Author: The INO.com Team

Stocks Flat Ahead Of Fed Minutes

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere. The Federal Reserve will release the minutes of its March monetary policy meeting this afternoon at 2 PM EDT. Last month, the U.S. central bank decided to maintain interest rates and hold off any further increases this year. The minutes should provide additional details for investors to understand why most Fed officials do not expect to raise interest rates in 2019.

U.S. stocks opened slightly higher Wednesday, steadying following Tuesday's decline as investors weighed data showing moderate inflation and the latest signs of caution from the European Central Bank.

March monetary policy meeting

The CEOs of America's biggest banks are appearing before Congress on Wednesday for the first time in 10 years, as they face new scrutiny over their practices and record profits a decade after the financial crisis. Continue reading "Stocks Flat Ahead Of Fed Minutes" →

High-Probability Options Trading Thrives

Posted on by The INO.com Team

131 wins out of 151 trades later, through the Q4 2018 bear market and the Q1 2019 bull market, high-probability options trading thrives regardless of the market backdrop. Options trading is powerful because you can be wrong about the direction of a stock and still make money. Hence how I was able to achieve an 87% success rate as the market witnessed dramatic moves over the past 6 months. In Q4 2018, the S&P 500 sold off 14% and erased all of its gains for the year. The start to 2019 posted its best January in over 30 years and rounding out the quarter with a return of ~12.7%. In this article, I’ll be discussing how options trading can generate consistent income with a high-probability of success, regardless of market conditions. This is accomplished since options are a bet on where stocks won’t go, not where they will go. Following the options trading framework described in this article, my options-based portfolio resulted in a total portfolio return of 4.2% against the S&P 500 return of -3.1% over the previous 6 months. This timeframe provided both bear and bull market conditions to demonstrate the effectiveness and resiliency of options trading while outperforming the broader index by a wide margin. This seesaw from a negative to a positive market backdrop provided unique opportunities to capitalize on options trading. In Q4 2018, during the bear market, I was able to achieve a 79% options success rate by closing 66 out of 84 option contracts for wins. In Q1, during the bull market, I was able to achieve a 97% options success rate by closing 65 out of 67 option contracts for wins. Taken together, options provide a margin of safety, enabling your portfolio to mitigate risk, provide consistent income and hedge against market volatility. Options have a unique attribute since you can still be successful while generating income even if you’re wrong about the direction of the stock. Continue reading "High-Probability Options Trading Thrives" →

Stocks End Week Higher On Positive Jobs Report

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere. The news was delivered Friday with better-than-expected U.S. jobs report that eased market fears that the economy was slowing down. The DOW traded 30 points higher, the S&P 500 climbed .35% as the energy and consumer discretionary sectors outperformed and the Nasdaq advanced 0.5% mid-day. On a weekly basis, the three major indexes performed extremely well posting weekly gains of +1.9%, 1.97%, and +2.6% respectively.

The U.S. economy added 196,000 jobs in March, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a print of 175,000. However, wage growth expanded 3.2%, below an expected gain of 3.4%.

posting a weekly gain

The U.S. dollar triggered a new green weekly Trade Triangle today at $97.45 once again pausing the Chart Analysis Score to +100 and butting up against a major level of support. The dollar has traded above the $97 level 13 times on a weekly level since October of 2018 but has been unable to break through $98 each time. Will the recent push higher give the dollar a different result? Continue reading "Stocks End Week Higher On Positive Jobs Report" →

Bitcoin And The DOW Join The Party

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello traders everywhere. Well, it finally happened. Both Bitcoin and the DOW joined the party by issuing new green monthly Trade Triangles to kick off April. The DOW was first by triggering it's new green monthly Trade Triangle on Monday when it experienced a +1.27% gain or 329 pts on the day. Not to be outdone, Bitcoin made a HUGE move on Tuesday gaining 899 pts and +21.5% closing above $5,000 for the first time since Nov. 18th of 2018.

Bitcoin had been stuck between $3,500 and $3,800 for three months, but once it broke through the $4,000 wall, it appears that the Bitcoin bulls came calling. Bitcoin volume on the Binance exchange hit an all-time high on Tuesday—buying begetting more buying. However, Reuters also points to a single "mystery order" for $100 million worth of bitcoin, spread across multiple exchanges including Coinbase and Kraken, identified by U.K. crypto broker BCB Group. It will be interesting to see if this momentum can keep up or if this was an isolated incident brought on by that one big order. Make sure you keep a close eye on your stops.

Bitcoin

Now that the DOW has joined the party it's all systems go. The DOW is now trading back at levels we last saw in early November of 2018. This will mark the third time that the DOW has tested resistance at these levels. Will the third time be the Charm? Is the DOW setup to head higher? Continue reading "Bitcoin And The DOW Join The Party" →

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by The INO.com Team

We've asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Silver Futures

Silver futures in the May contract settled last Friday in New York at 15.40 an ounce while currently trading at 15.16 down about $0.24 for the trading week bouncing off of major support which was also right near a three month low. I don't have any precious metal recommendations as silver continues to remain in a choppy chart pattern as we are now trading under their 20 and 100-day moving average as the trend has turned to the downside. However, I do believe the downside is limited. The U.S. dollar is right near a two year high this week as that is what has put pressure on silver and the entire precious metal complex as there are very few strong trends out of the commodity sectors at this time. If you are long a futures contract, I would place the stop loss under today's low as an exit strategy of 14.95 because if that level is broken, you do not want to have any type of bullish position in my opinion.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: SOLID
VOLATILITY: INCREASING
Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →