As you’re probably aware, a number of market systems exist that claim to be sure money makers. That shouldn’t be surprising given the number of market traders expending time and effort on developing systems to capitalize on trends and anomalies within the market. But not all these systems are as reliable as they claim to be. Smart traders will choose carefully, or watch their hard-earned capital drain away.

Theta decay is one much-hailed example of such systems. The name itself is surely impressive. The fact is, though, that theta decay rests on a very fundamental concept in option trading the fact that options expire on a set date.

This means that options do not have a fixed value. Instead, their value changes as the expiration date draws near. Analysis of option trading trends shows that price spread is greater closer to the issuance date. As the strike date approaches, the spread decreases.

Let me be very frank with you. Trying to sell the house to a rehabber when you don’t know any is like trying to sell peanut butter in the middle of the desert. Of course you may get lucky, and a rehabber finds out about your deal. But I definitely recommend building the buyers list and “selling the property before you buy it”.

If you have the money, if you can afford to hold the property or to rehab it yourself, then go ahead and buy it. But if you want to flip, then the way you are going about it is wrong! This is the way that most people first try to do it and, by the way, most of them also fail.

There is a reason I make an analogy of such strategy to selling peanut butter in the desert. You may think that a property is a good deal, but once you get it you may find that the buyers in your area don’t want it. So how do you know it is a deal? Just because it is cheap does not make it good.

If you looked for an investment club in your area and could not find one, I have to say I don’t think you were looking hard enough.

For example, somebody told me that there was no investment clubs to be found in Charleston, South Carolina. I ran an Internet search for “Charleston, SC investment club” and got two results for clubs and several related pages. So I had a list of contacts with phone numbers. And when you have so many numbers to call, you will certainly find someone who will point you to the club in your area.

As far as Charleston, South Carolina, is concerned, I know a lot about the city because I went to high school in Dillon, SC. And I would bet you any amount of money that there is an investment club, or association, there; in the city of that size there will be at least one.