Stocks Are Poised For A Tumble: Is Trading Now A Smart Move?

August 29, 2010 by Mike Smith  
Filed under Economy

Unemployment

Underemployment is still over 18%.[1] A massive amount of people on unemployment or working part-time is not going to help retailers, home builders, or banks. With high unemployment here to stay, U.S. states and municipalities will continue to receive lower revenues than their budgets require, and many will be forced to lay off more workers and make more spending cuts.[2][3][4] Governor Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency a short while ago, as California’s state budget is a month overdue and currently has a $19 billion shortfall.[5]

Real Estate

Credit will be not be as easy to come by for those who have suffered foreclosure.[6] As retail sales stabilize or decrease, commercial real estate will continue to lag.[7]

Home sellers have been slashing prices, while home sales continue to sink.[8][9] The amount of homes banks are keeping out of the market is still substantial.[10]

Tax Increases

Income taxes will increase and new taxes will go into effect at the start of 2011.[11] Higher taxes is yet another impediment to growth.

Europe

Many European countries will cut spending, cut benefits, and lay off workers.[12] This will affect sales for many American companies. Not long ago, debt downgrades hit Portugal and Ireland.[14][15] Moody’s Investor Service put Hungary’s debt rating under review.[16] The debt rating of Greece is currently at junk status.[17]

Reasons the Correction Will Occur Before Year-End

-While the death cross by itself is fairly useless, it does breed a bit of fear in those holding securities.

-As more housing and jobs reports come in worse or as bad as expected, more weak hands will sell.

-Sentiment is beginning to turn more and more negative. Optimism was the primary driver of this market. Talking heads were constantly spouting that jobs were a lagging indicator and that improving statistics would just keep on improving. The rally was driven by hope, and that hope is waning.

In the interest of full disclosure, I own QQQQ puts and SPY puts

Sources:

1. sunherald.com/2010/08/05/2385687/us-underemployment-steady-at-184.html

2. usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-07-13-job-openings_N.htm

3. kswo.com/global/story.asp?s=12751713

4. thenewamerican.com/index.php/economy/sectors-mainmenu-46/4017-facing-fiscal-meltdown-municipalities-struggle-with-pensions-

5. reuters.com/article/idUSN2822176520100728

6. dailyfinance.com/story/credit/consumer-credit-plunges-in-may-april-revised-downward/19546497/

7. voices.washingtonpost.com/political-economy/2010/07/by_ylan_q_mui.html

8. finance.yahoo.com/news/Home-Sellers-Slashing-Prices-cnbc-3365853413.html;_ylt=AmSjTlj1yzGgFSyrnFy.vFi7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1aTBlZnZpBHBvcwM3BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawNob21lc2VsbGVyc3M-?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

9. reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66D1L220100714

10. articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/11/local/la-me-derelict-homes-20100711

11. atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171#

12. huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/29/europes-massive-austerity_n_629062.html

13. finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/greece-in-%22death-spiral%22-europe-still-in-deep-deep-trouble-says-niall-ferguson-518977.html;_ylt=Ajo2DUEbiEHW4ZXR3JQ6oo.7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE2aDFyMHY2BHBvcwMxMQRzZWMDdG9wU3RvcmllcwRzbGsDZXVyb3Blc3RpbGxp?tickers=udn,uup,ero,fxe,spy,%5Eftse&sec=topStories&pos=9&asset=&ccode=

14. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306168.html

15. nytimes.com/2010/07/20/business/global/20punt.html

16. bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-23/moody-s-places-hungary-s-baa1-sovereign-rating-under-review-for-downgrade.html

17. reuters.com/article/idUSWNA964520100427

The purpose of Options trading now is to present a critical view of the market, while providing a detailed report of my options trading. I have been trading puts for some time and am currently holding qqqq options and spy options.

