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 intermediate-term trend has turned up for all of the major indexes, the number of stocks hitting new lows is drying up nicely, individual leading stocks are acting well and, while it’s not a torrent, we are seeing some more breakouts and setups as the days go by. It’s not 1999 out there, with wide swaths of the market still repairing the damage from recent months, so we continue to favor a step-by-step approach when it comes to extending your line. We’ll move our Market Monitor up to a level 6 and will continue to raise it should the rally continue to gain steam.

This week’s list has another crop of super-strong charts, and from a variety of industries, too. Our Top Pick isn’t a lightning-fast mover, but it looks like the leader in a group that’s shown exceptional strength off the lows and has a history of trending nicely when conditions are favorable.

The November market rally continues, as signs of renewed health among stocks are popping up in more and more places – including in the Stock of the Week portfolio. So today, we’re only adding – and upgrading. The new addition is a longtime recommendation by Cabot Dividend Investor Chief Analyst, Tom Hutchinson, and one that’s having a surprisingly good year. Lately, it’s gone into overdrive and yet still trades well below its highs. We try and capture the stock’s newfound momentum as we head into the holiday season.

Enjoy – and Happy Thanksgiving!

As we enter the holiday-shortened week, we have one open position. My intent is to add another trade this week, so we have at least two positions headed into the December expiration cycle. Other than that there isn’t much to discuss at the moment.

Earnings season is mostly behind us as we enter the week of Thanksgiving and a holiday-shortened week of trading. There are still a few opportunities lingering ahead, but the potential trades are few and far between until another round of fresh earnings announcements starts anew around the middle of January.

As we enter the holiday-shortened week, we have five open positions. My intent is to sell puts in BITO and DKNG this week, so we have at least seven positions headed into the December/January expiration cycles. Both stocks allowed us to prosper, earning more than 13% in total at expiration last Friday with DKNG being the big winner, as we locked in 9.6%.

This week’s update includes commentary on earnings from Conduent (CNDT), ESAB (ESAB), Gannett (GCI), Goodyear Tire & Rubber (GT), Holcim (HCMLY), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (IRWD), Kaman (KAMN), Molson Coors (TAP), Organon (OGN), Volkswagen (VWAGY), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) and Western Union (WU).

Seatmaker Adient (ADNT) reported this morning with encouraging results – we’ll include more detailed commentary next week.

Next week, TreeHouse Foods (THS), Viatris (VTRS), Elanco Animal Health (ELAN), ZimVie (ZIMV), Brookfield Re (BAMR) and Toshiba (TOSYY) report earnings.

Centrus Energy (LEU) was steady this week as Congress seeks another $1.5 billion in a government funding bill to boost domestic supply of uranium to offset lost Russian fuel.

Ford (F) shares rose 7% this week as its October U.S. sales declined by 10% but electric vehicle (EV) sales rose nearly 120% year over year. It now claims to be the #2 EV seller in America behind Tesla.

It was a strong October in the market with the S&P 500 up more than 6% for the month. But the index was up over 8% in the second half of the month after recovering from the low.

What’s going on, and can it last?

Part of this rally is a bounce off the low, which is normal for bear markets and has already occurred several times this year. But there are glimmers of hope that the market may have already bottomed. That hope is largely predicated on the notion that we may be at the peak of the Fed’s aggressiveness. All eyes will be on the Fed this week for confirmation.

It’s all about the Fed right now. The recent rally in stocks may continue or abruptly end based on what the Central Bankers say today.

Today is the Fed’s November meeting where the way-late-to-the-party inflation tamers are widely expected to raise the Fed Funds rate another 0.75% for the fourth time this year. That’s baked into the cake. The main event today will be what the Chairman says about the future course of rate hikes.

The biggest news over the past couple of weeks has been the disappointing results from big tech.

This note includes the Catalyst Report, a summary of the November edition of the Cabot Turnaround Letter, which was published on Wednesday and earnings updates on 12 recommended companies.

WHAT TO DO NOW: Remain defensive, but be ready to take some action. From a top-down perspective, the market is improving, with our Cabot Tides on the verge of a green light. However, individual stocks remain a mine field, with many acting better but plenty of blowups, including many high-profile names, like Meta (META) today and our own Wolfspeed (WOLF), which collapsed today after earnings; we sold our shares earlier today via a special bulletin.

A couple of weeks ago the S&P 600 SmallCap Index was trading at a greater than 25% discount to the S&P 500 on a forward PE basis.

The market has been a lot better over the past week. The reason is earnings.


So far, earnings have been better than expected this quarter, although it’s still early. The hope is that a soft landing is still possible, at least as far as corporate profits are concerned. The early better-than-feared results are prompting hope that corporate profits can weather this recession with less damage than has already been priced into stocks.

I’d like to thank each of you for your interest in renewable energy, decarbonization and ESG investing. I remain a steadfast believer in the long-term transition to clean energy and the profits that it will offer to investors. Since I began investing in the sector in 2007, I’ve never been more optimistic about its future, regardless of the markets right now.

MSFT opened the day within our range of 227.5 to 270. However, MSFT has pushed higher throughout most of the day and has hit our stop-loss. As a result, I am going to exit the trade for a small loss. I don’t want to take a what is now a small loss and turn it into something larger. I will discuss the trade further in our upcoming subscriber-exclusive webinar, at noon ET this Friday.

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

Microsoft is due to announce after the closing bell today.



Iron Condor Earnings Trade in Microsoft (MSFT)

In today’s trade alert I want to sell cash-secured puts in JPMorgan (JPM).

I want to close out our IWM iron condor today for $0.34.

AXP looks to open the day within our range of 134 to 157.5 and, per the mechanics of the strategy, I want to take the trade off the table. I will discuss the trade further in today’s subscriber-exclusive webinar, at noon ET.

Our WFC puts for the July 29, 2022, expiration cycle are essentially worthless. As a result, I want to buy back our WFC July 29, 2022, 35 puts for $0.02, lock in a decent profit and immediately sell more premium. I’m only going out 29 days to the August 19, 2022, expiration cycle. I’ll sell even more put premium in September if all goes well.

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

As the internal condition of the broad equity market shows gradual improvement while short covering continues, I think it’s time we turn our attention to stocks and ETFs that are in a position of relative strength compared with the rest of the market.

Despite being a sloppy mess, the market has offered up some opportunities since May, when a lot of stocks might have put in a workable bottom. However, with the jury still out on that call and a still extremely uncertain environment, I’m taking a “bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” mentality with a few of our names while also looking to keep our portfolio from swelling to an unmanageable size.

As part of the Income Wheel approach, we allowed our BITO and GDX puts to expire in-the-money at expiration last week. As a result, we were issued shares at our chosen put strikes.

On Friday the July calls that we sold against our JD and EQT stock positions expired worthless. Today, both stocks are trading higher, and I want to sell a new set of calls against each. Here are those trades, and approximate prices.

Today is the expiration of five of our July covered call trades. And despite the market having some ups, and even more downs, the Profit Booster portfolio had a pretty good month. Let’s dive in …

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.