fbpx ryanbrennan's blog | Option Strategist
Home » Blog » ryanbrennan's blog

The “Ultimate” Tail Trade? (Preview)

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Yesterday (October 6th), on the CBOE, someone bought 50,000 $VIX Mar (22nd of 2023) 150 calls for 0.19. So, that’s 50,000 contracts. Strike is 150 for $VIX (or technically, for the March (2023) $VIX futures. And the expiration date is roughly six months from now.

The construct of volatility derivatives has moved to a vulnerable state

By Lawrence G. McMillan

$VIX – the indicator which has not exactly been in tune with the negativity of this 2022 bear market  has now generated an intermediate-term trend sell signal. By that we mean that both $VIX and its 20-day Moving Average are above the 200-day Moving Average at this time. The sell signal will be in effect as long as that is the case. A previous trend sell signal occurred in December 2021 and was quite effective. In between, there was a trend buy signal, which was effective at first, but then deteriorated quickly.

Webinar Recording: The Current State of Market-Predicting Option Indicators 9/14/2022

By Lawrence G. McMillan

Join Lawrence G. McMillan as he discusses the current state of his option-oriented indicators and what they are saying about the stock market. This video was recorded from his live webinar on September 19th, 2022.

Click here for a PDF slide deck of the presentation.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 8/12/2022

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The broad stock market has broken out over major resistance at 4170 and should now be ready to challenge the 4300+ level. It is imperative for the bulls that these recent gains be held. That is, if $SPX were to slide back below 4170, that would be modestly negative, and if it fell below 4070, that would be extremely bearish.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 7/1/2022

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The latest attempt at an oversold rally appears to be over with very little to show for it. the rally barely reached the declining 20-day Moving Average of $SPX. Typically, oversold rallies overshoot that declining 20-day MA, so this was a particularly weak rally attempt.

The trend of $SPX is still downward, and the pattern of lower highs and lower lows continues to dominate the $SPX chart. In short, this is still a bear market.

Weekly Stock Market Commentary 6/24/2022

By Lawrence G. McMillan

The broad market made new lows for 2022 a week ago. That reaffirms the pattern of lower highs and lower lows on the $SPX chart, meaning that the bear market is still intact. There should some support at last week's lows, near 3650. Beyond that, one has to go to a longer-term chart to find support: 3500 and then 3200.

Remembrances Of The 1973-1974 Bear Market (Preview)

By Lawrence G. McMillan

At the beginning of 1973, the Dow (no one paid much attention to $SPX back then) made a new all-time high, trading up to 1067.  The Barron’s Roundtable, a survey of top money managers and brokerage firm analysts, was published at the beginning of 1973 under the (now infamous) headline, “Not A Bear Among Them.”  They were all bullish.  President Nixon declared that the Vietnam War was over (although it didn’t wind down completely until 1975).  However, stocks had a mind of their own (then, and now), and the Dow began to immediately decline. 

Pages