Market Insights
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Updated Mobile App: A Big Win for Options Traders?
by David Russell | Nov 21, 2025
TradeStation has updated its mobile app to to help users trade, manage and monitor options more easily. The new functionality is especially powerful for complex, multileg strategies.
Stocks Have Been Volatile, But Does the News Get Better From Here?
by David Russell | Aug 12, 2024
Historic volatility hit the stock market last week, but attention could soon turn to a series of upcoming catalysts. Some of them may be viewed positively -- especially after last week's big recovery. The S&P 500 was down as much as 4.3 percent the morning of...
Options Alert: Call Volume Spikes as Apparel Stock Attempts a Turnaround
by David Russell | Aug 8, 2024
Options activity is surging as beaten-down VF jumps and traders unwind bearish positions. The owner of brands like Vans and The North Face rallied 7 percent yesterday after earnings and revenue beat expectations. It was the company's second big surge in the last two...
How Long Will the Volatility Last? Market Trends This Week
by David Russell | Aug 8, 2024
Downloads are available here. TradeStation’s ideas on TradingView are available here. Check out our next “State of the Market,” on Monday, 8/12. Sizing Up the S&P 500 S&P 500 down for 4th straight week, longest negative streak since...
Chart of the Day: The Nasdaq Could Be Oversold
by David Russell | Aug 6, 2024
The Nasdaq-100 has fallen sharply in the last three weeks, but some traders may think the tech-heavy index is oversold. The first pattern on today's chart is the sequence of simple moving averages (SMAs). The 50-day SMA is above the 100-day SMA and both are above the...
Stocks Slide: Is the Fed Behind the Curve Again?
by David Russell | Aug 5, 2024
Almost three years ago, investors thought the Federal Reserve was behind the curve on inflation. Now they have just the opposite fear. The S&P 500 slid 2.1 percent between Friday, July 26, and Friday, August 2. It was the third consecutive negative week, dragging...
Platform Lesson: How Big Was Thursday’s Sharp Move?
by David Russell | Aug 2, 2024
The S&P 500 fell 1.4 percent yesterday, but in some ways the move was much bigger than that. The chart below includes two custom indicators highlighting the size of a symbol's move. Both show that Thursday's drop was the most dramatic in over a year. (They're...
Top Stocks for Options Trading
Technology & Communication
Options Alert: Record Volume in Tech Stock
by David Russell | Apr 8, 2025
Teradyne has been plunging for almost a year, and yesterday it had record options volume. A single large transaction accounted for most of the activity in the company, which supplies testing equipment for semiconductors and robotics: Some 29,383 June 70 puts traded...
Advanced Micro Is Challenging a Trend Line: Chart of the Day
by David Russell | Jun 11, 2021
Believe it or not, Advanced Micro Devices has been little changed for 10 months. But now the semiconductor stock may be getting ready to move. This chart shows how AMD is stuck between a falling trend line and its 50-day moving average. Our Moving Average Speed custom...
Options Traders Are Looking for This Satellite Radio Stock to Blast Off
by David Russell | Jun 8, 2021
Sirius XM has gone nowhere for years, but now bullish options trades are building as the satellite-radio company partners with TikTok. Call volume has climbed steadily in the last week, according to TradeStation data. Today's top contract is the September 8 call,...
Apple Could Be Squeezing Toward a Breakout With New Features Unveiled at WWDC
by David Russell | Jun 8, 2021
Apple has been a frustrating stock for most of the year, but now it may be squeezing toward another rally. The first pattern on today's chart is its super-tight Bollinger bandwidth, which yesterday was the narrowest since December 2019. That could suggest price is...
Technical Alert: Death Cross in Netflix
by David Russell | Jun 3, 2021
The economy is reopening. People are going back to work. It's great news for a lot of stocks, but Netflix isn't one of them. Today, the streaming-video giant's 50-day simple moving average (SMA) closed at $513.97, or $0.53 below its 200-day SMA. That "death cross" may...





