Archive for June, 2010
Coming to Your State: The Next Debt Crisis?
Over the past couple of years we’ve seen soaring debt defaults. It started in subprime mortgages, causing the collapse of major financial institutions worldwide. Then last fall, Dubai got into hot water with its sovereign debt, and now investors are worried that countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal will have trouble paying their national debts. [...]
New Brazil ETF: Different Funds, Different Sectors
Brett Owens of The Contrary Investing Report posted an article at Seeking Alpha suggesting it’s time to “short Brazil” because a new Brazilian ETF has just launched: One of our favorite contrary indicators is the launch of a new ETF. By the time there is sufficient demand for one of these investment vehicles, and it’s [...]
Low 2-Year Yield, High Treasury Spread
As a follow up to my post on a recent US Treasury auction, I thought I’d take a look at the yield on the US 2-year Treasury notes. The bond market often provides interesting clues on where investors are putting their money and how much they expect to receive. As the chart below shows, those [...]
Dump Your Individual Stocks for ETFs?
There’s a lively thread in our ZeccoShare Discussions (started by dollar_dude) about whether ETFs are better than individual stocks. Some say diversification offers “the market’s only free lunch.” Others say ETFs limit returns to only a broad group of stocks. Both views have merit – so what to do? Here’s a suggestion. If you know [...]
Treasury Auctions: Good News? Bad News?
Here’s why trading on the stock market can be tough. This June 23 article in the Los Angeles Times suggests that the recent US Treasury auction went great. That’s good, right? Well… let’s take a closer look. According to the article, the high demand “suggests many investors fear that growth will fizzle in the second [...]
Earnings Season Prediction: Spotlight on Europe
Every three months brings us another “earnings season.” While companies operate on different fiscal calendars, earnings season “unofficially” begins when the first Dow 30 company, Alcoa (AA), releases its earnings. That’s scheduled for July 12. By the end of August, most of the largest companies will have released their second quarter results. So what can [...]
Shorting Against a Long Call Option
Let’s say you bought a call option that’s been very profitable so far, but as expiration nears you want to lock in some of those profits. The options market gives you many choices. You could… Sell your option and exit your entire position Roll your option out to a later month if you think the [...]
Going Deep In The Money (DITM)
As an alternative to buying a stock or ETF, sometimes traders buy “deep-in-the-money” (DITM) call options instead. What makes this strategy attractive is that you can take advantage of the price movement of 100 shares of a stock or ETF while risking less money. But like all strategies, there’s no free lunch because there are [...]
Visual Volatility: What Options Volatility Looks Like
I was taking flying lessons one day when, just after takeoff, my instructor told me he wanted me to remember what climbing out at 75 knots “looked like.” My first thought was, “What the heck does that mean? It looks like 75 knots when the airspeed indicator says 75 knots.” But my instructor had a [...]
Zap Trade Update: Lots of Great Feedback, More Sites on the Way
When I announced Zap Trade last month, I noted that this was a very special product launch for Zecco because it fulfills our mission to be leaders in the future of online trading. This free browser plug-in for Firefox gives you real-time quotes and a quick way to place trades while you’re researching stocks at [...]
