How to trade the market when volatility spikes
In a sharp, late-day selloff on remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Wall Street’s fear gauge — the CBOE Volatility Index — spiked to 27.62, the highest level since early August . It’s undoubtedly true that equity investors should “not fight the Fed,” and the Fed is not sending bullish signals, at least not […]
How to profit if rates keep rising, going against the Fed and stock investors
U.S. stocks soared to record highs after Donald Trump’s election win and a quarter-point rate cut from the Federal Reserve. U.S. government bond yields have surged too, puzzling many market participants. I am going to stick with the contrarian view and bet on rates continuing to move higher. I’ll express that through a bearish bet […]
How to trade Friday’s job report
The best-case scenario for stocks is if Friday’s jobs report comes in slightly above consensus, according to JPMorgan. Investors will be closely scrutinizing the September labor market report, due for release on Friday morning. The numbers come at a precarious time for the economy, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has emphasized the U.S. central […]
How to make a longshot bet on this beat-up tech stock about to report
Within each sector there will be winners and losers…even technology this year. I’ll review a speculative options trade on one of those losers. Semiconductor companies such as Marvell, Broadcom, and Nvidia have been on a tear this year. However, some software and IT services companies could have done better. MongoDB Inc (MDB) is a perfect […]
Bond yields will come down in 2024. How to prepare your portfolio
In 2023, you could plop money into a high-yield savings account and get a yield nearing 5% with little effort. Expect to work a little harder for those fixed income returns in the new year. The Federal Reserve’s series of interest rate hikes, which kicked off in 2022, made idle money profitable. One-year certificates of […]