Yahoo has been my site of last resort for news items on companies whose shares -- and options -- I am interested in. For some reason, it's financial news is usually even more up to date than Google Finance. However, I recently thought about and then dismissed the idea of buying some intermediate-term call options on YHOO. Now, congratulations go to those who owned certain Yahoo options that experienced a 1,200% price increase in 1 day, recently. Similarly, those who had the right put options on the right shares of MSFT.

That happened with my IMAX shares a couple months back -- some that for whatever reason do not show up on my panel trades. (I will go to the trade and see if I can get it to show up.) It was more on a lark than anything else that I bought several IMAX contracts; soon thereafter, they went up something like 1000%, when IMAX announced that it signed a large movie theatres contract.

I was happy, yes; overjoyed, okay, I admit. But there was no shouting or bragging. I provided the information to some acquaintances and warned in the same breath that I was no genius and the options could just as well under more likely events have gone down in value.

Now, however, the fact that I did not have these YHOO options at the right time PROVES there was no genius involved, there. There was a fair choice that could have been made along the way that would have influenced chances of being in the right place at the right time -- owning certain YHOO call options. I did not make the choice that way, that day.

On one of those rare occasions in a local smoke-free, alcohol-free casino -- helping the tribes while having some fun on a slot machine -- my third full house in a lifetime happened to show up on the machine. This third time my bet happened to be at the maximum. There was no shout for joy -- just my nod of the head in appreciation. Keep on going, think right away: considering about 10-20 different days in any casino over the past 5 years, did this medium win bring the small net up to the small amount lost, yet? 

That's how I handled a high-bet full house hand on a poker slot; and it's a much higher risk than options contracts, and therefore you don't really expect to win on any given day at such a place. But with options, you can expect to win half or more of the time given the right time and plenty of patience; I just better not see my kids playing with them, they're still too risky for "most" investors.

Options work well for some investors because you can study up on them. The underlying stocks and companies have plenty written about them. By the time you absorb all that, it's not just "odds," anymore. Yet there's still a matter of the right place at the right time.

I wonder how many people got their timing just right about Yahoo shares.  I thought about Yahoo as a long-shot odd a few days back and dismissed it; now I wish I had taken that particular risk. In light of the information I had, my choice of not taking that risk was correct for me. In retrospect, I wish some of those shares that went up 1000% were here in my portfolio! Equally well, some struck it rich with MSFT put options. Now, I am just looking for how low MSFT will go before buying some calls. Will MSFT come to it's senses, or will YHOO foolishly spurn it's advance?

At first, I had to doubt the sanity of the price being paid for YHOO by MSFT. It seems the price could have been screwed down quite a bit more before they made their offer, but there's no doubt a lot of history we don't yet know about. Microsoft doesn't just go around doing very dumb things. Although there's always a first time.