There are a lot of people that are getting extremely nervous about the stock market lately, especially after the volatility from last week has already carried over to this week. While there’s no sure-fire way to know exactly when the market is making a reversal, there are ways to tell when it is breaking a…
It was a rough week for the stock market, with the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones down well over 1.5%. But the weekend is a good time to take a step back and put things in perspective. Here’s the ugly month of September for the S&P, including this ugly week:
Now that I have written a bit about option contracts and futures contracts, I want to explain something that was a head-scratcher to me when I first started learning about the stock market: how the S&P 500 futures can be used to determine “fair value” and predict the S&P 500 opening price. Take a deep…
If you noticed a lot of trading volume at the close of trading last week, don’t worry- you didn’t miss some big news. You see, last Friday wasn’t just any other Friday. And no, I’m not talking about Alibaba. Last Friday was “triple witching” Friday! One of the most frustrating parts to learning about the…
Whoahhhh, easy now. Let’s be mature about this, Hewlett-Packard. I know, I know. You don’t have to send me the link. I remember all the great things I said about you less than one month ago. But we need to talk. You see, I admit I said all those things about you. I looked right in…
Don’t look now, but after a brief 1% pullback, the S&P 500 is back at the 2000 level! Both the S&P and the Dow closed yesterday within spitting distance of all-time highs. But despite the market’s 0.5% gain over the past five days, many traders are scratching their heads at the red numbers they…
People are funny. Sometimes the best sales pitch that a salesman can make to a customer is, “Oh you mean this? No, you don’t want to buy this! In fact, stay completely away from these all together; you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into…” Nothing makes people more curious and more interested than a secret. I’ve…
Have you ever bought something and then had buyers remorse? Or realized after the fact that you over-payed? Of course you have! All of us have at some point or another. But if this type of thing happens to you consistently or repeatedly, you might need to be extra careful trading stocks. My approach to…
I’ve mentioned several times that I don’t do much option trading. In certain specific situations, the leverage that options provide is just too tempting to pass up, but most of the time options are not a great investment. In fact, about three out of every four option contracts expire worthless, which is something you should…
I’ve had a lot of fun watching the circus surrounding Apple’s unveiling event today. I even spent most of my lunch break watching Apple’s Stocktwits feed. Never have I seen such a combination of intelligence, overconfidence, absurdity, naivety, desperation, backpaddling, un-backpeddling, re-backpeddling, and general confusion. I loved every minute of it. Day traders are a…