Amber Hestla

Amber Hestla is Lead Investment Strategist behind Profitable Trading's Income Trader, Profit Amplifier and Maximum Income. She specializes in generating income using options strategies that minimize risk by applying skills she learned on military deployments and intelligence training to the markets.

While deployed overseas with the military, Amber learned the importance of analyzing data to forecast what is likely to happen in the future, a skill she now applies to financial markets. Prior to that, Amber studied risk management working undercover. While risk management is no longer a matter of life and death, she believes it is the most important factor in long-term trading success.

And although she makes her living in the markets, she continues to study the markets and trading daily. Her writing has been featured in trading magazines including the Market Technicians Association newsletter, Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities and Stocks, Futures and Options in the United States, and Shares, a weekly trading magazine published in the United Kingdom.

Analyst Articles

Value investors tend to be conservative, while emerging-market investors are often thought of as aggressive. Many investors place these limits on themselves. Value investors might only consider dividend-paying large-cap stocks, for example. In doing so, they could be severely limiting their profits. When looking at emerging markets recently, we noticed… Read More

For years, Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) has been known as the ultimate “story stock.” Investors have been asked to overlook the e-commerce giant’s relatively unimpressive cash flow metrics, assuming that the company will eventually deliver the bottom-line numbers that mature companies deliver.#-ad_banner-# How large is the disconnect? The company delivered an… Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there… Read More

Obamacare may be on the defunding chopping block, but not every health care stock out there depends on the success — or even the existence — of the Affordable Care Act.#-ad_banner-# A law enacted in 2009 called the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act… Read More

Each week, my readers and I are generating an average return of 7.8% on margin. Here’s how you can do it too. For the seventh month in a row, the options trades I’ve recommended to my Income Trader readers have been profitable. How am I doing it? #-ad_banner-#You see, every time I make a trade, I get “Instant Income.” And when the options I use to make the trade expire worthless, that income is pure profit. My September contracts posted an annualized gain ranging from 25% to 98%. And, as I’ll explain in a moment, I think the future holds… Read More

Each week, my readers and I are generating an average return of 7.8% on margin. Here’s how you can do it too. For the seventh month in a row, the options trades I’ve recommended to my Income Trader readers have been profitable. How am I doing it? #-ad_banner-#You see, every time I make a trade, I get “Instant Income.” And when the options I use to make the trade expire worthless, that income is pure profit. My September contracts posted an annualized gain ranging from 25% to 98%. And, as I’ll explain in a moment, I think the future holds even higher returns for option traders. So, in case you aren’t familiar, how does my “Instant Income” strategy work? It involves one of the most misunderstood corners of the investing world. Many investors steer clear of options because they have a reputation for being risky, but that’s not always the case… While it is a fact that 80% to 90% of options buyers lose money, there’s a flip side… It means that 80% to 90% of options sellers (like me) make money. We have closed 25 options trades in Income Trader, and each one has been profitable. No trade has… Read More

Identifying a great turnaround opportunity can be hugely profitable. When investors become universally negative about a company’s prospects, you’ve got the chance to spot early signs of improvement, and latch on before the crowd does.  Of course, it’s impossible to perfectly time a turnaround, even if your analysis is roughly… Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. And I’d like to tell you about the best pure-play pharmacy benefit company on the market. Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX) is the largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company in the U.S.#-ad_banner-# Put simply, PBMs operate as middlemen between drugmakers and employers. Express Scripts operates a mail-order pharmacy business as well as a network of retail pharmacies. The company also provides a service that processes prescription claims made by its clients’ members. In today’s age of shopping and doing business online, ESRX offers several unique services. The company offers… Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. And I’d like to tell you about the best pure-play pharmacy benefit company on the market. Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX) is the largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company in the U.S.#-ad_banner-# Put simply, PBMs operate as middlemen between drugmakers and employers. Express Scripts operates a mail-order pharmacy business as well as a network of retail pharmacies. The company also provides a service that processes prescription claims made by its clients’ members. In today’s age of shopping and doing business online, ESRX offers several unique services. The company offers… Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. And I’d like to tell you about the best pure-play pharmacy benefit company on the market. Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX) is the largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company in the U.S.#-ad_banner-# Put simply, PBMs operate as middlemen between drugmakers and employers. Express Scripts operates a mail-order pharmacy business as well as a network of retail pharmacies. The company also provides a service that processes prescription claims made by its clients’ members. In today’s age of shopping and doing business online, ESRX offers several unique services. The company offers… Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. Read More

To say the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) has been controversial is an understatement. So, as investors, what should we make of the latest political brinkmanship? How about we make some money? Remember: No matter what the situation, there is always a bull market somewhere. Obamacare is no exception. Here’s how we’re going to profit: 32 million currently uninsured Americans could soon be insured through the Affordable Care Act. This, combined with an aging population, will be a boon to the pharmaceutical industry. And I’d like to tell you about the best pure-play pharmacy benefit company on the market. Express Scripts (Nasdaq: ESRX) is the largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company in the U.S.#-ad_banner-# Put simply, PBMs operate as middlemen between drugmakers and employers. Express Scripts operates a mail-order pharmacy business as well as a network of retail pharmacies. The company also provides a service that processes prescription claims made by its clients’ members. In today’s age of shopping and doing business online, ESRX offers several unique services. The company offers… Read More