During expiration weeks I get a lot of questions about options exercising and assignment. Mostly traders are concerned that their short option contracts or spreads will be assigned at expiration. In an effort to help calm the nerves during the crazy period, I decided to put together this guide to help you understand your risks ...…
October was light but profitable. Again we tried to stay conservative not knowing if the markets would again fall off a cliff (which they didn’t but I’d rather be safe than sorry). Of the trades we did enter they were very profitable, but the amount of excess cash in the portfolio didn’t help. Regardless, small ...…
Sick and tired of the recent market volatility and watching your portfolio value swing? Today I decided to cover 8 places to park your cash during these volatile markets. If you are not invested already you are probably wondering where to put all that hard earned cash for a while until things calm down. Just ...…
I’ve been very busy lately working on a new project for this website. After months of feedback and suggestions I think I am putting together something that will truly help options traders (or any trader really) advance to the next level in their education. What I’ve found that most traders need can but summed up ...…
Yesterday the S&P 500 traded above the 50-day moving average for the first time since July. Technically it is a good signal for the bulls but not the type of billboard buy signal that some people are making it out to be. I would use caution here if you are thinking of long positions in ...…
With the recent volatility a lot of traders are asking about quick ways to hedge their current credit spread option strategies. As with all hedge positions or adjustments you make, you have to consider the price or premium it costs versus the insurance you are getting. It’s just like buying insurance on your house; you ...…
Chart patterns are great tools for traders. Their visual and predictive nature make them a favorite for stock traders especially. But, using chart patterns to set stop loss levels are an often overlooked benefit, and yet they are one of the easiest ways to manage risk. Don’t Focus Just On The Entry We all spend ...…
There is no secret sauce to control your trading psychology on ever single trade – but you can get better at it over time. More often than not it’s the impulsive trades that become destructive to our portfolio. You know the trades we make on a whim and hope with no more than 15 seconds ...…
This morning the European Debt Crisis got a little worse as Standard & Poor’s downgraded its rating on Italy last night to A from A+. The new report pointed out multiple problems with the Eurozone’s 2nd largest debtor including weak economic growth, rising borrowing costs and record levels of debt insurance. Last month the European ...…
September was another clean-up month as the market continue to head lower with big sell-off and volatility spikes. Kept the portfolio very light and most of our money in cash once it started – the only small loss we took was with our 1 credit spread position after rolling it lower to avoid bigger losses. ...…
Becoming a successful trader is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight or everyone and their mother would become traders. It’s a process of constant research and studying, which can actually be very mentally challenging (yet stimulating at the same time). There are no successful traders who made a killing on the first day – myself ...…
I was on a coaching call last night with another student and we were looking at Gold (GLD). I had noticed that it’s flashing a pretty large bearish divergence signal on the daily chart using a MACD Histogram. Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that Gold is all over the media right now ...…
Bernanke’s possible QE3 program is back on the table and possibly coming to a printing press near you! Following his comments in Jackson hole, the Federal Reserve chairman made it clear that they would continue to help where needed – secret Fed code = QE3. What is Quantitative Easing? Everyone’s talking about it yet you ...…
August was a very interesting month to be trading the markets. With the huge sell-off starting at the end of July and running into August expiration, it was hard to do anything but hedge and protect your portfolio. We did run into some trouble on the way down like everyone else – but I firmly ...…
