We’re just shy of a month away from earnings season, but that doesn’t mean that potential trading opportunities don’t exist. This week we actually have three notable earnings releases in stocks with highly liquid options.

On Tuesday, after the close, Nike (NKE) will report earnings followed by Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) Wednesday morning. And to top off the week, Micron (MU) will release earnings after the closing bell Wednesday.

As we head into the holiday season, there really isn’t much to do with our existing positions. I do plan on buying back our BITO calls this week and selling more calls against our shares, but other than that I don’t have any plans, at least at the moment, to place any trades in our Income Wheel portfolio. That being said, after the sell-off last week there are several good candidates for our shorter-term Income Trades portfolio. If all goes as planned, we could have at least one, if not two trades for our one-off, short-term (30 to 60 days) Income Trades portfolio.

The sell-off late last week led to us taking off our SPY bear call spread after just three days. We locked in 8% on the bear call spread which added to our cumulative total return of better than 112% since starting the portfolio back in early June.

In the last three weeks alone we’ve locked in returns of 11.4%, 10.9%, 11.4% and 8.0%. Now we are left with just one open position, an iron condor in IWM, which at the moment looks to be a profitable trade.

Patience remains a virtue in this market, as the major indexes and individual stocks have been unable to get going, though for the most part, sellers have failed to take control, too. We’ll see if today changes that; today’s post-Fed selling was ugly, though it hasn’t cracked our Tides buy signal or most stocks that were setting up. Either way, we’re remaining defensive, with nearly three quarters of the portfolio in cash.

Tonight’s issue is very stock heavy, with a big watch list and write-ups on on a variety of names (including some recent IPOs) that are acting well and have great stories. We continue to think a few good days could make all the difference, but until we see it happen, less remains more as we keep our eyes open for signs the buyers are showing up and the sellers have left the building.

The Fed raised benchmark interest rates a half a point and signaled more to come. Elsewhere, scientists studying fusion energy at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have crossed a huge milestone in reproducing the power of the sun in a laboratory. Explorer positions showed relative strength, led again by Kraken (KRNKF). Today we go to Britain for a historic and strategically important company, brand, and stock selling for a bit over $1 a share.

It is reasonable to expect a significant market turnaround sometime next year. The market trends higher over time. And bear markets always give way to bull markets. Things should get a lot better in 2023. But there is a strong chance they get worse first given the current uncertainties regarding inflation, the Fed, and a recession.

Of course, a recovery and new bull market should reward the short-term pain handsomely over time. As a longer-term investor, which dividend investors should be, it should just be short-term noise on the way to long-term profits. But we can do better than just riding out the storm. We can exploit another possible market downturn to our advantage.

It’s a fact that many stocks that get hurt the worst in a bear market are the first to recover when the market turns. In this issue, I highlight a phenomenal cyclical stock that had been a market superstar but has been clobbered in this bear market. The stock is targeted at a low, low price that may be reached if the market falls to a new low. It could provide incredible upside leverage ahead of a market recovery.

Today, I’m recommending an energy company that is gushing free cash flow and is likely to be sold in the near future.

Key points:

· 33% of market cap in cash (downside protection)
· High insider ownership
· Trading at a price to free cash flow multiple of 4.3x

All the details are inside this month’s Issue. Enjoy!

Once again, the sellers stepped in last week and at least in the short term dented the bulls’ optimism. By week’s end the S&P 500 had fallen 3.35%, the Dow had lost 2.71%, and the Nasdaq had declined by 3.57%.

As has been the case for the past few weeks, the evidence hasn’t changed much, with an on-the-one hand, on-the-other-hand situation: The intermediate-term trend has remained stubbornly up (good), but the longer-term trend is down and no real progress has been made for a few weeks (bad). Stocks are still being mostly rejected by resistance (bad), but the selling pressures haven’t followed through in most cases (better). And many timing indicators have improved (good), but not enough to tell us the sellers have truly run out of ammo (bad). As always, we’ll take it as it comes, leaving our Market Monitor at a level 5 for now.

The good news is that we’re continuing to come up with solid-looking charts from a variety of areas. Our Top Pick this week a turnaround play in the chip equipment field, which itself is acting surprisingly well.

The last two market-driving events of 2022 arrive this week with the latest CPI data (Tuesday) and the Fed’s latest interest rate hike (Wednesday). How those numbers look versus expectations will largely determine how this week, and the rest of December, goes. To have all our bases covered, we continue to add a blend of investment types and sectors. And this week we add something we don’t currently have in the Stock of the Week portfolio: a biotech, recommended by our resident growth investing expert, Mike Cintolo.

Last week we locked in more profits in PFE. We bought back our December 16, 2022 45 puts for $0.02, thereby locking in a profit of $1.06, or 2.36%. We’ve locked in a total profit of 8.6% in PFE since introducing it to the Income Cycle portfolio back in early June—not bad considering PFE stock is slightly negative over the same timeframe.

We locked in two additional profits last week, both bear call spreads and both in SPY. The returns were 11.36% and 10.86%. And this is one week after locking in 11.36% in our IWM iron condor.


Our cumulative total return since introducing Quant Trader back in early June stands at 104.88%.

One change to our ratings this week – We’re buying Aptiv (APTV) after spending some weeks on “watch.”

