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%.

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%.

From an intermediate-term perspective, the pieces continue to fall into place for the bulls--recently, our Two-Second Indicator has joined our trend-following indicator on the bullish side of the fence, while things like our Aggression Index and the trend in interest rates remain encouraging. Short-term, we are finally seeing some signs of churning in extended leaders, so we’re continuing to move gradually, picking our stocks and spots carefully. Last week, we did a little more buying in DUOL and started a position in ANET, and today we’re starting one more half-sized stake that will diversify the portfolio a bit.

Cabot Cannabis Investor has delivered several excellent trades in the past month.

* Back on October 31 I was very bullish on the cannabis group which was weak because of the nomination of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as House speaker. He has always opposed cannabis legislation. I argued there were several other catalysts in the mix regardless of how Congress acted on legal reforms. “Cannabis stocks are a strong buy in the weakness,” I wrote.

I suggested any of the names in our portfolio, or the AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis (MSOS) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and the leveraged version, AdvisorShares MSOS 2x Daily (MSOX), for simplicity. “I am adding to MSOS and MSOX in the weakness, and I will continue to add, particularly if they get weaker from here.” Since October 31, here’s how those trades have done.

Thank you for subscribing to the Cabot Turnaround Letter. We hope you enjoy reading the December 2023 issue.

Every investor has loser stocks. We discuss two ways to convert this year’s losers into assets and winners, including tax loss selling and buying shares that others have discarded for artificial reasons. Last year’s crop of bounce stocks performed exceptionally well. We discuss five for this year that look promising.

One of our more productive methods for sourcing new ideas is to see what other like-minded investors are buying. We discuss how to refine the vast data in 13F filings and review four from the most recent batch of filings that look attractive.

This month’s Buy recommendation, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), was used in a February 2023 article about how we evaluate candidates. It was too expensive then, but its recent 26% share price slide and encouraging fundamentals make it attractive to buy now.

A banner November for the stock market rolls on, and an encouraging start to the holiday shopping season could act as a catalyst for another strong month in December. The Stock of the Week portfolio is thriving with the pickup in the market, with nine of our stocks hitting either 52-week or all-time highs. So today, we take another big swing by adding a mid-cap software stock recently recommended by Tyler Laundon in his Cabot Early Opportunities advisory.

Details inside.

We have one open position with the intent of adding several more this week. I’ll be using our standard, highly liquid ETFs for one of the trades and a stock-based position as well. We haven’t dipped into equities much, but I expect to add a few of the most highly liquid stocks to our list of regulars.

I hope everyone had a well-rested couple of days from the market. Early last week we started the income wheel process over again in BITO and DKNG by selling a few puts. Both have offered wonderful sources of income since being introduced to the portfolio, so I plan to continue to try and eke out as much options premium (and capital gains) as I can from both sources as long as they will allow.

We are officially entering the earnings doldrums, but that certainly doesn’t mean that opportunities won’t present themselves. For instance, this week Marvell (MRVL) announces earnings and offers a decent opportunity for an iron condor and is potentially a candidate for a short strangle, a strategy we haven’t used in a while. I’ve gone over a detailed iron condor example in the “Weekly Trade Ideas” section. Details inside.

The S&P 500 and Explorer stocks are in an uptrend in November as investors bet that the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes are done for now and that inflation will moderate without a recession. In addition, with most S&P 500 companies having reported third-quarter results, more than 80% have beaten analyst expectations.

With the investing climate improving, today we add two new positions to the portfolio. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Ahead of the long holiday weekend the market had yet another good week. The S&P 500 gained 1.75%, the Dow rallied 1.5%, and the Nasdaq rose another 1.9%.

This week in an attempt to diversify the portfolio we are adding an energy play.

There has been a dramatic turnaround in the market this month. After falling for three straight months, the S&P 500 has rallied 7.6% in the first three weeks of November. The main reason for the turnaround is interest rates.

If the current Wall Street expectation that the benchmark 10-year Treasury rate peaked at 5% is true, it should be positive for stocks, or at least eliminate a big negative.

The current consensus is very positive. Inflation appears subdued, the Fed is done hiking rates, and the economy is nowhere near a recession. It appears that we are having a “soft landing,” where the market gets through this rate-hiking cycle without the usual economic pain. Of course, things can change. The positive situation could discombobulate next year.

