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Trying to Outguess The Markets

A few years back the markets crashed when Russia invaded Ukraine. The front pages of newspapers around the world at that time showed people trying to escape cities which were heavily shelled. Our heart's sank. How could such atrocities be happening? Why were schools and hospitals targeted? War is evil. Guess what? With Trump acting as a new dictator the world once again has gone awry. It's scary that one old man with so much power can abuse the system. What does all of this mean for option traders? It means time to sit on the sidelines. Yes you can jump in playing rebounds and catch some nice short term directional moves. You are basically trading against computers. Why not just sit it out and chill? Everything is amuck. Why be trying to make hero trades? Ironically enough some traders are being drawn into this action. Look at this chart. While its difficult to see because of a "pop-up" on the screen "Netflix rebounded over ten dollars a share after reboundin...
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Boeing, Ford, Caterpillar and Tesla All Charged Upwards On The Week and Nio

Perhaps the best week of the year for Call option players with a short term perspective.
Tesla for example up like thirty dollars on the week. There were short term options on it that increased ten fold. The little exercise I wrote last week about buying Ford Calls at six cents each that ended up on the week selling for over one dollar each a contract actually happened. Is there a need to teach people how to play options? Yes and no. There is an expression 'knowledge is power'. There is the expression 'the rich get richer'. There is a proverb that says 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'. But then again people have mortgages and bills to pay and money to play option with doesn't grow on trees. Who am I to tell people what to do? Spreads and straddles and doing iron condors. Sophisticated option traders describe the experience of playing options to being like driving an airplane and pulling levers at the appropriate times to help level out the ride. What do I enjoy the most about option trading? I like earning seasons and reading or hearing the comments made by company directors about future stock projectories. Harley-Davidson for example talking about more normalized markets for them ahead. I like listening to earning conference calls. I like focusing on the four stocks listed above because to me they are all "workhorse" stocks that have stories to tell. Somedays or weeks I like to walk away from the markets knowing that when I come back my absence away in a strange sort of way will actually help me focus on new opportunities with fresh eyes. That said, it's Monday morning and the markets are opening in two minutes. Have the markets run out of steam? Look at this action on the first fifteen minutes of trading. The auto stock Nio I talked about last week. First look at the one day spike it had last week. Does that suggest it could happen again?
Wasn't the stock ripe to have a repeat jump this morning?

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