Dot Com Bubble or Profitable Growth?

A handful of well-known technology stocks have been leading the stock rally this year. Considering the narrowness of where investor money is going, is this another dot com bubble or profitable and sustainable growth for the likes of Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google (Alphabet), Amazon and Microsoft? Or are we seeing the [...]

Profitable Strategies for Trading Options

The point of trading options is to contain risk and leverage trading capital. With these points firmly in mind here are two profitable strategies for trading options. In options trading the buyer of an option pays for the right to buy in the case of a call option or sell in the [...]

Options Trader

So, you want to make money trading options. Then you need to develop the knowledge base and skill sets of an options trader. If you are already a stock trader you should realize that there a difference between stock and options trading. However, each type of trading requires fundamental and [...]

Use Puts to Protect Profits

A good idea when you have a stock that has had a good run up is to use puts to protect profits. When the stock market has had a good run it is always time for the investor to look to protecting his profits. In fact, the old saying is that you [...]

Difference between Options and Futures

In options trading one can trade options on futures contracts as well as on equities themselves. Having a clear sense of the difference between options and futures is essential in this regard. To understand the difference between options and futures let us start with a couple of basic definitions.
Futures Contracts
Futures [...]

Options, Dividends, and Volatility

There is an excellent discussion of specific options trades in the current online issue of Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/stockoptionschannel/2013/11/11/interesting-april-2014-stock-options-for-cisco-systems/). The article discusses put and call options for April 2014 for Cisco (CSCO). At issue are the price of the put option or call option, the dividend paid by Cisco, and potential market volatility. [...]

The Leverage of Trading Options

The leverage of trading options is perhaps its greatest attraction. With the simple investment of a premium a trader can nail down a price at which he or she will be able to buy or sell an equity, no matter high or low the price may go. The leverage of buying  and [...]

Technical Analysis of Options

Technical analysis of options tells the trader what the options market will do next. Analysis of stock and market sector fundamentals will give the trader and investor an accurate picture of the long term prospects of the underlying equity. Investors and traders will often buy the underlying equity based upon [...]

Options Trading Volatility

The talk these days in options trading seems to be all about volatility. Options trading volatility is nothing new. The prime reference for options trading volatility is the VIX. According to the CBOE web site, “The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®) is a key measure of market expectations of near-term volatility conveyed [...]

Options Trading Volume

Options trading volume varies with the belief that prices of underlying equities will fluctuate. For example, institutions that are writing puts in options trading may not believe that a stock or commodity price will fall but those buying puts do. It is not the change in price of the underlying that drives interest and increases [...]

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