Sunday, January 19, 2025
With energy markets being highly volatile this year, it’s not a surprise to see large block trades occur in big energy companies. Oil and gas giant, Exxon Mobil (XOM), tends to have plenty of options volume on a regular basis. However, on a busy day last week, it traded nearly twice the amount of average […]
A very unusual options block trade hit the tape last week in Lithia Motors (LAD). The automobile dealership company typically trades about 200 options a day on average. However, a trader recently executed a 9,500-lot trade of November covered calls in LAD options. The trade could suggest there is both a floor and a ceiling […]
You may have heard the saying, often (mis-)attributed to Mark Twain, that history does not repeat, but sometimes it rhymes. Well, I just saw a table of historical returns that shows how some historical rhyming will benefit our stock portfolios. Let’s take a look… This table comes from Charlie Bilello, founder and CEO of Compound […]
It’s been a high volatility year in the financial markets. The VIX (Cboe S&P Implied Volatility Index) has been historically high for most of 2022. A large put sale in Proshares Ultra VIX Short Term Futures ETF (UVXY) suggests that volatility could remain at least moderately elevated into 2023. UVXY is a popular short-term volatility […]
I’m looking at a chart of the S&P 500… And it’s showing a clear 15-year trend where the S&P 500 will likely bottom in price. A few weeks ago, I told you we would break below the June lows based on the technical charts… Last week, that came to be. Every Thursday, I share my […]
Net lease REITs own stand-alone properties leased to tenants on long-term, triple net leases—meaning the tenant pays all the expenses for the property, including taxes, insurance, and maintenance, and the property owner does not have to deal with the rising costs associated with these expenses. Typically, net lease contracts are long-term, with built-in rent escalators. […]
Stocks finally halted their selloff at the midpoint of last week, with the major indices all up at least 2% on the day. On that day, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) was up over 3%, marking an outperformance from small cap stocks. A trader appears to have used the opportunity to place a 10,000-lot […]
The U.S. stock market dropped sharply In September, and the major stock indexes re-entered bear market territory. In this type of market, it’s easy for investors to give in to their fears and sell at the worst possible time. A review of the history of bear markets makes it easier to keep to your strategy […]
With inflation running rampant, the Federal Reserve is responding by ratcheting up interest rates. The result is that mortgage rates have more than doubled over the last year. Higher rates have pushed many potential buyers who could have afforded to buy in 2021 out of the market in 2022. For a $300,000 mortgage, a buyer […]
Preferred stock shares feature a mix of common stock and debt security traits. In other words, they’re the best of the stock and bond worlds, and offer excellent, secure yields… if you understand how they work. So today, let’s dig into that – and see the two best preferred stocks to buy today… Preferred stocks […]
