. The future will tell.

There are no earnings plays this week, so we will rest on our laurels for a little bit.

Terry

An analogy – Checkers is to buying stock as chess is to trading options.

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An analogy – Checkers is to buying stock as chess is to trading options. 

Someone said that investing in stocks is pretty much like playing checkers.  Any 10-year old can do it.  You really don’t need much experience or understanding.  If you can read, you can buy stock (and probably do just about as well as anyone else because it’s basically a roulette wheel choice in spite of the near universal belief that you are smarter than anyone else).

Options, on the other hand, is more like playing chess.  It can be (and is, for anyone who is serious about it) a life-time learning experience.

You don’t see columns in the newspaper about interesting checker strategies, but you see a ton of pundits telling you why you should buy particular stocks.  People with little understanding or experience buy stocks every day, and most of their transactions involve buying from professionals with far more resources and brains (and for some reason, these professionals are selling the stock to them instead of buying it).

Option investing takes study and understanding and discipline that the purchase of stock does not require.  Every investor must decide for himself or herself if they are willing to make the time and study commitment necessary to be successful in option trading.  Most people are not.

It is a whole lot easier to play a decent game of checkers than it is to play a decent game of chess.  But for some of us, options investing is a whole lot more challenging, and ultimately more rewarding.

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       Any questions?   I would love to hear from you by email (terry@terrystips.com), or if you would like to talk to our guy Seth, give him a jingle at 800-803-4595 and either ask him your question(s) or give him your thoughts.

You can see every trade made in 8 actual option portfolios conducted at Terry’s Tips and learn all about the wonderful world of options by subscribing here.  Why wait any longer to make this important investment in yourself?

Even better, you can become a Terry’s Tips Insider, and receive all our educational reports and materials absolutely free by opening a new account at the best options broker around - thinkorswim. Use this link to sign up - open thinkorswim account – and once you have funded your account with at least $3500, email Seth@TerrysTips.com and let him know that you have done it, and this is what he will do – sign you for our Premium Service package ($119.95 value plus an extra 4 months of our Premium Service, valued at another $190.80).  You get $300.65 worth of services without paying us one penny.

I look forward to having you on board, and to prospering with you.

Terry

An analogy – Checkers is to buying stock as chess is to trading options.

“By the way I told Terry I was going to try to donate $1000 a month for this year from the gains of my trades with you guys. So far, total is $6886.00 not counting this week.  Looks like I am ahead of my goal. Thanks for all you do.” -  Roger S  (received June 1, 2013)

Thank you again for being a part of the Terry's Tips newsletter. If you are interested in signing up as an Insider, visit Terry's Tips today for details.

Sincerely,
Dr. Terry Allen
Terry's Tips