Market Insights
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Stocks May Be Climbing Another Wall of Worry
by David Russell | Jan 21, 2025
Sellers tried to hammer the stock market last week, but buyers came out of the woodwork instead. The S&P 500 initially had bearish momentum, falling almost 1 percent in the first minute of trading on Monday, January 13. The move briefly erased the entire rally...
Memory Tricks for Options Greeks Like Delta, Gamma and Vega
by David Russell | May 12, 2024
Options are complex instruments that can swing sharply in value. Traders may find the moves confusing, so this article will help explain key "Greeks" -- some of the most important factors impacting the price of options. Greeks are Greek letters used in complicated...
Bullish, Neutral, Even Bearish: 3 Ways Options Traders Can Use Covered Calls
by David Russell | May 10, 2024
Covered calls are one of the most common strategies for options traders. While many investors have heard of them, they may not realize that covered calls are highly versatile. This article will cover how the method can be bullish, neutral and even bearish. First,...
Calm Returns as Rate Fears Subside: Market Trends This Week
by David Russell | May 9, 2024
Downloads are available here. TradeStation’s ideas on TradingView are available here. Register for Market Trends here. Sizing Up the S&P 500 S&P 500 back above 50-day MA. MACD turns higher More index members above 20-day MA than above...
Bullish and Bearish: Key Points About Vertical Option Spreads
by David Russell | May 8, 2024
Vertical spreads are one of the most common strategies in the options market because they can generate leverage with limited risk. This article will consider key points about bullish and bearish spreads. Vertical spreads involve two "legs" on the same underlier to...
Chart of the Day: Oracle May Have Found Support
by David Russell | May 7, 2024
Oracle jumped to new highs almost two months ago. Now, after a pullback, the software giant may have found support. The first pattern on today’s chart is the gap higher on March 12 after earnings surprised to the upside. ORCL retraced the move and is starting to...
Stocks Could Be Stabilizing. How Do I Find Potential Opportunities?
by David Russell | May 7, 2024
The stock market is bouncing after a dip. Are any companies stabilizing as sentiment recovers? Today's article will consider a method for discovering potential opportunities. It uses TradeStation's EasyLanguage scripting tool to create a custom indicator, which can...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication
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Big Technology Companies Report Earnings Soon
by David Russell | Jul 18, 2024
Second quarter earnings season has begun. Financials have already reported, and attention will soon turn to major technology companies like Microsoft and Apple. This article will cover some key dates and recent news on these stocks....
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Tech Stocks Break the Downtrend Despite a Hawkish Fed. Are the Bears Losing Control?
by David Russell | Mar 21, 2022
Stocks just had their biggest rally in over a year as a broad cloud of bearishness began to lift, despite an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 rose 6.2 percent between Friday, March, 11, and Friday, March 18. The Nasdaq-100 jumped 8.4 and the Dow...
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After Getting Cut in Half, An Options Trader Thinks this Social Media Giant May Have Bottomed
by David Russell | Mar 17, 2022
Social-media giant Meta Platforms has gotten cut in half, and now one big investor seems to think it will stabilize. Check out the unusual options activity detected in the company formerly known as Facebook (FB) yesterday: A trader sold 16,500 8-April 200 puts for...
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Global Energy Squeeze Revives Interest In Solar Stocks Following a Year of Consolidation
by David Russell | Mar 10, 2022
Solar energy stocks were one of the top performing groups in the pandemic year 2020. Now after a long pause, the global energy shock is reviving the group. SolarEdge Technologies (SEDG) is up 36 percent in the last month, making it the top performing member of the...
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Russian Attack Triggers Surprise Rally Across the Beaten Down Nasdaq-100
by David Russell | Feb 25, 2022
Russia attacked Ukraine early on Thursday. After an initial panic, investors had an interesting response: They piled into software and technology stocks that took a beating over the last two months. Take a company like Microsoft (MSFT), which pushed under $272 in the...