Short Term Research

 How we earn you passive income in the old-fashioned way One of India’s most revered entrepreneurs believes that young people need to put in exceptionally long hours at work if they want to see the country become a global economic powerhouse. N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of the software behemoth Infosys, said India needs “highly determined, extremely disciplined and extremely hardworking” youngsters, who should put in 70 hours a week at work. “You know, this is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after the Second World War,” Murthy told Mohandas Pai, the former CFO of Infosys, in a chat published on YouTube Thursday. Murthy, whose wealth is estimated at over $4 billion by Forbes, co-founded Infosys in 1981. It went on to become one of the world’s biggest outsourcing firms. He is also the father-in-law of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. “Somehow our youth have the habit of taking not so desirable habits from the West and then not helping the country,” Murthy said. “Ind...

  Plan to Hike Electric Bills 29% Sparks Fury in Wyoming Proposed increase turns into fight over renewable power in coal-rich state, leads to talks of government takeover For years, people in Wyoming have been accustomed to paying some of the lowest electricity prices in the U.S., despite harsh winters and a rugged landscape. Now a 29% hike proposed by the state’s largest utility has residents and local leaders up in arms. Many in Wyoming, which leads the nation in  coal production , are aiming their fury at renewable power. At packed public meetings in recent weeks, residents and officials have laid the blame for the rate increase on projects such as the wind farms sprouting up around the sparsely populated state. But the utility, Rocky Mountain Power, says the actual culprit is rising fuel prices.  Across the U.S., electricity prices are  on the rise , driven by factors including inflation, drought and a global supply shortage worsened by the  war in Ukraine ....

  Up & Down such is the way. Ends Lower, Enters a Correction Amazon stock rallies; JPMorgan falls after Jamie Dimon announces share-sale plan The autumn pullback in the stock market worsened Friday, pushing the S&P 500 into a correction and to its worst two-week decline of the year. Read the day's full markets round-up here. The mood in the market has darkened in October as investors have parsed a wave of earnings results from some of the biggest and most influential companies in America while navigating a punishing bond rout. The S&P 500 follows the Nasdaq Composite, which ended in a correction earlier this week. On Friday, the tech-heavy index ended higher, boosted by a pop in Amazon shares. The week was marked with even bigger swings under the surface for everything from technology heavyweights to oil giants. Alphabet’s earnings disappointed investors, sending the stock down almost 10% for the week, the worst showing since November. Chevron lost more than 13%, the wo...

 Strategy Mastery | Debit Spreads 

 PROTECT YOUR COVERED CALLS WITH ZERO COST COLLAR OPTION!

 We blend Options trading with Universal Art and share the profits. Wall Street has a way to tell. It’s called discounted cash flow , or DCF analysis, and it’s the basis for analyst price targets and Buy, Hold, and Sell ratings. Step 1 : Predict precise free cash flows far into the future, say 10 years, even though Wall Street routinely guesses wrong on much easier measures like revenue for the current quarter. Step 2: Choose what’s called a discount rate, which is based in part on risk, which no one has figured out how to accurately measure for stocks in their four-century history. Step 3 onward: Use this made-up rate to calculate how much to pay today for those unknowable future cash flows. I’m leaving out some important steps, like calculating a terminal value, which involves conjecture beyond year 10, and adjusting for distant, entirely theoretical debt levels. Don’t forget to express your answer in the form of absolute certainty. Here’s an alternative that’s less mathy an...

 Why Covered Calls Pay MORE than Selling Puts! 

Protective Collar Options Strategy - Hedge with options.

