Earnings season is officially behind us. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have an opportunity or two rear its head on a weekly basis. This week Nike (NKE) presents a potential opportunity. The options are highly liquid and the IV rank sits above 67. Moreover, we have the ability to create a 31-point range around the expected move of 21 points. We won’t know for certain if a trade will be placed until Tuesday, but all looks promising at the moment as long as the range (or something similar in width) and premium hold up into mid-day Tuesday.

Now that was an interesting week, as countless sectors imploded (banks/REITs/airlines/energy) while at the same time money rushed into mega-cap technology. By week’s end the S&P 500 had risen 1.43%, the Dow had fallen 0.15%, and the Nasdaq way outperformed, having gained 4.41%.

Now that was an interesting week, as countless sectors imploded (banks/REITs/airlines/energy) while at the same time money rushed into mega-cap technology. By week’s end the S&P 500 had risen 1.43%, the Dow had fallen 0.15%, and the Nasdaq way outperformed, having gained 4.41%.

In the March Issue of Cabot Early Opportunities we take a look at what’s been unfolding in the financial system and consider implications for the FOMC’s meeting and subsequent rate hike decision next week.

Suffice to say, buying a bunch of stocks into the current uncertainty doesn’t seem like the best idea. We’ll add a few partial positions, but the bulk of this month’s new ideas are going on our Watch List.

We’ll take things as they come and consider plucking names off this list as things develop.

Never a dull moment!

Led by the meltdown in the financial sector, the market had an awful week. The numbers weren’t pretty as the S&P 500 fell 4.76%, the Dow lost 4.45%, and the Nasdaq declined 4.16%.

What was promising action two weeks ago got off to a bad start last week, but it was the late-week collapse in regional banks that caused the market to hit one giant air pocket. Clearly, at this point, the intermediate-term trend has turned down and the broad market is under a lot of pressure; we’re not in the business of catching falling knives, so we’re in the better-safe-than-sorry camp. That said, there are still many potential leaders in a variety of fields that are pulling back sharply, but normally—including some (like many from last weeks issue) that are hardly giving any ground at all. We’re moving our Market Monitor to a level 5—but also taking things on a stock-by-stock basis, which means giving some resilient names a chance.

This week’s list has a collection of mostly resilient names, with some steady actors but also a few true growth stories, too. Our Top Pick is a young upstart that’s higher risk, so keep positions small and look for weakness.

All Quiet on the Western Front is an ironically titled movie about war that won several awards at last night’s Oscars. It could loosely describe the last few days in the U.S. stock market too, as the collapse of three major banks (and counting?) has abruptly sent stocks tumbling back down into bear market territory and brought anxiety, uncertainty and volatility back to the forefront. So today, we’re selling our one bank stock, plus one other shaky growth stock, but making room for a cookie-cutter retail company that’s on solid ground. It’s a longtime favorite of Cabot Growth Investor Chief Analyst Mike Cintolo.

All is well in Quant Trader land. Our two positions are currently in great shape with the potential to take some decent profits off the table. We still have 39 days left until the April 21, 2023, expiration cycle, so there is a good chance that we take both of our open trades off the table for profits and look to immediately sell more premium, especially with the recent pop in implied volatility.

After the recent pullback, the All-Weather portfolio is now up 0.55%, with the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) doing the heavy lifting, up 7.19% since it was introduced to the portfolio back on 6/15/23. Besides DBC, we’ve rolled all of our positions to the April 21, 2023 expiration cycle. Our DBC 24 calls are due to expire this week. I will most likely allow them to carry through expiration and sell more calls after expiration, unless we have an opportunity to buy back our DBC 24 calls for $0.05 or less.

Earnings season is officially behind us. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have an opportunity or two rear its head on a weekly basis. This week FedEx (FDX) presents a potential opportunity. The options are highly liquid and the IV rank sits above 48. Moreover, we have the ability to create a 42.5-point range around the expected move of 27.5 points. We won’t know for certain if a trade will be placed until Thursday, but all looks promising at the moment.

Not much has changed from last week. We are loaded up in the Income Wheel Portfolio, although I wouldn’t mind stepping into a few new positions. If I do decide to add a position or two to the portfolio, one will have a low IV and the other will be the exact opposite, with a high IV. The reason, as stated in the past, is that I like to diversify the overall beta of my positions so that our overall level of risk is balanced.

Led by the meltdown in the financial sector, the market had an awful week. The numbers weren’t pretty as the S&P 500 fell 4.76%, the Dow lost 4.45%, and the Nasdaq declined 4.16%.

There is one topic that brings together Wall Street, Hollywood and Silicon Valley – the metaverse. While “metaverse” definitions are varied, the idea of bringing people together in a virtual interactive world is, as they used to say, the talk of the town.

On to the market. It was a funkier week than last week, though big picture nothing has changed. We are moving into the tail end of earnings season so we may see a more moderate amount of investor interest over the next two weeks.

