by Anura Guruge
on April 19, 204
I am an Options TRADER, but a stock INVESTOR.
Huge difference. I don’t trade stock. I buy and hold … & hold … & hold.
I am very selective about what stock I buy. I have a theme. Yes, it is MAINLY TECH (and SEMIs within that).
Yes, it is POSSIBLE that ALL of TECH could go down another 20% in the next month. I appreciate that. That is OK with I. SMILE.
I know that they will ALL be up 20% in a year. SMILE. If, not … then in two years. Joys of long term investing.
by Anura Guruge
on April 17, 204
I did NOT think this would be possible.
Wow.
WASH SALE on an option! Ah!
I had to call ‘Fidelity‘ to find out what is happening.
Appears it is ALL legit.
Appears I sold a ‘AMZN 210 May 17, 2024‘ call on March 28, 2024. Possible. I do option trades most days. I do THOUSANDS a year! Yep. My addiction. Option trading. The guy at Fidelity commented on it too. He goes “Yes, I can see that you trade a LOT“. Understatment.
I can LIVE with a $329 WASH SALE. SMILE. Won’t bankrupt me (just). SMILE.
But, I learnt a lesson. Be careful …. You can incur a WASH. This one is trivial. Wasn’t even really worth a phone call. But, I wanted to know.
Smile.
by Anura Guruge
on April 12, 2024
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I LOVE stock splits that give me MORE opportunity for option trading — my acknowledged addiction. When I heard of the 50-to-1 SPLIT I knew I had to buy some. With that split I only needed 2 shares to give me the necessary 100 shares for BIG BOY, ‘proper’ option trading.
Markets were down today. Chipotle was down just over 1%. 1% down is usually my threshold for buying a stock on the dip. I only needed 2. I bought 4, 2 for I … 2 for my 18 year old daughter (in her account). I might buy a few more prior to the split. Plenty of time.
As I have PROVED, contrary to what you might hear/read in the media there is NO ‘ex-‘ date for a split. Yes, you will hear folks talking of an ‘ex-‘ date & people will buy ahead of that. Then, the price drops AFTER that ‘ex-‘ date. I swoop in. SMILE. Pays to have my experience and savvy.
Chipotle is the ONLY NON-TECH I own! Ditto my daughter given that I do her investments. I LOVE TECH. I understand tech. I have done OK with tech.
My daughter of late has started eating at Chipotle. She is fussy as to what she eats and where she will eat. So, that was slight incentive. I like her to OWN shares in companies she uses, i.e., Amazon, Netflix, Google, Microsoft. Makes sense. SMILE.
by Anura Guruge
on April 11, 2024
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I am NOW truly a senior, with over 45 years of SOLID (& often painful) stock market experience. I remember living through the Y2K (i.e., year 2000) NASDAQ crash. I was fully invested then, nearly all of it on the NASDAQ. DITTO, today. SMILE.
I, as I often state, ONLY invest in things I understand — & that tends to be (High) TECH. I have been in TECH most of the last 40 years — & I AM NOT COMPLAINING. SMILE.
Today was a good day. Nah! That is a lie. Today was a GREAT DAY. SMILE.
This has been a good year. SMILE. The last 12 months has been good.
But, this is NOT RIGHT. There is too much uncalled for irrational exuberance. The NASDAQ should NOT have gone up 1.7% today. Not right. Fundamentals don’t support that.
I am PREDICTING that we will have a MEANINGFUL PULLBACK in Tech soon — before June. That has to be the case. This is not right.
Mark my words (again). SMILE.
by Anura Guruge
on April 10, 2024
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It is dated. You can see that — & even check the post.
I said this 2-years ago.
I said ‘Mark my Words’.
Today’s HOT ‘Consumer Price Index’ (CPI) reading caught many by surprise, off guard and flat-footed. Not I. I expected it to be high. I know we still have inflation out there. I see it everyday.
I never bought into the rate cuts in March 2024 fallacy.
I have always been in the ‘higher for longer’ camp when it comes to interest rates.
But, the whole point of this post is that I predicted this HIGHER INFLATION scenario 2-years ago. SMILE. No wonder I do OK when it comes to investing. SMILE.
by Anura Guruge
on April 5, 2024
From 2021 (below).
Ran into this problem again with my daughter’s return. Yes, we trade stock options on her account. SMILE. Come on. It is like printing money. Why wouldn’t you trade, if you can.
I will readily admit that NEGATIVE ‘Total Proceeds’ is esoteric & unusual BUT it happens as I have been moaning about for the last 4 years. Yes, it is counter-intuitive. I will readily grant you that. Yes, it basically says you sold some investment instruments at a negative value. So, how does that happen. This mostly happens with option trading. When you option loses money & then it expires or is bought at a loss.
