Tips

Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be trouble And if I stay it will be double So you gotta let me know Should I stay or should I go? –Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, et al Do you ever get such a feeling of indecision in the markets? You know the one I’m talking about (and feeling right now)—the one that is so amazingly summed up by British punk rock band The Clash in their classic song quoted above. (Please read below the signature […]

A quick note to the VTI faithful: Yesterday, just before I joined RJ Hixson and a truly international group for the first session of the “How to Develop Winning Trading Systems” course, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) hit a new post-pandemic low and closed below 14 since the first quarter of 2020. Three years is a really long run for high VIX. And for an index widely known as the “Fear Index”, it’s pretty easy to see why a drop to new lows has raised some eyebrows, and driven some

Today’s article was going to be a cool introduction to a series on psychological biases that investors and traders need to keep “front of mind”, especially in today’s evolving markets. However, with the U.S. debt ceiling rhetoric ringing in our ears and both sides of the political spectrum milking the drama for all it’s worth, I was carried in my memory to Cherry Grove — the northernmost beach in South Carolina. Why did my mind leap there? Because in early August of 2011, I was looking out of the screen

“If you don’t have time to do the job right, how will you find time to do it again?” —My Dad, teaching me how to properly mow a lawn I had just finished tightening a Phillips head screw that had wiggled out a bit on my desk. I was feeling quite handy (though my lovely and talented wife would surely chuckle at the thought…). When I was done, I noticed a small finishing nail sticking out at just the spot where it could scratch my leg or rip or pair

Once-in-a-lifetime events seem to be coming every week lately… Nassim Taleb defines a black swan event as an event that is unpredictable, has a massive impact, and after it happens, people try to rationalize it as if it could have been predicted. According to Taleb, the three traits of a black swan event are rarity, unpredictability and severe consequences. It’s not hard to remember this type of disruptive event. Think back to 1987 and Black Monday. Or several moves in the market dives of 2000 and 2008, the flash Crash

Six years ago, I covered the origin story of the saying “Draw a line in the sand”. As I’ve been doing my normal chart scans over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been struck by how often a “line in the sand” keeps showing up. The line that I’m seeing is the 200-day simple moving average (SMA). I’d like to revisit this very interesting and useful idea from a couple of perspectives: Why certain indicators seem to be more important than others. Revisiting the S&P 500 chart we looked at