Tuesday, November 26, 2024
A big deal in the grocery store space was announced last week with the potential acquisition of Albertsons (ACI) by Kroger (KR). The merger would create a grocery chain with roughly 12% control of the US market. It’s difficult to say if the deal will make it through antitrust scrutiny. Interestingly, short-term block options trades […]
With the stock market tumbling, investors are on the hunt for safer investments that pay attractive returns. The fact that you can earn 9.62% from a U.S. Savings Bond is getting a lot of buzz. Today, let’s review the features, pros, and cons of investing in these Series I Savings Bonds. The U.S. government sells […]
One way to trade a potential market rebound without the risk of buying stocks outright is by using covered calls. A covered call will cap the upside of a stock or index, but provides cash flow and a bit of downside cushion. Recently, a trader placed a 20,000-lot covered call trade using iShares Russell 2000 […]
Bear markets in the stock market, like the one we’re in right now, produce severe stock price dislocations. In other words, stocks get so cheap, you can pick up shares for pennies to realize fantastic gains when the bull market returns. What you want to do is find profitable companies where those profits are not […]
Alphabet (GOOGL or GOOG), Google’s parent company, is now the largest advertising platform in the world. That would be good news in a healthy market, but heading into a recession, it is actually bad news. Advertising is highly cyclical, and when consumers start pulling back and the economy slows, marketing is often one of the […]
I just stumbled on a stock that’s outperforming its sector and the S&P 500! The sector is down 13%… this stock is up 18%… S&P 500 has sunk 24%… again, this stock has stayed strong at 18%. It pays a dividend and the stock looks like it can still break higher even as markets hit […]
Every week I go through institutional and insider filings, treating the SEC filings as my personal unpaid research service. This research helps me know which stocks the best money managers, private equity funds, and hedge fund managers are buying. This past week I noticed a very successful under-the-radar institutional investor was making considerable additions to […]
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 […]
Energy commodity markets have been focused on demand issues lately, but last week, OPEC announced a production cut, putting supply back in the spotlight. This cut in oil production will result in higher energy prices. That’s going to be a change from the past several months, where gasoline prices, for example, have been falling. As […]
