OptionStrat Blog

It just caught the attention of the non-energy markets and popular press that crude oil has been rallying since last June. In general, if crude has a shot at breaking $100...

For those of you who have moved on from conventional and dirty fossil fuels, uranium might be of interest. Uranium is the primary source of nuclear power...

For new traders, it's very tempting to think that someone has figured out the market and can predict it's every twist and turn (or at least 51% of them)...

One of the longest-lasting effects of Covid is the way people buy things. Unwilling to leave the house, people naturally pivoted to fulfilling their needs online...

In a 2017 paper by Hendrik Bessembinder the author analyzed common stock returns from 1926 - 2017. The results are surprising:

Apparently, trading by individual investors is still going strong. Although it seems that most have moved on from their dreams of...

Here's a crazy statistic: researchers estimate that 1 in 10 Americans lease storage space. Some report that it's even higher, at 20%...

Last week, I flew for the first time in several months. As a consultant, I used to fly about once a week...

Although most people take them for granted, large commercial airliners are pretty incredible machines. Take the Airbus A380, the largest...

I went to McDonald's (MCD) last weekend for the first time in a few years and it was a different place than I remember. First off, there were no employees to greet and take orders -- electronic kiosks do all that now.

One of the most underappreciated and mundane inventions of the 21st century is air conditioning. Although it rarely makes it to anyone's Top 10 Inventions list...

When asked how he went bankrupt, Hemmingway famously replied, "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”...

My son, who has a real day job but trades stocks on the side, pointed out to me the other day that WeWork was trading at $0.23 cents. Frankly, I didn't even know that WeWork...

I wrote about cruise lines last December and at the end of May (Cruises are Back!), the gist being that they were beaten down by Covid...

For those looking, the waste disposal industry has been getting a lot of attention lately. Why the sudden interest? Because collecting garbage is no longer about just taking out the trash...

Last December, I wrote about cruise lines and how they were almost destroyed by Covid (Let's Take a Cruise). The outlook at the beginning of the pandemic was pretty bleak.

I'm not a diet person, but I couldn't help noticing that some relatively new weight loss drugs have been getting a lot of attention from entertainment and social media types. The drugs...

Last week, I wrote about the intensifying debt ceiling crisis (Something Real to Worry About, No Kidding!) and that the equity markets don't seem to be taking it too seriously.

Last February, I wrote about the debt ceiling in Something to Worry About. In it, I noted that "...as we get closer to June or financial insolvency, the greater...

A dog health food store recently opened up near where I live. They sell all the usual stuff that you can find in any Whole Foods, only the canine version...

This week, I'm going to concentrate on some dreams that people have and the likelihood of them coming true. I've covered some before, and some have only appeared recently...

Being a commodity and energy guy, one of the companies that I follow regularly is Cheniere Energy (LNG). I've written about them frequently, most completely last September in...

The precious metal, and its digital cousin, Bitcoin, benefited from the SVB crisis, which confirmed the worst fears...

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new branding for OptionStrat, as well as a new and improved options model to power our predictions.

It's been a long time since an OPEC meeting completely surprised the oil markets. There are just too many people associated with the organization...

People tend to think that whichever disaster they lived through personally was either the worst and most earth-shattering in history or a close contender. Hence, the usual...

Most of you are probably sick of reading about the banking crisis by now. I know I am. Let's discuss something more interesting, or at least more fun: how to make money on sports betting without ever placing a bet.

I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the latest event roiling financial markets, the sudden death of Silicon Valley Bank, the near death of Credit Suisse, and the derisking affecting markets worldwide.

Believe it or not, Orange You Smart was a TV ad campaign from the early 80's promoting Florida citrus. I thought of it...

This week, let's review some companies that succumbed to dreaming instead of managing.

A few blogs ago, I recommended watching the new Madoff documentary on Netflix. By now, most of you know the story, but it does bring to light some details relevant to investing and options trading that are worth reviewing.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Bitcoin was starting to show some life after its near-death experience during the crypto meltdown (Surprise! Crypto Might be Back!).

