Doug Ashburn has been the managing editor of The Ticker Tape® since 2016. Doug spent more than 20 years as a foreign exchange options market maker at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has been a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) since 2006. Doug previously served as regional director for the Chicago region of PRMIA, the Professional Risk Managers' International Association, and he served as editor of Intelligent Risk, PRMIA's quarterly member newsletter. He holds a BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business.
Avoiding debt and paying down debt are key components of long-term goal planning. But some types of debt are necessary, whereas others are bad for your financial wellness.
Options straddles and strangles are a way for advanced traders to get long or short exposure to volatility (vega), but the volatility needs to be weighted against time decay (theta). Here are the basics.
Can you use call options as a substitute for long stock? If you’re a qualified account owner, yes. Learn about buying stocks versus buying calls with the stock replacement strategy.
Do the headwinds of time decay turn you off from buying single options on volatile stocks? Find out how you may be able to turn the headwinds into tailwinds by trading those stock moves.
Trading options? Sometimes the bid/ask spread is nice and tight, and sometimes it’s not. Here’s what traders and investors should know about order types and slippage.
At 54.5% of global market capitalization, the U.S. stock market is by far the world’s largest. Learn about the exchanges and order-fill platforms that make up this trading ecosystem.
Return on capital and liquidity mean specific things in finance. But they can mean something different to an option trader. Read this options trading terminology guide to find out.
Options contract terms differ by product type. Know the difference between options multipliers, tick sizes, and delivery terms before you trade or invest.
Policy makers often use fiscal stimulus to stoke the economic embers and guide the economy toward long-term policy aims. Should you incorporate cues from fiscal spending into your portfolio strategy?
Some financial professionals suggest including alternative investments—those that fall outside the world of stocks, bonds, and cash—as part of a diversified portfolio. Should investors consider cryptocurrencies as part of the alternatives choice set?
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