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Bullish Narrative Potentially Returns to Oil

Bullish Narrative Potentially Returns to Oil

Just as quickly as they appeared, oil bears are on the run. Crude oil futures (@CL) closed at their highest level yesterday since July 10, bolstered by a series of positive headlines: Weekly inventories fell by 2.6 million barrels, more than twice the expected drop....

More Techs Coming to Life

More Techs Coming to Life

Tech stocks keep jumping as stocks nudge higher. Yesterday, we covered how names like Apple (AAPL) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) were sneaking to new highs. Today that trend continued as other prominent technology stocks also hit new records. First and foremost is...

Someone Just Made a Killing in this Software Stock: Options Recap

Someone Just Made a Killing in this Software Stock: Options Recap

Someone made a killing in a cloud-software company. Just look at the options. Call volume spiked yesterday in Workday (WDAY), which shot to a new all-time high on Tuesday and is up 23 percent in the last month. It looks like the investor rang the register on a winning...

Big Caps on the Move: Scanning for Breakouts in the Dow

Big Caps on the Move: Scanning for Breakouts in the Dow

It's pretty quiet today as stocks drift aimlessly before Labor Day. Dog days of summer? More like the sloth days ... Still, some members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average are melting to new highs even as the broader market snoozes in the shade. Here's a quick tool...

Greek of the Week: Theta

Greek of the Week: Theta

This is the third installment of a four-part series about options Greeks on Market Insights concluding Labor Day week. So far, we've looked at delta and gamma. This week, we'll turn to theta. Theta: T is for "time decay." Theta measures how much time value an option...

Starting with Futures: S&P 500 E-minis

Starting with Futures: S&P 500 E-minis

Do you love to trade stocks, but are confused by futures? Keep reading. Many clients are initially puzzled, or even scared, by these derivative instruments. The lingo is different. Their hours are weird. The rules seem bizarre, along with their settlements and...

Is the Global Picture Brightening?

Is the Global Picture Brightening?

Global stocks have been a hot mess all summer, but some recent events may suggest the tide is turning. Over the weekend, for instance, China allowed its currency to appreciate against the U.S. dollar. That's being viewed as a sign Beijing won't deploy yuan devaluation...

Last Week Shows Records Were Made to Be Broken

Last Week Shows Records Were Made to Be Broken

As the saying goes: Records were made to be broken. Just take the market last week. The S&P 500's decade-long bull run surpassed the lifespan of its previous upward journey in the 1990s. Another record fell on Tuesday, when the Russell 2000 Index hit a new...

New Companies Back on the Rise

New Companies Back on the Rise

Back in the spring, there was a wave of bullishness in initial public offerings. After a few pullbacks, some of those companies are pushing higher again. Take a name like ZScaler (ZS), which provides cloud-computing security services. It chopped around after crushing...