If you know where the real buyers and sellers are in a market, does anything else really matter?

I don't think many traders follow the CBOE's implied correlation index, but lately it's been on the rise.

Recently, I was teaching an option class in Overland Park, Kansas, and we were looking at placing a short vertical (Bear Call) on JPM. We noticed that the underlying did not trade over 42 for awhile, hence, we selected the 42 zone as the correct place to sell the short call.

Trade selection using volatility as the primary criteria. Different trades for different volatility opportunities.

Since the S&P 500 Index along with some other important indices made key reversals on Thursday, one way to manage positions is by hedging longs until the current resistance area is clearly exceeded to the upside.

Most traders believe that bonds are a direct substitute for stocks and are used as a flight to safety in times of trouble. That is partially true.

To buy low, someone needs be convinced that whatever you're buying is worth selling at that price. Conversely, when you sell high, someone needs to be convinced that what you are selling is worth buying at that high price. The one who ends up on the right side of that equation and ends up consistently profitable is the one who can decipher "code" and understand the reality of the situation.

If you're trading a strategy with a long-term record of solid performance and a steadily rising equity curve, a great time to increase your exposure to that strategy is after the strategy has suffered a losing period.

Trade selection using volatility as the primary criteria. Different trades for different volatility opportunities.

While similar in concept to a pair of aces, the pairs we are thinking about come from arbitrage strategies and the practice of matching a long position with a short position in two stocks in the same sector.

The average investor needs to start "thinking the markets" like Wall Street does.

Charts, volatilities, and more…..