If you’re serious about trading options, then you need to understand implied volatility (or IV). Why? Because it’s a stat that helps you place winning trades. If you don’t pay attention to IV, you could end up buying high or selling low. In either case, you’re more likely to lose… Read More

If you’re a seasoned options trader and you’d like to make a profit off of a stock that will stay within a price range in the near term, consider using an iron butterfly strategy. You really need to know what you’re doing, though. An iron butterfly involves four trades. It’s… Read More

How much does an option change in value as its underlying stock price moves one way or the other? The answer to that is the delta calculation. Delta is one of “the Greeks.” Those are statistical values that give you important info about options. Other Greeks include theta, vega,… Read More

How would you like to profit from a stock that moves significantly in either direction? If so, then consider the long strangle strategy. The key here is that you need large movement in the underlying stock for the trade to be profitable. It doesn’t matter which way the stock moves,… Read More

Judging by the wild market gyrations of late 2018, what can investors expect in 2019? As Bette Davis famously warned in the 1950 movie All About Eve: “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” These bumps include Brexit uncertainty; slowing growth in China; the unraveling of… Read More

Shares of healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) plunged 10% on December 14 in response to an investigative news story by Reuters that accused the company of covering up the use of asbestos in its popular baby powder product: “From at least 1971 to the early 2000s,… Read More

There’s a new entry to the lexicon of hipster jargon: “vape.” It means inhaling and exhaling the vapor created by an e-cigarette, a battery-powered device that heats liquid nicotine in a disposable cartridge. E-cigarettes (e-cigs for short) are all the rage and they pose a challenge to traditional cigarette makers… Read More

In Part 2 of our discussion on annuities, we touch on variable annuities and review the choices available to investors when an annuity begins to pay out. Read More

The marijuana “green rush” has overtaken Wall Street, as investors jump aboard marijuana stocks the way frenzied gold miners descended on San Francisco in the 19th century. As with the gold rush of that bygone era, some green rush investors will get rich… and others will go bust. But the… Read More

As a certain girl from Kansas said: “There’s no place like home.” A home is still the biggest asset of most Americans and remains integral to consumer confidence. When the real estate market prospers, people feel wealthier. Instrumental in generating a “wealth effect” among Americans is the steady rise in… Read More