Tag: ETF strategies

Oil Just Posted Its Worst Monthly/Quarterly Loss Ever!

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Over the last month, we have seen the price of Crude oil benchmarks in the U.S. and Brent futures get destroyed. Both benchmarks lost right around two-thirds of their value during the first quarter and roughly 55% of their value during March alone.

The massive price destruction occurred because of many reasons. The first and foremost is the Coronavirus pandemic and how the world is fighting the spread of the virus. Shutting borders to foreign nationals, implementing 'Stay at home Orders,' and recommending 'social distancing' is all leading to a massive reduction in the demand for oil on a worldwide scale. Cruise ships aren't leaving ports, airlines have slashed their number of flights, both public busses and school busses are not operating, and the average person isn't driving their vehicles. We have already begun to see reports from around the world how pollution levels are declining due to these modes of transportation, essentially stopping.

The second reason the price of oil crumbled was because of the "price war' that is currently ragging between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The two countries were the main reasons the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) couldn't agree on production cuts following the softening demand after the Coronavirus began spreading on a massive scale. Russia and OPEC's de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, disagreed on how much each country would reduce production in order to help stabilize the price of oil around the world.

The price war has caused the Saudi's to increase production from 9.7 million barrels a day in February to a targeted more than 12 million barrels a day in April. Thus far, they have held up their threats. As of early April, the first wave of crude was already heading toward Europe, and the U.S. Saudi Arabia hired extra supertankers in March. Those ships are positioned near oil terminals preparing to be filled. Continue reading "Oil Just Posted Its Worst Monthly/Quarterly Loss Ever!" →

Money Will Be Made Trading The VIX In 2020

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Market uncertainty creates volatility and the VIX is an index that measures this volatility based on the S&P 500. When news hits the stock market, the VIX increases and when there are fewer outside factors or less uncertainty about the future, we see the VIX fall.

Thus far, in 2020, we have had two situations that have increased volatility in the stock market; the political and military situations between the United States and Iran and the Coronavirus. We are only one month into the year and two major events have occurred which have sent the VIX soaring higher. There will undoubtedly be more pop-up events such as say further political and military issues with Iran or even North Korea perhaps. We will likely see natural disasters pop-up which could cause uncertainty, the situation in England with Brexit and how that is handled could potentially cause uncertainty. Coronavirus is likely to continue to create uncertainty. These are just a few predictions off the top of my head that could cause the VIX to move in the coming months.

One event coming in 2020 that we can all see on a calendar is the Presidential election this year. We know uncertainty about the future causes the VIX to rise and based on the past election of President Donald Trump, we can confidently say that political polling is not very accurate. Thus, we can predict there will be a high level of uncertainty coming down the road with who may be our next President.

With all of this in mind, how do we use this uncertainty to make money? Well, the easiest way is by Continue reading "Money Will Be Made Trading The VIX In 2020" →

3 ETFs To Buy If You Think Oil Will Continue To Rise Following OPEC's Decision

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


Last week the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC announced that the group had to come an "agreement" to reduce oil production. The new deal slated to cut production from an estimated 33.2 million barrels per day down to 32.5 million barrels per day.

While some Wall Street analysts don't believe the production reduction will actually happen, the fact remains that since OPEC made the announcement, the price of oil is up rather dramatically. Prior to the announcement oil was trading around the $44.50 range and has since jumped to the $50 range.

Many investors are looking at the price of oil and wondering how they can get a piece of this action. Let's take a look at three Exchange Traded Funds you can buy if you believe oil prices will continue to increase. Continue reading "3 ETFs To Buy If You Think Oil Will Continue To Rise Following OPEC's Decision" →

ETFs to Profit From a Possible Debt Solution

Posted on by lindsay

Today's Guest Post comes from the ETF Corner at InvestorAlley.com (click here to visit original post). In this post, their "Guest Insights" contributor, John Nyaradi of Wall Street Sector Selector gives a fresh perspective on how select financial vehicles could benefit from the August 3rd debt solution deadline. Learn more about InvestorAlley and access a complimentary report, "Do Not Buy These 6 Stocks."
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Investors, pundits and journalists alike have spent hours of research, television time and column inches speculating about the ramifications of a U.S. default or contagion from Greece spreading throughout the European Union.

Last week the EU was apparently successful in again kicking the can a bit farther down the road while the debate between Congress and the White House over deficit reduction goes way past the 11th hour for meeting the August 2nd deadline.

Everyone expects and assumes that the European Union will be able to save Greece and that our politicians will not take the United States and the world over the financial cliff of destruction. However, that still could very well happen which is why in previous columns we have discussed ETFs and strategies for that possibility. Continue reading "ETFs to Profit From a Possible Debt Solution" →