A trader buys near-the-money call options two days before an earnings report. The stock prints, moves 1.4% in the right direction, and the calls still close down 22%. The chart…
The bell rings at 9:30. A stock gaps up 3.4% on a clean earnings beat, prints 86.20 in the first minute, fades to 84.10 by 9:45, then grinds back to…
A swing trader risks 2% of a $50,000 account on every trade. The rule has held since the first month of the journal. Then the VIX prints 38 on a…
You watched value lead for a quarter, then quality took over, then low-volatility ran for six weeks while everyone on your timeline argued about which single names to buy. The…
The sortino ratio is a risk-adjusted return measure calculated as a strategy's excess return over a minimum acceptable return, divided by its downside deviation. The formula in one line is…
A stock gaps up four percent at the open. Volume runs ten times normal for the first thirty minutes. Price stalls near the 478 figure and the trader has to…
A trader looks at a chart that has just topped, pulled back, then bounced from a higher low. The question that matters is whether the bounce is a small correction…
CPI ran 7.7%, the Fed had taken funds from 0 to 3.75% in seven months, the 2s10s spread sat at minus 50 basis points, ISM manufacturing was rolling under 50,…
Two stocks rallied 30% last quarter. One sits in the top decile of its sector by relative strength. The other delivered the same return while half its sector did better.…
A trend you spotted on Monday closes red on Wednesday. The next day it closes red again. By Friday you have exited a position that, two weeks later, is still…