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Options Alert: Tesla Volatility Spurs Big Trade
by David Russell | Jul 8, 2025
Political drama shook Tesla yesterday, and options traders were active.
Options Alert: Giant Neutral Strategy Targets Intel Following Sharp Drop
by David Russell | Feb 1, 2022
Intel's been dropping for nine months, but one big options trader is looking for the semiconductor giant to stabilize. This large transaction involving short calls and short puts occurred yesterday as INTC tried to hold its lowest level in over a year: 30,000 March 50...
Stocks Cling to Support as the Fed’s Hawks Go to Work. Growth Heads for Worst Month in 20 Years.
by David Russell | Jan 31, 2022
Stocks clung to support last week as investors brace for a series of rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 spent most of the period in negative territory, but rallied sharply in the final 90 minutes on Friday, January 28. That resulted in a 0.8 percent...
Don’t Fight the Fed? Powell’s New Hawkishness Is Making Investors Reprice the Stock Market
by David Russell | Jan 28, 2022
Stocks are tumbling as the Federal Reserve's tighter monetary policy forces investors to rethink the entire stock market. The S&P 500 is down 9.2 percent in January, its worst month since coronavirus shuttered the economy in March 2020. High-multiple growth stocks...
Energy Stocks Are Crushing the Market in 2022 and Nothing Else Is Even Close
by David Russell | Jan 26, 2022
Oil and gas stocks are crushing the market this year, and no other sector even comes close. The SDPR Energy Fund (XLE) has advanced 17.7 percent since the end of December. It's the only major sector fund in the green, flying past the S&P 500's 8.6 percent decline....
Chart of the Day: Is This Forgotten Agricultural Stock Quietly Breaking Out?
by David Russell | Jan 24, 2022
The rise of inflation has investors quietly returning to many commodity-related stocks that were popular 2003-2007. One of them is Bunge. Earlier this month, the soybean processor touched its highest level in over 13 years. It pulled back but is trying to stabilize...
Stocks Break Support as Bears Spread from Big Tech to the Broader Market
by David Russell | Jan 24, 2022
Stocks just had their worst week since early in the pandemic as big indexes knifed through key support zones. The S&P 500 plunged 5.7 percent in the holiday-shortened week between Friday, January 14, and Friday, January 21. It was the biggest drop since mid-March...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication
Chart of the Day: Will T-Mobile Follow Other Telecoms Lower?
by David Russell | Oct 5, 2022
Telecom stocks have mostly fallen in recent months. One exception has been T-Mobile US. Could it soon follow its peers lower? The first pattern on today's chart is TMUS's break below its 100-day moving average in late September. Price bounced there several times this...
A Tough Slog For Banks, With a Happy Ending
by David Russell | Sep 27, 2018
There was a day when higher interest rates lifted financials. But not anymore. Selling in the sector has been intense, with 64 of the 67 members of the SPDR Financial ETF (XLF) down so far this week. Banks, insurers and asset managers have all taken a beating. (Don't...
IPOs Keep Coming in September
by David Russell | Sep 24, 2018
Initial public offerings (IPOs) are running at their quickest pace in years. Have you been watching? Volume at the end of August was already close to the total for all of 2017, according to data from ClickIPO. In fact, if you include Spotify's (SPOT)'s unusual direct...
Options 101: Hedging With Ratio Spreads
by David Russell | Sep 24, 2018
This post is part of an educational series on equity derivatives. Want to learn more? Sign up for our Options Stars 2018 symposium in Chicago next month. Sometimes I love trading options so much I forget they were invented to be used in tandem with stocks. This post...
Your Favorite Sector’s Getting Reshuffled
by David Russell | Sep 21, 2018
Everyone loves tech. Did you know the sector's about to get reshuffled? Over the years, "technology" has become an increasingly ambiguous term. What do semiconductors have in common with phone companies? Why should routers and photocopiers get lumped alongside social...




