Jon Markman

Editor, Trader's Advantage and CounterPoint Options

Jon Markman is the editor of Trader’s Advantage, a daily trading service that leverages his unique swing trading principles and aims to capture profits of 7% to 15% — and often much more with his options trades — in less than 90 days. By combining technical analysis with underlying fundamentals, Jon recommends beaten down stocks on the brink of reversal and powerful momentum stocks breaking out to new highs.

In CounterPoint Options Jon helps options traders lock in consistent profits from the volatility that rocks the market. At its heart is a proprietary trading system, Magnitude, that pinpoints indexes or sectors that have reached a critical inflection point — then translates that signal into profitable trades.

CounterPoint Options keeps volatility options trading very simple, focusing on the most popular, highly traded exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that are headed for a key reversal. Magnitude scans the market and allows subscribers to take advantage of these very liquid trading opportunities.

When CounterPoint Options first launched, it was focused solely on trading the VIX, commonly known as the “fear index.” When traders start buying up put options as “portfolio insurance,” the VIX spikes — a phenomenon that we’ll either trade directly, or use to inform our ETF trades on specific slices of the market. Our agile (and highly lucrative) strategy lets us turn volatility into profits… just like professional traders and hedge funds have been doing for years.

CounterPoint Options helps individual traders make steady, consistent profits from a very methodical approach to growing your portfolio in the midst of a turbulent market.

A pioneer in the development of stock-rating systems and screening software, Jon Markman is co-inventor on two Microsoft patents and author of the best-selling books Swing Trading and Online Investing. He was portfolio manager and senior investment strategist at a multi-strategy hedge fund from 2002 to 2005; managing editor and columnist at CNBC on MSN Money from 1997 to 2002; and an editor, investment columnist and investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times from 1984 to 1997.

Jon won a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Financial Journalism for his columns explaining market chicanery in 2002; Society of Professional Journalists awards for his 2001 reporting on Enron and the post-Sept. 11-investment environment; and was a news editor on the Los Angeles Times staff that won Pulitzer Prizes for spot-news reporting in 1992 and 1994.

A graduate of Duke University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Jon speaks frequently on investment topics at conferences nationwide, as well as on TV and radio.

Recent Articles

High Yield Financial Stocks Make Sense Right Now

By Jon Markman, Editor, Trader's Advantage and CounterPoint Options Sep 7, 2010

During most of this year I've been looking at a lot of high-yielding stocks for our portfolios. Last month my focus was on utilities, and now we're shifting a bit to a very different kind of company that provides some diversity by providing income in a much different way.

Utility UIL Will Light Up Your Portfolio

By Jon Markman, Editor, Trader's Advantage and CounterPoint Options Aug 30, 2010

This has been the summer of the utility stocks, so let me now shed some light on one of my model's favorites at this time: Connecticut-based utility UIL Holdings (NYSE: UIL). Its major subsidiary, the United Illuminating Co., which I would nominate as one of the best names ever for a utility, serves 325,000 customers in the Greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas. UIL also pays a fat 6.4% annual dividend.

Credit Growth May Not Be Sexy, But is the Key Data Point

By Jon Markman, Editor, Trader's Advantage and CounterPoint Options Aug 30, 2010

So much economic data is released every week, it makes your head spin. You're sitting there thinking, "Man, they throw a lot of economic data at us every day. How do I decide what's important?''

Why Bigger Stocks Are Better than Small-Caps

By Jon Markman, Editor, Trader's Advantage and CounterPoint Options Aug 23, 2010

In the past six months there has appeared to be a disconnect between the strength of stocks in the S&P 500 and all other companies, both public and private. Indeed, earnings growth has been much more impressive among large companies than small companies, which is a fairly rare event.

Brazil Utility Stock Sparks Big Returns

By Jon Markman, Editor, Trader's Advantage and CounterPoint Options Aug 23, 2010

Utilities have been at the top of active investors' buy lists the past two months, along with emerging markets. Put those two ideas together, and you get a Brazilian utility that I've been recommending for the past two months: CPFL Energia (NYSE: CPL).