The Fundamentals In Mutual Fund Trading

August 16, 2010 by Irene Garcia  
Filed under Retirement

Mutual fund vehicles are an investment that permits a collection of investors to combine their own money and employ a portfolio manager. The manager invests this particular money, within stocks and options, bonds or alternative investment securities. Mutual fund investment companies’ combine money from investors and offer to sell and acquire back their shares on a endless time frame and use the funds thus raised to make investments in securities of various organizations. The stocks and shares these mutual funds have tend to be rather fluid and tend to be utilized for getting or redeeming and/ selling stock shares at a net asset valuation. Mutual Funds are thought the perfect investment opportunity with modest risk. When a person buyes a mutual funds your capital is usually a section of the holdings of the account.

The actual profits are distributed amongst the shareholders. Mutual funds give a easy and relatively low-cost method to diversify for little investors. Mutual funds usually are composed of a number of individual stocks or bonds and ordinarily provide a scaled-down original investment amount to be contributed on a month to month schedule. This smaller money amount tends to make it feasible for a range of people to begin saving in to the stock market without having large chunks of funds already set aside. Mutual funds are now well-liked in employer-sponsored pension plans such as (401(k)s ) and 403(b)s as well as IRAs .

Mutual funds may also be quite customer friendly. Systems may be established for automatic investments, phone withdrawals, and online software programs which make it possible for an individual to move money from one fund to another or deposit to a bank account. Mutual funds are actually required to retain an impartial bank or trust company to hold and account for all of the money and securities in the actual pool. This custodian has a legally binding responsibility to protect the interests associated with each and every investor. Mutual funds usually are less risky when compared with stocks. This is because of diversification. Mutual funds are simply requested to report their holdings twice a year, although nearly all of them report on a every quarter schedule.

Mutual Funds being so heavily invested with millions in any other cases billions of dollars of stocks usually are not so nimble, hence they normally take heavy losses in the course of massive market downturns just like 2008 or even the stock market today. Mutual funds are usually exposed to this specific risk mainly because of the investor-friendly framework which can make them so desirable. Mutual funds might be highly-priced investment vehicles to manage, with costs several times very well concealed from people. Performance is highly sold while service fees are generally under outlined. Mutual funds are an fantastic idea in theory, but in reality they haven’t always delivered. Not all mutual funds are created the same, and trading in them is not as straightforward as it might seem.

In conclusion, mutual funds seem to be an superb option for investing for the reason that they are simple to become a member of and possess a possibility of offering high returns. People usually do not need the support of a specialist to come to a decision which mutual funds to become a member of with all the information and facts offered by means of the world-wide-web. Mutual funds are able to take advantage of their own buying and selling size and in so doing reduce financial transaction expenses for people. Any time anyone acquire a mutual fund, you usually are capable to diversify without having the numerous ” transaction fee ” costs. Mutual funds are usually appropriate for younger, growth-oriented shareholders whom have time to ride the current market fluctuation and obtain greater wealth.

Want to start following the stock market today on a daily basis. Make sure to stop by for up to date news and comments. This article, The Fundamentals In Mutual Fund Trading is available for free reprint.

I Bit The Bullit Trading Iron Condors

August 13, 2010 by Johnny M Junior  
Filed under Retirement

I had an interesting conversation with an option trader today who is still searching for the secret to making consistent returns with option trading. He said many things that I absolutely agreed with.

One thing that got my attention was when he said “Non-directional option trading doesn’t mean we can make money in any direction. It means that we make money if the underlying doesn’t move in any direction. In other words, it’s still a directional trade, sideways.” He was right, and it’s often advertised that it’s easy to make money with options because we can make money on any direction. However, this isn’t always the case.

If you’re trading Iron Condors, you know what I am talking about; especially if you are trading the Condors that most courses and books teach. If you are trading this strategy in 2009, you probably aren’t making anything. That’s because the Iron Condor is just as directional as most option trades only that its direction is sideways. It’s just as hard to predict a sideways move as it is up or down, for some.

I’ve gotten several calls over the years from people that ended up losing large chunks of their accounts trading credit spreads and condors. It’s always the same story… “I was doing great for several months, and then all the sudden I lost nearly my whole account in one day.” I have heard it time and time again.

