Savvy investors are always scanning the market to find opportunities that can be exploited for profit. One such strategy consists of taking advantage of unusual options activity. Learn the ins and outs of unusual options activity in an article sponsored by National Bank Direct...
Covered call options refers to holding a stock as part of your portfolio while simultaneously selling a call option on the same stock. Owning the stock outright is quite simple but deciding which option chain to sell can be a challenge. There is no one-size-fits all approach to selling call options. Some of the variables to...
Bollinger bands are among the most widely used technical indicators when analyzing a stock and can also be used by options investors to develop strategies. The bands may reflect a trading range for an underlying stock based on recent volatility patterns, similar to how market makers price options. Option investors who are able...
Professional investors, especially billionaire hedge fund managers, spend a lot of time carefully reviewing their portfolios to ensure risk is minimized. Unfortunately, many investors fail to take the necessary steps to do the same and evaluate their holdings. One of the most important questions investors need to ask themselves...
Value stocks, as the name implies, offers investors exposure to a company that is valued at a lower price relative to its fundamentals. Growth stocks often refer to small companies that operate in a new market that is likely to experience higher than average growth rates. Investors may want to seek out a mix of growth and value...
A covered call strategy consists of an investor selling a call option on a stock that they own. While this may sound complex, covered call strategies are quite simple and suitable for some beginner options investors. A covered call writing strategy offers the investor a form of hedging against downside risk. Essentially, the...
Option investors of all shapes and sizes, from billionaire hedge fund managers to new investors managing $500, make mistakes. To suggest that it is possible to avoid errors when investing is simply foolish. But what is true is that these investors can take steps to understand how to avoid careless mistakes which minimizes the...
When determining whether to buy a put or call option, investors owe it to themselves to study and develop their own individual investment strategy, particularly with respect to the options market, which might appear more complex when compared to buying shares. Learn more about buying put options and call...
There is always a level of risk when investing in securities, whether it be options, fixed income or forex. The risk associated to each asset class depends on the characteristics of the asset itself and how it is affected by the factors that relate to it. For example, fixed income is generally deemed a very safe asset class...
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...