SKF

A lot of people have lost money trying to use leveraged etfs as a trading vehicle. I show you a better way to trade them so you can consistently get returns.

In a previous OptionMaestro.com post, I outlined 30 stocks which I wouldn't mind going long at these levels. I wrote about getting long the stocks by using the buy-write option strategy. This is an updated post to that one, adjusting the strikes and prices accordingly for options expiration today.

Today I spent most of the day staring at the FAS 30min chart. Oddly, visions of SKF came pouring into my head. Short the market, is that what you think I’m thinking? Save that for the donks. Those are the only people trying to short the market or continuing the daytrade charade of SRS and [...]

n this post I will compare some put options amongst some of the most actively traded financial stocks, which will benefit the most from rising market volatility. With the market rallying and volatility sinking like a stone lately, now may be a good time to get long some put options which will benefit from both a sell off as well as rising volatility.

In this post I will compare some put options amongst some of the most actively traded financial stocks, which will benefit the most from rising market volatility. With the market rallying and volatility sinking like a stone lately, now may be a good time to get long some put options which will benefit from both a sell off as well as rising volatility.

I happened to be on TV the afternoon of March 6th, broadcasting the last 3 hours of a day that the market was plunging 300 points off the open on Livestock with Tim Sykes, where I laid out my bullish case.

I believe a pull back [7%-15%] on the major indices is not only inevitable but necessary for a healthy market recovery. Let's face it, we've come too far too fast, and as we were oversold on the downside until early March, I believe we are currently overbought.

As I recently wrote on OptionMaestro.com, I believe the bank stocks are especially overpriced, but don't really want to sell all of my shares (as this stock market could continue rallying). In this post there are two types of hedging or protective ideas that require the use and knowledge of stock options.

Another day in the books, but there still hasn't been too much selling pressure, with the S&P 500 down about a quarter of one percent. As I recently stated on http://www.optionmaestro.com, I think there is a sell off ahead, or at least that is what the Volatility Index (VIX) is telling me.

With the Volatility Index (VIX) being at the lowest levels in a long time, and earnings from: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), American Express (NYSE:AXP), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) sparking an after hours sell off, it would be a great time to purchase leap 2011 call options (that is if you believe in this rally).

With just 1 day left being Friday July 17, 2009, for the July options expiration, there are still several Buy/Write option strategies which will yield high returns (considering the probabilities and it is just 1 trading day). In this post I am using the highly volatile Direxion ETF shares, which seek to return 3 times a specific basket of stocks.

With just 1 day left being Friday July 17, 2009, for the July options expiration, there are still several Buy/Write option strategies which will yield high returns (considering the probabilities and it is just 1 trading day). In this post I am using the highly volatile Direxion ETF shares, which seek to return 3 times a specific basket of stocks.

With the stock market rallying again on Wednesday, it would have been another great opportunity to get protective, as it's cheaper on up days. I believe this may just be a short squeeze riding into the options expiration Friday, as I think the market is still due for a correction (see why from the chart here).

After reading a lot of blog posts, tweets on twitter, Facebook comments, and emails, I decided it was time to figure out the real decay behind the leveraged ETF's, both long and short. As I wrote about this in one of my previous blog posts, I wanted to revisit this issue of the double and triple leveraged ETF's, and why investor's should stay away from them, and to clear up some confusion.