Options Trading Strategy
Here’s A Quick Win You Can Make From Trump’s Tariffs
I’m at the MoneyShow in Las Vegas this week and it’s obvious that interest in options trading is growing by leaps and bounds. Every year, the crowd keeps getting larger. Plus, I notice more sessions and classes about options each time I come. It always makes me happy to see the growing interest in options […]
Using Options To Capture Twitter’s Upside
There are a few companies out there which tend to be battlegrounds for investors. These are the stocks where there are often loud contingents of both bulls and bears. The arguments can be very passionate on both sides. The investments in these companies can also be substantial (also from both sides). Probably the best example […]
Want To Make A Big Bullish Bet On Facebook Ahead Of Earnings?
It’s undoubtedly been a good year for stocks, with the S&P 500 up almost 15% year-to-date. But, it’s been an even better year for the oft-embattled tech giant, Facebook (FB). Shares in the omnipresent social media company are up 33% so far this year. FB has taken quite a beating over the last year on user […]
Does This Trade Tell Us There’s A Ceiling On The Price Of Gold?
Economics news has taken center stage over the last week or so, with the word “recession” popping up quite a bit in financial headlines. The Fed has recently said it doesn’t plan to raise rates in 2019 and the investment crowd wants to know why. Not to mention, we’ve had the dreaded “inverted yield curve” […]
Using Options To Trade The Spike In Advanced Micro Devices
There are generally two reasons why a stock a sudden, big move. Either the overall market is having a big up or down day (the systemic effect). Or, the company itself has some specific news item causing a large move (the idiosyncratic effect). Most stock specific news is related to earnings or product announcements, although […]
Covered Call Writing
2 Ideal Stocks To Generate Covered Call Portfolio Income
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 […]
Create Your Own Dividend Using These 3 Covered Calls
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 […]
3 Blue-Chip Trades That You Win No Matter What
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 […]
Sell These 3 Covered Calls For Thousands In Income
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 […]
3 Covered Calls For An Uncertain Market
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 […]
Options Trading Strategies
3 Stocks To Buy As Fear Runs Amok
Support is holding so far in DIS, FB and AMZN stock Fear has officially returned. So says the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index or VIX, which is spiking to its highest level since Jan. 4. Today we’ll provide context to the panic and identify three stocks to buy. At this morning’s peak of 23.38, the […]
3 Stocks to Trade After Earnings
Earnings momentum is driving today’s trio higher The earnings wave rolled on this week. Some stocks were left battered in its wake while others were lifted to lofty heights. I’ve sifted through the winners and losers to discover the best stocks to buy. Today I’ll share my findings. When a company scores an outsized earnings […]
3 Stocks On Shaky Ground
These stocks are one well-placed banana peel away from breakdowns With equities flirting with all-time highs you might be wondering why today’s gallery is focusing on stocks to sell. The reason is that it’s not just a stock market, but a market of stocks. And there are both winners and losers in every environment — […]
3 Stocks To Buy At New Yearly Highs
Buyers are dominating in CSCO, PYPL and VMW Stocks blasting to new highs usually come bearing gifts — for bulls, at least. If you’re a bear, then beware because these super-powered leaders pack a punch. And that makes them some of the best stocks to buy. I ran a quick scan last night for new […]
3 Top Tech Stocks To Trade Right Now
The dip in tech is a buy — here’s why Large-cap tech stocks have led the great market rebound of 2019. Today we’ll look at three of the top stocks to trade in the sector. Chart watchers are detectives seeking clues. These signals reveal the path of least resistance for prices and enable traders to […]
Options Volatility Watch
Earn 272% If Volatility Spikes By The End Of March
As volatile as 2018 was in stocks, 2019 so far has been anything but. After the first two months of the year, market volatility has been nearly non-existent. It’s much closer to the ultra-low volatility environment of 2017, where the VIX barely cracked 15 the entire year. Of course, we’re starting off from a higher […]
An Easy Way To Go Long Volatility Using The New SPIKES Index
It’s always fascinating to watch how the market reacts to changes in volatility. It seems like the crowd is always waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s as if market volatility can’t ever trade at an equilibrium – it’s either too high or too low. When volatility is high, you get a fair amount […]
Is There Finally A Cheaper Alternative To The VIX?
