Yelp.com Rally Creates Good Risk/Reward for Playing Persistently Large Options Skew

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 30, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) When I wrote “Wide Options Skew Heightens Risks Of Trading Yelp.com Lockup Expiration,” my main point was that Yelp.com (YELP) put options seemed too expensive to take the risk of playing … Read more

Time to Hedge A Little As Homebuilders Surge to Multi-Year Milestones

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on August 19, 2012. Click here to read the entire piece.) In 2010, the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) rallied sharply only to peak in parabolic fashion in April. That Fall, I reaffirmed my belief that housing would bounce along the bottom … Read more

T2108 Update (August 30, 2012) – Minor Breakdown Ahead of Jackson Hole

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are highly likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades … Read more

Chart Review: Breakouts, Breakdowns, And In Between: GOOG, FSLR, BIDU, INTC, JOY, CAT

The stocks market’s slow action hides all sorts of dramatic action in individual stocks. For this chart review, I take a look at a range of performers. Google (GOOG) has broken out to fresh five-year highs. First Solar (FSLR) has more than doubled since its June lows. Baidu (BIDU) has sold off for over a … Read more

T2108 Update (August 29, 2012) – Pavlovian Market Tap Dances Between Breakout and Breakdown

(T2108 measures the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages [DMAs]. It helps to identify extremes in market sentiment that are highly likely to reverse. To learn more about it, see my T2108 Resource Page. You can follow real-time T2108 commentary on twitter using the #T2108 hashtag. T2108-related trades and other trades … Read more