Market Insights
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Chart of the Day: Is the AI Trade Done for Now?
AI has been a dominant theme for months, but some traders may think the robots are getting tired.
New 20-year Treasury Bond Futures Are Launching Today
New 20-year Treasury bond futures start trading today, two years after the government launched the underlying securities. The new contracts will control $100,000 of face value, with quarterly expirations. Its symbol root will be TWE. The first contract is dated for...
With Technology Still Under Pressure, Where Is Money Going in the Stock Market?
Steel stocks are flying as investors scramble to stay ahead of spiraling inflation. The DJ US Steel Index ($DJUSST) surged 29 percent in February. It not only hit a 13-year high. It also outperformed the S&P 500 by a whopping 31 percentage points. That was its...
These Were the Busiest Symbols at TradeStation in February
Advanced Micro Devices was the busiest symbol at TradeStation Securities in February, knocking Tesla from the No. 1 spot. Activity surged in AMD after the chip maker reported better-than-expected earnings, revenue and guidance. The stock, rebounding from a four-month...
Stocks Hold Their Ground But Face a Series of Potential Risks as Ukraine Crisis Rages
Stocks inched higher last week but face a potential minefield of geopolitical risk and economic events in coming days. The S&P 500 rose 0.8 percent between Friday, February 18, and Friday, February 25. It was the first positive week in the last three, but the...
The Economy May Be Accelerating Before the State of the Union and Powell’s Testimony This Week
It's been almost exactly two years since the coronavirus pandemic hammered the global economy. And now things may be finally returning to normal -- just in time for some big events in coming days. Consider some of these reports last week: The Commerce Department...
Russian Attack Triggers Surprise Rally Across the Beaten Down Nasdaq-100
Russia attacked Ukraine early on Thursday. After an initial panic, investors had an interesting response: They piled into software and technology stocks that took a beating over the last two months. Take a company like Microsoft (MSFT), which pushed under $272 in the...
Technology & Communication
Options Alert: Trader Looks for More Upside in Chinese Tech Stock
Chinese technology stocks have been jumping, and one options trader is positioning for the move to continue. Check out this unusual activity this afternoon in e-commerce company JD.com (JD): Some 5,000 February 70 calls were purchased for $4.01.At the same time, the...
Cloud IPO Available to TradeStation Clients
A cloud-computing IPO could be coming your way, if you act fast. Software company SolarWinds (SWI) is going public this week, and we've just learned it will be available on our partner ClickIPO. As many clients know, ClickIPO provides direct access to initial public...
Long-Term Bulls Are Active Today: Options Recap
Cell phones and natural gas. Those are some big trades in the options market today. Let's start with Sprint (S), which saw the purchase of 20,000 May 7 calls for $0.50 and the sale of 40,000 May 8 calls for $0.21. It's a little complicated, so here's a breakdown of...
History May Favor Bulls This Quarter, Despite Volatility
Stocks are coming off their worst week since March, but history may favor the bulls. After all, we're in the fourth quarter -- a time of the year with a strong bias to the upside. Consider some of these points we crunched from TradeStation's wealth of chart data: The...
Basics of Hedging, Part 3: Buying Vs. Selling Options
We recently outlined protective puts and covered calls as common hedging techniques. This brings us to the important question of selling options versus buying options. To understand the these two basic kinds of transactions, traders need to recognize the difference...