 Fund your project with our service.  Ford Reaches Tentative Labor Deal With UAW Six Weeks Into Historic Strike. Proposed agreement contains 25% pay bump for assembly line workers; GM, Stellantis continue negotiations for their own labor pacts The United Auto Workers secured a new tentative labor deal with Ford Motor F 1.32%increase; green up pointing triangle Wednesday night, potentially ending a six-week strike at one automaker while negotiations continue at General Motors GM 1.58%increase; green up pointing triangleand Chrysler-parent Stellantis STLA 0.69%increase; green up pointing triangle. The labor agreement, which is subject to a member vote before being ratified, contains a 25% wage increase during the span of the contract, including an 11% bump in the first year, according to Chuck Browning, the UAW’s lead bargainer with Ford. The overall increase, which will be spread out over four years, would put the top wage for assembly workers at around $40 an hour. Workers wil...

Hals Notebook An option credit spread is a type of options trading strategy that involves the simultaneous purchase and sale of two options with the same expiration date but different strike prices. This strategy is used to generate income (credit) upfront, and it profits from the time decay of options. Here's how it works: Selecting the Options: You choose two options contracts, one to buy and one to sell. These options are typically of the same type (either both calls or both puts) and have the same expiration date. Choosing Strike Prices: The options you select should have different strike prices. The option you sell (short option) will have a strike price closer to the current market price, while the option you buy (long option) will have a strike price further away. Credit Received: When you sell the option (short option) with the lower strike price, you receive a credit for it. This credit is essentially the maximum profit potential of the spread. Limited Risk: The long optio...

  Trading Long Strangles Around Earnings | Tradecraft

 Credit Spread Options Strategies Explained (Top 3 Benefits)

Investors, we’re not in Kansas anymore. For four decades, patient savers able to grit their teeth through bubbles, crashes and geopolitical upheaval won the money game. But the formula of building a nest egg by rebalancing a standard mix of stocks and bonds isn’t going to work nearly as well as it has. Now, longer-term Treasury yields have hit their highest levels in 16 years, causing their value to plummet, and stocks are expensive. So investors need to lower their expectations and play defense. The summer of 2020 was the point when the classic “set it and forget it” stock-and-bond portfolio was as good as it got. Investors who didn’t panic earlier that year when Covid-19 crushed stocks cheered the quickest return to a bull market in history. Likewise, long-term Treasury yields plunged to a record low, bolstering bond funds. A classic 60/40 stock-bond split owning that proportion of the S&P 500 index and 10-year Treasury notes earned a respectable 15.3% in 2020. But there are few ...

 Trading Protective Put Options

 MY FAVORITE OPTIONS STRATEGY - Passive Income With Cash Secured Puts

  Hals' Blog Notes A protective put is a financial strategy used by investors to protect their stock holdings from potential losses. It involves buying a put option on a stock that an investor already owns. This put option gives the investor the right, but not the obligation, to sell the stock at a specified strike price before or on a predetermined expiration date. Here's an example to illustrate how a protective put works: Let's say you own 100 shares of ABC Company, which is currently trading at $50 per share. You're concerned that the stock's price might decline in the near future, but you want to hold onto your shares for the long term. To protect your investment, you decide to purchase a protective put option. You buy a put option with a strike price of $45, which is below the current market price of $50. The put option costs you $2 per share, and it has an expiration date of three months from now. Now, here are a few scenarios that could play out: Stock Pric...

 Hals' Blog Notes A "straddle" is an options trading strategy that involves buying both a call option and a put option with the same strike price and expiration date. This strategy is used when an investor expects a significant price movement in the underlying asset but is unsure about the direction of that movement. Here's an explanation of a straddle options strategy with an example: Components of a Straddle: Call Option: This gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy the underlying asset at the specified strike price before or on the expiration date. Put Option: This gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to sell the underlying asset at the specified strike price before or on the expiration date. Same Strike Price: Both the call and put options in a straddle have the same strike price. Same Expiration Date: Both options expire on the same date. Purpose of a Straddle: A straddle is used when an investor anticipates a significant price m...

