WMT stock is likely to begin retracing the correction it just had. Management is still on rails so go long before it is too late. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) reported earnings this morning and after going mildly green, has now dropped more than 1%. While that is not great, it’s much better than the J. C. Penney Company Inc (NYSE:JCP) […]
After over a year of basically no volatility in the stock market, we had something of a volatility revelation which began on February 5th. The selloff that day and the subsequent implosion of certain volatility products (like XIV) created a major jump in market volatility. As you can see from the chart, iPath S&P 500 VIX […]
Create additional monthly income by selling puts for cash Summertime approaches, and that may mean you want to enhance your income a little bit. Did you know there is a way to generate $1,000 or more every single month using option trades known as naked puts? Brokers do require Level 4 options approval, but you […]
On Tuesday, Facebook (FB) ‘Amazoned’ the online dating industry by announcing it would add a dating feature. The news sent shares of IAC Interactive (IAC) and Match (MTCH) into a tailspin dropping some 20% each and wiping out $4 billion of market capitalization between the two companies. As we’re about to see, this opens up some interesting options trading possibilities. This is […]
Perhaps no company has gotten more press lately than Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). The social media giant has mostly been in the limelight for negative reasons… namely the Cambridge Analytica scandal and data privacy concerns. Investors were quick to jump ship when concerns over FB’s policies became headline news. The stock dropped from $180 to $150 in about […]
The selling of decent reports continues to be a theme, and the whole market looks on shaky ground. Today’s options trading will try and sidestep these larger issues. I’m going to establish a Pre-Earnings Premium Expansion, or PEPE, trade in Skyworks Solutions (SWKS). Skyworks develops semiconductor products that go into a wide variety of products from cell […]
Of all the selling going on in the stock market these days, no sector has been hit harder than tech. Although I believe the overall selling has been too harsh, the tech sector was certainly overvalued relative to other sectors. Keep in mind, the tech sector has almost always been the biggest area of growth, […]
We’ve enjoyed a tremendous bull market from 2009 into early 2018, but for the past three months the S&P 500 has been in correction territory. Is this another hiccup in the journey upwards, or is it the start of another multi-year period of flat or negative returns? Some investors prefer to avoid that question and […]
Use options to enhance your monthly income Fixed-income or retired investors may dismiss using options because they seem exotic. Yet they don’t have to be, and covered calls can provide you additional income without terribly much additional risk than holding a stock. Many of you retired or income investors already own blue-chip stocks in your […]
Learn how to generate extra income using covered calls Options are mistakenly considered exotic securities by the average investor. Like all investments, they can be very risky, but if used properly, they can provide a steady and reliable additional source of income. There is one basic strategy that may be of interest to the average […]
Learn how to profit from income-generating trades on these big names With the market having stumbled earlier this month, you may be wondering how to hedge your portfolio and/or make some additional monthly income using covered calls — especially if you own some very expensive stocks. Selling covered calls mean selling the right to someone […]
Use these covered calls to hedge your portfolio in 2018 If you were spooked by the sudden correction in the market this past week, you probably realized that you haven’t thought about risk as much as you should have. That’s one of the many reasons to have a long-term diversified investment strategy, with a focus on non-correlated […]
If ETFs don’t pay a dividend, here’s how to get income from them anyway By now, most investors are feeling pretty good. The market has been on a tear. There’s no telling when it might correct or crash. So one of the questions I get a lot in the mailbag at my stock advisory newsletter, The Liberty […]
WMT stock is likely to begin retracing the correction it just had. Management is still on rails so go long before it is too late. Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) reported earnings this morning and after going mildly green, has now dropped more than 1%. While that is not great, it’s much better than the J. C. Penney Company Inc (NYSE:JCP) […]
Going long big dips in quality stocks like GOOGL are great opportunities to generate income The stock market has had two 10% correction since the start of February. Investors were first spooked by the impression of runaway rates. The first bounce was sharp but it got thwarted when we got bombarded by a slew of […]
You can go long AMD stock with confidence even now Experts see great things for the tech sector in 2018, and rightfully so. We live in a world that is becoming more dependent on technology at a fast pace and it will likely become exponential soon. So there is room for all suppliers to the […]
Use GOOGL, FB and AMZN to generate income with zero out-of-pocket expense Stocks have been on fire for months and the technology sector is a star. The high-profile FANG gang are up over 30% in 12 months. Markets have had periods of rotation in and out of the bunch, but in the long run, bulls […]
Major breakouts await in today’s oil trio. Here’s how to play them. The recovery in oil prices is lengthening its stride. The same can be said about the nascent rebound in energy stocks. All told, crude light is up 37% since bottoming mid-year at $42.05. Its trend is now pointing higher across all time frames. […]