When it comes to trading volatility, The VIX has long held the crown as the most viable product on the market. Products based on the VIX, the S&P 500 Implied Volatility Index, have been one of the most notable additions to the trading universe in the 21st century. In fact, the Cboe Global Markets (BATS: CBOE) introduction of tradable […]
What Happens Next After VXX Expiration?
A year ago, several VIX or volatility related products imploded, and were forced to shut down. It now appears the popular Barclay’s iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term (VXX) exchange-traded note will cease to trade at the end of the month. But unlike the VIX, ETN’s, mostly inverse and leveraged — which went poof last February as a spike in volatility […]
Volatility Will Normalize And Here’s How To Profit When It Happens
Market volatility has essentially become a mainstream metric in the investment realm – especially for anyone who does any short-term trading. Most traders are now aware of what the VIX is and how a higher level in the volatility index usually means more uncertainty in the market. While investors and traders may not be able […]
Options Trading
What Percentage Of Options Expire Worthless?
One of the persistent and pernicious myths regarding options trading is that 80% of all of them expire worthless. The number relies on the fact that most options get closed well before expiration and can create a misleading belief that selling premium is the only sure way to make money trading options. We’ve all seen the marketing […]
Selling Versus Buying Options: A Risk/Reward Comparison
Next week I’ll be speaking at the MoneyShow in Las Vegas. It’s one of my favorite experiences every year. Not only is it a great opportunity to meet and talk to other options traders, but I also get a lot of really good questions at the event. I decided that this year I’ll be more […]
SPIKES Versus VIX: How To Take Advantage Of The Differences
Up until last February, the Cboe’s VIX (S&P 500 Volatility Index) was the only market volatility index which could be traded through derivative products. The index itself is not tradeable, but VIX futures, options on those futures, and VIX-related ETFs are all widely popular products. While the usage of these products varied based on the […]
5 Tips To Become A Better Stock Trader
Trading is hard, but these 5 tips should help make it easier Are you looking to become a better stock trader? Whether you’re swing trading or day trading, learning how to trade stocks isn’t really that difficult on the surface. Develop a system, follow your rules and makes tweaks to improve it along the way. […]
1 Predictable Pricing Behavior That Savvy Options Traders Use
Earnings season officially kicks off next week with some of the big banks such as JP Morgan (JPM) and Bank America (BAC) set to report on Tuesday and the first of FAANG, Netflix (NFLX) reports on Thursday. Earnings can be very tricky to trade as there are many moving and unknown parts; will the company miss or beat expectations, what will be the […]
Options Trading Basics
2 Essential Options Trading Concepts That You Need To Know
Market volatility has contracted back down to historically low levels with the VIX, which acts as the benchmark measure, sitting just above 52-week low at the pre-teen level of 12. But, with earnings season upon us, tons of IPOs such as Uber hitting market, and pickup in mergers and acquisition activity such as Chevron’s (CVX) $33 billion […]
The Inner Workings Of Time Decay In Options Trading
After a steep decline and rapid rebound, the stock market seems to be settling in. Following such a period of big moves and high volatility, I wouldn’t be surprised if it went nowhere for the next couple weeks, or until the next earnings period. But, as an options trader, one thing’s for certain: Time never stands […]
The Options Strategy That You Need To Know
One of the most popular options strategies is the covered call, or buy-write, in which one owns underlying stock and sells a call. It’s a bullish position which generates income through a premium collection. Many investors and money managers consider it a very conservative approach and employ it in their retirement accounts. But suggest selling a put, and […]
Using Cash-Secured Puts: The AT&T Example
Investors that have the goal of generating income from their portfolio generally have two methods at their disposal to do so. They can simply increase the size of their portfolio and thereby boost the number of dollars that are produced by the portfolio’s average yield. But “have more money” is rarely an option. Alternatively, investors […]
The Dummies Guide To Option Greeks
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 […]
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