Category: Online Stock Trading Software

In the article, ” Bond ETFs – Calendar Calls and the Business Cycle “, we outlined a bond ETF calendar calls stock options strategy. This strategy is mostly geared for a softening economy, but may perform well in an environment of relatively unchanging interest rates as well, as is the case of the current interest rate environment. In the article, “Bond ETFs – Calendar Calls – Knowing When To Fold-Em “, we continued the bond ETF calendar calls stock options strategy. The final results of the position selected ended with a +3.4% return on November 17, 2006 (options expiration day for November).

Year to date US video game sales are up 11% from a year ago and analysts are expecting a record-breaking fourth quarter for the industry. Investors were concerned earlier in the year when the video game industry experienced a slight downturn. A subsequent strong sales period and the release of two new hardware platforms are breathing new life into the game industry. The top storefront video game retailer, and the company of focus in this article, is GamesStop Corp. ( GME ).

Labor Ready’s ( LRW ) stock price was up 8.25% on Wednesday and appears like it may go even higher. Labor Ready supplies manual labor workers for construction, manufacturing, and skilled trades. The company’s customers are primarily small to midsize businesses that use the company for resource leveling. It is extremely helpful for short-term projects where it would be difficult to hire new permanent employees. Some analysts are suggesting as American companies lean down, they will alternatively turn more and more to services like Labor Ready’s rather than hiring permanent hands.

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has become number one in PC sales. HP’s rival Dell (DELL) gave up their number one position in the third quarter of this year as their sales numbers began to slump. In recent years Dell has had to slash their PC prices, and ultimately their profit margin, to increase sales and many analysts believe this has hurt their bottom line.

In what many analysts are describing as a surprising move, Adobe Systems (ADBE) is giving away the source code to its popular flash player. This move is akin to Microsoft (MSFT) giving away its Windows’ source code to allow software developers the ability to create applications for the Windows platform. The opposite of this was Apple’s (AAPL) decision to keep its operating systems source code a secret.

In 1651 John Milton composed a sonnet regarding his blindness and talent. In it, he pondered the cruelty of his blindness robbing him of the ability to pursue his writing talent. We all have a thing, which we’re best at. An economist would argue that we ought to spend our lives working at our most productive vocation.

A few months ago, we looked at possible stock option trades that could have been made on KCI – Kinetic Concepts ( Learn the Risk Factors and Profit , July 21, 2006). A verdict was expected to be released on July 21st, options expiration day. An option trader speculating on an increase in KCI may have purchased Long Calls or they may have been selling Naked Puts.

With the recent decreases in the cost of fuel, the trucking industry is looking bullish. Like the airline industry, one of the largest operating expenses incurred in the trucking industry is for fuel, second after expenses for labor.When the cost for fuel decreases, the trucking industry’s costs are decreased, so the savings helps the industry’s bottom line.

Are Crocs ugly? Maybe. But, people love them. Nearly every story I’ve read about them follows the same template…

In a previous article, “Company Earnings and Stock Options Straddle“, we outlined a strategy for taking advantage of “earnings season” for making stock options investments. The idea behind this strategy is for a company’s stock price to deviate more than the net debit as a result of good or bad news published in the earnings report, realizing a profit for the investor.