We have some exciting times ahead! All of our Dogs and Small Dogs positions will be closed out prior to the December 29, 2023, expiration cycle and we will once again start anew by adding all the qualifying Dogs for 2024 during the first week of the new year. Stay tuned as I will have more information as we near the end of the December 29 expiration cycle.

Shortly after we add our Dogs and Small Dogs during the first week of 2024, we will begin the process of phasing out of our 2025 LEAPS and into 2026 LEAPS in the passive portfolios (All-Weather and Yale Endowment).

Despite some early-in-the-week wobbles, the bulls were able to rally into the close of the week and again tack on gains. For the week the S&P 500 gained 0.8%, the Dow was unchanged, and the Nasdaq rose by 0.7%.

Despite some early-in-the-week wobbles, the bulls were able to rally into the close of the week and again tack on gains. For the week the S&P 500 gained 0.8%, the Dow was unchanged, and the Nasdaq rose by 0.7%.

This month we’re adding a small company that specializes in software that helps organizations train their employees and the partners they work with.

The company has a market cap of $1.5 billion, is growing revenue by about 25% and throws off a ton of cash relative to its size. Moreover, I rarely see this stock in the media, despite impressive growth and achievements. I think that’s about to change.

All the details are inside this month’s Issue.

Led by the Magnificent Seven, the S&P 500 is a bit overcooked at the moment. Small and mid-caps, on the other hand, are cheap - and appear poised for outperformance in the New Year. So today, we add a mid-cap life sciences company with high upside potential in an emerging area of biology.

The bulls once again pushed the market higher last week as the S&P 500 gained 0.77%, the Dow was the big winner with a rally of 2.42%, and the Nasdaq rose marginally by 0.38%.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Value Investor. We hope you enjoy reading the December 2023 issue.

Artificial intelligence-inspired investors are partying like it’s 1999. We’re finding attractive value elsewhere, in discarded industrials like our new Buy recommendation, CNH Industrial (CNHI).

Most of the rubber-meets-the-road evidence is positive when it comes to the intermediate-term, that said, short-term, some wobbles and rotation are beginning to creep in—some growth areas (like chips) are weakening while the broad market (small-caps, etc.) are perking up, and after five weeks of strong gains, investor sentiment has gotten a bit comfortable. That doesn’t have us growing more cautious, and in fact, we’re bumping up our Market Monitor to a level 7—though we are still favoring moving gradually and picking your stocks and entry points carefully.

This week’s list has another nice collection of stocks, including everything from precious metals to chemicals to some powerful earnings gaps in the tech space. Our Top Pick is a tech infrastructure name that isn’t early in its run, but after a choppy three months, it appears ready for its next move.

The market continues to thrive as we enter the final month of 2023 – and Cabot Stock of the Week stocks are thriving along with it! A pullback in the coming days and perhaps weeks would make sense on the heels of the market’s banner November, but the long- and intermediate-term trajectory appears up. The potential (likelihood?) that interest rates may have peaked is perhaps the biggest driving force behind the rally. And it’s a big catalyst propelling the stock that we’re adding today, a brand-new recommendation from Mike Cintolo in Cabot Growth Investor.

Details inside.

We have two open positions, both bear call spreads, with the intent of opening up another position this week. My hope is to add a bull put spread or iron condor to the mix, but with implied volatility (IV) mostly low across the board due to extreme short-term overbought conditions, our opportunities, at least at the moment, are limited. I’ve been looking at a few potential volatility plays based purely on IV increasing over the next few months. I’ve also been looking at a few stocks that have IV around the 30% to 35% mark, if not higher. Ultimately, I want to balance out our deltas, as we don’t want to lean too heavily in one direction. At the moment, our deltas are leaning to the short side, so we hope to balance those out a bit as the week progresses.

As we move into the month of December all of our positions continue to thrive. Even if we see a pullback over the next month, unless it’s sharp, we should see some nice gains as we progress through the month. I also hope to add another trade to the portfolio, but I would like to see a reprieve before I sell a few puts. Implied volatility is currently quite low across the board and the market sits in an extreme short-term overbought state.

We have officially entered the earnings doldrums, but that certainly doesn’t mean that opportunities won’t present themselves. For instance, this week Lululemon (LULU) announces earnings and offers a decent opportunity for an iron condor. I’ve gone over a detailed iron condor example in the “Weekly Trade Ideas” section below.

