As an equity investor, we are always seeking investment opportunities to maximize capital appreciation and income. Finding a balance between the two can be challenging and many times have significant tradeoffs. However, you can potentially add income to any equity position with options using two strategies to add an income...
By now you almost assuredly know that Shopify (SHOP.TSX) announced a 10:1 stock split effective on a date to be announced. With that announcement, SHOP joins Alphabet and Amazon in the club of internet stocks with high prices and pending stock splits. Although news of a stock split is generally considered a positive, let’s...
Many cryptocurrency investors have bought Bitcoin and other altcoins under the assumption it will be held in their portfolio for many decades. The assumption for these “hodlers” is that the future of financial transactions will see Bay Street and Wall Street banks replaced with decentralized systems. For other investors,...
The Montreal Exchange (MX) offers users an online tool to help understand and calculate the theoretical value of options. Known as the Montreal Exchange option calculator, users can take advantage of a free offering to better understand potential investment returns and risk management decisions. Montreal Exchange option...
I have worked as a market strategist for the past 15 years alongside a few thousand retail and institutional investors in foreign currency, futures, equities and options. A common experience amongst self-directed investors is a repetitive string of small winners, followed by a few big losses that wipe out weeks or months of...
As a market strategist for over the past 13 years, I’ve corresponded and provided market color to thousands of retail and institutional investors. In this post, I wanted to share what I have consistently found to be a distinguishable factor that sets successful traders apart. The difference that divides professional traders...
In our previous articles, we explored various aspects related to index futures including index arbitrage. In this article, we explore another possible use of an index future namely hedging. As global stock markets have skyrocketed since the deepest trough of the pandemic, the internet is flushed with articles citing...
The process to select expiration dates and strike prices for an options strategy is fairly simple, but sometimes counterintuitive. Selecting the optimal expiration dates and strike prices depends on a few factors, however there is an overarching method to selecting them for any strategy. In this post we will analyze expiration...