So the bumpy ride is thanks to delaying the earnings report twice? (Or maybe the brokers were giving me bad info just to make me look foolish for the last two weeks.)

: - )

Now I wonder... does clearing this hurdle mean the monthly bottom was yesterday? Two days left for options expiration.
I will be picking up more shares at the end of the week. Just not sure how many. Price below or above 12.50 will determine that.

Sorry, I could have sworn earnings were Wednesday last week, but they are this coming week, 3/12 after hours. Did one or two brokers lead me astray? Or was I looking at Rigetti or some other speculative play on my watchlist and got confused? Anyway…

Last week we did get some corporate stuff, some Form 4’s and an 8K, but no earnings yet. I thought the wild swings were in response to a quarterly report, and the worst of it was over, but no such luck.

Well, if it drops to 12, I will sell a 10 for April. Good luck to all.

And condolences to anyone who loses somebody over this stupid DST nonsense. When exactly does the making ourselves healthy again start? Certainly not this weekend.

You realize that earnings is today after hours. No doubt they will post a loss, as we are not at the point of having positive revenue yet, but just need to not disappoint.

Well, at least if you bought today, that is better than the recent top when it was 30% more expensive.

Still two and a half weeks until March contracts expire. A risk taker would position today, not wait until tomorrow, after the report. How brave am I feeling?

Wow, I hardly ever perfectly time the bottom, but I sold a cash covered put today when it was red, and before I could second guess my play, it was green and up more than two bucks.

Any explanation for the 12% gain?

Oh, well, we were here ten days ago. Nothing to get excited about, right?

Uphold has been the place to buy XRP even through the never-ending SEC nonsense. Indeed that is where you could have got it cheap while the price was depressed and then watch the price go up when it was relisted on Coinbase*. I believe Robinhood finally deigned to make it available as well.

Not sure why Uphold kept the trade available or how they were able to do it without getting some Operation Chokepoint 2.0 guns pointed at them. Maybe they have good connections. They do occasionally bend to the regulator's wind. For instance, they were offering staking for a while, but then they cancelled that. I would not mind if they brought that back. (And added XRP to the short list.) Although don't put all your eggs in one basket. The Cred Earn bankruptcy has still not been resolved. That disaster goes back 4+ years to November 2020, a month before Jay Clayton (not G. Gensler) completed the double whammy.

As for the price, wake me when we get to 5 bucks.

*Actually, as you can see by the chart, the day Coinbase went public XRP spiked, even though Coinbase was not listing XRP. That was certainly an opportunity to sell and buy back later.

Is that why it is up again today? : - )

Nice to get a FlareDrop* (as Uphold is calling them) one day and be up 5% the next day.

Happy new year, MS! Hope your 2025 is even better than 2024.

*23 down, 13 to go.

Guess I was wrong about the new 5. It is not 20 or 17.50. Not yet. Those were the pump prices. If the pump is over for now, we might hang out around 12.50 for a while, making puts at 12.50 and 10 interesting. Likewise calls at 15 might be worth a shot. Although my next play is targeting March 17.50. If it gets there early, that will inform my next move.

Glad I raised my sell price by 50%+ otherwise I would have already sold here. Decided I didn't want to sell so cheaply. Indeed, some of those coins, depending on how Uphold decides to figure the cost basis, would have been sold at a loss. No, thanks, I will do my tax loss harvesting elsewhere.*

So, can we get to 50 cents before year end? Good luck to all Hashers.

*Looking at you, Digibyte and Filecoin.

Five dollars would be back to the ATH ... if you adjust for inflation since January 2018. Not that I won't join in the celebration when we approach 4, but wake me when we get to 5. And then I'll wait for $6 before I even consider selling another 100 XRP.

Cathy selling winners again: Tesla, Rocket Lab, Palantir all having had huges rallies lately. Rebalancing? Wish I had grabbed more RKLB, not less. If she is a counter-signal, should we be selling Amazon and AMD short?

: - ) I don’t sell things short, but … I could take a flyer on a put.

Speaking of flyers, Archer dipped this morning. I thought she had some of that. No profit-taking yet on that one?

Looks like you nearly nailed that floor price.

So, the first reaction to the quarterly numbers makes sense: down on still no P/E ratio (i.e., negative earnings). And then a bounce, presumably thanks to bargain hunters who think that if 20 is a bargain, then 17 is a steal.

