Market Insights
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Stop Losses and Trade Sizes Can Help Manage Risk
by David Russell | Dec 31, 2023
Many beginners think trading is simply a question of buying the right stocks at the right time. But risk management is equally important because it may allow them to survive making bad picks. This article focuses on two key parts of risk management: stop losses and...
Quadruple Witching Dates for 2022: How Can They Impact Stock and Futures Trading?
by David Russell | Feb 3, 2022
Quadruple witching is an event in financial markets when four different sets of futures and options expire on the same day. Futures and options are derivatives, linked to underlying stock prices. When derivatives expire, traders must close or adjust positions. That...
The Nasdaq-100 Rebounds After a Brutal January: What Does the Chart Say?
by David Russell | Feb 3, 2022
The Nasdaq-100 has rebounded following a sharp drop. It's a good time to consider where things stand with the tech-heavy index. First, Wednesday's close represented almost exactly a 50 percent retracement of the decline from December 28 through January 24. Second,...
Energy Stocks Aren’t The Only Companies Riding the Inflationary Trend Higher
by David Russell | Feb 2, 2022
Inflation is a key theme for investors this year. Aside from lifting energy stocks, it's also boosting a lesser known corner of the market: agriculture. Companies like Deere (DE), Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Mosaic (MOS) have outperformed the market by a wide...
Options Alert: Giant Neutral Strategy Targets Intel Following Sharp Drop
by David Russell | Feb 1, 2022
Intel's been dropping for nine months, but one big options trader is looking for the semiconductor giant to stabilize. This large transaction involving short calls and short puts occurred yesterday as INTC tried to hold its lowest level in over a year: 30,000 March 50...
Stocks Cling to Support as the Fed’s Hawks Go to Work. Growth Heads for Worst Month in 20 Years.
by David Russell | Jan 31, 2022
Stocks clung to support last week as investors brace for a series of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 spent most of the period in negative territory, but rallied sharply in the final 90 minutes on Friday, January 28. That resulted in a 0.8 percent...
Don’t Fight the Fed? Powell’s New Hawkishness Is Making Investors Reprice the Stock Market
by David Russell | Jan 28, 2022
Stocks are tumbling as the Federal Reserve's tighter monetary policy forces investors to rethink the entire stock market. The S&P 500 is down 9.2 percent in January, its worst month since coronavirus shuttered the economy in March 2020. High-multiple growth stocks...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication

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...

Risk Appetite Sweeps Market as Powell Freezes Interest Rates
by David Russell | Dec 12, 2019
Optimism is spreading in the stock market as the Federal Reserve freezes interest rates. Companies that benefit from stronger global growth rose yesterday after the central bank kept interest rates unchanged. Those include semiconductors, emerging markets, materials...

Roku and Tesla Dominate Activity: November at TradeStation
by David Russell | Nov 29, 2019
A pair of heavily traded technology stocks dominated activity at TradeStation this month amid a flurry of news. Streaming-video stock Roku (ROKU) was the busiest symbol across our accounts, eclipsing even the market-tracking SPDR S&P 500 fund (SPY) and Apple...

Call Buyers Target a Pair of Obscure Technology Stocks After Quarterly Results
by David Russell | Nov 26, 2019
Options traders seem to think two obscure technology stocks are poised for rallies. They first targeted Pinduoduo (PDD), amassing about 15,000 December 39 calls in the Chinese e-commerce firm. Most of the blocks crossed the tape for $0.60 to $0.80. Bottomline...

FANG Gets Disrupted as the Dow Strikes Back
by David Russell | Nov 13, 2019
Two major "FANG" stocks are getting disrupted as members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average take business back into their own hands. First, Nike (NKE) announced it will stop selling merchandise on Amazon.com (AMZN). Second, Walt Disney's (DIS) new Disney+ service got...