Controlling risk is the number one objective for investors. A disciplined trading plan focusing on quantifying loss exposure separates gamblers from those playing the long game. Losses are a reality in trading, and only the amount relative to winners can be managed…
A stock is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Prices can always get cheaper, even for free falling stocks that you think will have value at some point. Let’s take a look at Twitter. Their stock has fallen from it $75 peak…
A seesaw visually represents the inverse relationship between interest rates and price. As interest rates rise, fixed income prices (e.g. bonds and notes) fall, and as fixed income prices rise interest rates fall. The Federal Reserve only has direct control over short…
Futures or commodities contracts offer investors and speculators a direct, highly leveraged vehicle to participate in the resource building blocks of the economy. Not long ago, limited market hours were less efficient with major price gaps up and down when…
Algorithmic trading has grown extensively over the years and now makes up a substantial portion of trading activity. In fact, 50 percent or more of all stock trades are done by high frequency traders, or HFT. What might this mean…
A market assumption that makes life easier is to believe that liquid markets are fairly priced, that is, the wizards at Goldman Sachs would buy anything undervalued and sell anything overvalued to put things back in line. There may have been…
One of the advantages of the futures markets is the opportunity to trade at nearly 24 hours. Global inputs or news outside of normal stock market hours can be digested immediately in the highly traded stock index contracts on the S&P…
Finally, the Federal Reserve has moved off zero and put money in motion with the long awaited and exhaustively discussed rate increase. The quarter of one percent rate is still negligible, with hardly a bump in the markets as per the…