We seem to be settling in price-wise. It's not just FOMO* up like last month, although we can, with some regularity, still get 10-15% swings either way to keep it interesting. For options traders like me, who, before the FDA/BLA news, have been buying under 5 and selling covered calls (mostly at 5, with the occasional 7.5 thrown in there) the only question is: What is the new 5? 20 or 17.50?

*with a little BTFD mixed in

Finally sold some today, so breakout can continue. GLTA

Not sure if Uphold will agree to go with FIFO* for my cost basis, but basically sold the exact number of XRP that I bought on my very first day of averaging in, back in April of 2019, which cost slightly less than $500. Sold today for a few cents over 1k.

Remember that, MS? Back then you could only transfer $500 per day, and silly me, I did it the hard way, day after day picking a round number of XRP and then patiently waiting for the price to slip just enough to give me that number, without the total cost going over 500. The easy way would have been just to transfer exactly 500 USD first and then buy the XRP later. Now, of course the transfer max is higher ($2500, maybe?) and finally, some time before Elon appeared on SNL, they added limit orders, one of which caught today.

So now I guess I need to sell 500 bucks worth of losers that are never coming back, to score a wash on the taxes.

*Normally I would trust any broker/exchange to use First In, First Out, but between losing half of my bag to Cred and moving half of my remaining bag to a wallet, the waters might be muddy as to which XRP is gone, and which I still had to sell. I guess I will go to the website and try the chat. Been a long time since I did that.

That dilution went about as well as any I’ve seen. The news did not even bring us below 18 for more than a wick or two. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the underwriters made out quite well, at least an extra dollar per additional share issued (~5M). Nice work if you can get it.

Looks like they are not even asking enough for them.

"Capricor Therapeutics (CAPR) said Thursday that it priced an underwritten offering of about 4.4 million shares at $17 per share..."

I knew the dilution was coming. I guess I was hoping that news would be later, not this week. Like the earnings report that will be a negative number (but not as negative as last quarter).

Dips are buying opportunities, but when they are based on fundamental rules of supply and demand, I wonder if there is a hurry any more. Need to know what the new plateau is. Again, I guess it was too much to ask for that to be established after this week.

: - }

Arrgghh, they could not wait to dilute, huh? I just needed a couple more days.

Feels like somebody got the info early, too. I have to wonder what price they are getting. Today's high? The after hours' low?

Wondering if I should have grabbed more shares this morning. That is quite a sharp point on the dip. Buys came in before it got to 40. Is that the new bottom? Does that mean my cash covered 40 is safe.

: - )

No doubt some time we will see another threat to lose the 40 handle, but... already up a buck and a half from the bottom, with only a couple of red 5-minute candles since the bottom. None if you look at the chart in 10-minute increments.

Just another day at the office with Capricor. Up 15%+ again. Do we get the 10% sell off before resuming the climb? That would still be a respectable gain of 7.5%. If we close above 22, that will be rarefied air for anyone in this for less than 6 years. Held the 21 handle briefly two weeks ago.

I have already played a couple of dips this week. Now waiting for a legitimate correction.

Day trading this one would have been fun. Actually, since there are only monthly options available on Capricor, I just sold a few more contracts expiring next week. I hardly ever buy options any more, although I did get into and out of a couple contracts expiring today on another ticker. Used the profit to cover the cost of a protective put here on this one. That should calm the nerves a bit next week as the expiration clock starts ticking louder. Not rooting for a down Monday, but if it comes, I will be ready.

Note to self: buy low, sell high.

Fun day: up 18% first thing in AM, then down 17%, only to recover 5%. If you only looked at the modest 3.8% green at the end of the day, you might have no clue as to the action. Unless, of course, you've been here for more than a few days.

; - )

Must remember to keep powder dry and trigger finger limber for another one like that.

Nevertheless, two days in a row of correction percentages was a bit much after almost all green for three weeks. Really three days of -10% if you start from the early morning top of Tuesday.

And as I type this, it seems to be bouncing quite strongly in the final hour or so. Will you accept 15.35 as low enough for that retracement?

: - )

Resistance hit yesterday; where is the support today? Is this thing looking to finish next week around 17.50? Open interest for October 18 options suggest a lot of people will be disappointed if this does not get back to 20 by then.

: - {

Right now, finishing at 15 next week is again a possibility. That, too, would be disappointing to many here.

Traders would probably file this under "buy the rumor, sell the news." Or buy before the conference; sell into the conference.