This is precisely why I don’t teach traditional Condors and Credit Spreads. If you’re a few days from expiration, and the RUT is right at your short strike, then you are trading the way most people trade this strategy, and soon you’ll be telling the same story to your best friend, and even hiding the truth from your wife! You chuckle now, but you won’t think it’s funny once it happens to you. The worst part of this style of trading is the high stress level that could really ruin your life.

To combat the problem, San Jose Options Mentoring has redesigned Iron Condors and Credit Spreads. We have a different technique which gives the underlying much more wiggle room, lowering our stress level and keeping us out of dangerous situations. Remember, in most cases, you’re better off the less you have to adjust your condor.

We’ve developed safer techniques to trade and lock-in our profits on Condors. Most option traders exit their trades after they make a profit, but we can lock-in our profits and stay in the trade.

Furthermore, if we ever have a Condor move against us, then we have developed a technique which gives us a free bonus trade! So, even though we may have a rough month every now and then, at least we score a free trade from it while the other guys take a hit and move on.

In the best of days and worst of days, we stand by the techniques we’ve developed in the Iron Condors and other Strategies.

Want to find out more about Trading Options, safely? Then visit San Jose Options to learn some of the lowest-risk Option Spreads ever taught anywhere.

Combat Today’s Markets With The Unbalanced Condor

August 11, 2010 by Donald Scott  
Filed under Retirement

Today I’m writing an article about the generally unknown strategy known as the Unbalanced Condor. Although this strategy has been around for a while, for some reason, it’s not very popular. On my own, I’ve studied options for over a decade now and took many of the popular courses that can be found on the internet. After spending nearly $50,000 on my options education, I find it puzzling and rather erroneous that most option courses are not teaching this strategy.

Why has the Unbalanced Condor been lost? Why is this strategy unheard of? To me it’s a little more obscure than the Broken Wing Butterfly, which is another strategy that most option traders don’t know how to manage. I think the reason that these strategies are not so popular is because most traders want to make money really fast. The problem with this point of view is that this causes 99% of them to lose most of their money. Remember, making money fast usually equates to losing money faster. Let’s look at a concept of making money slower and lowering our risk.

For example, how would you like to trade options in a circumstance where it’s nearly impossible to lose money in one direction, and in the other direction, there is nearly a 100% guarantee that you will make money? Doesn’t that sound ideal? And what if I told you that you can also make money on this trade if the market does not move? On paper this looks like the perfect strategy. It would seem there is no way to lose.

Sadly, it is completely possible to lose on this trade. In fact, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can lose a lot, especially if you’re trying to make a lot of money fast, and are too aggressive with it. Being a patient trader is the secret to the Unbalanced Condor. Once you’ve mastered the patience and the simple adjustments that go along with the spread, it becomes really hard for you to lose on this trade. Your worst-case scenario would probably result in a one to two percent loss.

The bad news is that there are very few experts on this trading strategy. It’s hard to find a specialist or mentor on this topic. To become proficient with it, you’ll need to study it for months and even years to really get it down, but once you do, you’ll be very happy that you invested the time. Now that I know how to use this strategy competently, I call it “The Revolver” since it’s my weapon to defend me in any type of market.

To learn the ins and outs of this unsung strategy can really help improve your option trading. The first step to success with options is to control your risk, and by trading with Unbalanced Condors is one of the best ways you can ever do this. If you do your research, you just might find that this is the strategy you have been looking for over the years and never knew how to find it.

Don’t be an ordinary Option Trader! Learn how to trade the Unbalanced Condor with San Jose Options.

Option Trading Tips Using The Greeks

July 15, 2010 by Donald Scott  
Filed under Retirement

Let’s talk about the often misunderstood option Greeks. Beginning option traders only focus on the Greek known as Delta, and although Delta can tell us many things about our option position, there is more to look into. A good trader will focus a lot on volatility in the stock market.

