Heading into the last month of the year, the prospects for the market remain very good, with a plethora of technical indicators telling us the market will be higher in the years ahead, and thus I continue to recommend that you be heavily invested.

Forget tariffs, forget trade negotiations, forget politics, and forget all the “problems” of the outside world. Just hold a portfolio of carefully selected high-potential stocks, and all will be well.

Today’s recommendation is a fast-growing company that’s a major participant in the 5G communications revolution.

Details in the issue.

Download the new report Cabot’s 10 Best Stocks to Buy and Hold for 2020 (subscribers only)


A stock joins the Buy Low Opportunities Portfolio today and another one rejoins the Growth Portfolio. Additionally, we say goodbye toone stock, which continues to have a slightly-improving price chart, but the 2020 earnings growth prospects are too dismal to remain in the Growth Portfolio.

Open today’s issue to read additional features and changes with three more stocks.

This week’s pick has one of our favorite growth stories in the market.

While our focus is on long-term business fundamentals and underlying valuations, even we can be tempted to briefly set this aside for shorter-term bargains. And this time of year these bargains can appear, driven by artificial selling pressure.

In this issue, we look at six stocks that are promising candidates for a bounce.

The cannabis sector remains in a correction, with Canadian stocks in particular still struggling—even as Cannabis 2.0 promises new retail opportunities. But the fundamentals of the industry remain bright, and investors are now beginning to discriminate between the winners and the losers—with the best stocks showing substantial increases in buying volume recently.

The portfolio remains more than a third in cash, waiting for the sector’s main trend to turn up, and there are just two small adjustments today. The portfolio will sell half its position in Cresco Labs (CRLBF) and double its position in Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR).



Full details in the issue.

The world is about to change in a major way. So much so that you may look back ten years or even five years from now and realize how profoundly different things are since 2019.

The rapidly advancing rollout of 5G will be a technological tipping point that crosses a threshold into the digital age where everything is connected to the internet. Today, only a few things are connected. In a few years, the whole world will be computerized.



5G is such a game changer that many companies and governments can’t afford to be left behind. The current Administration has labeled 5G a national security priority. It seems 5G is the news arms race.



Those are the stakes. And it’s coming fast. In this issue, I identify a company that is at the epicenter of the 5G rollout. It holds vital technology that is light years above the competition and is necessary to connect any device to 5G. Earnings and revenues should skyrocket as the rollout proceeds in haste.

Current Market Outlook


The market finally hesitated a bit last week, and going through our weekend research, we did spot more leading names that had pulled back during the past five to 10 trading days. But as has been the case since the early-October lows, that weakness was tame (most dips were calm and controlled), with today’s burst of buying pushing many back up. (Encouragingly, even the lagging small-cap indexes are now trying to break out of multi-month ranges.) There’s still some shorter-term yellow flags, so we wouldn’t throw caution to the wind here (don’t forget to take some partial profits!), especially if you’ve put a bunch of money to work in recent weeks. But the fact that most stocks and indexes haven’t been able to retreat much despite those yellow flags is yet another stone in the bullish wall. We remain bullish.

This week’s list includes a broad mix of names, from old winners coming back to life to new names perking up to recently strong performers that have eased to good entry points. Our Top Pick is Axon Enterprise (AAXN), which has come back to life after a year-long rest. Start small and go from there.

Stock Name	Price	Buy Range	Loss Limit
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY)	143.58	107-113	97-99.5
AAXN (AAXN)	87.11	72-75	66-64
Kansas City Southern (KSU)	176.54	149-153	138-141
Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (LEG)	49.79	51.5-53	47-48
Lithia Motors Inc. (LAD)	146.30	160-165	145-148
Luckin Coffee (LK)	0.00	28-30	24.5-25.5
Novocure (NVCR)	0.00	88-91	80-82
Palo Alto Networks (PANW)	236.92	241-246	225-228
Synnex Corp. (SNX)	129.70	119-123	110-112
Target (TGT)	124.77	122-125	112-114

The market and leading stocks have hit a few potholes during the past couple of days, and given the recent run and some short-term measures, more selling wouldn’t be shocking. But bigger picture, the outlook remains sunny: The trends are up for the major indexes and many fresh leading stocks have emerged. We’ve done a bunch of buying during the past month, though we’re still holding 24% on the sideline as we see how these new buys act.

In tonight’s issue, we talk about our market view, give you our latest thoughts on all our recommendations and write about the two themes that we think are leading the market higher, at least for now. Throw in some new ideas and there’s something for everyone in tonight’s Growth Investor.

What a difference a month can make! What an April! The S&P rose 9.6% in April, making it the best single month for the market in six years. It hit an all-time high on Friday.

Sure, the war isn’t over. But the market doesn’t really seem to regard it as a war anymore, more like a blockade situation with the possibility of some skirmishes. While there is still headline risk, investors have moved beyond this war and are focusing on earnings. And for good reasons.

The results are in for the month of April. It was fabulous. The S&P rose 9.6%, making it the best single month for the market in six years. It hit an all-time high on Friday.

Sure, the war isn’t over. But the market doesn’t really seem to regard it as a war anymore, more like a blockade situation with the possibility of minor skirmishes. While there is still headline risk, investors have moved beyond this war and are focusing on earnings.

