Since 2018, Sean has served the financial community as Chief Options Strategist for All Star Charts, sharing his unique style of options trading, leveraging the best-in-class technical analysis offered by the All Star Charts research team.
In all endeavors, Sean has been consistent in building a support system around himself and for others that he wishes he had when he started out back in 1998.
So, we’re well off the highs in the VIX—but a 30-handle is still considered elevated by historical standards.
Why does that matter?
VIX above 30 typically signals that there’s still plenty of undigested stress and uncertainty swirling around in the markets. It tells us that fear hasn’t fully cleared, and the waters are still too choppy for comfort. Historically, when VIX is at these levels, it’s often during periods of heightened news-driven volatility, unclear macro narratives, or disorderly price action.
And more importantly—for me, at least—it signals that taking anything other than shorter-term trades can be problematic. Swing trades that might normally take weeks to play out can get chopped up or invalidated in hours. Markets at these volatility levels are unforgiving to those who overstay their welcome.
This is the market we have, and we have to trade it as it is, not as we wish it would be.
In today’s Options Jam Session, I cover this in more depth—along with a great teaching moment from two recent trades that moved in opposite directions. Both trades used variations of a calendar/diagonal spread strategy, and the contrasting...
Well, now that the bounce feels like it's running out of a little steam, it's time to scan the universe of stocks that have been underperforming and had tepid bounces (at best) during this week's counter-trend rally.
Today's stock is one of the laggards in the semiconductors space.