Just reading those words, “climate change,” is almost certain to light up emotions. Regardless of one’s opinions on the degree of urgency and which of a very wide range of proposed policies and actions should be taken, how could words about the end of the world as we know it not ignite emotions?

Today’s note includes earnings updates on 11 companies and the podcast. On Thursday, we moved shares of Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation (OCSL) from Buy to Sell.

Stocks enjoyed a good rally today, with growth stocks in the lead—at day’s end, the Dow was up 271 points while the Nasdaq lifted 115 points. Not much has changed with the overall environment over the past week. From a top-down point of view, things remain mostly choppy and challenging, with our Cabot Tides remaining effectively neutral, relatively few stocks hitting new highs (though there has been a bit of improvement of late) and even growth-oriented indexes (IWO, IVOG, ARKK) mostly stuck in the mud.

The earnings extravaganza is in full swing. It’s the peak of the season that marks the peak earnings growth of this extraordinary recovery. And the market is sort of yawning it off. Part of the issue is summer malaise. People just tend to focus more on enjoying the waning days of summer than stocks this time of year. But it also may be that this quarter just isn’t as important one might expect.

According to Detrick, “The S&P 500 is up 17.02% YTD at the end of July. Since WWII, this has happened only 12 other times and the rest of the year was higher 11 times. The only time it didn’t work was ’87, but it was up 32% YTD right now (stretched rubber band).” In other words, stocks in motion tend to stay in motion. While I don’t make investment decisions based on these data points, I do find them to be helpful to give me context for what the broader market is likely to do.

It’s a crazy earnings season that the market is treating like a boring one. The second quarter marked the near-full opening up of the economy after the pandemic. It is compared to last year’s second quarter when the economy crashed amidst the lockdowns. Analysts are expecting average earnings growth of 74% for S&P 500 companies, one of the highest quarterly growth rates ever recorded. So far, earnings are exceeding those expectations. And the market is yawning it off. Stocks are doing the same thing as before earnings, trending slightly higher in an up and down fashion. What’s going on?

A key factor holding gold prices back after peaking last August has been the diminution of economic and geopolitical worries following last year’s virus-related economic volatility. In short, gold’s “fear factor”—which I maintain is the dominant driving force behind the metal’s intermediate-term trend—was missing for most of that time.

Today’s note includes earnings updates on 12 companies, the podcast and the Catalyst Report. We publish the Catalyst Report on the Friday after each monthly issue of the Cabot Turnaround Letter. There were no changes to any of our ratings this week.

The U.S. economy is growing more quickly than before the pandemic, both the S&P 500 and S&P 600 are up modestly over the past week and, so far, this earnings season has been a massive improvement over the train wreck of the first-quarter reporting season.

Chinese stocks were hit this week both on American exchanges and overseas as Chinese regulators ratcheted up the pressure through antitrust and regulatory steps that caught many executives and investors off guard. The Golden Dragon index of Chinese technology stocks fell by 15% in two days before rebounding after regulators tried to reassure markets.

This recent IPO will give you an entrée into cryptocurrencies. But be aware, it is a speculative trade and needs to be limited to a small portion of your portfolio.

The big news in the marijuana industry this week is that the Tilray/Aphria merger is complete, turning these two Canadian firms into the biggest marijuana company in the world—for now.

Cardlytics (CDLX) reported last night that Q1 revenue grew by 17% to $53.2 million (beating by $2 million) and that adjusted EPS came in at -$0.34, a drop from -$0.26 in the year ago quarter (and $0.03 shy of expectations). Overall, the quarter showed continued improvement in the business as revenue, Q1 billings ($76.3 million) and adjusted contribution ($24.3 million) were all either at or slightly ahead of consensus estimates.

In the past month, five analysts have increased their EPS estimates for this royalty company.

The market has been a little iffy over the last five or so sessions. This action, coming on the back of great earnings from mega cap tech stocks last week, but not great reactions, suggests a more conservative stance is appropriate right now for some of our high-growth names.

The market has been a little iffy over the last five or so sessions. This action, coming on the back of great earnings from mega cap tech stocks last week, but not great reactions, suggests a more conservative stance is appropriate right now for some of our high-growth names.

There’s still a chance earnings season could save the day, but so far, most reports have led to selling and after seeing many growth stocks set up in recent weeks, the bears are beginning to come out of the woodwork again.

This fertilizer company beat earnings estimates by double last quarter, posting EPS of $0.39. The shares have a current dividend yield of 3.33%, paid quarterly.

This computer company is getting ready for a big spin-off which should boost its shares.

Goosehead Insurance (GSHD) reported after the close yesterday that Q1 revenue rose by 53% to $31.2 million (beating by $2.5 million) and adjusted EPS rose to $0.03 from $0.01 in the year-ago quarter (missing by $0.03). That pace of revenue growth was up from 48% in the quarter ended December 31, and well above the 13% revenue growth rate reported in the year-ago quarter.

This closed-end fund has a current annual dividend yield of 5.46%, paid quarterly.

Our first idea is an automotive component company that is forecasted to grow at a 20% annual rate over the next five years, and has a current annual dividend yield of 2.04%, paid quarterly. Our second recommendation is a sale of a previous pick.

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.