Key Takeaways Seasonality is the tendency for a stock to perform better during some period(s) of the year and worse in others  Learn how Seasonality charts in the thinkorswim platform can help investors identify past seasonal trends in stocks, ETFs, mutual funds and indices  Have you ever heard of a Santa Claus rally? Or how […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways Learn about beta weighting and how traders and investors can use it for portfolio risk management The beta-weighting tool on thinkorswim helps standardize all your positions so you can assess the overall risk of your portfolio Understand which positions have more risk in terms of beta-weighted delta If someone asked you how risky […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways Know that it’s harder to keep emotions in check when you know the money is real Pull and assess a sample of paper trades as a simulation of potential profitability Be honest with yourself Paper trading—aka simulated trading, such as on the paperMoney simulator on the thinkorswim® trading platform—allows us to answer a lot […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways You can backtest just about anything—stocks, options, futures, and forex trading strategies Backtesting can help transform untested investment ideas into a time-tested strategy Backtesting may help you make better calculated risks, but know that past performance doesn’t guarantee future outcomes It may sound strange, but three common phrases you often hear in the […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways The screener tool allows investors to find potential investment ideas by filtering through stocks, options, mutual funds, and ETFs Screeners can help investors focus on equities that meet their investing strategy and criteria Selecting a good stock or mutual fund to invest in isn’t always easy. Oftentimes, the selection process can be overwhelming […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways The Market Maker Move (MMM) indicator shows up on the thinkorswim® platform when the market is pricing in excess volatility The MMM can be particularly useful during earnings season Stock traders may use MMM to price entries and exits, while option traders might use it for strike selection If you’re an active trader, you […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways The Activity and Positions subtab allows you to customize your columns, create groups, and arrange your current positions by order The Account Statement subtab gives you a snapshot of your entire account Forex traders can see account statements in the FX Reports subtab, and option traders can roll strategies using the Strategy Roller […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways Three popular trend-following indicators are moving averages, moving average convergence divergence (MACD), and Parabolic SAR Get to know trend-following indicators by experimenting with different ones Trend-following indicators can be used on their own or combined with other indicators Many traders, especially those using technical analysis in their trading, often focus on trends. And […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways The company profile tool can help investors discover what’s creating a company’s value Investigate companies’ revenue-generating divisions and get a breakdown of what’s driving particular areas The tool can help investors learn if the company’s stock is potentially overvalued or undervalued While many investors use the thinkorswim® Mobile platform to make quick, convenient […]

Continue Reading

Key Takeaways Learn how to decode implied volatility percentile and understand how it can give you an overall picture of an underlying asset’s volatility Know which volatility measures might be helpful for indicating if volatility is relatively high or low Identify options strategies appropriate for high-volatility versus low-volatility environments In this world—they say—change is the […]

Continue Reading