Forex
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The Wage-Price Spiral: How Wages and Prices Feed Inflation, Why It Is Rarer Than It Sounds, and What It Means for Markets
2 November 2026 , Abe Cofnas
A wage-price spiral is a self-reinforcing loop between pay and prices. Rising prices push workers to demand higher pay, and higher pay pushes firms to raise prices again. Each round feeds the next, so inflation can outlast the shock that started it. Economists treat it as a form of cost-push inflation. US inflation was 3.7% […]
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The Velocity of Money: What It Is, How to Calculate It, and Why It Drives Inflation and Fed Policy
2 November 2026 , Abe Cofnas
The velocity of money is how fast money circulates in an economy. It counts how many times each unit of currency is spent on goods and services in a given period. A dollar that is spent, re-spent and spent again has high velocity, while a dollar that sits in a savings account has low velocity. […]
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The Calendar Spread (Time Spread): How to Profit from Time Decay, What It Costs, and When to Use It
1 November 2026 , Abe Cofnas
A calendar spread is an options strategy that sells a near-term option and buys a longer-dated option at the same strike price. Both legs are calls or both are puts. It is also called a time spread or horizontal spread. It profits mainly from time decay, because the near-term option loses value faster than the […]
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The Protective Put Strategy: How to Insure a Stock Position, What It Costs, and When to Use It
22 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas
A protective put is an options strategy in which you buy a put option on a stock you already own. The put gives you the right to sell at its strike price, so the strike becomes a floor under the position. You keep the upside and pay a premium for the cover. With stocks near […]
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The Put Credit Spread (Bull Put Spread): Setup, Payoff, and How to Collect Premium with Defined Risk
22 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas
A put credit spread sells a put at a higher strike and buys a put at a lower strike. It is also called a bull put spread or short put spread. Both puts share one expiry. The trader collects a net credit up front and keeps all of it if the stock finishes above the […]
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The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI): How It Is Measured, What It Signals, and How It Moves the Dollar and Gold
22 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas
The consumer confidence index is a monthly survey measure of how optimistic or pessimistic US households feel about business conditions, jobs and their own income. The Conference Board publishes the main US version, scaled so that the 1985 average equals 100. It is not the Commodity Channel Index, a technical indicator that shares the CCI […]
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Iron Condor Options Strategy: Structure, Payoff, and How to Profit from a Range-Bound Market
21 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas
An iron condor is a defined-risk, neutral options strategy built from four options with the same expiration date. It pairs a bull put spread below the market with a bear call spread above it. You collect a net credit up front and keep it all if the underlying finishes between the two short strikes at […]
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How to Read the SPY Options Chain: Strikes, Greeks, Open Interest, and What the Most Liquid Options Market Is Telling You
21 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas
The SPY options chain is the table listing every call and put on SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, by expiration date and strike. For each contract it shows the bid, the ask, the last trade, the day’s volume, open interest, implied volatility and the Greeks. It is the most watched chain in the world […]
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The JOLTS Report: How Job Openings, Quits, and the Vacancy Ratio Shape the Fed’s Path and Move Markets
21 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas
The JOLTS report is the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, a monthly release from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It measures the demand side of the labour market: the jobs employers want to fill, and how many workers are hired, quit or laid off. It does not measure unemployment. It matters now […]
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Funding Rate: How Perpetual Futures Keep Longs and Shorts in Balance, and What the Rate Tells You
19 October 2026 , Walter Writes
A funding rate is a periodic payment exchanged directly between traders who are long and short a perpetual futures contract. Because a perpetual never expires, nothing forces its price back to spot at settlement. Funding does that job: when the perpetual trades above spot, longs pay shorts, and when it trades below, shorts pay longs. […]
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