In general, a good sprinkler system will enable a section of a lawn or the entire lawn to be watered at once. If computerized setting systems are used, the watering can even be programmed to last a set time or even end after a certain amount of water has been applied.

For maximum effectiveness, however, lawn sprinklers must be set up correctly and they must also be programmed right. All too often homeowners have their sprinkler heads pointed at the sidewalks, cars and even the road outside. These impermeable surfaces won’t benefit from your water and you’ll be throwing away your money. Try to set and adjust sprinkler heads so they water only the lawn or plantings. If you don’t know how, check with the company that installed them or local conservation organizations.

Depending on what region you live in there may be watering restrictions in place. This means watering can only take place on certain days and at certain times. Watering outside the allowed window can result in stiff fines. This is where a computerized setting system really can pay off. By setting the system correctly, it can automatically turn itself on at the correct time on the right day. Sometimes these can even be programmed to only water for a set amount of water or for a specific time period.

And here is where some common sense comes into play. Many homeowners over water, a lot. In general, a yard only needs a minimal amount of water to thrive and look beautiful. Sprinkling is meant to supplement rain, not replace it. More than what’s needed can cause root rot issues and other problems that will make a lawn look positively awful.

So, before you set your sprinklers and fire them up, there are a few things to do to make sure your lawn looks great and you don’t get in trouble by breaking local conservation rules. These include:

* Make sure you understand any local watering restrictions and how they apply to your lawn. You may have set days and times during which you can water or you may not. Call the water department or other such agency to find out.

* Know your grass and how it behaves during the season you’re in. If you don’t know how much water your grass requires in the summer, call a nursery, visit one or even check with a Cooperative Extensive Service office in your area. Remember, too little water and your lawn will look brown and dried out. Too much water and it will rot. Either way, your investment can be hurt.

Keeping a beautiful, well-manicured lawn is an investment in time and money. A lawn sprinkler system can help ensure maintenance is done correctly, but it needs to be installed right and programmed correctly. Make sure to follow local laws and don’t forget to find out exactly what kind of care your yard really needs.

#1 Resource

Sprinkler systems.

sprinklerinfodotcom

Determining which way a stock is likely to go is the challenge. However if you know a stock is going to move strongly in one direction or another, then you might consider buying a straddle.

To buy a straddle you simply by the At/Near-the-money Call and the At/Near-the-money Put option. In order to profit from using this strategy, you would need the premium of one of your options to rise by more than both the Call and Put premiums put together.

TIP:

One way that I have profited using this strategy is to follow companies that have pending announcements with the fda.gov (particulary drug/biotech stocks) and buy a straddle the day before the announcement is due to be made.

If the announcement is good and the stock rises strongly my call options will rise strongly and I can still profit, even though my put options will probably be worthless.

If the announcement is bad and the stock falls strongly my put options will rise strongly and I can still profit, even though my call options will probably be worthless.

As a buyer of a straddle we don’t really care which way a stock moves, so long as it moves far enough in one direction for us to profit on the trade overall.

However, there is one important thing to take into consideration here and that is Implied Volatility.

Implied Volatility, which is really a measure of potential ‘future’ volatility, can inflate the time value of options greatly. As a buyer of options and in particular At/Near the money straddles we need to be careful of this because should the underlying stock ‘not’ move strongly in either direction after we buy the straddle, this Implied Volatility can fall or deflate and therefore erode the value of our options.

As we have purchased two lots of options (calls and puts) to create the straddle, this can be a double whammy if we are not careful.

A great indicator that we can use to warn us of high implied volatility is Bollinger Bands. When the bollinger bands are wide (expanded) compared to the past few months, than this can suggest that implied volatility is high and options may be ‘overvalued’.

A warning sign here is when the bands have been wide/expanded and have started turning inward or contracting.

This can suggest that the implied volatility is now declining and ‘dragging’ on the premium (time value) of the options on that stock.

As an option buyer, we ideally like to see the bollinger bands coming from a ‘narrow’ contracted state and starting to ‘flare’ out.

This can be an indication that implied volatility is on the increase, which will support the premium of our options and even increase their value, without the underlying stock needing to move substantially.

Please note though that this insight should only be used as a guide and is based on my own personal observations and experience, nevertheless if used as part of an effective overall strategy/system, it will certainly help to stack the odds of success in your favor.

Happy option trading!

James Thomas is a successful private option trader and creator of option-trading-tips.blogspotdotcom – an informative resource full of useful option trading tips, including free video tutorials.