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The U.S. Dollar and Other Extremes

By Lawrence G. McMillan

When the U.S Dollar moves, it often affects the price of many other things, especially commodities.  Of course, other currencies move in the opposite direction to the dollar, since we – as U.S. citizens – tend to view everything in dollar terms.  

Stan's "The Various Volatilities" Webinar 3/17/15

Stan Freifeld of McMillan Mentoring will be giving a free webinar titled The Various Volatilities: Learn How to Use Volatility to Your Advantage for Moneyshow.com eTradingExpo. The webinar will take place tomorrow, 3/17/15 from 2:45 pm - 3:30 pm EDT.

Click here for more information and to register

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 3/13/15

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The market, as measured by the Standard & Poors 500 Index ($SPX), had been laboring at new highs, near 2120. Then, last Friday it broke down below support at 2090, which turned the chart bearish.

Equity-only put ratios curled upwards late last week and gave confirmed sell signals on both the weighted and standard ratios. See Figures 2 and 3.

Tax Considerations: Section 1256 Contracts Revisited

By Lawrence G. McMillan

We usually try to run an article on this subject at least once during tax season. I realize that not everyone is aware of the rules governing Section 1256 contracts. Hence, since tax season is upon us, I thought this review might be of benefit to some of our subscribers – and to options and futures traders, in general.

Ivers Riley

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Ivers Riley, a long-term friend and business associate, died February 17th at his home in Savannah, Georgia. I met Ivers in the early 1980's when he was a cofounder of The Options Group – a consulting firm specializing in all the “new” forms of options that existed at that time (currency options and index futures, primarily, as I recall).

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 3/6/15

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The market has gone dull after making new all-time highs. The chart of $SPX remains bullish, in that it remains above support.

Equity-only put-call ratios remain bullish as well. They continue to decline on their charts, yet they are not so low as to be considered overbought.

Market breadth has been a problem for some time now. Both breadth oscillators rolled over to sell signals this week, and both remain there at this time.

The Option Strategist Newsletter Volume 24, No. 03 Preview

By Lawrence G. McMillan

When we first wrote about the “$VIX Crossover” system, we only analyzed it from the viewpoint of buy signals.  In the feature article in this issue, there is an update and review of the “buy” portion of the system. Then there is also an analysis of the reverse part of the system – the “sell” signal.  Also, the $VXST Crossover system is reviewed.

More On $VIX Crossovers

By Lawrence G. McMillan

We have written about crossover signals from the CBOE’s Volatility Indices in the past.  In particular, we want to present research on sell signals generated when $VIX rises above $VXV.   But first, we want to update the statistics on the systems that we have presented previously, with regard to these crossovers.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 2/27/2015

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The stock market continues to move higher, albeit at a very slow pace. That makes the $SPX chart bullish, of course, and it will remain bullish as long as $SPX holds above support. The highest support level is the 2090-2100 range that $SPX traded in last week.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 2/20/2015

By Lawrence G. McMillan

$SPX has finally broken out to new all-time highs and has maintained that status by closing above the old highs for four consecutive days. That's the bullish news. The less-than-bullish news is that the breakout is not being confirmed with any resound by some of the other indicators. However, as long as $SPX remains above the 2065 support level, the bulls are in charge.

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