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

A review of last week's market and a preview of the coming week from a volatility perspective.

Trading strategies that work don't change with time, markets, or changing market conditions. Quite frankly, to think market conditions ever change at all is a strong illusion that can only be removed when one focuses on the foundation of price movement, pure supply and demand.

As a trading instructor, I sometimes catch myself muttering in my sleep, "Make sure you set your stop on that trade!" Ok, so I may not actually do that. But I am saying it constantly in the classes I teach. It is the main thing we as traders can do to help prevent catastrophic losses in our accounts.

With all the advances in technology, order execution, and strategy back-testing, it is easy to complicate the simplicity of markets.

In this post, I address the question of huge swings in the implied volatility on an individual stock.

Regardless of your view on the movement of a stock, you can have theta working for you or against you.

New traders often become confused when deciding what tools to use in order to analyze the markets and select trading opportunities. Looking at the selections available as well as the tools offered in today's advanced trading software, it is easy for one to become overwhelmed.

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

Once again, we turn our focus to takeover activity in those companies with listed options. We review four deals that have already been announced and three that are still in the rumor stage.

Starting Thursday the quarterly roll over from September to December begins: December is now "top step." At this time volume is split between the current contract of September and the new contract of December; thus trading volume, and most likely volatility, will continue to deteriorate until at least next Tuesday.

A successful trader's path must be reality-based, not driven by illusion. The reality is that markets are nothing more than pure supply and demand at work; human beings reacting to the ongoing supply/demand relationship within a given market.