Recent content by jldavid47

There is only one problem in thinking that the Fed halting rate hikes will propel the market higher: historically, the opposite has happened. Ned Davis Research did a study of all previous rate hike cycles and found the the stock market has peaked on average 2 months <i>prior</i> to the...

The behavior of the market has been interesting wrt up moves lately. We've had 3 days in the last 6 weeks with over 90% of the volume to the upside. Normally (i.e. in a bull market) this kind of action would propel the market higher. Instead, there has been no upside follow-through at all...

Something for all of you afraid of a Black Swan event. :D

Are you excited because of the theta decay working in your favor or because the market so boring that you revisited the picture of Jessica Alba? :D

Ack. I wish I could give you the exact source. I read it somewhere last week and advancing age precludes me from recalling the exact details, but the number was something like 3.5% of mutual fund assets are now in cash which is an all time low - even lower than at the end of the bull market of...

Well, I can give you all sorts of contrarian indicators. (1) Bullishness is rampant. Almost every survey of sentiment is approaching bullish extremes. (2) Breadth has narrowed as the rally from 10/14 extended. (3) Prices have been rising on mediocre volume. (4) Equity mutual fund cash is...

Oh, geez, I found it. It was right in front of my nose on the CBOE site all the time. Duh. Thanks.

Careful, Donna. That kind of linear thinking can cost you a ton of money. If a coin was flipped 11 times and 10 heads came up, the chance of a head on the next flip is still 50%. Maybe there is something going on, but maybe it was just a coincidence. You should probably continue to exercise...

Phil is correct. The margin requirement is 40k. However, you can use the 20k of cash you received from the credit to fulfill part of the margin requirement. So, you really need only 20K of pre-trade cash, to meet the 40K margin requirement. Does that make sense?

This is why I never trade the SPX unless I'm planning on getting out prior to expiration. Settlement is a complete crapshoot. I personally prefer the OEX or the XEO. At least I know where it's going to settle as the market closes!