I do not know; seems to be resistance once we get the 21 handle.

20% correction yesterday. Over 18% pop this morning. Lost about half that gain since then. Definitely getting bounced around.

I'm going to have to be more nimble if I want to open any more short term option contracts. (Only ten days to go.)

Hard to believe $CAPR closed near 17 yesterday. Just think, a month ago, most of the options action was around 5, with strikes at 7.5 getting some action.. Not so much with 2.5 or 10. Above that was unthinkable. Now they can't print the higher strikes fast enough. We have 22.5's, 25's, and even 30's. (Apparently we are just skipping 27.5 for now.)

: - )

Might finally cool down a bit. We have already had a couple of 8% retraces today before moving up again.

So, it sounds like the answer is No. Neither of us has enough shares.

: - )

Well, I am definitely at least half right.

As for hitting that magical big round number target that people still dream about (even though inflation has destroyed the value, so it's just a number)... heck, I just need this quarter to be as good as last quarter, and I will be in good shape. It won't be as easy, as I don't think I have another quadruple like CAPR in my portfolio.

Looks like I just closed my October 20 call position at 2 bucks a contract. I know it is tempting to hold out for more when the thing is running, to wait and see where it ends up, but I opened that play a few days ago. My rule is: if immediately proved right, take profits; no need to wait until expiration. Besides, I also had October 15's. By cutting that position in half, I can let the rest (all house money) run. Well above the option strike price now. I will sell more cash covered puts if and when it dips.

Are you averaging up like I am, Volcano? Or do you have enough shares? The price action sure suggests that some people definitely do not have enough.

: - )

I liked it when my average was less than 5/share. Now my average is just below 10. Oh, well, the action at the moment suggests that it is worth it. Apparently I like the action, as I have over 3 option contracts open for every 100 shares I actually hold.

Seems to be some resistance at 17.50, but ... go, Cap!

Ouch, that is a very pointy spike, 20% down from the morning top. That's what we call a correction. Something to keep the irrational exuberance in check, perhaps. Or shake out weak hands, as the hodlers say.

Now, will below 15 be seen as a bargain a month from now? Or next week? Or tomorrow? Or, more importantly for options traders, Friday October 18.

Looks like folks think under 10 is under-priced. I was surprised I was able to sell some puts on Friday. Happy today that I could.

If you don't mind my saying, Miles, you seem new to the board. How did you even find this ticker? I mean, despite the huge rally that started a couple of weeks ago and really accelerated last week, we have not come close to being deemed "hot" by Breakout Boards standards. Which is fine by me; if we remain under the radar for a while longer, that's OK.

Can this 20+% pop be sustained? I am not counting on it. I have seen these spikes before. As you can see by the chart, daily spikes and pumps that last a couple of days are not uncommon. But the promise of blessings from the FDA seem more realistic, so we are just here, bouncing around, wondering where the next plateau is for this stock.

Most think that a return to 5 is unlikely. Indeed, single digits should be a thing of the past if the latest price targets are to be believed. Some as high as 45. That seems incredible for even the most faithful* who have been here for the last five years. And it means fresh hope for anyone holding the bag for 10 years or more. I don't imagine many of those are still around. They probably booked their losses long ago.

*Except for Volcano. He is old faithful, always ready for this to blast off.

Dang, somebody grabbed some of my shares early. So much for patience. They did not want to wait until October 18. I think that is the earliest assignment I have experienced, 22 days early. That usually only happens with dividend payers that are well in the money. I don't often worry about shares getting called away early on a company that pays no dividend and is not profitable--not yet, anyway.

That's OK. That frees up funds that were going to be dead weight for three more weeks. Thank you very much. Although that means my average cost basis is going to read as much higher than it was a week ago. Oh, well, sometimes you average up after years of averaging down. I hope that early assignment wasn't a top signal. Sometimes it is, even with blue chips. Now, gee, what do I do with this extra cash...?

Second day of profit-taking after yesterday top. I know, we had three big up days (topping off two up weeks), but considering the top versus the close yesterday, already feels like we are in correction territory, down ~20% from that.

That's OK. If it cools off more, I will sell some more puts. Thanks to this week's action, I have options at every available strike price except 2.50. From October through January.

: - )

Congrats on your patience being rewarded. That is supposed to be the key to winning in the stock market... so I've heard.

Three dips today while hitting multi-year highs. Opportunity to get in or reminder that even the hottest tickers cool off?

