OptionStrat Blog

It's NOT 2008!

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...

Wanna Bet?

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.

Black Swan

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.

Orange You Smart

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

Hopes and Dreams

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

Split Strikes

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.

The Crypt Keeper Emerges

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!).

Gold Bugs and the Debt Boogeyman

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...

Tesla, ONE More Time

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...

Tesla, My Two Cents

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

Ark, Again

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

LNG Results: A Mixed Bag!

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...

2023

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.

Straddlers Beware

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.

Visual Greeks and LNG

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...

With Enough Money

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...

Let's Take a Cruise

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

Is Crypto Dead?

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

More Teslas?

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...

Pros are Different

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...

Meta and Snap: The Undead

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...

Rockets for the Future

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.

Flying Stocks!

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

PTON Anyone?

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

Swiss Mess

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

Dr. Doom

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

Event Options, Avaya!

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.

The War's Not Over

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

Europe. Bring a Good Coat, Maybe!

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...

Revenge of the Memes

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

European Issues

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.

New Greek Visualization Features

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

Risk Management for Dummies

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.

Beware of the "It's Cheap!" Trap

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...

Tales from the Crypt

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...

Inflation: Not So Fast!

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...

Event Options: Viva Las Vegas!

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

The Dollar, Again

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.

All Hail the Dollar!

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.

Visiting Some Old Friends

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.

ARK Just Ain't What It Used to Be

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.

Trees Don't Grow to the Sky!

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.

Crypto Shenanigans

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

Shocking!

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

Apocalypse Now?

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

Covid is Over?

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

Pay Attention to Nickel!

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.

Ceasefire Ruminations

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

Geopolitical Shocks Are Not That Shocking!

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.

Options Calculator Improvements

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

Covid Volatility

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

Introducing the Options Optimizer

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.