Three Steps to Successful Call Buying

With earnings season hitting its peak, the volatility index on the way down and October out of the way, the probability for this market to move higher is very good.

Currency markets have bounced off their lows, oil has backed off its highs and with the exception of certain volatile sectors, the markets are starting to move normally again. At the end of October, traders like both to reflect and to make excuses for why the market dropped and why it's likely to head higher. While it's nice to understand the why, as a trader, I'm more interested in the number of occurrences and the likelihood that the past will help me get an idea of the future.

Since the early 1930s, the market has had a better-than 85% tendency for the markets to be higher on Dec. 31 than they were just two months earlier. Why does this happen? Some say the selling that occurs each fall is overdone, and therefore buying must balance out the shorts. ...