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The major indexes are relatively flat this week as the market continues its tight, choppy trading range that’s been in place since early September. Because of that, our stance remains unchanged—our Market Monitor is at a level 6 out of 10, and we advise holding resilient stocks but also holding some cash, while being selective when doing new buying.

Ulta Beauty (ULTA) has likely formed an intermediate-term top after sinking on earnings during the past three days.

The market continues to move sideways, at least in the intermediate term, as investors can’t seem to get past the usual suspects of an unpleasant election, an uncertain Fed and a mix of Brexit, Deutsche Bank and other ongoing dramas.

Tonight, we’re going to sell Amazon (AMZN), which doesn’t look awful but hasn’t been able to get going during the past couple of months. We’ll sell at about breakeven and hold the cash. We’ll also place Abiomed (ABMD) on Hold

Small caps added another five points this week as the grind higher continues. Granted, the percentage rise was less than 1%. But nevertheless, the strength in small caps is creating a sense of greater confidence in the sustainability of the market’s uptrend.

It’s been an interesting week for quarterly earnings reports. Today I’ll bring you up-to-date on seven companies. Three reported earnings way above estimates, three below estimates, and one exactly on target.

The market’s had a good week, bolstered in large part by the Fed’s decision to hold interest rates steady (which probably means they won’t hike until December at the earliest). The Nasdaq has moved out to new all-time high, and the other major indexes are close behind.

The stock market also seems to be in wait-and-see-mode, consolidating on low volume for a second week in a row.

The major indexes are down modestly on the week, but that doesn’t tell the story of what happened under the market’s hood. While the first half of Monday was solid, there’s been intense selling pressure on the broad market ever since, and especially on high relative strength stocks like those in Top Ten.

We will place ProShares S&P 500 Ultra Fund (SSO) on Hold to respect the message from our Tides.

We’ll get a truer read on things when big investors return from the beach next week, but going with the evidence, we advise remaining heavily invested today.

I want to highlight a hedging strategy that you may want to consider for your personal holdings.

I get questions quite often about how I use stops. Some traders have hard and fast rules such as “If I’m down 25% (or 50% or whatever) on a position I exit immediately.” I really don’t have such rules.

A great way to get long market exposure, while also being short volatility is to sell a put spread. This is a strategy I like to use when volatility is high, which is often the case before earnings.

Volatility in Options Pricing at Earnings

In today’s issue, we’re adding a reliable new stock to the Safe Income Tier. I also review why you might want to own preferred stock in today’s educational section, and provide updates on all our holdings.

In tonight’s issue, we dive into some education, revealing a long-term chart pattern that bodes well (including one stock that’s at the top of our Watch List now). We also give you all our latest thoughts on the market and our recommended stocks, and present the usual crop of new ideas if you have some cash on the sideline.