Peloton (PTON), that avatar of Things-Upper-Middle-Class-People-Did-During-Covid, is back (well, might be back).

Traders generally fall into one of four categories on Wall St: equity, bonds, foreign exchange, or commodities. Sure, there is some crossover, but that's about it...

Last week, I wrote about everybody's favorite, Tesla. Since I'm an options guy, I was quick to admit that I had no special insight on the stock's fundamentals. However, being a recent EV shopper...

This week, I'm going to start by writing about one of the most covered stocks in the history of man, Tesla.

I wrote about Cathy Wood's ARK Innovation Fund earlier in the month (2023). Coincidentally, a long-time friend of mine...

Cheniere Energy is the world's second largest producer of liquified natural gas (LNG). Due to the Ukraine war and the disruption of natural gas supply, LNG is now a vital component of Europe's energy supply...

To begin, a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year to one and all! I'm going to start the new year by looking back at some stocks I covered in 2022 and see if we can learn anything from them.

Last week, I demonstrated the Visual Greeks feature of OptionStrat using Cheniere Energy (LNG) as an example. To refresh your memory, below is LNG's price and volatility action for 2022.

There are two ways to play Cheniere, short and long term. If you believe that the mild European winter has relieved their energy crisis, then it follows that LNG might break out to the downside...

It seems that most people have forgotten that there's still a war in the Ukraine and it continues to influence energy prices. As Americans...

I read an article a few days ago about a giant rogue wave that hit a cruise ship, just like in the Poseidon Adventure! If this happened in March 2020, right at the beginning of Covid...

Perhaps the biggest financial story of 2022 has been the implosion of the crypto market. FTX and Sam Brinkman-Fried...

This week, I'm going to concentrate on electric vehicle manufacturers other than Tesla. Rivian, Lucid, Fisker, Nikola, and Lordstown, if not exactly household names...

I often write about individual stocks that I think are interesting, mispriced, or in the news. Sometimes, they just have cool names that merit investigation...

I'm not crazy about unanimous opinions, especially when it comes to stocks. Usually, the situation isn't as bad (or as good) as the consensus indicates. Recently, Meta and Snapchat both...

This week, I'm keeping up my review of futuristic, disruptive stocks whose business models or products were a figment of someone's imagination just a few years ago.

I think anybody that has ever been stuck in traffic has thought how cool it would be to own your own personal flying machine.

Who would have predicted that two years ago, at the height of the pandemic, and with PTON trading over $160, that it would now be trading under $9 bucks

If you follow juicy Wall St. scandals, as I do, Credit Suisse's latest nosedive shouldn't have come as a surprise.

Engineered meat has less than 1% of total market share for meat products in the US. Coupled with the failure of...

Last July, I wrote about the CME's latest wunderprodukt, Event Options. At the time, the exchange was seeking approval from the CFTC to launch. It was granted, and last Monday, September 19th, was the first day of trading.

Despite Ukraine's recent gains, a military solution to the conflict is unlikely. Both sides will eventually seek negotiations.

The gathering storm in Europe is even more serious than when I last wrote about it a few weeks ago. EC energy ministers are getting together this Friday...

Two meme stocks in the news, AMC and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, are trading at triple digit implied volatility levels...

With EU officials talking about rationing natural gas, the upcoming winter is going to be "interesting," to say the least.

Europe has a full-fledged energy crisis on its hands. Consequently, liquified natural gas prices are soaring and have increased over 7 times from a year ago.

Premium members can visualize how greeks evolve over time, with volatility changes, and with underlying price changes.

Numerous studies have come to the same conclusion: you can't time the market. You might be able to every now and then, but it's extremely rare to beat the market consistently and in the long term.

At one point in my career, I was the risk manager for an absolute return hedge fund. For those of you who aren't hip to cool kid hedge fund lingo...

