Market Insights
Opportunity knocks for those with trading in their DNA.
Curiosity creates opportunity. Insights create strategy. Born traders create their destiny.
Stocks
Options
Futures
Value Stocks Rally on Fed Hopes, Dealmaking
by David Russell | Aug 14, 2025
Lagging stocks like small caps and materials are playing catchup as investors pivot from megacap growth to value plays.
Russian Attack Triggers Surprise Rally Across the Beaten Down Nasdaq-100
by David Russell | Feb 25, 2022
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...
Technical Analysis: Is This Social Media Stock Overbought After an Earnings Rally?
by David Russell | Feb 23, 2022
Snap had a sharp rally on February 4 after quarterly results beat estimates. But now its longer-term downtrend may be reasserting itself. The first pattern on today’s chart is the stochastic oscillator. It’s swinging back to the downside after jumping into overbought...
Inflation Good, Inflation Bad: Price Spirals Are Splitting Consumer Stocks
by David Russell | Feb 23, 2022
It's the best of times and worst of times for consumer stocks, thanks to the fastest inflation in 40 years. Companies like Kraft Heinz (KHC), Tyson Foods (TSN) and Kellogg (K) have advanced in the last two weeks. In the process they've bucked a selloff in the broader...
Stocks Fall Again as Russia and the Fed Keep the Bears Active
by David Russell | Feb 22, 2022
Stocks fell again last week as inflation and geopolitical tensions added to a potentially bearish technical picture for big indexes. The S&P 500 dropped 1.6 percent between Friday, February 11 and Friday, February 18. It was the second straight negative week,...
Markets Are Always Changing. TradeStation Can Help You Keep Up
by David Russell | Feb 21, 2022
https://youtu.be/XFpGTDYJHOM?t=90 Growth or value? Fear or greed? Financial markets are always changing. However, conditions can be diagnosed using a handful of key indicators and approaches. This free education video teaches how TradeStation's award-winning platform...
Russia and Inflation: Stock Market Negativity Hasn’t Been This High in How Long?
by David Russell | Feb 18, 2022
Negativity is surging in the stock market as investors worry about Russia, inflation and the Federal Reserve. Only 19.2 percent of investors described themselves as "bullish" in the latest weekly poll by the American Association of Individual Investors. It was the...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication
Technical Analysis: What If Apple Holds This Price Level?
by David Russell | Dec 11, 2022
Megacap technology stocks like Apple have dragged on the market amid disruptions in China. But what if the iPhone giant manages to bounce? Could it give the bigger indexes a boost? The main pattern on today’s chart is the $140 level. This price first had importance on...
History May Favor Bulls This Quarter, Despite Volatility
by David Russell | Oct 15, 2018
Stocks are coming off their worst week since March, but history may favor the bulls. After all, we're in the fourth quarter -- a time of the year with a strong bias to the upside. Consider some of these points we crunched from TradeStation's wealth of chart data: The...
Basics of Hedging, Part 3: Buying Vs. Selling Options
by David Russell | Oct 12, 2018
We recently outlined protective puts and covered calls as common hedging techniques. This brings us to the important question of selling options versus buying options. To understand the these two basic kinds of transactions, traders need to recognize the difference...
Nasdaq Gets Slammed as Rates Shoot Higher
by David Russell | Oct 8, 2018
Stocks began the fourth quarter in the red as interest rates spiked and money streamed out of the technology sector. The S&P 500 slid 1 percent between Friday, September 28, and Friday, October 5. But that was nothing compared with the Nasdaq-100's 3 percent drop...
The Message Behind Yesterday’s Volatility Spike
by David Russell | Oct 5, 2018
Yesterday was a reminder for traders who forgot what volatility feels like. The S&P 500 had its biggest drop since June 25, and Cboe's Volatility Index ($VIX.X) had its biggest spike over the same period. Even more impressive, TradeStation data showed 23.6 million...





