Many analysts and talking heads have been saying that volatile markets provide fantastic, can’t-miss investing and trading opportunities. That is only half true. Yes, rising volatility scares off the weak in favor of the strong, but it’s still a nerve-wracking environment in which to trade. I prefer to follow stock market trends, not volatility. Why…
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How to Handle Volatility Caused by Breaking News – Webinar Recap Just when the markets gain some momentum, breaking news knocks it (and us) for a loop. Sometimes the markets make big moves (up or down), and other times the moves are moderate and short-lived. During this options trading webinar, we talked about how to…
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Micron is the king of DRAM (dynamic random access memory), and when they reported earnings recently, they noted that pricing was firm and demand was strong. That stoked competitor Smart Global, a niche player with some decent earnings of its own. Even though technology stocks have been taking it on the chin this week, Smart Global has been…
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Basketball did not have a lock on March Madness last month. Markets were stuck in their own purgatory after the volatile month of February. Action may have seemed calmer than in February, but there was much more angst following sharp moves up in the VIX, which we can see in the monthly charts. Let’s take…
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During last week’s market carnage, we saw very few buying opportunities. In fact, we had to wait until the markets pulled out of their funk to find out where the heavy hitters stood. Monday, March 26 was the day. We saw some amazing action in big tech, which included recent chart of the week Microsoft.…
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Last week, the Fed held a two-day meeting followed by a press conference. The statement they released was not a rosy one. In fact, the Fed economic outlook is nothing to be happy about. Most of the meeting contained zero surprises. The committee did as the market expected; they raised the Fed Funds rate by…
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How to Trade Market Downside – Webinar Recap I often hear from traders who really want to play market downside. For a while now there have been few opportunities – UNLESS you trade individual stocks. We are still in a stock picker’s market, so we should be able to find some gems. During this options trading…
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Monday March 19 was a wretched day for the markets and an even worse day for the technology sector. With Facebook leading the way (down), the Nasdaq dropped nearly 2% on very high turnover – a strong sign of institutional selling. The carnage left very little to pick through, but First Solar looked mighty impressive.…
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The Fed’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) will meet for two days this week before they hold a press conference. This will be the first press conference led by new Fed Chair Jay Powell, who kicked off his term by testifying before Congress last month about Fed policy and other topics. On the agenda: a Fed…
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March is historically strong for the stock market, but many traders are worried that the highly volatile period of February will continue. We have seen some very choppy price movements on a daily basis, which is typical after such a heavy volatility run, but money flow is looking very strong. Here’s what I’m seeing in…
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