Friday, April 4, 2025
The markets are ugly. This market crash is ugly. Volatility, as measured by the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) just spiked to 32.76. Traders are running scared. Stocks are plunging. Inflation is out of control. Central banks are racing to cool inflation. The Dow fell from its April 2022 high of about 35,500 to 30,663. There […]
Inflation is hitting all of us pretty hard. The cost of living is rapidly increasing—most notably, we have seen gas prices increase substantially over the last year. While gas prices are the headline, consumers are being hit with rising costs everywhere. Food, rents, housing prices, gas prices, heating oil. It’s everywhere. That list doesn’t even […]
I’m continuing to pound the table on the idea of selling options to generate income with volatility at its current level. The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) continues to hover around 30, which is creating very interesting opportunities in options. Most everyone owns stocks. Therefore, the risk we all share is that the equity market could […]
Last week was a tough one for social media company Snap (SNAP), which missed badly on guidance. The company warned of challenging macroeconomic conditions ahead and the stock dropped over 40% the next day. The following day, the stock gained 10%, and a large investor bought 10,000 January SNAP calls. This seemingly very bullish trade […]
With my conservative investment strategies, I do not have much reason to worry about the current stock market correction. I know that if I accumulate dividend-paying shares for cheap while others are selling, my income and wealth will be much greater when the market recovers. And it always recovers. I am, however, concerned about a […]
Selling puts on the Proshares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY) is one of my go-to trades when implied volatility is high and I think it will stay elevated in the near term. UVXY is supposed to correspond to 1.5x the performance of the S&P 500 VIX Short Term Futures Index. The short of it […]
Wow, what a week! For those whose portfolios are simply filled with long stocks, this has been a disastrous time. But for those who are swimming in cash, this is a great opportunity to make even more money by selling some options to take in the lofty premiums being priced into options due to fear […]
The market has been in a significant downtrend this year, but the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) has been hit even harder. ARKK is down 60% year-to-date as it holds some of the most speculative stocks from the past several years. However, several options trades last week appear to be from traders opening up bullish positions […]
Today we’re featuring Tim Melvin, the newest investing expert here at Investor’s Alley, here in Options Floor Trader. He brings 30+ years of investing experience and expertise in alternative strategies to create income and returns that don’t depend on the S&P 500 going up. Today, as markets are falling and fear is building, he has […]
One of my favorite trading strategies—and one that big-time money managers and volatility traders use—is trading an iron condor. An iron condor is selling a downside put spread and an upside call spread at the same time. In this scenario, you cap your risk because you have a spread with a defined loss. A common […]
