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CarMax Puts?

 Here is the number. Call in to listen to their just released quarterly report. You won't have to talk to anyone. It is 800-839-1247. In about five days this link will disappear. Please listen to it. I listened to all of it once and to the first half of it two times. What I learned is that their retail car sales on the quarter compared to the same quarter a year were up 6%. They purchased 336.000 vehicles from the public, up 7% and 48.000 from dealers up 38%. Their average retail sale price was $26,100, down $400.00 per vehicle from last year. They doubled their share buy back program. AI technologies are now helping them operate more efficiently. Everything seems positive. But wait, we are talking about  the used car business and what could happen if consumer confidence suddenly starts to wain? Look at it's three year chart. It now sees to be hitting a rough patch.  Now a one month chart.  All of this talk about tariffs and what level of tariffs will be imposed on n...

Sept. 23 th. The DJI Up Over 800 Points and Caterpillar Jumps

I played Boeing Calls three times this week and won everytime. In a blog two days ago I reported I don't like playing options on Thursday that expire the next day. The reason being is that if you guess the wrong direction you will lose all your money. Failure is harsh medicine.That being said this time I was watching Caterpillar and it opened down as did the markets. Inflation report numbers came out and everyone got it wrong. I jumped in. Look at how it crashed on the opening.
I got in at 9:39 a.m. Look at the chart to see where the stock was at that time. Call me crazy. Here is a better "one day" look at the chart.
Now look at when I got in. I got in at 9:35 a.m. and paid $250.00 for one contract. The low on the day was $2.05 and that was before I got in. I had just made more than twice that amount in Canadian dollars paying Boeing so that's the way I justified my actions.
A drop of like six or seven dollars. For the first ten minutes after I got in I thought I was smoked! How could any stock rebound from a drop that large? Then it started to rebound ever so slightly and I just wanted my money back. The market could roll over and sink again. Anything could happen. In my quest to get out I fought with the option makers and cancelled two sell tickets before I got filled. Can you see above how that happened at 10:11 a.m. and at 10:21 a.m. I cancelled and resubmited a sell ticket? I was chasing the markets down. Finally at 10:21 a.m. I was out. Five minutes or so later it started to explode upwards.
Notice these options hit a high of $9.74 on the day and notice that only 125 contracts traded. Caterpillar has over 128,000 employees. Do the math. Only a small percent of them are playing options on their companies stock. Life is what you make it. Most people don't play options. Today I went to the races and I got spooked as the markets took a slight pause one hour into the morning trading.

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