Re: covered calls

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In Reply to: Re: covered calls posted by Mark on November 06, 2001 at 22:14:27:

: : I asked earlier about a portfolio within a portfolio, and got the answer I expected. It isn't currently possible.

: : That's fine. I know I can create all the contents of my portfolio as individual investments and then include each of them in my "all" portfolio.

: : But the portfolio I'm trying to emulate is one in which I'm using covered calls.
: :
: : So far it seems as if there's no possibility of covered calls in FM, because I can't sell a call as the initial transaction; I can only buy it first (in FM) and then sell it later.

: : With covered calls, if I am to emulate my portfolio in which I'm using them, I'd have to enter a negative number of calls, or a negative price, or something else like that.

: : Am I right that FM won't cover that sort of investment at the present time (no pun intended)? Or is it in a later version than the one I'm currently using (4.7.312)?

: Hi Tom,
: You can buy or sell in either order, and as of FM 5.0 the capital gains
: will be calculated for all your long and short term positions. Previously
: only long term were calculated.

: Thanks,
: Mark
: --
: Mark Beiley
:
: Fund Manager, portfolio management software for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/00
:
:

Mark,

I'm stumped. I just downloaded and installed v5.2.

Then I started by creating a new investment. I chose "option" as my investment type. I entered the data it requested (price, # of shares, commission).

But on the New Investment screen, that's all I could do. There's no way to pick "buy" or "sell".

So when I clicked OK, FM seems to be acting as if my opening transaction is "buy". At that point, my "portfolio" consists of one long call, not one short call like I want.

Then I chose B/S, and sold the same amount of the same investment. The net effect is that my "portfolio" is now empty. I sold what FM thinks I had already bought. I'm not short the call; I'm not long the call. I simply don't have a position in the call.

What am I missing?

I realize I'm close to stepping out of the bounds defined for FM, so tell me to "color within the lines and shut up" if that's the right answer. You can't offend me. I'm too impressed about the program in general for that ever to happen!

Thx in any case.

Tom Seeley

Replies:

• Re: covered calls Mark 08:03:32 11/09/01 (0)