Trading Tips Blog

Apple has been in the headlines lately, but close readers of the news may have noticed Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) is also capturing attention. One reason is related to the important question of censorship by tech companies. The Associated Press noted, “Netflix faced criticism…from human rights groups for pulling an episode in Saudi Arabia of comedian Hasan Minhaj’s “Patriot Act” series that criticized the kingdom’s powerful crown prince. The American comedian used his second episode, released Oct. 28, to criticize Crown Prince ...
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Charts can provide plenty of profitable trading patterns time and again. But they can also be deceiving. That’s because most charts don’t share key data. It can tell you a price point on a given day—which is handy. But there’s more to a price chart than price. For instance, if a stock keeps moving higher day after day, it may look like a good trade. But if it’s bouncing around during trading hours and only barely heading higher, it may not look like ...
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Most folks just think of investments as things that go up or down (and even then hopefully just up). But the fact of the matter is, any asset can have a long period of time where it trades in a sideways range, bouncing between a high and low. Recognizing these ranges from a chart pattern is a good way to find short-term trades. It may not be the big grand slam of catching a major move up or down, but it can ...
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There’s a great old saying on Wall Street: The trend is your friend. But what happens when the trend ends? After all, nothing lasts forever. That’s when things can become troublesome for investors. At least, for those who don’t know the signs. That’s because a stock’s pattern can give you a clue that a long-running trend is about to end. And whether that means a stock that’s been going up is about to go down, or a declining stock is about to ...
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There’s a great old saying on Wall Street: The trend is your friend. That’s especially true if you want to trade in the options market, where you have a limited amount of time for a trade to play out. Yet many investors, focused on a company’s fundamentals, don’t think about trends at all. It’s a critical skill for any investor—but it’s crucial for shorter and more leveraged trades like those in the options market. That’s why it’s important to consider all the ...
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Trading can be tough for many reasons. But just as a general fighting a war may send on scouts, you too can scout out the options market for the best possible trades. Understanding how a company’s options usually move can prepare you to find moments where they’re making unusual moves. And by looking at options with unusual activity, you can get an idea of where larger investors in the options market are placing their bets. These larger traders—the so-called “Smart Money” on ...
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Chart patterns show the emotions of traders. Technical analysts combine the price action seen on charts with indicators designed to measure momentum and other characteristics of the market. Combined, these techniques can provide a trading strategy. To begin the development of a trading strategy, traders can look at a price chart of a broad stock market index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Price trends in indexes are highly correlated with each other so traders can ...
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Most options investors screw it up. They may just buy a call option and hope a stock will rally further, leading to huge profits. Or they buy a put and hope a company immediately starts filing for Chapter 11. The fact of the matter is, stocks fluctuate. They may eventually go way up or way down, but it won’t be in a straight line. And knowing how to profit from more modest moves in a stock—the more typical daily moves you’re ...
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