I confess, often, to being addicted to option trading. That the proceeds are NEGATIVE does NOT mean we are losing money. SMILE. SMILE again. Most times getting a negative return is good — you make some money & get a tax break. SMILE. What can I say. It is all legal.
Free File Fillable Forms might not work for you. Be careful.
by Anura Guruge
on April 2, 2024
April 01, 2024 and they post a ‘Dividend Received’ BUT it is NEGATIVE!
Repeat. Says ‘Dividend Received‘ BUT it is MINUS (i.e., negative). So it isn’t Received — it is a DEBIT!
Plus it is on April 1 — April Fools’ Day.
Having been a Fidelity customer for nearly 40 years I kind of figured it out, BUT I thought I would get them to explain and clarify.
It wasn’t a quick explanation as I had expected. I was on hold for nearly 20 minutes.
It ALL had to do with March MONTH END happening on ‘Good Friday’, i.e., March 29, a HOLIDAY. That messed them up. FUNNY.
They OVERPAID because of that.
So, they had to go back and recoup. FUNNY.
All because month end fell on a holiday. In 2024?
Funny.
How many of YOU noticed.
by Anura Guruge
on March 20, 2024
You, obviously, should have. SMILE.
Did YOU (really) think that NVDA will go down RIGHT in midst of their ‘Developer Conference’ when they were making all sorts of groundbreaking announcements?
As you can see I have been ADDING to my NVDA stake ALL year. I had to (alas) sell some NVDA in mid-February due to an call option play. I had owned that tranche of NVDA for over 8 years. So, it wasn’t too painful to let them go. I just had to build BACK my position. And I have been doing that. I have NVDA in three accounts — my main, my (SEP-)IRA and in my youngest daughters account. She has made out like a bandit.
I have been in SEMIS for over 12-years — with NVDA my bedrock holding.
I have been ramping up on SEMIs over the last 12 months. I am doing OK.
SMILE.
I like SEMIs. I started buying NVDA years ago because I was a big fan of their video cards & had been using them for over 22 years.
Buy SEMIs (though it is kind of getting late).
by Anura Guruge
on February 14, 2024
I have been using FFFF for close onto a decade. It is NOT perfect. But, it does what I want. There has been a few years, like last year (methinks), that I could NOT use it to eFile because it has issues dealing with NEGATIVE NUMBERS in ‘Schedule D‘ — i.e., Capital Gains. Even if it refuses to do eFile, I still use it (beforehand) to do my taxes. I like it, I am used to it.
I, for very good reasons, DON’T trust ANY tax software! Period. I know — & I have been proven right multiple times — that my data will be COMPROMISED, EXPLOITED & SHARED. I don’t want anyone, BUT anyone, other than the IRS knowing about my taxes. I am a very private person.
Yes, I do my TAXES by HAND!
I know how to do taxes by hand. You should too. Useful skill.
Yes, I was trained by one of THE BEST over a period of 16-years.
Now I know how to do it by hand, I am NEVER going to lose that skill.
FFFF saves me from having to do in on paper — in pencil. SMILE.
FFFF still can’t handle NEGATIVE PROCEEDS in terms of Capital Gains/Loses in Schedule D. Luckily I didn’t have any such negative proceeds. So, I was OK. Not so one of my daughters. Had to file using PAPER!
by Anura Guruge
on February 11, 2024
For Tax Year 2022 & 2023
Filing in 2023 or 2024
Has NOT changed between last year & this.
My ‘Qualified Dividends And Capital Gain Tax’ Excel worksheet I posted last year & then updated this year, have proved to be unexpectedly popular. So, I thought I would do a ‘Social Security Benefits’ worksheet too.
This is NOT sophisticated or fancy. It is very SIMPLE & BASIC.
PLEASE check my math on the Excel. It is very, very basic. I had looked around for a spreadsheet like this. SIMPLE. Not complicated. Check the formulas. Make sure I haven’t screwed up.
I haven’t done my taxes as yet. So, I have NOT used this 2023 version of the Excel. But, I used it last year, & it was fine. Many folks have used this last year & in 2024. OK?
My recommendation on how to use this.
1/ First do a paper one by hand using a pencil & calculator.
2/ THEN check your math using this Excel.
Then you should be all set. Got that. Double check. Double check. Triple check.
Yes, I looked at ‘Excel1040‘. It was OVERKILL for my needs. I just needed to check my math.
So, IF you have a similar need, give this a spin. It is SAFE. No macros. Just the simplest of formulas. But, check my math. SMILE.