Risk Rewarded Blog
The latest investment strategies and insights from Markman Capital Insight. Helping investors get the most reward from every ounce of risk. The latest investment strategies and insights from Markman Capital Insight. Helping investors get the most reward from every ounce of risk.

Change Log
Steering you through the global economic revolution. Discovering the next great growth stock is the dream of every investor. It is a task that requires not just the capacity to study balance sheets and assess management quality, but also many hours of research into social, cultural and technological change. Many, many hours. The research is fun and...

Gemini SGX nails 1.6% profit
Our futures program Gemini SGX completed its eighth trade sequence of the year on Wednesday, winning a 1.6% gain for its model $25k portfolio by shorting the Russell 2000 E-minis overnight with a single contract. The system is now up 59.4% this year net of subscription fee and commissions, vs. the 1% gain of the underlying Russell 2000. Past returns...

SPDR Industrials calls up 31%
We just completed a successful trade in SPDR Industrials October $54 calls. XLI is an exchange traded fund comprised of all the industrial companies in the S&P 500. Top holdings include General Electric (GE), 3M (MMM), Union Pacific (UNP), Boeing (HON), Honeywell (HON) and Caterpillar (CAT). The fund had flattened out for the two weeks prior...

RF Micro Devices calls up 44%
We just completed a successful trade on RF Micro Devices October $12 calls. RFMD is a $3.5 billion company that has been one of the stronger tech stocks of the year for good reason: It is one of the top manufacturers of the radio frequency components that are an essential component of mobile devices.Earlier this year, it announced a "merger...

Alcoa calls up 40%
We had a successful play on Alcoa October $16 calls this week. Alcoa is a $19.5 billion aluminum miner and producer based in Pittsburgh. It went through some hard times earlier in the decade but has come out very nicely on the other side in synch with improvements in end markets such as automobile, airplane manufacturing and commercial real estate development.Shares...

AOL Beats, Guides Up, Crows "We've Got Buybacks!"
Some good earnings news emerged Wednesday from fallen dot-com star AOL (AOL), which reported a top- and bottom-line beat for Q2 as well as announced a $150 million buyback program thanks to a 20% increase in ad revenue. Shares gained nearly 8% as a result.Before Amazon.com, before Yahoo!, before Google, before even the term...

Smarter consumers a drag on retailers
Cornerstone Macro analysts were out with a fascinating report this week that tries to explain why retail sales growth is stagnating despite the improvements in hiring and the economy. The short version is that consumers feel so burned by debt over the past twenty years that they are finally taking steps to reduce it in persistent ways.CM analysts note...

How to Buy and Short Futures
To buy and sell futures efficiently with the Gemini services, you will first need to open and fund an account at a futures brokerage. There are many good ones, including RJ O'Brien, AMP Futures and Think or Swim. We like Interactive Brokers because its no-nonsense software platform is easy to use, customer service is good and commissions’ charges...