Only three months ago, the financial community, including investors, analysts, economists, commentators and others, despaired that the Fed’s rate tightening program would produce a hard landing. The resulting combination, of higher interest rates and slowing/negative earnings and economic growth, is toxic for stock markets. Not surprisingly, the S&P 500 tumbled 27% from its highs to touch 3,500 in mid-October.



With the turn of the calendar and minimal discouraging economic news, the same financial community is now optimistic that we’re headed for a soft landing, or possibly no landing at all (economic growth remains positive). Worries that the Fed will inexorably keep raising interest rates have been replaced with the view that perhaps only 25 or 50 basis points of further increases are ahead. The outlook previously labeled as “toxic” has been transformed into “supportive” for equities. In the three short weeks since year’s end, the S&P has lifted 5%.

With today’s note, we offer more clarity on last week’s earnings report from Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) and provide updates on several recommended stocks.

Cabot Options Institute Quant Trader is focused exclusively on creating consistent returns using high-probability options strategies including bear call spreads, bull put spreads, iron condors and more. Whether you have questions about the strategies, or even about setting up your account, or how to make your own trades, Andy will answer all of your questions

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain cautious but keep your eyes open. The evidence as a whole remains mostly negative, with the long-term trend down, the intermediate-term trend sideways and most stocks struggling to hold breakouts. But we are seeing legitimate strength in the broad market (our Two-Second Indicator remains bullish), which is a clear positive. We’re not going to rush things—we’re still holding around three-quarters in cash—but should the market firm up there could be a lot of opportunities. We have no changes tonight.

The S&P 600 Small Cap Index hit a 2022 closing low of 1,064 on September 26. On November 11 it moved back above its 200-day moving average line and closed at 1,232. That was a 16% move off the low.

The index then moved sideways for a few weeks before dropping back below both its 50- and 200-day moving average lines in mid-December. At that point, the index found support at 1,135, roughly 7% above the November lows.

A key theme of the Explorer is that there is always a bull market somewhere in the world. Today we offer a quick update on two – nuclear energy and electric vehicles.

All in all, the track record of nuclear energy is very good, especially when compared with the effects from comparable forms of energy.

Cabot Options Institute Income Trader is focused exclusively on the creating consistent income through a variety of options selling strategies. Whether you have questions about selling puts, covered strangles, jade lizards or our income wheel approach, Andy is more than happy to help you steepen your learning curve in this live event.

2023 is off to a good start! So far in January, the S&P 500 is up 4.2% and many of our micro-cap recommendations are also starting the year off on the right foot. We will see if the positive momentum can continue to close out the month. Earnings season is officially beginning for large-cap stocks.

Earnings season is here again. It’s that time of the quarter that has so often buoyed and reinvigorated the market. But this one is unusual because average earnings are expected to shrink.

Earnings boomed after the pandemic. But now there are much tougher year-over-year comparisons and a slowing economy. The average earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to decline 3.9% from last year’s fourth quarter.

For many of your value stocks on the recommended list, the New Year’s rebound continues. Most of these shares were heavily over-sold late last year. Almost given up for dead, shares of Organon (OGN) have surged 38% since hitting an all-time low in mid-October. Similarly, shares of Barrick Gold (GOLD) are up over 43% since their nadir in November.

We currently own the EEM January 19, 2024, 30 call LEAPS contract at $11.50. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

Shares of Treace Medical (TMCI) have sold off this morning following the publishing of a short report from Culper Research.

I will be exiting the Home Depot (HD) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming subscriber-exclusive webinar, at noon ET this Friday.

The market is pulling in today, though given the rally last week, the action among the indexes is still normal. On the market timing front, the Cabot Tides green light is still in effect, though our Cabot Trend Lines remain bearish, as does our Aggression Index. The Two-Second Indicator did record “only” 35 new lows on Friday, so we’ll see if that continues.

As discussed in our weekly issue last week, and on our weekly call, I will be taking a position in Walmart (WMT) today.

Election results set up some key potential catalysts for our cannabis stocks, both near term and further down the road.


Above all, a Republican takeover of control of the House of Representatives increases the odds that we will see very near-term passage of favorable banking reform, known as the Secure and Fair Enforcement Act, or SAFE Banking Act.

This morning’s “less bad” CPI report (what a difference 0.2% makes!) is just what the market needed to get off its knees.

Given that we are in profitable territory with 16 days left until November expiration, I’ve decided to take off all exposure and reestablish trades for December expiration after the Fed event today.

We currently own the TLT January 19, 2024, 85 call LEAPS contract at $29.10. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

Montauk Renewables (MNTK) reported third-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday and they weren’t good – at least not compared to estimates.

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.