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Option Strategies for Range-Bound Wal-Mart (WMT) Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) may still encourage its customers to “watch for falling prices,” but they may be harder to find these days. A recent anecdotal study from J.P. Morgan Securities revealed that Wal-Mart has upped the average prices at its stores by about 6% during the past month. Rising fuel costs and a lift in the price of raw materials have necessitated this change, according to analysts. In other news, Sam’s Club, the club-style chain under WMT’s umbrella, plans to offer free Wi-Fi to its shoppers.

New developments at Wal-Mart could draw some attention to shares of the retail giant, which have been in a directionless funk for more than a decade. For a range-bound stock like this, there are few opportunities for stock traders, unless they correctly forecast a short-term pullback or rally. We’ve outlined two potential option strategies here – a risk reversal and a long call butterfly. Bullish Option Strategy: Synthetic Long Stock (Split Strike) Photo Credit: Jeff Barnes Share and Enjoy: The Rescue Package Will Delay Recovery - Frank Shostak - Mises Institute. In his testimony to the Congress on September 24, Fed Chairman Bernanke urged the legislators to quickly approve the bailout of the financial sector with a package of $700 billion. Bernanke echoed Treasury Secretary Paulson's view that the bailout expense, while hefty, is needed to remove from banks' balance sheets the mortgage-linked assets, which are paralyzing the flow of credit. I think it's extraordinarily important to understand that as we have seen many previous examples in different countries and in different times that choking up of credit is like taking the lifeblood away from the economy.

Most experts came out in strong support for the package. Without the rescue package, many large institutions that are "too big to fail" could go belly up. Many believe that the consequences of all this could be very severe to the real economy. The Essence of Economic Adjustment Allowing the market to do the allocation always leads to better results. So let us think about this. Conclusion. Ten Reasons Not To Bail Out Wall Street at The Catherine Austin Fitts Blog. By Catherine Austin Fitts and Carolyn Betts, Esq. (1) Crime that pays is crime that stays. There is reason to believe that Wall Street and those they represent are holding loans without collateral, multiple loans secured by the same properties, and other fraudulent instruments among the “troubled assets.” Based on the secret “Treasury Conference Call” with 800 Wall Street insiders, we know the deal proposed to be passed by Congress isn’t the real deal promised to Wall Street. (2) This smells like obstruction of justice.

Bail-out without due diligence of so called “troubled assets” is a perfect way to hide documentation of financial crimes. . (3) Wall Street owes the federal government money. We need to get stolen money back from the banks that served as depositories for the US government (including trillions for which the Pentagon and HUD could not account) and punish them, not create another opportunity for them to game the system and engage in criminal enterprises to rob consumers.

Top 10 Articles About the Financial Crisis. Of the many articles I’ve read about the financial crisis, the following ten have been the most informative. Read them all, and I think you will have a very solid understanding of what is going on. 1) The Financialization of America A broad overview of how 1) insanely profitable Wall St. became in the past two decades and 2) this profitability was due to implicit government subsidization of risk. This includes the “too big to fail policy” and the “Greenspan put”. 2) The Global Pool of Money [MP3] – An hour long podcast from NPR about the selling of subprime mortgages. Hear the story of hustlers, smooth talking sales guys, fast cars, and big money. 3) Triple-A Failure: The Ratings Game by Roger Lowenstein of the NYTimes. 4) How regulation breeds complex financial products and Why Lax Regulation Did Not Cause the Crisis by Mindles Dreck. 6) Commodity Hysteria – An Overview by Nick Szabo, a former programmer, now a law school academic. 8) How Stocks are like Baseball Cards by Mark Cuban.

ETF Guide: Financial Advisor and Investment Guide for Exchange Traded Funds. Alternative Energy Newsletters. Business Intelligence Lowdown: Lessons from the Lemonade Stand: 101 Common Sense Management Tips.