This week, I thought I would check in on some stocks that I have reported on previously, as well as one newcomer. I warn you now, it's a depressing bunch...

It's unanimous: inflation is going nuts and is the highest it's been since the 70's! Most people can't relate to this since they weren't even alive in the 70s...

If you're familiar with sports betting, you will be very comfortable with Event Options. Here's how they work.

As I wrote last week, the dollar continues to be the king of the FX forest and has soared to roughly 20-year highs against the Euro and Japanese Yen.

Auto-updating quotes are now available to all premium subscribers!

With all the news about inflation and gas prices and various other depressing news, the incredibly high value of the dollar has largely flown under the radar.

Some of my previous blogs focused on the so-called Covid Darlings, the stocks that benefited from Covid, but are now subject to extreme selling pressure.

Cathie Wood's ARK Innovation ETF skyrocketed to mass popularity when it delivered a solid 35.7% return in 2019 and then followed up with an eyepopping 156.6% in 2020.

Last week, I attended a derivatives conference in Las Vegas (Quants in Vegas, an interesting combination). Like all conferences, it was a chance to see and be seen and to check out what everybody else is thinking.

As you know, lately I have been writing about cryptocurrencies and how they have not been acting as advertised (to say the least).

The Wheel Strategy is a popular options trading strategy for generating consistent passive income.

Last weekend, a horse aptly named Rich Strike won the Kentucky Derby. Believe it or not, he was an 80-1 long shot.

This week, the tone of the markets took on a decidedly apocalyptic tone. Inflation, war, interest rates, Covid, stagflation…the list goes on and on. I

Apparently, a federal judge in Florida has decided for all of us that the pandemic is officially over.

To begin, I won’t comment or recap what’s been going on between Twitter and Elon Musk – it’s been well-covered in the press...

According to almost everything you read, crude oil is very, very volatile. The evidence is everywhere: prices at the gas pump are super high, the war in...

As I write this, the War in Ukraine continues to rage on with no end in sight.

It's always interesting when markets refuse to follow conventional wisdom.

Nickel, agricultural sanctions, bitcoin, and a gold-mining meme stock.

Imagine that one day you're trading away in a pretty quiet stock and all of sudden it goes up 66% one day and then doubles the next over the course of 18 minutes.

You can’t get much more uncertain than how the Russian/Ukraine situation will ultimately turn out.

I fully believe that financial history doesn't really repeat itself, it just kind of rhymes with what we've seen before. In other words, reminiscent, but not a replay, a sequel if you will.

As we have written over the last several weeks, the Russia/Ukraine situation will produce market effects that are not seen too often.

Today we are launching a series of improvements to our options profit calculator product known as the strategy builder.

After a week or so off, the Russian/Ukraine faceoff is back on the front page and above the fold.

Dare I say it? Volatility actually decreased last week! Of course, some stocks looked like they were knocking on the...

For traders new and old, last week was a wild ride with some whiplash-inducing intraday swings.

The bull market party has been going on since roughly 2009 (and who would have predicted that at the very bottom of the...

We've added support for some popular indices and their extended trading hours.

As an addition to the chance of profit feature, the stock's probability distribution is now graphed.

We've revamped the saved trade system to add some highly requested features.

OptionStrat now has historical charts for viewing past performance of any option strategy as well as options flow.

OptionStrat Flow is the first to provide Enhanced Options Flow consisting of complex strategies.

Live data and additional advanced features are now available for subscribers.

A tutorial on how to use OptionStrat to calculate profit and loss for various option strategies.

You can now add an additional expiration date and change the expiration of individual legs.

Download OptionStrat on your iOS or Android device.

The new options optimizer allows you to easily search though thousands of trades to find the strategies with the maximum return or chance of profit.

OptionStrat is now available for beta testing. Learn more here!

What is implied volatility (IV) and how does it affect my trades?

Learn how to input your existing trades into OptionStrat.