The top five weights in QQQ, the Nasdaq 100 ETF, are: Apple (AAPL), 11.4 percent; Alphabet (GOOGL, formerly Google), 9.2 percent (both A and C); Microsoft (MSFT), 8.5 percent; Amazon (AMZN), 5.8 percent; and Facebook (FB), 4.5 percent. The tech-heavy … Continued
Between the January 20th intra-day low of $181.02 and the February 1st high of $194.58, SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, rallied 7.5 percent… in nine sessions. Too much too fast? Probably. That said, this was preceded by a nearly … Continued
Tech stocks outshone their peers last year. In a year in which indices such as the S&P 500 large-cap index and Dow Industrials were negative – down 0.7 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively – the Nasdaq composite rallied 5.7 percent … Continued
Among several culprits behind the recent sell-off in global stocks, two probably stand out: the yuan and crude oil. Chinese stocks began this week where they left off on Friday, dropping more than five percent on Monday. Last week, the … Continued
December thus far has been uncharacteristically quiet. And that is putting it nicely. U.S. stocks have failed to get seasonal traction this month. So far. There are eight sessions remaining before the year is out. So there is hope. Since … Continued
As things stand, it is hard to be bullish on small-caps. As a group, they have been lagging for some time, and act weaker technically than large-caps. IWM, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF, has more or less been going sideways … Continued
Back on October 12th when SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, was trading at $201.52, October 16th weekly 202.50 calls were hypothetically sold for $0.84. Once assigned, this resulted in effective short at $203.34. Three weekly short puts later, and … Continued
Hindsight is always 20/20. The post last Monday hypothetically discussed three ways to play beaten-down GLD, the SPDR Gold ETF: (1) go long at $103.09; (2) short November 27th 102.50 puts for $0.49, which could result in effectively going long … Continued
Spot gold fell 0.45 percent last week – its fifth consecutive down week. Over the past two weeks, the rate of decline has softened. But that is small consolation to gold bugs that have been at the losing end of … Continued
Two-year Treasury yields – supposedly the most sensitive to Fed policy – are acting as if they are beginning to price in a December hike. On October 14th, the two-year Treasury bill yielded 0.57 percent; by November 6th, the yield … Continued