Expert technical analysis of financial markets by JC Parets
In options trading, risk management starts with defined risk and ends with position sizing. “Stop Losses” — if used at all — center around price action of the underlying and give zero weight to the value of the option(s) itself.
As an options trader, nothing makes me cringe more than hearing about traders “protecting” their open options positions with Stop Loss orders. [Read more…]
From the desk of Tom Bruni @BruniCharting
The Retail Sector ETF $XRT just made new all-time daily closing highs. I was going to write an extensive piece on how we got here and the lessons we can take away about knowing what we own and exercising professional skepticism when we hear gross generalizations like “retail is dying”, but I don’t think I even need to make it that complicated.
Not all sectors of the market are glamorous or sexy. And Agribusiness certainly isn’t one of the fashionable areas of the stock market. But we’re about to wade into our second name here because the opportunities are too good. At the end of the day, we go where the money is — these are just ticker symbols, right?
Zoetis $ZTS, honestly, is a name I had never heard before. But it has been on my watchlist ever since Tom Bruni blogged about it on All Star Charts last week. I’ve liked the price action since and think the time is right to take a position. [Read more…]
Sponsored by Investor’s Business Daily – I’ve known Dan Russo for a long time and he always brings amazing insights and trade ideas. He’s experienced, knows the markets and most importantly, he puts in the work. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his technical analysis. It was a real treat picking his brain and discussing what he is currently seeing in the market. In this episode, we talk about U.S. Stocks and the sector rotation that is taking place. He shares his thoughts about Healthcare stocks, Consumer Discretionary and life. I really enjoyed this conversation! [Read more…]
Friday we wrote about the US Dollar breaking out to 1-year highs and why it’s one of the most important charts we’re watching from an intermarket perspective. With that said, we always look at both sides of the story, and while the US Dollar breakout certainly adds to the bear case for Precious Metals, I want to use this post to explore all of the current bullish and bearish characteristics of the space.
During our monthly All Star Options conference call for members, JC & I laid out our bullish case for Berkshire Hathaway. These days, in spite of the diversity of industries that fall under the Berkshire umbrella, the tracking stock $BRK/B trades much like a financial.
Additionally, Berkshire exhibits high correlation to the S&P 500, and with the rotation we’re seeing into financials it makes sense to be long $BRK/B while we’re still incredibly bullish on the overall market. And of course, the technicals we’re watching all point to higher prices. [Read more…]
It’s not about being right, it’s about making money. There’s a difference and I think that gets forgotten too often. We want to position ourselves where we have the highest probabilities for success as well as where the risk vs reward is skewed in our favor. The goal is not to be right every time. The goal is to be profitable. That’s why we’re always thinking worst case scenario: always a risk level and always a target.
Today I want to focus in on what we’re seeing in the S&P500 because I think that from a risk management standpoint, this 2780-2800 level is a big one today from a structural perspective. Until now, we’ve used 7000 in the Nasdaq100 and 2650 in the S&P500 as our lines in the sand. We’ve only wanted to be long if we were above those levels and that has worked out very well. Moving forward, I’ve identified some higher levels that we need to monitor.
As part of our ongoing partnership with Investor’s Business Daily we have added all of the IBD50 components to our equity research coverage. We are updating our Chartbook on a weekly basis and members of Allstarcharts have access to that workbook here.
Today, I wanted to discuss what we’re seeing from this group to identify the overall trend for U.S. stocks and also to find trading ideas to profit from that directional move. [Read more…]