 Why I Prefer Index Funds | ETF vs Index Fund

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 How To Grow A Small Stock Account

  Charles Schwab Has Had a Terrible Year. The Surprising Reason the Brokerage King Won’t Be Dethroned. Financial advisor John Robinson was scheduled to move his clients’ funds to Charles Schwab  from TD Ameritrade over Labor Day weekend as part of the brokerage industry’s largest account migration ever. He expected a snoozefest; instead he says he experienced a “dumpster fire.”  more than $4 million were incorrectly assigned to another advisor, he says. Robinson tried calling Schwab’s (ticker: SCHW) service desk but couldn’t get through. He finally spoke to someone the next day about the missing accounts. “They asked me, ‘What’s the account number?’” he says. “And I said, ‘I don’t know; I can’t see the accounts.’” Four days later, the accounts were reassigned correctly, but the experience has left Robinson dispirited. Schwab might lose his business. Rising interest rates over the past year have pressured Schwab’s bank, a key profit center. Customers have moved billions of...

 Stock Market Terminology for Dummies

In midday trading, shares of Apple  AAPL iPhone Sales Are Weak. Apple’s Future Depends on Their Strength: Analysts. Apple stock was digging itself out a hole Monday after yet another Wall Street analyst pointed out weak demand for the iPhone 15.0.07% (ticker: AAPL) were essentially flat, at $172.80, after starting the session down roughly 0.9%, at $171.40. The stock is up 32% for the year, but has closed in the red for the past six days. A seventh straight day of losses would be Apple’s longest losing streak since January 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The concern about iPhone 15 demand came this time from J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee, who rates the stock as Overweight with a $230 price target. In a research note Monday, Chatterjee wrote that lead times for the iPhone 15—lead time is the time from purchase to delivery—moderated for the fourth consecutive week, and are now below lead times for the iPhone 14, “in more signs of weaker demand.” “Average lead times ar...

 How does the stock market work?

 Index Funds For Beginners: Your Guide For Passive Investing

 Fund your projest with our service.  BMW Has Quietly Moved Into EVs. The Upside for the Stock Could Be 41%. BMW boasts that it makes the “ultimate driving machine.” The company may also have the ultimate electric-vehicle stock not named Tesla. BMW (ticker: BMW.Germany) isn’t known for EVs. It’s a luxury auto maker that makes sleek, stylish—and pricey—sedans such as the 8 Series Gran Coupe, the M3 sports car, and the X5 Sports Activity Vehicle. But the German company has also become a stealth EV play. It delivered 93,931 all-battery electric vehicles, or BEVs, during the third quarter of 2023, more than General Motors (GM), Ford Motor (F), and Rivian Automotive (RIVN) combined. Some traditional auto makers have larger EV businesses, but few can match BMW’s sales mix. The larger Volkswagen (VOW.Germany), for instance, sold 210,000 BEVs during the third quarter, but that amounted to 9% of total sales. BEVs made up 15% of BMW’s total third-quarter sales, up from less than 9% the ...

Stock Market for Beginners | Step by Step Guide (2023)

Click to zoom  Stocks fell Friday, with all three major indexes ending the week in the red. Read the day's   full markets roundup here . Indexes have  come under pressure  as the fighting between Israel and Hamas has intensified. A surge in borrowing costs, with the 10-year Treasury yield recently nearing 5%, has also weighed on markets. The benchmark yield retreated Friday, settling at 4.924%. The Federal Reserve may hold interest rates steady at its next meeting, Chair Jerome Powell  said Thursday , given that higher yields were tightening financial conditions. American Express stock fell, despite the credit-card company reporting record quarterly earnings and revenue. (Here's a  Heard on the Street take on Amex .) Another round of disappointing earnings pressured bank stocks. As of late Friday: Indexes finished lower.  The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average were all in the red, including a 1.5% daily decline for the tech-...

 Should You Use Cash Value Life Insurance as an Investment?

