Investor H.

Even at the same revenue level, the path cash takes out of a business can look very different. Some companies tie up cash in factories and equipment (Capex), while others pour spending into headcount and marketing (Opex). This difference drives the income statement, cash flow statement, valuation, a...

In a world where investors once only bet on whether stocks would go up or down, options open a market for buying and selling the right to lock in a price. By understanding options, you can build strategies for bull, bear, and range-bound markets, reduce risk on stocks you hold, or pursue additional ...

There’s a saying you hear often in the stock market: “When revenue grows, the stock goes up.” But far fewer investors understand why that’s the case—or why it sometimes isn’t. The essence comes down to two points. First, a stock price reflects the present value of the cash flows a company is expecte...

The VIX is a 30-day implied volatility index derived by Cboe Global Markets from S&P 500 option prices. It’s often called the “fear index,” but in reality it quantifies the “priced-in expectation” of how choppy the market could be over the next month. For newer investors, the VIX isn’t a tool to cal...

In financial markets, “Repo” and “Reverse Repo” are the passageways through which vast sums of cash breathe in and out every single day. The terms may sound unfamiliar, but they indirectly influence deposit rates, money market fund (MMF) yields, Treasury yields, and even equity market liquidity. Eve...

Liquidity is the lifeblood of financial markets. No matter how cheap prices look, if buying power dries up, trading stalls and volatility rises. Since 2022, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has been raising rates while shrinking its balance sheet through Quantitative Tightening (QT). QT reduces the Fed’s b...

Bull markets often look like straight lines. Headlines shout “all-time highs,” and charts point up and to the right. In reality, though, a durable uptrend almost always includes intermittent pullbacks and pauses—a correction. These corrections are both the fuel and the safety valve that set the stag...

You’ve probably seen price stall whenever it reaches a certain area, then bounce or get pushed back from that same area. Those repeated reactions are support and resistance. Support acts like a floor that halts declines; resistance acts like a ceiling that caps advances. It can look magical to begin...

Frequently cited in price charts, the Cup and Handle pattern is a classic bullish continuation pattern that signals a brief consolidation within an uptrend followed by a resumption of the advance. As the name suggests, price forms a rounded “cup,” then a small “handle” pullback on the right side. Th...

A Fibonacci retracement is a tool that estimates the depth of a pullback within a strong trend using ratios, helping you map potential support/resistance zones. The key levels are 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, and 78.6%, with 61.8%—the Golden Ratio—being the most cited. Note that 50% is not a pure Fibon...

Equity markets have calendar patterns. Among them, September is often cited as the weakest month on average returns, while October carries a strong association with volatility due to the frequency of historic crashes. Still, it’s risky to conclude they “always go down.” September–October seasonality...

As we head into late September, the U.S. equity market broadly maintains a risk-on tone. Growth and AI-related value chains (semiconductors, cloud, servers/networking) continue to lead flows, while intermittent rotation into cyclicals (industrials, select consumer) is evident. The front end of the U...

Prices are the factor that most quickly change how the economy feels to our wallets. When the cost of a shopping basket rises, the same amount of money buys fewer goods, and there’s a chain reaction that touches corporate costs and profits, interest rates, and even exchange rates. Yet terms you hear...

To novice investors, charts can look like a tangle of lines. Among them, the Moving Average (MA) is the most basic and useful tool for taking the market’s “average temperature.” In Korea, the 5-, 20-, 60-, and 120-day moving averages are used most often, representing short-term, short-to-intermediat...

When analyzing a company, understanding “what the business does” matters just as much as “how well it earns and keeps profits.” This post pulls together the core metrics most used in company analysis—kept simple enough for middle schoolers—covering quick definitions, how to interpret them, and key w...

If there’s one common force that moves both equities and crypto, it’s liquidity. Liquidity is the amount of money in the system and how quickly it circulates. As the tide rises and lifts most boats, abundant liquidity tends to put a tailwind behind risk assets, while when the tide goes out, even goo...

If every trip to the store feels like your shopping basket has gotten lighter than it used to, it means the currency’s purchasing power has declined. This post explains, in plain terms for beginner investors, the mechanics behind falling purchasing power and backs it up with actual data on changes i...

Swing trading is a medium-term active strategy that aims to capture multi-day to multi-week price swings for profit. Unlike day trading, which closes all positions within the same session, swing trading presumes holding positions overnight. Conversely, its holding period is shorter than position tra...

“Policy rate cuts = higher equities” is intuitive but only half true. Rate cuts activate two forces at once. One is valuation support via a lower discount rate, and the other is risk aversion driven by a slowing economy and downward earnings revisions. Historically, equity market reactions diverged ...

Policy rate cuts have immediate yet nuanced effects on equities. Lower discount rates lift asset values, but if cuts reflect a weakening economy, earnings can soften. Ultimately, what matters is “why, by how much, and for how long” rates are cut. This post lays out the core mechanisms, historical co...

Gold is often seen as something that “rises in times of crisis,” but in reality, major trends form when several macro variables and supply-demand factors align. Two points matter most for new investors. First, there’s no formula to compute gold’s short-term fair value, but there are indicators that ...