Cashing in my options

[Preem]

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I have about $20k in vested employee stock options with Intel. Any opinions on whether or not I should cash them out? Is there a good strategy for cashing out options?

If option grant A is above water at $20/share and grant B is above water at $22/share which should I sell first? I was thinking I should sell B first because then if the price drops to $22/share I would still be able to sell A for something.

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I think that a lot of people who responded to your post are confusing employee stock options with open market options. There are some huge differences.

There are even different kinds of employee stock options, the two most prevalent being incentive stock options (ISO) and non-qualified stock options (NQSO). The tax implications for these two types are very different, so make sure you know what kind of options you have and how the gains will be taxed. The main difference is that for NQSO, it's less advantageous, from a tax perspective, to exercise and hold for a year. I believe that both types trigger alternative minimum taxes (AMT).

If this represents a significant amount of money for you, I would strongly recommend that you consult with a tax accountant. You wouldn't believe how complicated things can get when AMT is involved.

[Badger]

From what I hear from AMD employees it sounds like things are pretty bad there. Does AMD slipping necessarily mean good things for Intel's stock? Or are you bearish on the whole industry?

[maxtower]

The problems as I see them are with the market, not the individual companies. AMD stumbling is good for intel, but the further commoditization of the market places long term limits on growth.