September 2, 2010
If you have ever been to our website before, you might notice a few changes. We have also been working  on our first TV commercial. I was mentioning all this to some people at an event recently when I was asked by someone unfamiliar with our program “Whaddya selling?” That’s a good question and I think I’ll try to answer it here.
The short answer is that we are currently offering an options trading course complete with our own text, companion videos, and twelve in-depth mentoring sessions with a veteran trader who acts as your personal mentor.
… [ Read more ]

Part of it is probably the up and down nature of the market this year. Investors don’t seem to be trusting this year’s rallies. Fear has not been stamped out…..

Former UCLA Basketball Coach John Wooden passed away last Friday. There are many of you who are not old enough to remember a time when the NCAA Tournament was the UCLA Invitational. Between 1964 and 1975, UCLA won ten of twelve NCAA Tournaments. If freshmen could have played in 1966 it would have been 11 of twelve. And it took a great (and historically underrated) North Carolina State team 3 overtimes to stop a seven year run in 1974. A year later in Wooden’s final game he led his underdog Bruins over Kentucky for his tenth title.

Some would say… [ Read more ]

On May 6th, 2010 the stock market took its wildest twelve minute ride in history.  SPY(SPDR S&P 500 ETF, Public, NYSE:SPY) opened at 116.26 rising as high as 117.00 before finishing the day at 112.94. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that SPY traded as low as 105.00 before rallying back up. That all happened within the in that now infamous twelve minute span of time. The VIX (CBOE: VIX) , which tracks the implied volatility of options that are traded on the SPX, was as high as 40.71 before closing at 32.80. The very next day, with the European debt… [ Read more ]

Week of May 10, 2010

Since 1929 the market has been haunted by memories of “Black Tuesday”. Now a new generation of traders and investors will be haunted by “Fat-Finger Thursday”, the unprecedented 600+ point melt down and subsequent melt-back-up that all happened in a matter of minutes. It was not the size of the drop that was so frightening – it was the speed of the thing that left veteran traders gasping in disbelief.

I began trading stock index futures in 1982 and have traded through and witnessed firsthand the crashes of 1987 and 1997, had my [ Read more ]

Week of May 3, 2010

Last week it was reported that internal investigation revealed that several SEC employees spent most of their days watching internet porn. One senior attorney at the SEC spent an average of eight hours a day watching porn! That’s dedication. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the SEC.

Week of April 26, 2010

Several times last year, this column criticized the SEC for sitting on their hands while the evidence in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme was staring them right in the face. Well last week it was reported that internal investigation revealed that several SEC employees spent most of their days watching internet porn.

One senior attorney at the SEC spent an average of eight hours a day watching porn! That’s dedication. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the SEC. It was clearly not the Madoff case that was staring them in the… [ Read more ]

Week of April 19, 2010

Unless you were in a cave since Friday, you must have heard about the big news about Goldman Sach’s problems with the SEC involving their sale of collateralized debt options (CDO) allegedly designed by one customer to fail and then sold by Goldman to other unsuspecting customers….allegedly. All I know is that lawyers are going to get rich and that CST’s options director, Dan Keegan has a way to trade that news.

The biggest quandary an options volatility trader faces is when to jump on board the volatility bandwagon. On April 12^th the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) hit… [ Read more ]

Week of April 12, 2010

If it’s Monday, CST’s Options Director Dan Keegan must have another Pharmaceutical play. It could be because his Father was a doctor, or maybe it’s because the pharmaceutical sector is where all the volatility is, but Dan has been finding volatility with the VIX at ridiculously low levels (15.67 opening this morning). So pay attention and maybe Dan will come up with something to help pay your taxes.

On Friday, February 26th, 2010 OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc (Public, NASDAQ:OSIP) closed at 37.02. The following Monday, March 1st, OSIP opened at 55.11 and closed the day at… [ Read more ]

Week of April 5, 2010

No it’s not Bob Hope with Ann-Margaret and Charo, this USO show is CST’s head option’s mentor Dan Keegan is talking about an intersting ETF to watch and how you might play it:

“USO‎ – United States Oil Fund LP (ETF) (NYSE) is the ETF (exchange traded fund) that most closely follows the oil market. Until recently It hasn’t had a great deal of movement in 2010. Any trader who sold the at-the-money straddle at the beginning of any [ Read more ]