Category: Stock Option Trading News

Stop being a spectator and start competing this summer. I’m not suggesting winning gold in Beijing. I’m suggesting winning green with these Olympic related investments: Sign up now for PowerOptions free 14-day trial Gold Medal: Suntech Power Holdings (STP) Think Gold. Think Sun. Suntech Power Holdings designs, develops, and markets an array of photovoltaic cells and modules. Founded in 2001, STP’s innovation and foresight has made them the world leader in solar energy and the official solar sponsor of the Beijing Olympics. Expect positive headlines about Suntech and solar energy as the world tunes in to the opening ceremonies in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium, beautifully powered by Suntech solar panels. The stocks of solar related companies have been very volatile over the last year. A covered call investing strategy can take advantage of some of that volatility. Suntech currently has a covered call investing position with a potential return of…

We all remember what happened to Martha Stewart, right? In late 2001, the homemaking queen avoided a loss of around forty-five grand by selling off close to four thousand shares of her ImClone (IMCL) stock. It was shown that Stewart had received insider information about an unfavorable FDA ruling on a drug manufactured by ImClone, and had ordered her stockbroker to sell all of her Imclone shares.

Blackberry maker (RIMM) reported a 52-week high ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings report. Stock investing shares of RIMM were up $2.66, or 1.8%, to $147.11. For the first quarter, analysts expect RIMM to report earnings of 85 cents a share on revenue of $2.3 billion, compared with earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of $1.1 billion a year ago.

This is a general investing concept. It means that when you are seeking more reward, you will be taking on more risk. In most option trading strategies you can infer the risk/reward by analyzing how much money is at risk vs. what you can make if the trade is successful.

Looking for ways to enhance the returns on your IRA or stock portfolio in these times of deflated stock returns and low interest rates? Selling covered call investing equity options is a conservative approach to squeeze out higher returns. When you sell covered-call contracts it gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase your stock at the higher price. The seller of the covered call investing contract keeps the profits from the option premium and advances of the stock price. If the stock does not exceed the option strike price, the seller gets to retain the stock and the option premium. Investors can safely achieve 25% to 45% enhancement in their investment program.

You may have come across the term FRO recently while visiting your brokerage account or reading any recent financial newsletters. FRO’s are ‘Fixed Return Options’, a new form of derivative trading vehicle that share various similarities to standard stock options, but also have distinctive differences.

A common stock trading technique is to buy a stock or call option when a stock is at a support position and/or to short a stock or buy a put option when a stock is at a resistance point and exiting the position based on some criteria like percent profit, etc. Generally for this trading strategy, it is desirable to find a stock that is in a trading range or channeling, i.e. transitioning or oscillating between the stock’s support and resistance points. One way to find or search for channeling stocks is to use Bollinger Bands. A Bollinger Band is a statistical calculation representing a number of standard deviations away from the mean or average stock price. A typical Bollinger Band is calculated using an average stock price based on a 20 day moving average and upper and lower Bollinger Bands calculated based on two standard deviations away from the…

Google (GOOG) sent a surge through the stock trading markets by reporting a 30 percent spike in its first quarter profits. This easily topped analyst expectations, and the after hours report ended a day of anxious anticipation that saw the stock’s price dip over $5. The company’s stock has been on a gradual decline over the course of the last year thanks to economic concerns and questions about the company’s advertising business model. Apparently some moderate adjustments to its ad formula were enough to get the job done. The Internet search engine power said its first quarter earnings were $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share. The incredible earnings really inspired stock investing after hours following the report. As investors quickly added the stock to their trading portfolio or personal stock portfolio, the share price spiked an incredible $76, or 17% in after hours stock trading.

Martinsville, Virginia based Hooker Furniture (HOFT), a furniture maker, reported a strong fourth quarter profit for its fiscal quarter. The company reported a $4.6 million profit, or 39 cents per share, for the quarter that ended on February 3. This was a huge improvement for the company, which reported a loss of $18.4 million during last year’s fourth quarter, or $1.52 per share. They did have a shortened, two month quarter last year, related to a shift in their fiscal year.

San Francisco based drug store chain Walgreens Company (WAG) announced a 5.2% profit increase during its fiscal second quarter compared with last year’s second quarter. This was above analysts estimates for the company. The company credited much of the growth in profit to better cost control measures and stronger sales at established stores. The company’s profit for the quarter, which ended February 29, was $686 million. This amounts to 69 cents per share in earnings, which definitely excited stock trading for the company as investors drove the shares up about 5% through trading portfolio additions, following the better than expected results.