Are profit-takers wrong or just doing what they do? Maybe thinking that usually when something pops, the odds of a drop only increase. Me, I remind myself that there are two sides to every spike; that is what makes them so pointy.

But I will give it to the promoters here. Doubling in a couple of days, price hitting triple what it was a couple of weeks ago ... arguments that the $5 trading range would be a thing of the past are looking legit. So where is the next plateau where we will hang out for a while? Double digit percentage gains every day this week ... is that sustainable? Some of my options orders will like that. Some are underestimating that.

By the time I finished typing this, one more big dip; price down another point. Gain of 25% not there any more. FOMO over? Still... another double digit gain. Maybe that makes two more such days possible. And more reasonable. It's kind of a shame we aren't even on the Hot Board yet. Not that I would want us to get to #1; that is always a sell signal. But completely flying under the radar--what's up with that?

Curious if this is the news you sell (after buying the rumor), or if this will be an exception to that rule.

As much as Mr Karp loves a squeeze, I don’t expect one here. While all the put options betting on non-inclusion will be destroyed, we are already at highs for the year. Make that the last three years. I remember selling a February call in 2021 with a strike price of 46 and I got 4.70 for it. That must have been on the day it spiked . We have been looking for it to revisit 40 ever since.

What could hold us down now? Back then, we had price discovery, speculation on a bright fresh face, with no pesky P/E ratio to worry about, because it wasn’t profitable yet. Now we have positive earnings and a ratio to go with them, and, yeah, that sucker is kind of high. Not to mention a lot of macro headwinds. History says Fed rate cuts, as welcome as they might be, mark the beginning of a recession. Are we recession-proof? And September and October are often brutal, at least one if not both months. Last two years, October has been the low for much of the market. Two years in a row hardly makes a streak, but again, there is much to suggest we are in the season for bargain-hunting, not FOMO.

Having said that, I won’t be surprised if this particular ticker continues to pump. I will adjust to the idea of selling cash covered puts in the low 30’s, instead of the mid 20’s. Feeling pretty good about those cash covered October 32s right now.

Yes, got the alert Friday; sale date Monday 8/26 as per my Gains and Losses page. Those shares will go down as a 75% loss. Luckily those were what you folks call free shares (what I call house money). Looking at the record, the last time I sold shares, scored a nice 58% gain when it popped over 2 cents on Valentines Day 2022. Anybody remember that? That day I got 2.4 cents, which was double my last buy at 1.2 some time in 2019. All my buys were in 2019 when I was young and foolish, iHub and pennies had my attention, and a very bullish pb* made buying under 2 cents sound like a no-brainer.

Sorry for those who never had a chance to take profits. Here’s hoping you all have many winners this year to balance out this loser.

*not my financial advisor, of course

Uh, oh, when is that FDA thing happening? If it is coming soon, then the 60 cents Ask on Sept 5s looks like a bargain. I see there are over 1200 calls expiring on September 20 with a $5 strike price--and almost twice as many at the 7.5 strike. While only 360 puts at $5 are in play for next month. I have a little piece of that action. My position here will either shrink or increase by 50% depending on what side of 5 we are on in four weeks.

Selling both puts and calls is still my way to pull income from a stock like this that does not pay a dividend*. Of course the risk in that strategy is that you can be left behind if the stock really takes off and never comes back down. (That has not been a problem here so far.) For instance, up 11% Wednesday, and another 5% early yesterday morning before cooling off a bit. That's why you keep some shares safe from the options action.

*Come to think of it, I do that with blue chip dividend payers, too. Perhaps even more so. : - )

Wait, who got suspended from Twitter--and why? You, MS? Is that because you call it Twitter, not X?

: - )

Congrats on the win, folks. Why exactly is it a win again? Oh, because non of us have to pay the 125 million fine. (And Ripple saves 1.875 B, so maybe they can keep rolling those escrow accounts and not dump coins on us to raise money.)

Me, I still need a 20x from here (thanks to Cred, the bankruptcy nobody on YouTube goes on about), so... go, XRP!

I am not predicting a 20x, but if the best of this crypto cycle is still ahead of us, a 3x is certainly possible. (Claims of a potential short squeeze are usually nonsense, but if we can bust through some resistance and get a real run to new highs, by all means, let's do that.)

The re-flippening happened today. Will it last?

I will settle for both (XRP and TON) going up.

