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Money Shifts from Megacaps as Powell Turns Dovish
by David Russell | Aug 25, 2025
Investors are pivoting away from megacaps, positioning for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.
Options Alert: Call Buyer Gives Chinese Tech Stock More Time for a Potential Move
by David Russell | Mar 22, 2022
Chinese technology stocks jumped last week, and one big options trader is targeting a former high flier. Check out this unusual options activity in Shanghai-based e-commerce company Pinduoduo (PDD): A block of 15,000 April 50 calls was sold for $1.67 against open...
Tech Stocks Break the Downtrend Despite a Hawkish Fed. Are the Bears Losing Control?
by David Russell | Mar 21, 2022
Stocks just had their biggest rally in over a year as a broad cloud of bearishness began to lift, despite an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 rose 6.2 percent between Friday, March, 11, and Friday, March 18. The Nasdaq-100 jumped 8.4 and the Dow...
Housing Market Defies Higher Rates as Strong Demand Fuels Construction Boom
by David Russell | Mar 18, 2022
Housing stocks are down sharply this year as investors worry about higher interest rates. However activity on the ground continues to accelerate. The Commerce Department reported that February housing starts rose almost 7 percent to 1.77 million. It beat forecasts by...
After Getting Cut in Half, An Options Trader Thinks this Social Media Giant May Have Bottomed
by David Russell | Mar 17, 2022
Social-media giant Meta Platforms has gotten cut in half, and now one big investor seems to think it will stabilize. Check out the unusual options activity detected in the company formerly known as Facebook (FB) yesterday: A trader sold 16,500 8-April 200 puts for...
Bullish or Bearish? The S&P 500 Faces a Death Cross as It Tries to Break a Falling Trendline
by David Russell | Mar 16, 2022
The S&P 500 has been in a steady downtrend all year. That makes it a good time to assess the state of the index before the big Fed announcement later today. Bearish and bullish forces are battling each other on this chart. First you have the sharply falling...
Inflation, War, Covid: The Federal Reserve Could Be Raising Interest Rates At a Complicated Time
by David Russell | Mar 15, 2022
The Federal Reserve begins a key meeting today as war and coronavirus create an increasingly complicated economic environment. Markets widely expect the Fed to raise its target interest rate by 25 basis points at 2 p.m. ET tomorrow. It would be not only the first...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication
Chart of the Day: Tight Consolidation in Semiconductor Equipment Stock
by David Russell | Mar 14, 2023
Semiconductors have outperformed lately as investors get excited about demand from artificial intelligence (AI). Today’s chart considers equipment supplier Lam Research . The first pattern is the rising 50-day simple moving average. LRCX has consolidated in a tight...
Why Stocks Move: Investor Rotation
by David Russell | Nov 6, 2018
This post, originally published on September 19, is is part of a series about the catalysts for stock movements. Sign up for TradeStation's Master Class learning sessions next week for the complete course. Anyone who's been in the market for a while will...
Tech’s Problems Multiply: Earnings This Week
by David Russell | Nov 1, 2018
Technology stocks rebounded sharply yesterday, but recent earnings reports show problems multiplying in the sector. Just look at Amazon.com (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB). All three missed revenue estimates, potentially marking an end to years of solid...
A Red-Hot Tech Trade Continues to Cool
by David Russell | Oct 29, 2018
The selloff in chip stocks may be justified, according to new data. Global sales grew just 13.8 percent in September, according to numbers released Friday by the Semiconductor Industry Association. That was the weakest monthly growth since December 2016, and follows a...
Wider Fears Amid Some Good Results: Earnings This Week
by David Russell | Oct 25, 2018
A handful of big companies announced strong results in the last week, but wider problems are tarnishing the story. Feeble semiconductor demand, doubts about the industrial sector and lackluster guidance emerged as recurring themes as we progress through the busiest...




