We’ve been getting a lot of questions about options here at Trend Playbook, so I wanted to cover some of the basics today… In the world of finance, “options” isn’t just a word for your investment choices -- options are financial instruments that Wall Street gurus and individual investors can use ...read more

The Russian and the Frenchman First, let’s return to Mendeleev and his missing elements. Why were there gaps in his table? Did the Russian scientist make errors in arranging the elements? Or, based on the gaps, were these apparently “missing elements” key to another aspect of chemistry? Mendeleev was perplexed, but he ...read more

Today, I want to go back to basics and show you four trading mistakes that could be sapping money from your portfolio before you even had a chance… Trade execution is one of the most mysterious parts of the investing world -- few individual investors concern themselves with what’s happening to ...read more

“The VIX surges 34%... sending stocks tumbling,” reads the expert commentary on one financial news site. “Right now both the VIX and the S&P are signaling markets are just going to keep on marching higher,” opines another. So which is it? The media are transfixed with volatility -- and the VIX volatility index ...read more

Well, it’s been something of a sad week for proponents of Bitcoin... Would-be buyers of the fringy cyber experiment have had to watch as the price of their beloved currency shot to within (as of this writing) just over $40 per coin. No buyer wants to see that kind of action...unless ...read more

“I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake...” That’s a quote from a pessimistic analyst in a Bloomberg Op-Ed dated May 20, 2001 — just one day after Apple opened its first retail locations. The arguments against brick-and-mortar retail are sound, for ...read more

I’m a big fat loser -- and I hope you’re one too… There’s nothing more important to investing success than being a good loser. Nothing. It’s natural to be focused on winning investments, but it’s the sign of a novice. The fact is that winning is easy -- it’s losing, and losing ...read more

“The market anticipates, while the news exaggerates.” -- Bob Farrell You can’t trade the news. Well, you can. But you shouldn’t. In fact, I would go as far as to say there’s no strategy to successfully gauge how a news event or story will play out in the markets. Remember the fiscal cliff debacle ...read more

Whether you’re a novice options investor or you’ve been trading options for years, three simple rules could mean the difference between serious gains and major losses. Here’s everything you need to know to go from optionless to an options whiz… Every day, scores of novice options investors get burned. It’s not because ...read more

One year can make a big difference. In 2012, the market quietly jumped higher to start the year. No one cared. Yet in 2013, it’s almost impossible to escape the coverage — and the worries that have come along with the news that stocks are close to new highs. Thanks to some impending ...read more