Which token is more likely to take part in the promised upcoming parabolic phase of this bull run? So far, it has not been XRP. Does that mean it is due?

Great, Toncoin flipping XRP is looking very inevitable. Just like the way it was last year with Solana. Wish I had got more when it was below 7 bucks.

Every time I see a positive post about this ecosystem, and the token keeps sliding, I am reminded that holding XRP is not equivalent to holding a share in Ripple. In other words, we didn't need a court case and a judge to tell us what we already knew: XRP is not a security. You want to invest in Ripple, you can use Linqto (mentioned in an earlier post). You'll need to be an accredited investor, or maybe become a Financial Advisor. (I think Crypto Eri had links to a course last year to do that.)

Speaking of YouTube influencers, with the exception of the level-headed Eri, I don't know who is worse: all the crypto channels that either dismiss XRP as a matter of course or decry the tokenomics, or the pumpers who make ridiculous pie-in-the-sky price predictions. I'm sorry, at this point, even $10 sounds like complete nonsense. Such a 20x would put it above ETH's current market cap. And, as I mentioned before, UP the market cap list is not the direction we seem to be going.

I just noticed the price of Warner Bros. Discovery. One TON is now worth more than a share of WBD. And they already have them beat on market cap. Not sure that is any consolation. Just saying... it's a new world (with a lot of the worst vestiges from the old still hanging in there). Speaking of which, I have sometimes thought that holding XRP was a hedge against nefarious types like the IMF and WEF. Now we are adding BRICS to that mix? Not sure how I feel about that.

You did not sell at 6 this time around, I hope. : - )
I added some shares under 6, because waiting for a big dip was not working. Patience is a virtue or so I've heard, but... I've had to add more 7.5 strikes to my options orders. I thought we could enjoy hanging around 5 for a while, but this thing is not accommodating that plan.

Is everyone enjoying this steady climb? We are just pennies away from being 100% up from the low for the year and yet this ticker is not on the breakout board. Which is good. Hitting #1 on the Hot Board is nearly always a sell signal.

Is Cathie buying the dip, while selling rips? Looks like she is taking profits in NVDA. Then again, Pfizer is not ripping. It has been down, currently in falling knife territory. Tempting... *

As for PLTR, I will have to sell another cash covered put the next time it dips; that has been working pretty well so far this year and the last.

*Oops, PFE up 4% today, Cathie, you may have blown that one! Don't worry; you are up 10% here. We will cover your mistakes.

; - )

How did that work out for you, ed? Did you get some 5's assigned to you last month? I only picked up another 100 shares in February, after doing the same in January. It was December when I increased my position here by 60%. Now all those shares are up for grabs at 5. We will find out in 10 days if that is a bargain or not. At worst it will be a 25% gain in 3 months.

I only have one position in cash covered puts. Those will also expire on the 15th. It will be like scoring a 20% dividend out of something that does not pay a dividend.* Wish I had more put positions; I will the next time this "pos" dips. BTW, I trade this in an IRA, so no Wash Sale worries. I won't presently become a millionaire like Volcano. But maybe future me will.

Obvious statement: I am not ed3/6me's financial advisor or anyone else's. Just demonstrating how you can milk a ticker for almost monthly income without it being a blue chip dividend payer. I can't say it removes those anxious feelings you get when it dumps (or pumps), but it will remove some cash off the table.

*I could use more such scores to keep up with inflation; you know, just in case Biden scapegoating evil corporations doesn't do the trick.

Well, there you go, XRP is airdrop heaven! : - )

I must have missed the memo on EVR. I hold half of my bags on Uphold and the other half in a wallet. (Not the one you mentioned; so I will have to check that.)

Sounds like, while XRP is good for airdrops, maybe Uphold is less so. I must say, I should hate Uphold with a purple passion for its connection to Cred, but since November 2020 they really have tried to make it up to us. They kept XRP listed so we could buy it cheaply (like we were Baron Rothschild) and see a 10x on the day Coinbase went public (even though Coinbase was still years from re-listing XRP). And speaking of beating Coinbase to the punch, Uphold tried to make me rich by listing BONK first, but did I jump on the opportunity to triple my money in a week? No, not me. (I did start to DCA on the dip and so maybe my latest 10 million barking memes have doubled. A 2x in two months is not quite as fun as a 3x in a few days, but I am relieved to see the pump to lift all doggies. Frankly, thought that was money down the toilet.)