When adjusting the Delta of an option position to manage risk, it’s important to understand how to use volatility to adjust a position in their favor, sadly many traders don’t. There are different types of adjustments that can be done to not only adjust the Delta on the trade, but also adjust the position’s sensitivity to the implied volatility of the underlying asset.

Take an option spread called a “Butterfly” for example. The stock market trends up to hit your adjustment point. What kind of adjustment do you make?

Always remember, when trading options, it’s important to follow the volatility chart along side the price chart.

Think of it this way, if the underlying is trending up, it usually means the volatility is going down, but not always. So when making your adjustment, try an adjustment that benefits from a falling volatility! It’s called a Negative Vega Adjustment, unless you want to prepare for a whipsaw move in the market, then you should do an adjustment that adds positive Vega to your position.

To help make decisions on what type of adjustments you want to make, learn some technical analysis skills. They can be really helpful! Learn to forecast both the price of the underlying and its implied volatility when you are studying the charts.

When making adjustments to your option trades, it’s always a good idea to keep Vega in mind. Ignoring this can seriously put a damper on your potential for long term returns.

To conclude, there are several ways to neutralize the Delta position of your option spreads. Always remember, when comparing your adjustment possibilities, analyze the volatility graph to choose the best Vega adjustment at the same time. Videos on this topic and others can be seen at www.sjoptions.com

Learn about Max Safety, Max Reward Option Trading Course at www.sjoptions.com. Don’t be the next to lose your whole trading account on your next Option Trade !

Combat Today’s Markets With The Unbalanced Condor

July 1, 2010 by Donald Scott  
Filed under Retirement

Today I’m writing an article about the generally unknown strategy known as the Unbalanced Condor. Although this strategy has been around for a while, for some reason, it’s not very popular. On my own, I’ve studied options for over a decade now and took many of the popular courses that can be found on the internet. After spending nearly $50,000 on my options education, I find it puzzling and rather erroneous that most option courses are not teaching this strategy.

Hopefully, since you are reading my article, it will inspire you and others to begin their own investigations into this technique. I personally think the Unbalanced Condor should be the most used strategy for retail investors. I hope word spreads about the wonderful qualities of this option spread.

Doesn’t it sound ideal to trade options is a circumstance where it’s nearly impossible loose money in one direction, and have a nearly one hundred percent guarantee of making money in another? What if I was to say you can also make money on the trade, even if the market doesn’t move? At first glance, this looks like the perfect strategy, almost as if there was no way to lose.

Sadly, it is completely possible to lose on this trade. In fact, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can lose a lot, especially if you’re trying to make a lot of money fast, and are too aggressive with it. Being a patient trader is the secret to the Unbalanced Condor. Once you’ve mastered the patience and the simple adjustments that go along with the spread, it becomes really hard for you to lose on this trade. Your worst-case scenario would probably result in a one to two percent loss.

We are proud to say San Jose Options is an expert on this strategy. It’s one of their specialties and, currently, I am unaware of any other course that teaches this strategy at all! They’ve been developing and redefining this strategy over the years and developed ways to manage this trade over different types of markets along with ways to lock in our profits as they come. They teach ways to neutralize the Vega position on the trades while maximizing the Theta. They fondly refer to this strategy as the “Revolver” since it can be used to combat any market.

If you want to learn all of the nuances of this rarely talked about strategy, then San Jose Options is your only choice to do so. We have hundreds of recorded classes on this strategy as well as written, step by step instructions with everything you need to know about this unique, low-risk, nearly unheard of option trade. When you are ready to learn what Maximum Safety and Maximum Reward option trading is all about, then your only choice is San Jose Options.

Trade Low-Risk Option Strategies, not your livelihood. Learn how to trade the Unbalanced Condor with San Jose Options. Don’t be an ordinary option trader!

Constructing Low-Risk Option Trades

May 29, 2010 by Johnny M Junior  
Filed under Retirement

I’ve made a lot of friends in my 12 year endeavor to achieve success on the stock market through trading options. I’ve met hundreds of option traders, and the truth is, only a handful of them were making money. I wonder why there are so many people investing in the stock market when most of them only lose their capital.

