One of the most heavily traded ETFs in the world is the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ). The Nasdaq 100 tracking ETF trades over 50 million shares on average per day and nearly 3 million options on top of that. Last week, an institution or fund purchased a whopping 65,000 puts in QQQ that expire in […]

Gold just rushed past $2,000 for the first time since Covid first struck (and people were panicking).  Does that mean you should be buying?  For many, they look at gold mining companies as a ‘gold alternate’ to capture bigger gains as gold moves.  Today, I’m going to share more about if this is a good […]

Decades ago (in the 1990s), I learned that traditional bond funds—whether ETFs, index funds, or mutual funds—would destroy investor holding values in a rising rate environment. Forty years of declining rates hid this fact from the investing public. 2022 exposed the dangers of traditional bond products. Fortunately, there is a better way to invest in […]

The recent banking “crisis” pulled down share prices of many income stocks, not just banks. Broad-based stock selloffs provide excellent opportunities for investors who understand the difference between quality stocks available “on sale” and the companies that are actually at risk. When the share price drops, there is one stock of which I will always […]

Everyone’s heard about the “Santa Claus” rally in December.  But, every month of the year, typically has patterns to how the market moves.  Normally, the summer is pretty average as many Wall Street desks are empty due to vacation.  What about April?  April is one of the most interesting to study.  Because normally, April is […]

This past week, Block (SQ) was the subject of a short report, which caused the stock to lose 15% in a day. It’s hard to say how valid the report is, but options traders think the share price will stay depressed for at least a week.  A trader sold 1,000 call spreads that expire at […]

Since the pandemic became an official crisis in early 2020, investors have had to deal with crisis after crisis. There does not seem to be a path toward the next bull market for stocks. I assume we will have another bull market at some point, but the current crisis-to-crisis investment environment makes strategies that rely […]

A large options block trade hit the tape last week in one of the biggest gold producers, Barrick Gold (GOLD). The trader placed a 3-legged options spread using 23,000 options contracts per leg. The spread is likely a put spread collar that allows GOLD some upside potential while hedging against a portion of downside risk. […]