By Lawrence G. McMillan

Join Larry McMillan as he discusses the current state of his option-oriented stock market indicators.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Stocks broke upward out of the trading range this week, and have made new intraday highs for this rally each day since. Thus, the rally that began from the extreme oversold conditions on March 20th remains intact. There should be support in the 2940-2950 area, which was the top of the recent trading range. As for overhead resistance, the 200-day moving average was supposed to offer resistance, but so far it hasn't.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

This article was originally published in The Option Strategist Newsletter Volume 13, No. 13 on July 8, 2004. 

This subject of risk is one that we have addressed in the past. In this article, we’ll not only review the basics of risk management, but will also introduce a more advanced technique designed to even better assess your risk and adjust your position size accordingly.

There are two facets to trading: position selection and risk management. Many traders feel that the latter is more important than the former. In fact, some have gone so far as to say that any reasonable method of selection will work as long as one has an excellent method of risk management.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The action over the past few days has been just above those old relative highs at 2955, but has certainly not been a true breakout from the previous trading range. The high this week was 2980.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

This article was originally published in The Option Strategist Newsletter Volume 9, No. 19 on October 11, 2000. 

Many sophisticated traders use ‘expected returns’ to analyze the profit and loss expectations of their investment strategies. In this article, we’ll define what that entails and then point out some of the benefits and difficulties in using such statistics to predict how a strategy will perform.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

This article was originally published in The Option Strategist Newsletter Volume 1, No. 12 on June 11, 1992. 

With myriad investment advisors and the media trumpeting the fact that the market is overvalued, and with scary comparisons to the summer of 1987 abounding, an owner of stocks might justifiably be concerned with how he can safeguard his portfolio. He may not want to sell out his portfolio and go into an all cash position, but he would like to have some "insurance" in case the market takes a nosedive. Most investors in today's markets are familiar with the fact that index futures or index options can be used to protect one's portfolio. However, few know exactly how to adequately and correctly protect their portfolio of stocks. In this week's feature article, we'll describe the way in which one can compute the number of futures or options that would be needed to properly hedge his portfolio.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Join Larry McMillan as he discusses the current state of his option-oriented stock market indicators.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

A double top is now evident on the $SPX chart in the 2950 area. So for now that is strong resistance. The question is whether we're in a trading range or a stronger downturn is in store.

There are three important support levels: 2800, 2720, AND 2650. I feel that sellers would become more aggressive as each of these were violated on a closing basis. So far, none have been.

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Join Larry McMillan as he discusses the current state of his option-oriented stock market indicators.

McMillan Volatility Bands are an alternative approach to John Bollinger's "Bollinger Band" study and developed by world-renowned options trader and author Lawrence G. McMillan. Given his background in options trading, it was natural for Lawrence to approach any volatility-based study in the same manner options are priced – using Black-Scholes definition of volatility.