Market Insights
Bringing you the trading news around the world.
Some Key Funds May Be on the Precipice
Volatility's on the rise this month, and three popular ETFs are trying to hang on. The Market Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH), S&P SPDR Financial ETF (XLF) and S&P SPDR Energy ETF (XLE) had all slammed down to apparent support levels earlier in the year. At...
Clients Rush Back to ETFs as Volatility Pops
Clients are rushing back to exchange-traded funds this month as volatility mounts. Five of the 10 most heavily traded symbols with TradeStation in October are ETFs. That marks a sharp swing from September, when calm market conditions pushed attention toward...
Cloud IPO Available to TradeStation Clients
A cloud-computing IPO could be coming your way, if you act fast. Software company SolarWinds (SWI) is going public this week, and we've just learned it will be available on our partner ClickIPO. As many clients know, ClickIPO provides direct access to initial public...
Long-Term Bulls Are Active Today: Options Recap
Cell phones and natural gas. Those are some big trades in the options market today. Let's start with Sprint (S), which saw the purchase of 20,000 May 7 calls for $0.50 and the sale of 40,000 May 8 calls for $0.21. It's a little complicated, so here's a breakdown of...
History May Favor Bulls This Quarter, Despite Volatility
Stocks are coming off their worst week since March, but history may favor the bulls. After all, we're in the fourth quarter -- a time of the year with a strong bias to the upside. Consider some of these points we crunched from TradeStation's wealth of chart data: The...
Basics of Hedging, Part 3: Buying Vs. Selling Options
We recently outlined protective puts and covered calls as common hedging techniques. This brings us to the important question of selling options versus buying options. To understand the these two basic kinds of transactions, traders need to recognize the difference...
Nasdaq Gets Slammed as Rates Shoot Higher
Stocks began the fourth quarter in the red as interest rates spiked and money streamed out of the technology sector. The S&P 500 slid 1 percent between Friday, September 28, and Friday, October 5. But that was nothing compared with the Nasdaq-100's 3 percent drop...
The Message Behind Yesterday’s Volatility Spike
Yesterday was a reminder for traders who forgot what volatility feels like. The S&P 500 had its biggest drop since June 25, and Cboe's Volatility Index ($VIX.X) had its biggest spike over the same period. Even more impressive, TradeStation data showed 23.6 million...
Cannabis Craze Drives Activity: September at TradeStation
The cannabis craze swept markets in September, with TradeStation clients riding the wave. Canadian marijuana firm Tilray (TLRY) was the third-busiest stock on our platforms this month, catapulting from No. 24 in August. Related companies Canopy Growth (CGC) and Cronos...