In a bear market, the lows of the first market downturn are often retested following a rally like the one we have just seen. This article examines how put options can be used to maximize the return on a bearish projection. As can be seen in the following chart, the unit price of the iShares S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index...
The coronavirus crisis has caused massive sell-offs in global equity markets throughout the world. Canada has not been immune, and our benchmark large-cap S&P TSX 60 Index has lost over 36% from its February high. CHART 1 – S&P/TSX60 Source: Bloomberg A move of this magnitude from new highs to a...
In our last article we discussed how to reduce the risk associated with the time-value decay of options in a directional position. Now we will take advantage of the market meltdown to discuss the implied volatility in the price of an option, how it reflects the degree of market uncertainty over future price movements in the...
Just as a follow up to our block trade on Canada Goose Holdings Inc (GOOS) from November 14, 2019, the January 17, 2020 $46 strike call options have expired worthless, since the stock traded out-of-the money at market close. Effectively, we have captured the full option premium of $4.31/share and our cost is now reduced to...
As can be seen in the following graph, the price trend for shares in the Canadian National Railway Company (CNR) appears to have faltered. The stochastic oscillator indicator has just fallen below 75, much like it did in June 2019. At that time, the price of CNR stayed in a channel for many weeks. As long as the oscillator...
For almost 20 years, our team at CIBC Private Wealth has used defensive option strategies including Covered Calls, Selling Covered Puts and Collars to manage client portfolios. Our objective is to generate income from option premium in addition to dividends paid on stocks. Our primary focus is on wealth preservation. A Covered...
As the following chart shows, the price of shares in George Weston Limited (WN) is down slightly from its recent high of $102.30, and it could stabilize at a support level of around $98.00. This is close to the current level of its 34-day moving average (on April 29, 2019). Furthermore, we can see that the stock’s RSI 5...
Despite the hype around the Trump Rally, some stocks have been left behind. Notable among the group; BCE Inc. (TMX: symbol: BCE) which closed last Friday at $58.28. Well off the highs of August 2016 when the stock traded above $63 per share. A growth investor might consider that tragic. However, most investors see this...
Peyto (TSE: PEY) shares did well in 2016, rising 33.5%, as natural gas prices rose almost 64%. Natural gas accounts for 90% of Peyto’s total production volume. In my view, the shares are undervalued and could be purchased outright at this level. However, two issues arise with that idea. First, we are here to talk about...
Utility stocks are often loved by yield investors. They provide steady dividends, are regulated businesses, and are less cyclical. Generally they can be called “boring,” but for the investors who own utility stocks that is what they love about them. We’ve seen this sector do well over the last few decades as interest...