In the second week of October 2018, the Dow Industrial Average tumbled 1,300 points within a two-day period just ahead of earnings season. How did it happen? There were several explanations for why stock prices sold off, but the most obvious was that investor fear had changed market sentiment.
When deciding to build a diversified investment portfolio, there are many different considerations. Which asset classes do you buy? Large cap or small cap? US only, or international too? Mutual funds or ETFs? How much in bonds? Passive or active? Growth or value?
Hardly a day goes by that I don't read an article or hear some pundit extol the merits of selling puts (put-write).This article will discuss various variations of put-write strategies. What accounts for put-write strategies under-performance? How to fix put-write underperformance? Why "easy money" isn't so easy.
Have you been taken by surprise by movement of your stock? Options traders who find themselves on the wrong side of a trade have experienced this dilemma, but as often as not, it occurs as part of a move and retracement.
Here are 14 actionable ideas that will help you improve your trading from home. Implementing these ideas will help aspiring traders move toward the consistent profitability they seek.
Technicians tend to focus on single indicators, such as Bollinger Bands or the t-line. These are used to attempt to perfect a timing system. Individually, each signal has merit. Combined, the reversal signal is exceptionally strong.
“In fact, the crowd sees hardly anything out there that might end this market party.” Michael Santoli made the above statement during CNBC’s closing market wrap on January 26th, 2018. He had reason to throw caution to the wind as the S&P 500 closed the day up by more than 1%, setting another record high.
Last month we posted some updates to the Anchor strategy that were obtained using an in-depth back testing of the strategy and variations of it using the ORATS Wheel software.We adopted three conclusions last month:
Do you roll forward to avoid exercise? It seems like an obviously advantageous move. You avoid exercise and generate a net credit. What can go wrong? Actually, rolling incurs more risk, and every covered call writer needs to study the potential roll and compare the advantages of rolling versus closing and taking a loss or allowing exercise.
Calendar Spreads (including diagonals and ratios) can be a very effective method to “hedge” a portfolio. However, it is not without some complexities.Understanding the Theory and Methodology is important to achieve one’s intended result. In essence, one must understand the whys as well as the hows or they will continuously be faced trying to resolve dilemmas along the way.
Today I want to talk about something that is often ignored, yet has a very large impact on the net performance of our trading and investing: Taxes. To illustrate the importance, I often like to point out both the power of compounding and the impact of taxes with a simple example.
Selecting the right broker is one of the most important things for options traders. It becomes even more important if you are an active trader and trade hundreds or thousands contracts every month. Select the wrong broker - and your chances to make money are going down dramatically.