It’s earnings season. That 3-to-4-week period where most public companies report their results. I find earnings season to be a great time to check in on your holdings. Many think that the market is too short-term oriented and that quarterly earnings don’t really matter—what matters is annual progress.

We continue to watch in amazement the values that the market puts on electric vehicle makers, with the most recent example of Rivian Automotive (RIVN). Since its IPO at $78/share, RIVN shares have doubled, making the EV company’s roughly 900 million shares worth a total of about $144 billion. This makes it the #3 most valuable car company in the world.

What inflation? What supply-chain issues? Headlines be damned. This market is on the cusp of yet another new all-time high.

The bull market is back. But there seems to be a disconnect between recent stock performance and the headlines. What’s going on?

The idea that gold prices can rise while the dollar is strengthening appears, at first glance, to be a contradiction. After all, how can gold (which is priced in dollars) advance when the dollar is moving higher at the same time?

This week’s Friday Update includes our comments on earnings from eight companies. Also, Toshiba (TOSYY) reported earnings this morning, along with its plan to split into three companies.

First a quick personal note. Our backup plan for the kids today (out of school because of the holiday) fell through so I’ll be spending much of the day with two young, energetic boys who could care less about the stock market! I’ll be keeping tabs on things but may not get to email responses today unless a response is super timely.

Looking at the bigger picture, nothing has changed with our overall thoughts: The evidence tells us it’s a bull market and that the intermediate-term uptrend remains intact.

Like nature, stock markets have seasons. We experienced a brief but frigid winter about 18 months ago when nearly every stock wilted as capital markets froze (no pun intended, mostly). Then, just as surely as spring follows winter, an exceptionally generous dose of warm sunshine, water and fertilizer in the forms of extremely aggressive monetary and fiscal liquidity and stimulus returned the stock market to brilliant health where nearly every stock blossomed with vibrant growth.

Times are good. After a rough September, the market soared 8% higher to a new all-time high. Earnings have been spectacular, and the bull market is back, although the market has pulled back in the last couple days.

The major indexes were fine today, with the Dow up 45 points and the Nasdaq down 33 points. But that masked a horror show under the surface—the average stock we follow was off more than 2%, similar to growth-oriented indexes like the Russell 2000 Growth Index (IWO, down 2%) or the Ark Innovation Fund (ARKK, off 3.3%).

The one thing that has held back gold from gaining any meaningful traction in recent weeks has been the utter lack of a fear catalyst. But that has now changed as gold has a new “fear factor,” as discussed in this week’s report.

In the past 30 days, 14 analysts have increased their EPS estimates for this energy company.

This eyecare company is forecasted to grow its earnings by 19.2% next year.

The top five holdings of this ETF are Saia Inc (SAIA, 3.06% of assets), Chart Industries Inc (GTLS, 2.89%), Exponent Inc (EXPO, 2.58%), UFP Industries Inc (UFPI, 2.55%) and John Bean Technologies Corp (JBT, 2.51%).

The most dominant theme in the metals sector right now is the leadership of lithium in an otherwise dull (short-term) market environment.

Accolade (ACCD) reported Q1 fiscal 2022 results after the bell yesterday that beat on the top line and missed on the bottom line. Revenue was up 66% to $59.5 million (beating by $3.7 million) while adjusted EPS of -$0.87 missed by $0.47. Management raised full-year guidance to $300 million - $305 million (from $260 million - $265 million) due to positive momentum and benefits from acquisitions.

Some of this REIT’s household name tenants are: Whole Foods, Kroger, Petco, U.S. Bank, Chase, and Five Guys. The REIT has a current annual dividend yield of 5.38%, paid monthly.

The top five holdings in this fund are Facebook Inc A (FB, 9.83% of assets), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN, 8.92%), Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class A (BRK.A, 5.68%), Microsoft Corp (MSFT, 5.33%), and Apple Inc (AAPL, 3.18%).

The brightest star in the metals sector of late has unquestionably been lithium. Recent favorable developments pertaining to the electric vehicle (EV) industry have boosted lithium’s profile since the white metal is a critical component for EV batteries.

Back in early 2000, when the Internet stock bubble was preparing for its long deflationary period, the charting service we used categorized Internet stocks into four groups: ISP/Content, E-Commerce, Software and Security/Solutions. At the time, these groups included 470 stocks.

This penny stock is speculative, but has an impressive book of patents and collaborations.

A few Cabot Options Trader subscribers have asked me about ways to protect gains in their portfolios, so I thought I would write to everyone with a couple of strategies using options to hedge your portfolio.

A subscriber recently asked me if I keep a journal of my trades. Many traders keep journals so they can look back at their trades and evaluate what they did right and what they did wrong.

Want to know how the big institutional investors use options? Here is an example of how one trader spent $132 million on three technology stocks.

Options trading has its own vernacular. To know how to do it, you need to know what every options term means. Here are some of the basics.

Our Cabot Momentum Trader’s market timing system consists of two parts—one based on the action of three select, growth-oriented market indexes, and the other based on the action of the fast-moving stocks Cabot Momentum Trader features.