By Lawrence G. McMillan
We normally follow the equity-only put-call ratio as one of our main contrarian indicators. However, there is another put-call ratio that we follow from time to time, as it gives occasional signals. That is the total put-call ratio, and it is on the verge of giving a buy signal. We last wrote about this almost exactly a year ago (Volume 19, number 10&11 [double issue]). In this article, we’ll review the indicator and update the results over the past year.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
This is the second of two articles on weekly calendar spreads. In the last issue, we dealt with some of the complexities of this strategy, and promised to finish the study so that we could begin using some of the strategies in this newsletter – if they proved viable in our studies. Even though we weeded out some of the possibilities with the research presented in Part 1 of this subject (published in Volume 20, No. 9), there were still plenty of possibilities remaining.
By Lawrence G. McMillan
Ever since we ran an article last fall on selling weekly options, subscribers have been clamoring for (okay, well maybe not “clamoring,” but several have requested) an article on weekly calendar spreads. Of course, in that previous article, we promised a future article on weekly calendar spreads. So the time has arrived to try to tackle what is a far more complex subject than merely selling weekly puts. The calendar spread subject is complex because there are myriads of ways it can be approached – put calendars or call calendars?
Once again, as we enter another earnings reporting season, we are seeing some large moves by individual stocks and perhaps even larger anticipation of moves by the option markets in advance of the earnings announcement. This was a topic of much discussion at the just-concluded 3 Gurus Webinar over the past two days. Because of that interest, we thought the subject is apropos as the feature article this week. In this article, we're going to review the strategies that are often recommended in this newsletter.