Two breakouts and one pullback are waiting for you in the options trading pits With stocks continuing to skirt the stratosphere, finding lucrative opportunities is as easy as falling out of bed. Particularly for those engaged in options trading. If anything, earnings season provides more chances to discover actionable setups due to the elevated volatility. […]
The last several weeks have been interesting for stocks to say the least. We simply are not used to the volatility – the daily swings – we’ve been getting nearly every trading day. It’s been years since we’ve had anything close to market conditions like this. Moreover, volatility indicators have remained high but stable throughout […]
For the last several weeks, every time it seemed the market was ready to rally, something happened to send it back down. The biggest concerns lately centered on the potential trade war brewing between China and the U.S. It appears that most companies have no desire to get involved with a battle of escalting tariffs. […]
Stock market volatility has increased substantially over the past two months. While large declines during the first week of February and over the past few days have garnered most of the attention, it should be noted that the S&P 500 has spent over 30 of past 40 trading days within 3% of all time highs. […]
Whether the stock market correction is over, or if the recent correction signaled the end of a bull market is debatable and will only be determined over time. For options trading, we’re going to have to hedge our bets a little. One thing that does seem to have come to end was the extended period […]
2017 was a year in which markets experienced depressed levels of realised volatility. From an option trader’s point of view 2017 was a selling paradise – a lucrative opportunity to collect favourably priced premiums as volatility drifted steadily lower with time. 2017 saw a gradual climb in major stock markets and related ETFs – a key example is the […]
Finally we have some fireworks in the financial markets, which is typically a good thing for options traders. With as slow as it’s been lately, it’s nice to actually see some real action in stocks. The VIX (the most common measure of market volatility) even jumped from 11 to 14.50 in one day (last Friday). […]
We always look at our investment process and ask ourselves, “What can we do better?” How can we increase returns and lower risk? We think we have found a new, sensible way to do both. We can hedge a portion of our market exposure with put options. Put options are contracts that trade on an […]
I’ve always been a fan of options trading. In fact, I still use covered calls as a tool in my investing arsenal. That being said, options, when not used correctly, can pose a serious amount of risk to the unknowing investor. While options can be used as an effective tool for hedging and speculation, by nature […]
Binary Options Industry From the outside, it seems as though the binary options industry is going through a torrid time; platforms closing, Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) warnings, publicly traded companies being forced to delist and a plethora of consumer complaints has caused havoc for the industry in recent months. Is binary options a legitimate industry being […]
How the Binary Options Trading Scam Works We’ve all been subject to the online clickbait adverts promoting get rich quick schemes, and we’re all familiar with the “Nigerian Prince” who just needs someone like you with an international bank account to deposit his millions. The model may change, but the medium rarely does. The sophistication […]
Options are often associated with risk. This couldn’t be farther from the truth if used correctly. Before we dive into some advantages, it’s important that you know exactly what an option is. Here are a couple guides that should help you develop an understanding of an option: What Is An Option By Stocktrades Options Basics […]
Like many investors, the nine year bull market has left my fund with a large amount of unrealized capital gains. With prices now very rich, at least in my view, I feel the risk/return trade-off is much less favorable then when those investment were made. I fear there is a reasonable probability of a large […]
There you are in a conversation with a professional trader about their strategy and suddenly the “inside baseball” terms start rolling off their tongue – Delta Hedging, Short Gamma, Theta Burn, and Vega Risk. You smile and nod without perhaps knowing exactly what these terms mean, and just like that, what started as a good […]
By studying the long-term performance of professional sports teams, investors can gain a sense of a stock’s future returns. Mean reversion controls stock market returns as much as the outcome of sports competitions. It’s easy for sports fans to assume a championship team will continue its stellar performance into the next season. It’s equally easy for investors to extrapolate a […]
Today I want to take an in-depth look at what James O’Shaughnessy, author of What Works on Wall Street, found to be the best historical value metric… the price to sales ratio. I’ll discuss how to calculate it, what it tells us, and how you can incorporate the metric in your investing approach. What Is Price To […]
It’s time for the third installment in our tutorial series on option theory. In the last two installments we we covered option basics and then did our best to give you a head start on how to interpret option greeks. Today we’re going to jump right into debit spreads and explain why they often may be preferable to trading […]
It’s time for the second installment in our option basics tutorial series. Today we are going to cover the option greeks – which is commonly considered a dry topic. Well that was until now – so grab a short sword and a bottle of body oil because you’re going to need it down in the dusty arena when […]
In the context of reintroducing option related strategies here at Evil Speculator I find it important that we establish a baseline of fundamental option related concepts for everyone. Perhaps you’ve never traded options before or maybe you’re just a bit rusty and could use a refresher. So let’s start with the very basics: WHAT IS AN OPTION […]
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