When you buy and sell financial securities, you will inevitably generate profits and losses. The purchase of a stock that runs up 20% provides an excellent source of income, but with income comes taxes. There are two major tax implications that stock traders need to be aware of, which include long-term and short-term capital […]
Blog Posts
Is Robinhood Gold Worth It?
Robinhood Gold is the premium membership offering from Robinhood. It costs $5 per month, and its core features are: Research reports from Morningstar Level 2 quotes Increase your instant deposit limit Extended hours trading (pre-market and after hours) $1,000 of additional margin Changes to Robinhood Gold Robinhood changed their Gold offering back in April […]
Snowflake IPO Was Everything we Hoped For
The hot cloud software firm Snowflake ($SNOW) went public on Wednesday, September 16, and the stock went nuts. Despite its IPO price of $120 per share, the stock closed its first day of trading at $253.93 after reaching an intraday high of $319.00. Tech IPOs are scarce, and Snowflake’s IPO is one of […]
Consumer Price Index: Why it’s Important to Traders
During September 2020 Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting, the central bank made a big deal of targeting its inflation objective. The Fed has determined that it needs to do whatever it can to push inflation back above its 2% target. While there are several different ways to measure inflation the most popular and widely watched […]
What is the Wilshire 5000 Index?
When we hear “stock index,” we usually think of the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average, and rightly so. Many prominent hedge fund managers refer to the S&P as their benchmark, and financial media like CNBC and Bloomberg discuss “the market” in terms of how these indices perform. But, did you know there’s […]
The Craziest Stock Market Scandals of all Time
Whether it’s an orchestrated short squeeze, an outright fraud, or insider trading, the stock market is wrought with scandal and controversy. And the kicker is that the public only hears about a tiny fraction of them. Consider how many OTC pump and dump or insider trading schemes occur every week without anyone, but the […]
Options Pricing – How it Works
Figuring out the value of a stock or bond is a pretty straightforward problem. For stocks, the price of the shares is directly tied to the underlying value of the company. Successful companies that project strong forward sales growth will be rewarded with a high valuation and rising share prices. For companies bogged down […]
Why Traders Should Care About The Federal Reserve in 2020
With a temporary shutdown of a large portion of the United States economy and high unemployment, the stock market continues to rise. Things are confusing, and lots of people are blaming the Federal Reserve. For many, it’s easy to ignore the Fed-related hysteria because those yelling the loudest are the same folks trying to […]
Index Options vs Stock Options Explained For Beginners
Many novice options traders are initially confused by the difference between the options on cash indices like SPX and the options traded on stocks and ETFs like AAPL or SPY. After all, you can’t trade indices like SPX on the stock market. It’s just an index! So let’s settle a few differences. Firstly, why […]
How to Trade the Ascending Triangle Pattern
The ability to detect a trading signal above the noisy day-to-day gyrations of the market is crucial for anyone who seeks to become a trader. Buy and hold investors only make money when the market goes up, but when you have a long timeframe, the averages work in your favor. But traders have to […]