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Rick Pendergraft
Inspired by his high school economics teacher, Rick Pendergraft fell in love with the markets at an early age. He entered his first investing competition at 17, and opened his first brokerage account before he finished college. At the age of 23, on the third options trade he had ever placed, Rick turned $1,800 into $22,000 in less than a week, when the company he bought became the target of a takeover. He admits it was a stroke of luck, but it was a memorable education as to the leverage that options can provide.
After a ten year career in banking, Rick decided to pursue trading full-time. To get his foot in the door, he started out in the sales department at Schaeffer's Investment Research. It was not long before his talent was recognized and he was invited to apprentice under Bernie Schaeffer, one of the top options traders in the world. Rick thrived in his new position and twice received the award for "Top Trader."
Rick has developed a loyal following of readers who are grateful for his timely warnings and profitable advice. He is widely recognized as a market expert and has been frequently quoted by Reuters, BusinessWeek, Forbes, USA Today, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Rick's primary focus is on identifying short and intermediate term rising and falling trends in the major market sectors. His analysis is based on technical factors along with indicators of market sentiment
Rick lives near Delray Beach, FL with his wife and three children.
Read Rick Pendergraft's previous newsletter articles below:
But a waiting place isn’t necessarily a bad place to be. Especially when it comes to your investments. Right now, I feel like I am in a waiting place. Going through my charts each morning, I am finding it difficult to find trades that I am willing to send to my K.I.S.S. investment service subscribers. My gut tells me that we are about to see a huge rally in the overall market - and with the number of stocks that are oversold, it is difficult to recommend put positions right now.
On a recent business trip to Atlanta, I was able to spend time with another seasoned trader. You will be hearing his name in the coming months - but for now, we will just call him T.G. He and I were discussing the present craziness in the market. And we shared with each other the actions we take when things get like this.
Unusual markets call for unusual thinking. What do I mean by that? Over the course of the last few weeks, the market has been more volatile than at any time in my experience. With emotional trading at a peak, the moves in the indices have been incredible.
Trading volume can be used as an indicator of changes in the market. Volume can tell you if a trend is likely to continue… or if it has run its course.
The House of Representatives voted against the $700 billion bailout plan for the financial sector. The bailout was very unpopular on Main Street because too many viewed the bill as a bailout of Wall Street.
A few months ago, my wife and I celebrated our 15th anniversary. Over the years, I have tried to stick to the traditional gifts for anniversaries. For year 15, that means crystal.
The stock market is always driven by news. A better-than-expected economic report sends the market higher. An earnings warning from a big blue-chip company sends the market lower.
Lehman is in bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch is sold to Bank of America for $44 billion. Bear Stearns sold to JPMorgan Chase for $2.2 billion, after originally agreeing to be bought for approximately $500 million.
There is a fire sale on Wall Street firms, and it is all because of one nasty little word: greed. Bear Stearns had gotten so greedy that it had leveraged its own assets to the moon...
I’ve cautioned you before about settling for the common shares of troubled companies. Why? Because if the company goes under, bondholders and preferred shareholders get paid before the common shareholders get a penny...
While meteorologists were plotting Hurricane Gustav’s course, uncertainty about exactly where it would go and how strong it would be drove the price of oil up $7. When the storm ripped through the Gulf of Mexico with minimal damage to vulnerable oil platforms, oil dropped over $9 a barrel the next trading day. The old saying “Buy on the rumor, sell on the news” certainly held true in this instance...
By Rick Pendergraft | Thu, Nov 6, 2008
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