Blog

Burglars get burgled, muggers get mugged, and hackers get hacked. This includes a sophisticated ring of hackers: Hacking Team, hailing from Italy, specializing in selling hacking software to major governments.

An article on wired.com describes how a “400 gigabyte trove” went online by anonymous hackers who gutted the Hacking Team, including source code. Even their Twitter feed was hacked, and the secret hackers tweeted HT’s cracked files.

One of the exposed files apparently was a list of HT’s cust

Traders, especially covered call writers, love the forward roll. It helps avoid or defer exercise, creates additional income, and helps keep ownership of stock that is on an uptrend.

But there are potential problems. Among these are the following four every covered call writer needs to remember:

1. Rolling keeps you exposed longer, tying up capital. As advantageous as it might look to roll forward, does it really make sense? When you roll, you buy to close the original position and replace it with

The attraction of the ratio write is the potential for higher premium income. Traders too often convince themselves that exercise is unlikely, and that time decay is likely to outpace intrinsic value as the stock goes higher, even if the calls go in the money.

Here's the thinking: You own shares of an underlying security. You sell to open ATM, OTM or slightly ITM (At, Out of or In The-Money) call positions with one to two months until expiration. A ratio write is defined as a strategy in which yo

Let’s look at the top 10 scams (random order).

Charity

• A fraudster claims to represent a charitable organization.
• Such scams can operate ring-style, such as one out in Colorado some years ago in which women wearing crisp white dresses that resembled the dresses nurses used to wear, and also wearing white caps (like a nurse), solicited motorists for money by walking around at stoplights holding out tin cans that had a label on them like “Help Fight Drugs.” Many people were fooled by the white outfit

This October 14-16, MoneyShow.com will present this year's International Trader's Expo. From the website:

"Join thousands of your fellow traders for this three-day event that will have a substantial impact on your trading success in today's markets. We're bringing together the country's top trading pros with one goal in mind-to teach you their best trading strategies to help you profit in the months ahead."

Registration is free. You can sign up at Las Vegas Traders Expo, where further details are

Healthcare organizations manage an almost unimaginable amount of sensitive data, and industry experts say they aren’t doing enough to protect it.

For their 2015 Vendor Risk Management Benchmark Study, The Shared Assessments Program surveyed nearly 500 professionals for insight into risk management practices across various industries. The findings show that healthcare organizations come up short when implementing and maintaining a vendor risk management process. Perhaps the largest gap in healthca

Did you know that the original meaning of hacker, as far as computers, was that of a person who built codes into computers? In fact, the bad guy was called a “cracker.” Somehow, “cracker” didn’t catch on. But the mainstream folk out there hears “hacker,” and right away, they think of a digital thief, often someone who breaks into governmental computer systems or Russian “hacking rings” that steal credit card numbers.

An article at motherboard.vice.com mentions that Richard Stallman gets the credi

Saalam,

We are a United Arab Emirates based investment company, working on expanding our international portfolio globally by giving out loan to finance project outside United Arab Emirates.

We would be happy to receive a business plan of any viable project,we don't have any major area of funding but we give priority attention to finance by making financial investment in form of debt, after which we can negotiate the funding modalities, duration of investment and amount to invest.if you have any pr

Using the Black-Scholes pricing model for pricing options is not the best system for trade timing. Given the numerous flawed assumptions in Black-Scholes, traders may consider an alternative for selecting options and timing trades - for two reasons.

First, many systems are based on using options expiring in the very near future. However, if the selection is based on implied volatility analysis, this is an unreliable method. Volatility

Further thoughts on the shortcomings of the Black-Scholes pricing model:

Three possible causes (separately or together) for differences between value and price related to volatility are: (1) the value is correct but the option price is not; (2) the incorrect outputs are derived from the Black-Scholes model; and (3) the Black-Scholes model might be inaccurate.

