Protective Puts Versus Puts for Profit

A friend and I have actively discussed how best to position ourselves for the near-term, bearish risks in the market. As my favorite technical indicator, T2108 – the percentage of stocks trading above their 40-day moving average (DMA), hit oversold territory, he asked my opinion about adding to his SSO put spread. Puts on SSO … Read more

Shorts Close In On LPS

(This is an excerpt from an article I published on Seeking Alpha. Click here to read the entire piece.) As I feared would eventually happen, LPS sliced right through support and made fresh two-year lows. On Tuesday, LPS closed down 3.6% on a third straight day of heavy selling volume. *Chart created using TeleChart: Put … Read more

Bullish Tidings As the U.S. Dollar Retests Long-Term Support Line

On Friday, CNBC reported that on that day options players placed large bets bullish on the dollar: “The options market is gearing up for a bull run in the dollar after February’s non-farm payrolls showed improvement in the U.S. jobs picture. Options traders saw sizeable downside put buying in the EUR/USD…Before Friday’s payrolls data, the … Read more

Goldcorp Sprints Ahead of Gold

After falling as much as 15% this year, Goldcorp (GG), my favorite way to trade gold, has shot up 20%. The move through February was almost a straight line and the stock moved particularly strongly last week. *Chart created using TeleChart: While I sold the last of my trading positions in GG last week, this … Read more

Google’s Frenetic Post-Earnings Options Action

Three and a half years ago, I concluded that options for Google (GOOG) should be sold, not bought, ahead of earnings. This advice seemed to generally apply ever since as GOOG tended to move just enough after earnings to devalue near-the-money calls AND puts. Friday’s 11% post-earnings pop was a rare, and impressive, exception to … Read more