ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
AT40 = 52.4% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs)AT200 = 48.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 15.6Short-term Trading Call: cautiously bearish Stock Market Commentary A Broad-Based Re-Entry Two Fridays ago, buyers took the S&P 500 (SPY) back above its 50-day moving average (DMA). It was yet … Read more
While the market was going wild buying call options in Toll Brothers (TOL), insiders were selling large quantities of shares. SEC filings reveal almost $2.8M in share sales. Here is a summary with emphasis on the CEO and President (note I mainly care about the sales transactions of C-level executives and SVPs and not board … Read more
The Pairs Trade Exactly one month ago, I pointed to a pairs trade using put options in Toll Brothers (TOL) and call options on the iShares Dow Jones Home Construction ETF (ITB). Home builders selling affordable and otherwise lower-priced homes were rapidly gaining favor. Toll Brothers, a builder of luxury, high-end homes, was greatly under-performing … Read more
Valuation Gap Lowe’s Companies (LOW) gets a bad rap relative to Home Depot (HD) for being the weaker operator for the home improvement and do-it-yourself (DIY) crowd. Investors are willing to pay a trailing 36 P/E, forward 17 P/E, 1.2 price/sales, and 33.5 price/book for LOW. Investors are willing to pay a trailing 23 P/E, … Read more
AT40 = 49.7% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 48.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAsVIX = 15.0Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary One Obvious Pattern to Another The S&P 500 (SPY) and the NASDAQ (COMPQX) transitioned from an obvious trading range to an obvious … Read more
AT40 = 38.3% of stocks are trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs) AT200 = 44.1% of stocks are trading above their respective 200DMAs (2-month low)VIX = 19.0Short-term Trading Call: neutral Stock Market Commentary The Trigger Finger On Tuesday (August 27), I saw enough hints of a flip from a bullish to bearish divergence … Read more
With just one day to go until expiration of the short side, my Aug/Oct $39 calendar call spread on the iShares Dow Jones US Home Construction ETF (ITB) hit its initial profit target. I was hoping the short side would expire worthless, and I could ride the long side expiring in October into the launch … Read more
The Short-Term Breakdown The technical conditions for Tesla (TSLA) have greatly deteriorated since I wrote about short-term and long-term trading strategies on the stock. I focused on two main trading strategies: 1) a longer-term covered call strategy for bullish investors fortunate enough to own 100+ shares of stock and 2) what I considered at the … Read more
The Extreme: Best Buy Regular readers know that my favorite trades come on the heels of extremes in financial conditions. After President Trump announced a 10% tariff on $300B of Chinese imports, I saw a lot of extremes that made me sit up and take notice. One of the biggest extremes occurred in the shares … Read more
It was just this past weekend when I laid out my latest strategy trading Apple (AAPL) pre-earnings including updated historical data. Much to my surprise, my calendar call spread closed out at its pre-earnings profit target as AAPL followed through on Tuesday from Monday’s big 2.3% rebound. (As a reminder, my ideal scenario featured the … Read more