The alleged attack on short selling hedge funds by amateur traders is stirring a lot of unrest among an uninformed public, including politicians. Understanding these things does help. In spite of how many people invest in the stock market, there is much confusion about how these things work or even are supposed to work. This […]

Among the things that have emerged during the crisis that we’ve faced this year is a huge surge in retail accounts, with many used for day trading. People do need to be careful. As good of a year that 2019 was for the stock market, we actually saw a decline in the amount of retail […]

While a lot of traders prefer to trade individual stocks, trading the major stock indexes offers some significant benefits, especially for amateurs who need to focus on simplicity. The great majority of amateur traders struggle mightily, and the biggest challenge for them is to come up with a trading strategy that actually works. While there […]

While investors were left reeling from what is considered an absolutely terrible week for stocks, it provided unbelievable opportunities to those who are good at trading indexes. This week was as tough as they come for investors, with the first four days producing massive losses and the fifth being in massive loss territory until the […]

There are quite a few people out there who are intimidated and disenchanted with all the computer trading that goes on these days, but these fears are not justified at all. There is a myth out there that still prevails that has us human traders and investors pitted against an army of computers, all of […]

Trading has been particularly lucrative over the last while with markets being so nice and volatile, but trading also accelerates the impact of our mistakes. Here are the biggest ones. Trading is in a sense investing at a much higher rate of speed. The principles of trading versus investing are actually very similar, at least […]

Lori Calvasina of RBC Capital Markets doesn’t see any direct benefit from the U.S. and China finally agreeing to something. It’s really about the mood changing though. It’s no secret that Friday’s trade deal in itself won’t so much to help stocks, the trade war, or the economy. Lori Calvasina, the head of U.S. equity […]

Critics of trading used to rely on the argument that commissions make trying to trade too difficult or even futile. Now that this is gone, detractors are down to hurling insults. Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard and a staunch believer in the buy and hold strategy, did not quite live to see commission-free online […]

Trading commissions have been going down ever since discount brokerages first appeared on the scene. Charles Schwab has now gone all in with zero commissions. At one time, not that long ago, placing orders for stocks was an expensive affair indeed. Brokers didn’t call themselves full-service brokerages back then because all brokers were full-service. Trading […]

Even during bull markets like the one we are in now, where we are at all-time highs, doing well requires that we manage our positions effectively and seek efficiency. Efficiency isn’t really a word that is used very much by traders and certainly is a concept that is pretty foreign to investors. The way most […]