We’ll see what happens in the new year. But the prognosis for stocks looks good for at least the rest of the year. It’s a good time to take advantage of stocks that have risen to new 52-week highs and command high-priced calls. In this issue, I highlight sizable covered call premiums for recently surging Intel (INTC) and the first call for Digital Realty Trust (DLR).

The financial media, observers and traders are focused almost exclusively on the path of the Fed’s interest rate tightening policy. How much will they raise rates at the next meeting? How about the meeting after that? Then what? What is the terminal rate (the highest rate of the cycle)? When will the Fed start reducing rates?

This week there were no earnings reports or ratings changes, so most of the note and podcast cover relevant news on our recommended companies.

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

Small-cap stocks continue to trade in the same 5% range that they’ve been in for the last month. On the S&P 600 Small Cap Index that translates to a range of 1,184 – 1,252. At the low end of that range we have the upward sloping 50-day line.

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.

Cannabis stocks are getting sold down as if the industry has no future.

This makes no sense, but there is a good explanation. Traders and investors bought the group heavily on expectations that cannabis sector banking reform would be passed in Congress by year’s end. The AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis (MSOS) exchange-traded fund (ETF) saw five to ten times normal volume on four days in early December, following two months of accumulation.

After good news on inflation, the market awaits the Fed’s rate decision and comments later today. It could lead to a rally or a fizzle.

Inflation for November was less than expected with CPI at 7.1% versus an expected 7.3% and core inflation at 6.0% versus an expected 6.1%. It’s welcome news that inflation is moving lower and has probably peaked, down from 9.1% in June. But it’s still a long way from the 2% Fed target.

There are only 13 trading days left in the calendar year. This means we are entering what is basically a reality distortion field … in which the closer we get to year’s end, the more that calendar-driven technical motivations, rather than valuations and fundamentals, drive share prices. These motivations create artificial selling pressure that can drive already-weak shares down even further.

This week there were no earnings reports or ratings changes, so most of the note and podcast cover relevant news on our recommended companies.

This is the week the market began to think bad economic news might just be bad for stocks, even if it’s “good” in the eyes of the Fed.

Good economic news continues to be interpreted as bad for stocks because it suggests the Fed has “more work to do.”

Stay cautious and alert. Growth stocks and the market took a hit earlier this week, though so far most potential leaders have held support and bounced back somewhat. Overall, not much has changed—our Cabot Tides are positive, and more names are acting properly, but the rest of our indicators are negative, and few stocks are moving higher with any consistency.

With only 16 days left and quite a few important data points being released over the next week or so, I’ve decided to take off our iron condor in IWM for a small profit. I will be reestablishing a new iron condor most likely tomorrow or Monday for the October expiration cycle. If you choose to hold on, please be aware of the risks.

I plan on rolling several more of our short call positions, EFA and EEM to name a few, over the next two days. But today, I want to go ahead and roll our CVX and DBC calls. I also plan on adding several new positions to our Growth/Value Portfolio and Buffett Portfolio. Stay tuned!

Our BITO 16.5 calls for the September 23, 2022, expiration cycle are essentially worthless. Same goes for our GDX 28 calls.

Today, given the extreme oversold readings, I’m going to open a position in the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ), more specifically a bull put spread. I also intend on adding several more positions for the October 21 expiration cycle over the coming days.

I will be rolling several more of our short calls at the beginning of next week. Stay tuned as I will be sending out several trade alerts on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The market today is like fertilizer for grey hair. In theory, it should be stronger than it has been. After all, this morning’s manufacturing data showed prices continue to come down (i.e., supply/demand balance getting better) while new orders remain stable. We also see oil prices down. So, inflation pressures seem to be easing (still) but growth isn’t tanking (yet).

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.

We currently own the GLD January 19, 2024, 145 call LEAPS contract at $37.00. You must own LEAPS in order to use this strategy.

Several of the short calls in our poor man’s covered call positions have little to no value due to the sharp decline that began in earnest last Friday. As a result, I want to buy back several of our short call positions and sell more premium while volatility is high. I’m going to start with SPY, but expect to see more alerts before we close out the week.

The market’s rally continues to take on water, and while it’s not a wipeout, many of our intermediate-term indicators are back on the fence.

With 18 days left and little to no value left in our bear call spread, I have decided to take all risk off the table, lock in profits and move on to the next opportunity.

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.