Newsletters
Twilight on the Beach as I Ponder Why I Teach
My wife, Dale Ann, and I are sitting high on our deck, watching the most beautiful sunset over Lake Erie, sipping some of the finest fruit of the vine. Down the way on the sparkling sandy beach, the sounds of kids kicking a ball, with their music playing faintly in the background, are augmented by […]
Why Day Trading SPY Options Works So Well
Let me explain something. It was Thursday, May 22, the day after SPY tanked on recent news. Moody’s Ratings dropped the U.S. government’s score by a notch from the pristine AAA to AA1, citing rising debt and interest costs. Moody’s comments that the situational costs are “significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns.” This isn’t terrible […]
The Secret to Successful Options Trading
I pondered as a kid why it is so difficult to make money on the stock market. After all, can you not just buy something and sell it for a little more? Now I’m finding a great many people try to read into options trading much more than they need to. They seem to think there […]
Day Trading in the Mental Zone
You are likely familiar with the mechanics of trading options on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). This is all we trade; nothing else. The reason is simple: master one great strategy and you won’t need anything else. Day trading options on SPY provides many daily opportunities. If you can’t make it on SPY, you likely […]
Trading Is a Mental Game
My father, now gone for 18 years, rest his soul, was an expert chess player. I never knew anyone who could beat him. He taught me at an early age and we would play regularly. Sometimes, I realized later in life, he would let me win just to keep me interested in playing. But he was always […]
The Best Option to Trade
I was recently asked how I select the best option to trade. There are hundreds of options with strike prices ranging from 250 to 700 on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). How do I select one over another? Under normal conditions, the best balance between risk and reward is the “at-the-money” options, which are […]
Maybe It’s Time to Scale Back… One Step at a Time
Seasoned traders are doing exceptionally well in these highly volatile times, ratcheting up profits like nobody’s business. They understand risk and have a higher tolerance for market vacillations. Whether they seek further-out expirations or use tighter exits, they are able to navigate today’s turbulent market fluctuations. The issue is that, rather than the economy chugging along […]
Almost Got Fooled on a Life Insurance Ruse
It seems everyone has a hustle. My life insurance agent, who has not contacted me in probably a decade, recently called to discuss my insurance needs. He was likely not aware that I have an understanding of that industry, not to mention my many years of hard life experience when someone calls out of the blue […]
Just What Happened Last Week?
Monday, March 31… SPY shot up to pare recent losses, enthusing investors, despite President Trump’s assertion that “you’d start with all countries.” The market was stoked as he also said the tariffs would be more generous than trade partners had been to the United States. Tuesday, April 1… the S&P 500 edged higher, awaiting “Liberation […]
Is It a Retracement or Trend Reversal?
If we knew the answer to that question unequivocally, we would be sitting on a beach in Tahiti with beautiful Polynesian ladies serving refreshing fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them. Instead, you have the next best thing: my take on what constitutes a retracement verses a trend reversal and why clarity on this is […]
