Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Nothing tradeable today.  

Monday’s results: This strategy is on hold. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) drops from +21 to -14 in a world of mixed sentiment and rising volatility. 

Catalysts: Home Price Index @ 9:00. Consumer Confidence & Richmond MFG Index @ 10:00. Fed’s Cook @ 12:00 and Bowman @14:10.  

Quick Tip: Rotation

If you swing trade stocks and options you’re likely to have a portfolio of positions open. It’s easy to get mesmerized by the movers, like NVDA, and lose focus on a key and important consideration, diversification. 

All sectors of stocks don’t move in the same direction all the time. Looking at the heatmap of yesterday above (courtesy of Finviz.com) it’s interesting that while the S&P was down on the day, most of the sectors were up!

Since the S&P is a market cap weighted index, companies like NVDA, AAPL & MSFT have a larger impact. The rotation out of technology yesterday benefited others. If you had all your trades in t...

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Nothing tradeable today.  

Thursday’s results: This strategy is on hold. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) plummets from +21 to -43 with mosrt major world markets Bearish on increasing volatility. 

Catalysts: Flash MFG & Services PMI @ 9:45. Existing Home Sales @ 10:00.

Quick Tip: Being Different

Here’s a great quote from Earl Nightingale: “If you set out to be successful at something and you don’t know how to do it, look around at what everybody else is doing, and don’t do that…”

This is especially true with trading. If everyone traded the same way there would be no counter parties. We need plenty of different styles and opposing viewpoints for the markets to exist. 

If you’re still struggling it’s a good idea to stop trading live money and start looking at alternative trading styles. Be open-minded. I’ve met too many traders over the past 24 years who are fixed on one way to trade because that’s what they started doing. 

Think of your prio...

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Nothing tradeable today.  

Monday’s results: This strategy is on hold. To understand why, read yesterday's newsletter.

The World Index: (+100/-100) plummets from +57 to -29 with most major world markets Bearish.  

Catalysts: JOLTS & Factory Orders @10:00

Quick Tip: Your Hot List

If you’re a directional stock or options trader you know the importance of stock selection. All the trading skills in the world don’t matter if you’re trading assets that don’t move. 

You could look at the historical performance of stocks to assume their past will repeat in the future but that’s not ideal. 

There is a better way… a true Leading Indicator. Insider buying. Key executives have only one reason to write 7 and 8-figure checks to own more of their company. They think it’s going up and research has proven this to be true.

From "The Effect of CEO Insider Trading on Firm Performance” published in the Journal of Business Research in 2021. This study found t...

Results of Monday’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: Buying 5311.00 only offered a 6.25-point move. Shorting 5306.25 ran for 24 points but not before just stopping out by a few ticks. Hoping your stop placement was looser. :-)

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points (consider wider stops and less size in fast moving markets): 

Buy 5242.00 stop 5236.25. Short 5311.25 stop 5316.00. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) improves from +7 to +29 with most major world markets modestly Bullish on lower volatility.  

Catalysts: JOLTS & Factory Orders @ 10:00. Fed’s Bowman @ 10:10, Williams @ 12:00, Mester @ 12:05, and Daly @ 13:30. 

Quick Tip: Best Option Setup

Unusual Options Activity (UOA) is a great leading indicator of price. 

What are they? Identifying the best candidates starts with an extreme volume spike relative to small open interest (existing contracts not yet closed out). 

Technical analysts generally agree that volume leads price, so this basis makes sense. If a stock is trading a...

Results of Wednesday’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points: No trade triggered. 

Today’s Best S&P Futures Turning Points (consider wider stops and less size in fast moving markets): 

Buy 5280.00 stop 5274.25. Short 5274.25 stop 5280.00 if price drops below and retraces to entry. 

The World Index: (+100/-100) jumps from -14 to +21 with most major world markets mildly Bullish.

Catalysts: GDP & Jobless Claims @ 8:30. Chicago PMI @ 9:45. Pending Home Sales & UofM Consumer Sentiment/Inflation Expectations (revised).   

Quick Tip: Expectations 

“What are you struggling with?” was the question I asked a group of traders a while back. One woman said she had “expectation” challenges. She felt she needed to acknowledge that every trade cannot be a home run, or “10 to 1” as she phrased it. 

I respected her self-awareness. Expectations is not a commonly voiced trading challenge. But it is real. You can expect too much and foster disappointment. You can expect too little and minimize your profit...