Out of Action
No ITM blog this week. The bull is temporarily out of action following a recent encounter with an orthopedic surgeon. Unfortunately, the bear appears delighted by this development. Normal market commentary will resume as soon as the patient is released from traction. Q & A
Waves or Tide?
Is it Tech Wreck 2.0? Friday’s sell-off was dramatic. The Nasdaq plunged 4.2%, the S&P 500 fell 2.6%, and the financial media immediately began giving explanations. But after every sharp decline, traders ask the same question: “Is this just a bad day, or the beginning of something much bigger?“ Video https://youtu.be/RCF8DOLTmhM In ITM parlance: Is […]
Exotic Beasts
| The Options Zoo | Lizards, condors, butterflies. Options trading sounds exciting, doesn’t it? But underneath the exotic names, these strategies are usually nothing more than combinations of calls and puts. (BTW: the video is really good this week. Have a look.) Video The Wheel This sounds so logical and comforting. And so easy: sell […]
Selling Your Upside
| The Weekly Income Illusion | I was planning to move on to the other half of the wheel strategy, but there were so many questions and suggestions about covered calls that I thought I should clarify a few things first. A frequent question was: Why not use covered calls on our DITM options? It […]
Covered Calls
| Scratching the Itch | Boredom is the trader’s worst enemy. Sometimes the itch to DO something becomes quite unbearable and you end up doing something stupid. I am speaking from experience here! It has happened to me so many times that I now recognise the symptoms and channel the urge into some action that […]
Gambler’s Fallacy
| Why Smart People Go Broke | You’ve just thrown 20 heads in a row; what are the chances of the next toss being a head? Of course, we all know the answer – at least, in our logical brain. The coin has no memory, no motive, and no awareness of what came before. The […]