Coming soon as part of the Bloomberg Press Financial series is the latest book by Richard Lehman and Lawrence G. McMillan, Options in Volatile Markets 2nd Edition: Managing Volatility and Protecting against Catastrophic Risk. Below is the book cover and the write-up from the inside jacket cover. We will let everyone know when this book is available.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and virtually every other major index broke out to new post-2008 highs (and some to new all-time highs) in the past few weeks. But as is always the case, the euphoria and momentum of buying produced some extremely overbought conditions. Those need to be worked off before the market can move higher, and thus a correction is at hand.
Once again, as we enter another earnings reporting season, we are seeing some large moves by individual stocks and perhaps even larger anticipation of moves by the option markets in advance of the earnings announcement. This was a topic of much discussion at the just-concluded 3 Gurus Webinar over the past two days. Because of that interest, we thought the subject is apropos as the feature article this week. In this article, we're going to review the strategies that are often recommended in this newsletter.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market broke out to new 2011 highs this week. Some of these indices are actually making new all-time highs, having exceeded their 2007 peaks. The chart of $SPX now has a new bull market trend line, connecting the August and March lows. The breakout over the old highs in the 1340 area could measure targets to nearly 1400 on this move.
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained on buy signals for some time now.
Breadth has been strong of late, and both breadth indicators are in overbought territory.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
The market has finally broken out to the upside — sort of. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index finally made a new 2011 high, at last joining the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Value Line, Nasdaq 100, DJ Transports, DJ Utilities, Nasdaq Composite, and the NYSE Index, among others. The Russell 2000 is not quite at a new high, but it’s close.
The 3 Gurus Global Webinar starts tomorrow and Larry McMillan has announced his topic, "Option Strategies That Are Working Now." The following questions will be answered during his presentation:
By Lawrence G. McMillan
After a severe scare on Monday, which I label the "Emperor has no clothes" decline, the market has responded well, due in large part to some positive earnings report. Now the problem -- if there is one -- is the resistance from the February and April tops in the 1340-1345 area. Another failure at this level would be quite bearish.
Equity-only put-call ratios have remained bullish, even with the selling that occurred last week.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
It has been an interesting week. On Monday, we had what I like to call the “emperor has no clothes” selloff. Seriously, to whom is it news that the U.S. financial situation is a mess? Apparently, it was to some, as Standard & Poor’s placing of the U.S. debt on “credit watch” spurred massive selling. However, somewhere on the way to financial collapse, the bears ran out of gas. That day, the S&P 500 Index SPX +1.35% rallied to close above 1,300, putting in a bottom for the day at 1,295.
This morning, the $VIX April futures settled at 14.86, the lowest futures expiration since June of 2007 which was near the end of the last bull market. The $VIX index also opened this morning at a recent low of 14.31. Even though this might be considered overbought, with $VIX trending lower the market remains bullish.
