Don Kaufman here. I don't sleep well at night when the S Ps are at or near highs and volatility refuses to back off. Most traders lose sleep when markets are selling off hard. That makes sense - red everywhere, portfolios bleeding, margin calls incoming. But here's what separates experienced traders
I'm still shaking my head as I write this. A few hours ago, I walked off the Schwab TV set after revealing three trades that honestly... one of them made me question my own sanity. Here's what happened: I've been crushing it shorting one particular stock all year. Made a killing every single time.
Don Kaufman here. Look, I need to tell you about something I've been sitting on. For the better part of a decade at thinkorswim and TD Ameritrade, I had access to order flow data that most retail traders never see. Billions in institutional positioning. The real money moves before they hit the headl
Don Kaufman here. I was looking at the market data this morning and something's not adding up. VIX just dropped 11% to 18.44 and change - that should be good news for income traders, right? Wrong. Here's what's really happening: Even with VIX pulling back today, we're still seeing the kind of wild i
Don Kaufman here. In 20+ years of trading, I've never seen volatility futures invert this close to market peaks. Here's why that should terrify you. The S P 500 closed at 6,616 yesterday. All-time high? 6,764. We're 2% off all-time highs with volatility futures in full backwardation. It's literally
Don Kaufman here. Listen up, because while you were all celebrating that cute little pre-market bounce this morning, I was watching the warning signs that nobody wanted to see. Holy crap, did this afternoon deliver or what? Zions down 12%. Western Alliance tanking 10%. And then Jamie Dimon drops the
Don Kaufman here. Look, I don't care that the S P bounced. I don't care that the Nasdaq had a nice little rally today. You want to know what I'm watching? Volatility. VIX refuses to contract. Volatility futures aren't behaving like they should in a "recovery." That's screaming one thing: don't get o
Don Kaufman here. While everyone's panicking about headlines, I'm practically bouncing off the walls. Why? Because we're in the exact environment where my methodology absolutely crushes it. The violence is back in the markets. Look, most traders hate volatility. They see chaos and run for cover. Me?
Don Kaufman here. 9:30 AM Tuesday morning. I'm watching 400,000 options contracts trade before most people finish their coffee. That's not normal volume. That's pandemonium volume. And it told me something that should chill every trader to the bone: everyone who needed to hedge their positions alrea