I find it fascinating. I’ve noticed that most traders are just looking for a good challenge. I know I do. I enjoy all the research, analyzing trades, looking at probabilities. To me working with options and the stock market are my playground. I love the challenge and that it always forces me to move forward. There’s always room for improvement!

Creativity is another reason why so many investors stick with options trading, even If they don’t get their desired results. With an open mind, one can come up with an infinite number of option strategies. To me, this makes the world of option trading a never ending frontier, waiting to be explored.

But the question remains. Why are there so many option traders out there that do not make money? The common answer to this question is that your average option trader does not know how to properly adjust an option position. While this statement is somewhat true, I don’t think it’s actually the answer that we are looking for.

Recently I’ve come to realize the real problem. Option traders in general do not fail because of their adjustment strategies. In fact, most experienced option traders are excellent at money management and make very intelligent adjustments to their portfolios. The failure begins at the beginning of the trade. No matter how good of an option trader you are and risk manager, you will most likely never have long-term success trading options unless you learn to construct option trades that are low risk from the beginning. This is the key to becoming a successful option trader year after year.

I’ve realized all of this in my time studying with San Jose Options. I’ve learned to construct trades that are safer than anything I had ever seen before, and even though the trades are safer, the probability and returns are exceptional. So if you think you’re are making all the right adjustments on your option trades, but you’re still losing money, then most likely the problem is not in your adjustments. Your trades are set up to fail from the get-go. Good luck with your option trading, and once again, it’s very nice to have met another trader along the way.

Learn about Max Safety, Max Reward Option Trading at www.sjoptions.com. Don’t be the next to lose your whole trading account on your next Option Trade !

Why Invest Into Stocks?

May 26, 2010 by Shaun Rosenberg  
Filed under Retirement

The stock market is a great place to build your wealth over the long term and is something that everyone can benefit from getting into. There are a few reasons why you would want to invest into the market.

1. Wealthy People Do It

The majority of wealthy American invest into the stock market. This is one of the things that they tend to have in common. Now it is pretty obvious that most wealthy Americans know a thing or two about how to make money, so doing what they do can be a fantastic way of making money yourself.

2. Retirement Will Be Coming

Unless you want to work until you are 80 you are going to need some sort of retirement plan. Invest into the stock market is one such way to plan for your future. You need to invest into something because retirement will be here before you know it and social security is probably not going to be around forever.

3. Compound Interest Adds Up

The longer your money has to be invested the longer it has to grow and over the long term an investment like the stock market can be extremely powerful and can lead to real wealth. And the earlier you start to invest into the market the more time you have for it to compound and grow, so the best time to start investing is as soon as possible.

4. Your Future is a Result of Your Past

No matter what position you happen to be in right now it is a result of your past. If you do not like where you are at in any particular area of your life don’t worry because you can change it. That is why investing into the stock market can be a fantastic thing, it allows you to prepare for your future and put your future self in a better financial situation.

On the other hand if you simply don’t do anything you will probably end up with a terrible financial future. So planning ahead can really pay off.

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5 Things Stock Traders Do To Make Money

May 17, 2010 by Sam Nielson  
Filed under Economy

Pulling in money from the stock market can be so easy you don’t even comprehend you are doing it. It just happens and you don’t even think about how it happened, you’re just happy it did happen.

Sadly, it turns out there are just as many things you’re doing to lose money, again without even being aware of it.

Persistence

Having persistence is one of the most ignored attributes of profitable stock traders.

You should have a trading system. By definition then, a trading system requires persistence.

You should have the ability to wait for trades. Lack of patience causes investors to take profits and losses too quickly. If that’s you, then you really don’t have a trading system for the reason that you are hardly ever sticking to it.

Stick With It

You need to be able to endure with a trading system. Trading systems do not work as anticipated from time to time. It is better to carry on with that trading system until it is functioning correctly again than it is to ditch it and jump into another system. You ought to have the ability to continue and persevere even if you have a losing streak.

