The Strong/Weak Today column ranks stocks based on the price change relative to the stock’s opening price. These stocks tend to have strong/weak opening drives and continuation moves. The idea here is to find opportunity in the strongest/weakest stocks in the market. When looking through the column, we always take note at how In Play the stock is to gauge … Read More
Beating the Grind – $SPY $IWM $QQQ
The recent volatility has brought the major indices In Play, this broad market movement tends to have the “lift all boats (stocks)” effect, making the ETF’s like $SPY $IWM $TNA $TZA great trading vehicles. However they aren’t always going to be the best option at every point in the day, especially since the market has started to base (albeit a … Read More
Trader’s Ask: Why did I hit my stop much earlier than I thought I would yesterday?
I had an interesting meeting yesterday evening with SMB’s options trainees reviewing yesterday’s meltdown and the affect it had on their options positions. We spent the whole meeting dissecting trades that the options trainees had made during the day. breaking down what went right and wrong with each one and why. It was a great meeting–real traders faced with the … Read More
Free Options Webinar–SMB’s Options Tribe: Today at 5:00 PM–Multiple Monthly Butterfly Strategy
Tuesday August 9, 2011 at 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight time SMB’s Options Tribe is an online community of options traders dedicated to sharing successful options trading ideas with all of our members worldwide. Each week the community will meet online for the primary purpose of watching live presentations made by outstanding veteran options traders and experts in the world of … Read More
You might not be so good at dodging bullets the second time around
In our options training program, we spend a good deal of time working on high probability iron condor strategies. A high probability iron condor is one of the simplest and most popular options strategies, but it also, in my opinion, is one of the most dangerous. As with most dangerous strategies, it is a deceptively attractive and simple trade. An … Read More
When Charts Don’t Tell the Truth – $HUM $AGP
Yesterday HUM was In Play on earnings. It traded lower, much lower – in fact it had about a 7 point down move from the open. A number of traders on the desk did well in HUM, I wasn’t one of them. Looking back at the chart I saw a lot of different trades that could or should have been … Read More