Now before you call me crazy concerning today’s newsletter headline, hear me out.

Even though large-cap names have garnered more than a fair share of attention among investors this year, I think a case can be made that companies with big capitalizations have a lot more room to run higher before they can be truly regarded as “overbought” or “played out.”

The market is digesting the push and pull of higher oil prices, a deeply divided Federal Reserve, prospects for a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and fading momentum from the AI trade that helped push markets to all‑time highs earlier this month.

Despite the crosscurrents, the overall tone still tilts bullish, supported by investor comfort (for the time being) with the geopolitical tension, resilience in the U.S. economy, and improving visibility into earnings growth over the coming quarters.

Yesterday, four tech giants, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft, representing 22% of the S&P 500’s market value, reported strong quarterly earnings that highlighted the importance of AI.

You might think the above companies and their AI brethren are “asset light” companies but you would be very wrong.

It’s been a glorious April following a miserable March for the market. What happens in May may determine which direction stocks are headed for the rest of the year.

That’s probably overstating things a bit, but May should be crucial for the reasons we discussed last week: namely, the fate of the Iran war, but also the bulk of first-quarter earnings season and the introduction of a new Fed chair.

What war? This market is moving on. We may not be out of the woods yet, but investors are looking beyond the Iran war.

Stocks have already made up all losses from a rough March and then some. The S&P 500 had fallen 7.7% in the month of March by the 30^th. Since then, the index has rallied over 13%. The S&P is now at a higher level than before the war began and is hitting new all-time highs.

The other day I was paid a visit by a roving ISP salesman who was pitching his company’s fledgling internet service over the local monopoly’s. We struck up a conversation and he asked what I did for a living. When I told him, his eyes lit up and he asked, “Got any good stocks you can recommend?”

Without thinking I blurted out, “Anything AI-related. You can’t go wrong.” The advice was only semi-facetious, for there’s undeniably a degree of truth behind it. My instinctive response to that question also prompted me to consider the question: just how long can the broad market continue its “all things AI” run without broader sector participation

Note: I’m out of town this week, so I’ll be a bit briefer on the update today—but I’m still checking my laptop a couple of times a day if you have any questions or comments. I’ll be back at my desk come Monday. Cheers.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain optimistic. The market and some leaders have hesitated, but all of our market timing indicators are bullish, and most stocks we own or are watching are working. Last Friday, we bought a half-sized stake in Nebius (NBIS) and added a 3% additional stake in ProShares S&P 500 Fund (SSO); earlier this week, we sold our small remaining position in GE Aerospace (GE); and tonight, we’ll buy a half-sized position (5% of the portfolio ) in Cava (CAVA). We’ll still have 46% in cash or so after these moves.

Despite all the headline noise lately we’re marching deeper into first‑quarter earnings season with the market’s path of least resistance still pointing higher.

Optimism around the extension of the tentative ceasefire in the Middle East has reduced geopolitical anxiety to a seemingly manageable level. The U.S. economy continues to show resilience, and the corporate earnings outlook points toward meaningful growth in the coming quarters and years.

The old saying, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes,” is an apt one for the stock market these last two years.

In early 2025, the S&P 500 raced to new all-time highs before peaking in late January/early February, only to get dragged down in March and April by a geopolitical crisis (tariffs/Liberation Day), before rallying in a V-shaped pattern as the severity of the crisis abated.

The market turned on the afterburners. The S&P 500 made up all the March losses and catapulted to a brand new high in a remarkably short time. It’s a market that sure looks like it wants to go higher. But stocks are being held back this week by more war uncertainty.

The current ceasefire with Iran expires on Wenesday night. Talks may not happen, and war talk is growing. The resumption of the war will almost certainly prompt a decline in the market. Aside from that near-term threat, investors are clearly looking past this war. Hopefully, it won’t last much longer.

This morning, our longest and most-profitable holding, came under attack by Muddy Waters, a firm that specializes in publishing negative research on a company and selling its stock short.

The top three sectors for this fund are: Real Estate, 52.83%; Financial, 24.8%; and Consumer Cyclical, 14.17%.

The top five holdings are in the ETF mentioned today.

The shares of this retailer were recently initiated at Wells Fargo with an ‘Outperform’ rating, and upgraded at Oppenheimer to ‘Outperform’, PiperJaffray to ‘Overweight’, and Goldman Sachs to ‘Buy’.

The shares of this energy company were recently upgraded by Bank of America to ‘Buy’.

The market was mixed today, as the Dow rose 94 points, but the Nasdaq dropped 54 points and many growth stocks were hit hard.

An important stock sector reclassification has begun that can affect your shares prices. And we’re selling one stock from the portfolio.

Sharing the top five holdings of this ETF.

This chip maker beat analysts’ estimates by $0.08 last quarter and 19 analysts have raised estimates for the company in the past 30 days.

Eight analysts have increased their EPS estimates for this real estate company in the past 30 days; the company beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates by $0.37 in its most recent quarter.

This Canadian cannabis company began trading publicly earlier this month, and Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO), a $4.5 billion company owns a significant portion of its shares.

A performance review of the Buy Low Opportunities Portfolio; and a new stock joins the Buy Low Opportunities Portfolio as a Strong Buy.

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 Top Ten 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 Top Ten features.