2022 was an awful year for the stock market. Tech stocks gave up two-thirds of their gains from the Covid recovery. Amazon.com made history by being the first company to lose a trillion dollars in market cap. The factors that drove the market down have not gone away. Yes, inflation…

As the worst inflation in four decades was picking up steam, the Federal Reserve dragged their feet but finally started to cut back on their balance sheet and raise interest rates. Successive interest rate hikes by the Fed have resulted in a miserable stock market in 2022 (but not for…

At Top Gun Options we routinely pay attention to what is going across the world and refer to our DRINC acronym which refers to Democrats, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China. The concept refers to how events far from our shores can have major effects on US markets. An interesting…

Here we are with another Congress, another President, and another looming US debt ceiling crisis. The US has had to up its debt ceiling dozens of times over the years. The USA has not had a budget surplus since 2001 so we are always borrowing to pay the bills. About…

At the times when the Federal Reserve is raising or lowering interest rates, they are the major driver of the market. Fed actions can raise or lower stock prices depending on what they are doing to interest rates. Options traders can benefit from movements either up or down while at…

At Top Gun Options we routinely check to see what the DRINCs are up to and how their actions may affect the markets. For those not familiar with the acronym, DRINC stands for Democrats, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China. Democrats have a tendency to overspend and are at least…

As we noted recently regarding the jobs report and how the market might react, good news for employment is often bad news for the market and vice versa. How is that? How is “good” bad in options trading? At Top Gun Option we pay close attention to anything and everything…

Technical analysis is an essential tool for anyone who trades stocks, futures on stocks, or options on stocks. Elliott waves are one of those useful technical indicators. What are Elliott waves and how can you use them in trading options? This approach is based on a theory developed by Ralph…

Here at Top Gun Options we commonly place trades that profit from price action at the start of the day. The market seems to start with one idea and then changes its mind after the first half hour to an hour or two. It is a useful and profitable skill…