Jan172017

What Comes Next?

Articles

The road ahead really is pretty unclear.

The stock market may have been expressing a little of the uncertainty that awaits as we get ready to see the proverbial rubber hit the road.

What may be coming clear to some is that the bluster may not have too much behind it.

Or maybe it will.

That’s the problem.

We are in such untested waters that it may be crazy to actually put anything at risk right now, especially as we still sit so close to all time highs.

As we await Inauguration Day and we will be back to having only a single President at a time, we may get to find out whether words will be finding their counterpart in actions.

What we know right now is that we probably shouldn’t have taken too many words with a literal meaning.

What we also know is that there may not be very much agreement between the President and the other elected officials across from him in the Capital.

Even ones in his own party. read more

Jan142017

The Evolution of Dude

Reprints

Lola Gayle, STEAM Register We all know The Dude from The Big Lebowski. But did you know there’s a long history of the word “dude” that spans all the way back to the 1800s? In the 1880s, being called a dude was an insult of the highest order. That’s because dude was used to describe a… read more

Jan142017

Trading on Trump’s Twitter Tantrums

Reprints

When Donald Trump this week gave his first press conference since winning the presidential election, he alternately lauded the press and shouted down reporters he didn’t like with jeers such as: “Fake news!” He slipped into stream-of-consciousness rants about everything from Chinese hackers to hidden cameras in hotel rooms “all over the place.” And he denounced… read more

Jan132017

Wouldn’t that be Great?

Articles

everydayIf only this picture was true.

At least when it came to trading.

So far, this year has been a trader’s dream come true.

I’ve made trades each and every trading day of the year, but the only problem has been that there is no trading on Saturday and Sunday.

On top of that, you’ve got those pesky holidays.

The past couple of years I welcomed some of those pesky holidays.

But for a really large part of the 2007 to 2014 period I was actually upset whenever there was a day off from trading.

It’s nice to feel that way again. read more

Jan112017

Small Victories

Daily Market Update

smallvictoriesIt may be too soon to call this a victory, but for the moment, I’ll take whatever I can.

In this case, the victory was waking up this morning an still having Monday’s share purchase of Whole Foods in the account.

Whole Foods was ex-dividend today for $0.14

But shares closed yesterday at $30.73, which meant that the $30.50 strikes could have been assigned early.

But it’s all about the math and the probability of what could still happen over the course of the days remaining on the option contract.

In this case, following the $30.73 close and then deducting that $0.14 dividend, Whole Food shares would then start being available to trade at $30.59

For the option holder, the question was would it be worth actually paying the $30.50 for shares in order to grab the $0.14 dividend or hoping that maybe there was still some juice in that option contract.

Of course, if the option holder decided to grab the dividend, not only would he have to pay the $30.50 for shares, but he would also take the risk of shares declining in value at the open. read more