September 2016

Mention a strategy that involves selling options to an average investor and
In our feature presentation on options, we start with a conversation with Bill Brodsky (see “Listed options: A brief history,” page 16), the long-time leader of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), who is now chairman and will retire fr
Many options traders, including seasoned veterans, are often shell shocked when they get hit with the after effects of options beyond their expiration.
The fundamental characteristics and mechanics of options in all arenas are identical. Both options on stock and options on futures are derivatives (value is derived from the value of something else).
In the forward of Anthony Saliba’s newest book “Managing Expectations: Driving
While oil prices may be down, not all consumers are taking advantage of automobiles this summer.
The Cycle Projection Oscillator (CPO) is a technical tool that uses complex algorithms to filter multiple cycles from historical data, combines them and gives a graphical representation of their productive behavior.
Increased consumer confidence, a steady job market and lower gasoline prices led to historic sales for U.S. automakers in 2015. Sales opened 2016 on a strong note, although unable to match 2015’s pace.
In 2016, few companies have generated more headlines than Tesla Motors (TSLA). And few stocks have moved on headlines more than Elon Musk’s. In early July, Tesla released details of a tragic accident that cost one life due to failure of the autopilot feature on its Model S.
These five TipRanks analysts made the most profitable calls on automotive stocks during Q1. Buckle your seat belts and let’s take a look at how well these analysts performed.
Last summer, Supervalu (SVU), announced plans to spin-off its wholly owned subsidiary Save-A-Lot, a discount grocery retailer. SVU, which was trading in mid-July at $5.35 for a market cap of $1.4 billion, will spin-off 60% of its ownership interest in Save-A-Lot and retain the remaining 40%.
In the past five years, there has been a return to the futures market by retail traders, who have grown to have virtually the same market presence as elite traders.
The geometric basis for options pricing provides information that can be used to construct profitable short strangle trades. “Copper calls” (right) shows the pricing model for calls on December 2016 copper futures.
Brexit will be talked about, written about and analyzed for many years. It also revives the age-old argument between fundamental and technical traders. Technical traders argue that price action is all you need to know to formulate direction, entry and exit targets. The charts indicate with reliability, the future direction of price.
In the stock market, most traders have their wires crossed. They gamble instead of speculate and end up selling when they should buy and buying when they should sell.
Last month we talked about how there were a number of stocks and cyclical sectors still offering a compelling combination of reasonably priced growth and nice dividend yields.
There are no sure bets in financial markets. For years we could stipulate traders associated higher gold prices with higher inflation, and with good reason. You can create more units of paper money almost instantaneously, which brings their capacity to represent a stable store of value into question, but you cannot do that with gold.
When trading moved from raucous pits to computer screens, it created efficiencies, but what was lost was a sense of community. Traders found themselves alone in front of a screen, trading with no central market for information and without the energy that was found when the pits were vibrant.
U.S. light-vehicle automotive sales reached a record 17.4 million in 2015 and are forecast to rise 2.3% in 2016. Despite automotive sales at record highs, the stock performance of manufacturers such as Ford (F) and General Motors (GM) has not been great. The major reason for lackluster performance is inconsistent profit performance.
The phrase “Cliff vesting” refers to when employees are considered vested in an employer benefits plan and have earned the right to receive retirement plan benefits. Cliff investing? That’s when you are not willing to wait for retirement to begin enjoying life.
Whiskey is America’s oldest spirit and just about every city has a bar with a particularly great selection. Here are my choices for America’s best whiskey bars.
Only a few years after Henrik Fisker left his namesake car company, Fisker was back designing something new: The Force 1 V10.
Originally started with former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, and industrialist Gilbert Villarreal, Fisker joined the VLF Automotive team and the trio set out to make the kind of rare, luxury vehicle with the right amount of rev.
The relative strength index (RSI) measures the speed and change of price movements and helps identify overbought and oversold conditions that you can exploit. It compares the magnitude of recent gains to recent losses to gauge the price momentum of financial assets, including stocks, commodities and financials.
All over the world, the voice of the people is being heard. Sick of being condescended to, voters are kicking out formerly entrenched elite technocrats in acts of anger and frustration.
September ranks as the worst performing month for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones indexes since 1950. It also ranks as the worst performing month for the Nasdaq Composite since 1971.