Take Losses

Losses need to be held to the smallest amount. One has got to realize a loss as swiftly as possible. A loss ought to be taken when the trading system that is used indicates. If your trading system has a 5% stop loss rule in place, then if a stock goes down that amount you need to sell. Hanging on to a losing position too long and praying and hoping its going to rise back up will in time destroy your trading account.

Do Not Get Greedy

Keep your expectations to a minimum. Strive for little gains every few days to a couple of weeks. Consider protecting yourself on the downside instead of how much money you can make on the upside. In addition expect to lose money for the first few years of trading as you learn how to trade stocks. After that expect to break even for a year or so before you finally start making money. Consider this as your school tuition as you learn to stock trade.

Do Not Keep Adding Technical Indicators

The more indicators you make use of and the more complex your system is does not translate into a more lucrative trading system.

You could be tempted to believe that the greater number of technical indicators and rules you add to your stock trading system, the more improved it will make it become. This is rarely the case. Adding up new technical indicators and variables to the trading system may cause a trading system to perform even worse. The easier a trading system is, the more likely it is to be profitable.

Check out this excellent site for video lessons on trading stocks and live Twitter and Facebook updates during the trading day. There are also hundreds of free stock trading lessons and articles. Go to stock trading blog and see this video on the donchian channel

What Option Traders Don’t Tell Their Wives

May 14, 2010 by Donald Scott  
Filed under Retirement

Earlier, I had a motivating talk with an option’s investor who is still looking for for the key strategy to earning constant returns with option investing. He understood several things which were so well-known to me also.

The thing in particular that really stood out to me was when he alleged “Non-directional option investing doesn’t mean we will produce a return on investment in every direction. It really means that we produce a return if the asset doesn’t move in any direction. Another way to look at it, it’s really a directional strategy, sideways.” This is very true, and most schools say that it’s easy to manufacture returns with options simply because we can produce money for every direction the market goes. This is true in some points of view and false in others.

Those of you trading Iron Condors know what I am talking about; especially if you are trading the Condors that most courses and books teach. If you are trading this strategy in 2009, you probably aren’t making anything. The reason being that the Iron Condor is just as directional as most option trades only that its direction is sideways. For some, it’s just as hard to predict a sideways move as it is up or down.

Over the last few months I have had many phone calls from option traders losing most of their trading capital with Condors and Credit spreads. They all have said one thing in common: “I was making great returns at first, and then one day, I lost most of my money.” I’ve heard this tale many a time.

This is exactly why I don’t teach traditional Condors and Credit Spreads. If you are a few days from expiration, and the RUT is right at your short strike, then you are trading the way most people trade this strategy, and soon you’ll be telling the same story to your best friend, and you’ll be hiding the truth from your wife! You laugh now, but you won’t be when it happens to you. Another problem with this style of trading is that the stress level is so high that it really ruins your life.

Well, we’ve addressed this aggressive trading style at San Jose Options Mentoring. We’ve redesigned Condors and Credit Spreads. Our technique gives the underlying more room for the price fluctuation, giving us breathing room in our trading as well as in our lives. We find the less adjustments we have to make, then the more we bring home at the end of the month.

Our safer method of trading speaks for itself, but we have also developed another method that is very exciting to share with you. For most option strategies we trade, we now have a way to lock-in the profits and stay in the trade to make more. This is a great technique to use as an investor.

Furthermore, if we ever have a Condor move against us, then we have developed yet another technique which gives us a free bonus trade! So, even though we may have a bad month once in a while, at least we get an excellent, free trade from it where most traders just take the loss and move on.

So there you have it! Whether it’s a winning trade or a loser, we have really developed some nice trading tactics that can improve your personal trading immensely.

Ready to lock in those profits? Better your Option Trading Skills today by visiting San Jose Options Mentoring online at www.sjoptions.com. Visit today and get a Free Video on Option Greeks, a $200 value absolutely free! You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.

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