Trading The News With Benzinga Pro At The Options Boot Camp

This special presentation from Ryan Faloona and Jonathan Mallard is from Benzinga's first-ever virtual Benzinga Options Boot Camp, which took place April 18. Click here for more coverage of this event with options trading experts giving traders of all experience levels real, dependable strategies for hitting the ground running or expanding an existing portfolio.

Benzinga’s Ryan Faloona and Jonathan Mallard discussed market timing and trading the news at the Benzinga Options Boot Camp. 

Actionable Insights From Benzinga 

“News will drive the price of any stock,” Faloona said. 

Benzinga Pro, at its heart, is the face of financial research. It’s a newsfeed and market analysis tool that allows users the ability to gauge sentiment, digest news and fundamental data, as well as act on trade ideas in real-time.

The platform’s core features include:

• Real-time newsfeed
• Screener and stock filter
• Price and volume alerts
• Watchlists and Movers
• Live squawk audio
• Broker integration

Trading Options On News

Benzinga is the one-stop-shop for acting on financials, news, charting and order flow.

“We make it very easy for you to figure out what’s going on and plot your next course of action,” Faloona said. “You can monitor options flow, and find out what large institutions are doing.”

One of Benzinga’s most sought-after tools is the Signals feature, which alerts traders to price or volume related events in real-time, such as price spikes, unusual options activity, block trades, halts, opening gaps and more.

The data can be filtered by types of trades, quantity, market cap, float, financial ratios and more.

Faloona provided an example of an actionable trade in Benzinga Pro.

“Calls on HD Supply Holdings Inc HDS had 2,195 contracts purchased at the strike. Prior to today, there was one open contract.”

Faloona said the trade was in fact a sweep order, meaning it was executed across multiple exchanges, typically a high-conviction bet.

Additionally, the two presenters discussed block trades, the sale or purchase of a large number of securities outside the open market.

“Expedia Group Inc, ticker EXPE; I noticed a huge 645,000 block trade that happened above the ask,” Faloona said.

Orders above the ask are usually high-conviction trades executed at a price that exceeds the current market mid-price. Despite the market uncertainty, a trader established a massively bullish opinion, as evidenced by the trade’s high fill price.