 How we earn you passive income in the old-fashioned way Controversial CO2 Pipeline Scrapped in Midwest The cancellation by developer Navigator CO2 Ventures is a setback for efforts to develop infrastructure to capture and store carbon emissions A pipeline company dropped ambitious plans to build a network of CO2 pipelines across the Midwest, delivering a victory for environmentalists and farmers who have opposed the project. Navigator CO2 Ventures said in a press release Friday that the unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes had led the company to nix the multibillion-dollar project. The company planned to erect over 1,300 miles of conduits to transport up to 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and permanently bury the gas in Illinois. It is one of several controversial projects seeking to crisscross the region with carbon pipelines. The projects are seen by energy executives and experts as a test for whether the U.S. can build the...

 HOW TO MAKE EASY MONEY IN THE STOCK MARKET

 Stock Market Terminology Explained For Beginners

  Home Sales Slide to Lowest Pace Since 2010 as High Rates Squeeze Market Buyers facing limited supply pushed up September prices Home sales fell in September to the lowest rate in 13 years, showing the corner of the economy most weakened by high interest rates remains in decline. For all of 2023, sales of previously owned homes are on track to be the lowest since at least 2011, because increased rates are weighing on demand. But high rates are also limiting the inventory of homes on the market, because homeowners with low rates are unwilling to sell and move. The small supply is pushing home prices higher in much of the U.S. Existing home sales, which make up most of the housing market, decreased 2% in September from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million, the lowest rate since October 2010, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. September sales fell 15.4% from a year earlier. The national median existing-home price rose 2.8% in September...

 

 Covered Calls Explained: Options Trading For Beginners

  ASK Hal and his link. Oil futures are financial contracts that allow individuals and companies to buy or sell a specified quantity of crude oil or petroleum products at a predetermined price on a future date. These contracts are a crucial part of commodities trading and serve various purposes, including hedging against price fluctuations and speculating on future price movements. Here's a detailed explanation of how oil futures work, along with examples: Contract Specifications: Each oil futures contract has specific details, including the type of oil (e.g., West Texas Intermediate or Brent), the quantity (usually in barrels), the delivery location, and the delivery date. For instance, let's consider a futures contract for 1,000 barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to be delivered in Cushing, Oklahoma, in December 2023. Buyers and Sellers: There are two primary participants in the oil futures market: buyers (long positions) and sellers (short positions). Buyers ...

 How The Wealthy Use Whole Life Insurance... For The Cash Value! | IBC Global

Buy now folks and gains will follow. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—James and Laura Molinari left Chicago for a two-story stucco home in this city’s historic Flamingo Park neighborhood. The four-bedroom house was a short bridge away from Palm Beach island and walking distance to downtown West Palm Beach. “We love it here,” said James, who plays golf with his 3-year-old son on Saturdays and can swim year-round in his backyard pool.  Then the renewal for his home insurance arrived. The new rate for the year starting in September was around $121,000—more than seven times what the Molinaris said they paid last year, and more than 13 times what they paid when the family moved to Florida in 2019.  While they found a better rate from another insurer, at about $33,000 it is still nearly double what they paid last year. The family this month listed the home for sale with an asking price of nearly $3.5 million after determining that insurance costs made staying there too expensive. Others in Fla...

  How Global Conflict Led to a Surprising Plan to Make Apple Chips in a Desert Your next iPhone won’t be stamped Made in America. But pry open the casing in 2025 and you may see semiconductor chips that were etched into silicon in the Arizona desert. While it will be scorching outside, the Phoenix “fab” gearing up to produce  Apple AAPL -0.07% ’s (ticker: AAPL) chips will be cool, clean, and cutting-edge.  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing 2330 1.10%  (TSM) is plowing $40 billion into the project, aiming to crank out 600,000 wafers a year. Apple CEO Tim Cook, at a “tool in” ceremony last year, said Apple would be “proud” to be the fab’s biggest customer.  That’s no coincidence. Apple is TSMC’s largest source of business, worth billions in annual revenue. Apple is looking for chip security, among many companies seeking to shore up supplies amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears over disruptions.   War breaking out between Israel and Hamas is just ...