The primary cause of inaccuracy is due to the underlying assumption that volatility is a constant. This means that volatility of the underly

The original Black-Scholes formula often is cited as the authoritative source for options pricing. However, with a large number of variables built into option formulae, it is surprising that they occasionally are close to approximating or matching market value.

The Black-Scholes formula as originally published was full of unrealistic assumptions. These include:

1. Volatility is fixed and never changes.

2. The short-term interest rate never changes.

3. Anyone can lend or borrow as much as he wants as

On the surface, it seems obvious that chasing big dividends is smart trading. But in practice, a double-digit dividend stock may also be a red flag.

Because dividend yield is based on the dividend per share and current price per share, if the price plummets, the yield goes up. A big dividend could result from bigger problems in the fundamentals.

For the purpose of evaluating dividend yield, the reasons behind these changes are not important; what is important is the underlying cause of the decline

On the surface, it seems obvious that chasing big dividends is smart trading. But in practice, a double-digit dividend stock may also be a red flag.

Because dividend yield is based on the dividend per share and current price per share, if the price plummets, the yield goes up. A big dividend could result from bigger problems in the fundamentals.

For the purpose of evaluating dividend yield, the reasons behind these changes are not important; what is important is the underlying cause of the decline

It’s tough being responsible sometimes. And managing responsibilities for what is precious in your life usually takes a little extra thought.  Let’s say you’ve just welcomed a beautiful set of triplets into the world.  Lucky you . . . and lots to managed! But, you wouldn’t give all these babies the same name simply to make it easier to remember, right?

Consider this same concept as you manage other precious aspects of life, like your on line accounts. It may seem convenient – and easier to rememb

Candlestick formations consisting of a single-session can be powerful signals of reversal that is just about to occur. The most popular among these are exceptionally long or exceptionally short candlesticks. Long white sessions or dojis (sessions with little or no real body) signal a bullish reversal at the end of a downtrend. And long black sessions or dojis signal a bearish reversal at the end of an uptrend. This “rule” is the basic observation of candlesticks. Any session that is exceptionall

How much return do you earn from writing a covered call?

The answer: That depends. There are two important qualifying tests you have to apply in order to ensure like-kind comparisons between two or more covered call outcomes. Assume you write two different covered calls on the same day and both expire worthless. Also assume that both were written on stocks you purchased for $5,000, and both earned a premium of $250.

These covered calls both earned 5%. However, that is not the end of the story and,

Radar and Specialty Technical Publishers (STP) Launch Online Risk Management Assessment Program

Announcing ERM BenchMarker™, offering tailored assessment of risk management effectiveness and improvement based on decades of experience in risk management, and organizational competence in managing risk.

Radar, The Risk Management Company providing Consulting, Engineering, Education and Software Services, in partnership with Specialty Technical Publishers, premier North American publisher of audit, co

Of all the candlestick indicators, only a few are as strong as the black crows (also known as three black crows). This is a set of three (or more) consecutive black (downward-loving) candlesticks.

Why is it so strong? First, it is a 3-day consecutive downward-moving indicator. Second, each session opens within the real body of the previous session, and then closes lower.

The second day opens lower than the opening of the first; and the third day opens lower than the opening of the second. Each clo

So, when you think about summer travel safety, what comes to mind? Which beach you’ll be lounging on? Sunburns? Shark attacks? While sunburns and vacation plans are rational concerns most have when traveling during the summer, shark attacks are a new one.

With all of the news of recent shark attacks, people are now anxious about wading into the waters, despite the fact that the chances of getting mauled by a shark are a whopping one in 3.7 million. No guarantees, of course, but your odds are look

Selling short options as part of a swing trading strategy is a higher-risk strategy than the opposite focus on long options only, although the degree of risk might not be as severe as you think at first glance. This is true for seven reasons:

1. You can cover the short call with ownership of stock. In this case, you combine covered calls with uncovered puts.

2. The short put risk is not as severe as the short call risk, especially on lower-priced stocks, where the distance between strike and tangi