VIX

Last week markets experienced a hard sell off brought upon by serious geopolitical headlines: a downed plane in Ukraine with hundreds dead and a ground invasion in Gaza. On Friday the markets rallied and recouped the losses as if nothing happened. The motto of 2014 remains true: Much has...

Last week the market reversed the baseless bullish action. This reversal solidifies the statement that so much has happened yet nothing has changed. Trading the 2014 global thesis continues to work where markets can grind higher without new catalysts. Selling premiums outside of the ranges...

News-heavy last week fueled the bulls. This coming week should be more truthful about traders' willingness to buy since not much news is scheduled and none very heavy. In addition, the earnings season starts. A few things of note from Friday: The VIX was down more than anticipated; -4...

Last week the bears did just enough to remind the bulls that it's not a straight shot to the moon this year. On Thursday, the bears got more help in the form of a new source of scary headlines--the Iraq situation. Iraq is a legitimate threat with global repercussions. The fighting has the...

Everyone seems to have a Top 10 list, so here's this week's Top 8 reasons why traders be a little nervous about stocks at these levels. 1. Low volume: Lowest four volume days of the year for the S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) have occurred in the past 10 trading days. 2. Low VIX: Even with...

Last Week's Takeaway Friday the bears did just enough to remind bulls that this is not 2013 where every run is to the moon. The week was full of action and market confusion was the only sure thing. For months markets have had an inverse trading relationship between the TLT and yen on one side...

The S&P 500 has had multiple all-time high closes within the past few weeks. However, volatility in the S&P 500, as measured by the VIX, has been in an ongoing downtrend throughout the month of May. In order to get a better insight into the reasons behind this downtrend, Benzinga spoke...

Recap The week ended on a bullish note. All markets were in the green. Impressively the markets rose in the face of a falling TNX and rising TLT. For the past few weeks, this situation in the TNX and TLT would have caused a market sell off. Absent any negative headline from the Ukraine...

Here's a look at the top tickers trending on StockTwits.com Amazon.com: Post-earning hangover Last night, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported a miss on both EPS and revenue despite North American sales rising 25.9 percent year over year to $15.3 billion and International sales rose 12.8 percent to...

Eyes are on economic news in regards to a possible government shutdown due to the lack of decision on Obamacare. Given the current state of the S&P 500 (NYSE: SPY) holding under 169, traders should be very careful of support becoming resistance. VIX levels are at a an interesting high in front...

Despite weak economic data, markets rallied this afternoon pushing the major indexes (except the Dow) positive for the week. Major Averages The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a gained 46.62 points, or 0.31 percent, to 15,010.36. The S&P 500 gained around 6.51 points, or 0.39 percent...

Markets have been in major chop under the hood as mentioned last week. The tail end of the week finally gave some inkling that markets are trading towards lower levels here, although shorts have not had an easy time. This action doesn't look like much "smart money" playing, more like sloppy retail...

Following the strong Case-Shiller Home Price Index report for April and other strong data on the housing market, New Home Sales for May rose faster than expected, new data released Tuesday showed. The flood of housing related data boosted homebuilder stocks in early Tuesday trade. New Home Sales...

The CBOE Volatility Index is a measure of the fear in the market. The VIX measures, in percents, the 30-day annualized return in stocks within one standard deviation. So, if the VIX is at 15, it means that the S&P 500 is expected to gain or lose 4.33 percent over the next 30-days with about...