A year from now we could be in a raging bull market or bounding toward a recession. Interest rates could be high or much lower. And we have to see what will happen with these wars and who will be elected president in November. Nobody knows the answers to these questions.

But a year from now there is at least one thing we can bank on: The population is already older than ever before in history and will continue to get still older at warp speed. Between 2011 and 2029, about 76 million boomers born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1964 will turn 65. That’s about 3.6 million per year. There will be tens of millions more older people running around in the years ahead.

The inescapable fact about older people is that they spend much more than any other segment of the population on healthcare. That’s just how we’re built. Boomers control about 70% of this nation’s wealth and the aging population has enormous implications for businesses and markets.

Certain healthcare companies and stocks are positioned ahead of a megatrend and a massive wave of spending. In this issue, I highlight two “BUY”-rated portfolio healthcare stocks. If you don’t own them already, they are well worth considering.

Despite some under-the-surface concerns, it was another strong week for the market as the S&P 500 gained 1.5%, the Dow was mostly unchanged and the Nasdaq added 1%.

Housekeeping: Just a heads up that next week’s issue will come after the close on Tuesday, February 20 due to the Presidents’ Day holiday.

The story remains the same as it has for a couple of weeks now: The trends of the indexes remain up and the action of leading stocks (especially leading growth stocks) remains excellent, but most of the market has just sat around since the start of the year (though we are seeing some broadening out of buying pressures the past couple of days) and, for some of the tech/AI names, the action is definitely short-term frothy. We’re leaving our Market Monitor at a level 7, holding our winners but also a little cash, while focusing on fresher names (both inside and outside of tech) that are emerging with some power.

This week’s list has a bunch of fresh ideas in a variety of areas—dips in many of them would be tempting. For our Top Pick we’re going to go with a zinger in the AI space—a liquid name with a great, leading position that’s just gotten going on earnings. If you enter, use a loose leash, as the stock is bound to be super volatile.

Stocks keep hitting new highs, riding a stronger-than-expected earnings season and multiple red-hot trends (artificial intelligence, semiconductors, weight-loss drugs), all of which we have heavy exposure to in the Stock of the Week portfolio. It’s possible stocks in those sectors are due for a pullback, but tech as a whole is clearly thriving at the moment, so today we split the difference by adding a dividend-paying technology stock that’s been a long-time favorite of Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst Tom Hutchinson.

I plan on ramping up the positions in our actively managed portfolios (Buffett and Growth/Value) over the next expiration cycle. My goal is to have a minimum of 5 positions per portfolio, but I’m not going to race to get there. I’ll continue to pounce when the opportunity presents itself. We’ve taken our time adding positions since initiating our portfolio and, so far, our patience has served us well.

Volatility continues to remain low as a result of the seemingly never-ending market rally. While all of our bullish positions in our other Cabot Options Institute services (Fundamentals, Income Trader, Earnings Trader) continue to thrive in this environment, anything with a bearish-leaning or hedge-based trade has struggled. But as I’ve stated numerous times in the past, that’s why we always want to diversify our strategies when approaching the market.

The plan remains simple. I continue to focus on balancing out the overall deltas of our current positions by adding a trade, most likely a bull put spread. I’ll be concentrating on sector ETFs and individual stocks as the major indices continue to see low levels of volatility.

We should be able to add to our total return of 124.9% at the end of this week as our GDX and DKNG positions are due to expire. The jump in our total return should be notable as we have the potential to add 17.1% through our DKNG position and 1.6% in GDX.

I plan to add one more position next week so stay tuned for a trade alert, possibly two as we move through the week.

Despite some under-the-surface concerns, it was another strong week for the market as the S&P 500 gained 1.5%, the Dow was mostly unchanged and the Nasdaq added 1%.

Despite some under-the-surface concerns, it was another strong week for the market as the S&P 500 gained 1.5%, the Dow was mostly unchanged and the Nasdaq added 1%.

We made our fourth straight successful trade for this earnings cycle late last week. We were thankful to take quick profits in Amgen (AMGN) Wednesday morning. All went as planned as AMGN opened well within the chosen range of our iron condor and, as a result, we were able to take off the trade for a nice one-day gain of 5.6%. Our total return for this earnings cycle stands at 28.8%, one of our best performing earnings cycle since we initiated Earnings Trader back in mid-July 2022, smack dab in the middle of the most recent bear market.

The market’s primary evidence remains in good shape, and that’s especially true for leading growth stocks continue to act very well, and after two-plus years in the wilderness, we’re optimistic that the best names can continue to do well. That said, near-term, risks are rising for some sort of change in character (pullback, rotation, etc.) as there’s a growing divergence and some of the action out there is frothy. Because of that, we’re mostly riding our winners, but we sold a couple of laggards earlier this week and--for now--are holding about 30% in cash.

All that said, stay tuned: We could put some money back to work in the days ahead as earnings season continues to roll on, but for now, we’ll stay a bit closer to shore than we have been and see how things play out.

The markets have continued their bullish momentum so far in 2024, with growth stocks continuing to lead the way—especially large caps, which are up 32.94% so far this year.

Sector-wise, Communication Services (up 9.74%), Technology (up 5.07%), and Healthcare (up 4.11%) are the winners so far, with Real Estate (down 4.37%), Utilities (-2.91%), and Consumer Discretionary (-0/83%) the losing sectors.

