ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Many stock traders and investors avoid options because they seem too complex or risky. Although it is very easy to lose large amounts of money in a very short time misusing options, investors and traders of all kinds should at least consider them as one
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS..."The Dogs of the Dow," a popular strategy based on purchasing the highest-yielding stocks each year, is reviewed here using a longer lookback period than originally used, as well as detailed analyses of the risks and rewards. On Beating the Dow, Michael
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...On System Development Part 1 by Mark Vakkur, M.D. Here's one for the first-time developer of a trading system, or someone who's thinking about developing a system. Here are the basic steps this author took to develop a system for the stock market. Suc
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...On System Development Part 2 by Mark Vakkur, M.D. Last month, this author introduced the initial steps that someone, novice or veteran, should take when developing a stock market system. This time, he explains the final steps. Last time, I posited that
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Seasonality And The Presidential Election Cycle by Mark Vakkur, M.D. Can you combine politics with seasonality? With the Presidential election coming up, here's a review of some trading strategies for the stock market built around this event. The quadr
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Stochastics Of Earnings Yields by Mark Vakkur, M.D. By combining technicals and fundamentals, you can make a realistic analysis of the market. Pure stock market technicians ignore fundamentals. To them, the chart tells the whole story, while the fundam
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The 10% Swing Filter by Mark Vakkur, M.D. Price filters identify trends while eliminating noise below a certain percentage change. Here's a trading method using a 10% price filter for the S&P 500 stock index. Although trend-following systems work well
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Why is money management one of the first items that profes-sional traders stress? Why would you think? Here's an overview of risk and several simple mechanical approaches to money management. Preserving capital is essential to a trader's long-term survi
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The Channel Breakout System by Mark Vakkur, M.D. This is one of the simplest and oldest trading techniques, where trades are initiated based on price exceeding a given historical level. Here's how the channel breakout system works using the Value Line i
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence by Mark Vakkur, M.D. Here's a novel way of using the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) histogram to generate buy and sell signals for stock and mutual fund traders. Not only that, included is a simple
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...The Volatility Stop System Here's a step-by-step through the development of a robust trading system for capturing major market moves. Volatility systems have a long and honored history in technical trading. Here, I'll show you a simple, robust version
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Interest rates have long been tied to movement in the stock market. Here's how to test trading rules for the stock market based on a six-month moving average of the 30-year Treasury bond yield, showing us when it may and may not be profitable to invest i
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...How can you go about selecting the best strike price for writing an option? Perhaps no branch of knowledge has been as abused or misunderstood as statistics. Yet, without some grounding in basic statistical concepts, our ability to trade profitably is l
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Looking at the seasonality of the stock market from different viewpoints can give you new insight into an old concept. Here's a look at the best and worst months in which to invest as well as some suggested investing guidelines. By Mark Vakkur, M.D. One
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS...Catching DJIA Breakouts by Mark Vakkur, M.D. Buying breakouts in the Dow Jones Industrial Average works well - but there are caveats. If the trend is your friend, the simplest way to use that idea is to buy only those markets that are breaking out to n