Housing inventory is still tight, with prices remaining a little lofty. The S&P Case-Shiller home price index came in at a 5.4% rise, which was a bit less than the 5.7% forecast, but still higher than the month before.

As expected, the second half of February was pretty weak from a stock market return perspective.But February is over and March and April tend to be seasonally strong, according to Ryan Detrick of Carson Investment Research.

A few weeks ago, we introduced the Gartner Hype Cycle, which traces the path that all tech companies follow in what essentially is an immutable law of tech investing. Currently, tech stocks have passed the Peak of Inflated Expectations and are sliding down to the Trough of Disillusionment. A few will ascend back to prosperity along the “Slope of Enlightenment” if they maintain both their relevance and their competitive edge. But most will lose one or both of these traits and thus continue downward in what could be labeled the “Decline into Oblivion.”

The chart below follows the same pattern as the Tech Hype Cycle chart while it more specifically traces the pattern of revenues and profits. The peak of the Hype Cycle corresponds, of course, to the peak of the Sales cycle in the Maturity Stage. Most tech companies follow the Decline Stage line into oblivion.

Last week marked the fourth straight week of declines for the S&P 500 and was the worst week so far this year, down nearly 3%.

The problem is inflation, go figure. The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the Personal Expenditures Price Index (PCE), was much higher than expected in January and showed inflation moving higher, not lower, to start the year.

This week, we comment on earnings from Elanco Animal Health (ELAN), Gannett (GCI), Kaman Corporation (KAMN) and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).

We also include the Catalyst Report and a summary of the March edition of the Cabot Turnaround Letter, which was published on Wednesday.

We’re in the thick of our portfolio’s earnings season so today’s update will be short and sweet. My focus this week is on providing updates on positions as they report and laying out expectations for companies that have not yet reported.

While our reports have been mostly good so far the market is still swinging with the interest rate breezes. I had thought that influence might diminish but with Fed members making hawkish public comments and expectations for more hikes after March both the 10-year and 2-year yield have become troublesome.

We’ll continue our mini-series on the Tech Hype Cycle next week, as we thought some brief comments on the war in Ukraine might be timely roughly one year after Russia’s invasion.

Clearly, the war is an awful situation for all involved, certainly on a humanitarian level but also on an economic level. While the conflict has degenerated into a World War I-style artillery battle between two entrenched forces, we anticipate that spring will bring more mobile hostilities.

Part of our risk management process is to identify risks, then gauge whether those risks are increasing, or decreasing. This simple directional metric avoids the impossible task of predicting the future yet provides an effective way to understand risks.

The impressive early year rally has ended. The S&P ended its third straight down week on Friday and is sharply lower to start this week.


The “soft landing” optimism of January has given way to concern about a hawkish Fed and rising long-term rates. Inflation had been coming down, and the Fed appeared to be chilling out while the economy remained on solid footing. But a continued strong economy, a rise in January inflation, and a more belligerent Fed are spoiling the party.

This week, I want to use my introduction to spend some time diving into Liberated Syndication (LSYN) because I spoke to the CEO, Brad Tirpak, for about an hour last week.


To review, Liberated Syndication stopped trading publicly in late 2021 because it was so behind on its historical financials, that FINRA/SEC revoked its ability to trade. So since late 2021, the stock has been private.

This week, we comment on earnings from Conduent (CNDT), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (IRWD), Organon (OGN), Toshiba (TOSYY) and TreeHouse Foods (THS).

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: Continue to lean bullish. The market has chopped around for the past couple of weeks, but while we’re always on the lookout for yellow flags, none have appeared yet—all of our key market timing indicators are positive and most stocks are doing pretty well. We’re not close to fully bullish, but we’ll put a bit more money to work tonight by filling out our position in Uber (UBER), which will leave us with around 35% in cash. We’re also going to place Shift4 (FOUR) on Hold after today’s selling. Details below.

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.

Treace Medical (TMCI) delivered a Q3 beat after the bell yesterday with revenue of $33.1 million (+53%) beating estimates by $3.03 million and EPS of -$0.22 beating by $0.07.

I will be exiting the Disney (DIS) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our subscriber-exclusive webinar at noon ET Friday, November 11.

As discussed in our weekly issue this week, and on our weekly call last Friday, I will be taking a position in Disney (DIS) today. DIS is due to announce earnings after the closing bell today (November 8). The stock is currently trading for 99.95.

With the November 18, 2022 expiration cycle only 11 days away, we need to start rolling a few of our positions. I plan on rolling the majority of our November short calls this week. Expect to see two to three more alerts as the week progresses.

I will be exiting the Starbucks (SBUX) trade today.

We’ve had a few earnings reports lately that have been delivered under the cloud of the FOMC meeting and press conference (Wednesday). During that event, Fed Chair Powell opened the door to a slower pace of interest rate hikes starting in December but suggested the terminal rate (how high the Fed goes during this cycle) may be higher than previously expected and last for longer than previously expected.

Procept (PRCT) beat on the top line and missed on the bottom line. Revenue grew 135% to $20.3 million ($3.1 million beat) while EPS of -$0.51 missed by $0.03.

As discussed in our weekly issue, and on our weekly call, I will be taking a position in Starbucks (SBUX) today. SBUX is due to announce earnings after the closing bell today (November 3). The stock is currently trading for 85.26.

In today’s trade alert I want to start out by selling puts in PFE with the intent of eventually wheeling into the position. Here is a quick review of the wheeling process.

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.