The last two trading days (Thursday-Friday July 26-27) have been somewhat challenging for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. But there was some relative strength in the financials, in particular, American Express $AXP which last week printed a new all-time high.

This isn't entirely surprising to us as we've been watching the financials absorb cash flows as one of the next to step up in the ongoing sector rotations that continue to lead this bull market higher. And we've got a plan to capitalize.

As a group, the semi-conductors sector has been underperforming this year, but signs are pointing to an upward trend declaration soon. This isn't a wildly bullish announcement, but neither do we need to be wildly bullish to make money on a mildly bullish opportunity.

With earnings coming up on July 30 and some significant recent support levels to lean against, we're going to take advantage of the 'earnings premium' being priced in to $KLAC options today.

Texas Instruments $TXN appears to have authored no surprises in their quarterly earnings call on Tuesday afternoon, announcing well telegraphed results (following a recent CEO shakeup) that had basically no effect on share prices in the after-hours session.

That's good news, because now traders can get to work on completing its now 27 week base and not have to worry too much about any headline risk to get in the way in the near future. With all-time highs within range, we've got a plan to participate.

In the latest monthly conference call for All Star Charts subscribers, JC lays out a compelling case for being long leaders in the transportation space -- notably trucking and railroads.

We're not one to step in front of trends, especially those riding on rails, and with a well received earnings report released last week pushing $CSX to new highs, we see nothing but green lights ahead to our price target. And when momentum is coupled with collapsing volatility, it sets up pretty compelling opportunities to participate in some highly leveraged upside.

JC is fond of trades that offer asymmetric return opportunities (who isn't, really?). And we've got a potential beauty setting up in Abbott Labs $ABT.

With earnings out of the way and a direction loudly declared, we've got a screaming opportunity setting up and we're ready to strike.

I have a Google Home at my house and we ask it questions all the time. I asked: "Hey Google, do we really need to call google Alphabet?" and she responded: "Sorry, I don't understand the question."

Yeah, me neither.

In case you've been living under a rock, Google $GOOG printed a new all-time high today (Tuesday) and continues to ignore headlines like a good soldier. And with earnings on deck, scaredy-cat options market makers are bidding up prices in options ahead of July 23rd's release. This sets up a nice trade for us.

You see what I did there? The title of this post is a play on the stock we're about to put an options play on -- Workday $WDAY. You're welcome. I'll be here all week. Tip your bartender.

It's summer time. Sometimes during dull market action we have to keep ourselves entertained right?

Well, nothing entertains me more than profitable options trades. And with earnings on the not-to-distant horizon in $WDAY, I see a scenario setting up that can get us paid for our work.

We are in the tricky part of the quarterly cycle where upcoming earnings warrant caution on options trades in individual names. Premiums get elevated ahead of the uncertainty heading into each earnings event, so that makes being long premium an undesirable idea. Meanwhile, it makes me uncomfortable getting short elevated premiums into these events because of the risk of an outsized move blowing through any short strikes I may have on.

And of course and ironically, with summer in full swing, broader indexes are seeing declining volatilities which makes it tougher to put on good credit spreads.

But your boy hasn't given up looking for opportunities, and I see a good one shaping up in the Utilities space.

This is the video recording of the July 2018 Conference Call for Members of All Star Options

Perhaps it's the overwhelming number of afflicted Bears coming in to emergency rooms, pharmacies (for pain meds), and therapists couches across America that is fueling the continued bull market in healthcare stocks? Interesting thought.

But we're not fundamentalists here, we just follow price action, volume, and with our options trades -- volatility. And those three things are pointing to a great opportunity for profits in the $XLV Healthcare ETF.

Jack Dorsey, CEO of both Square $SQ and a little-known company named Twitter $TWTR, is having a pretty good year. How good? Well, in the last 365 days, $SQ is up 177% and Twitter is up a more modest 158%. Boy, the sentiment in these two names sure has changed. It seemed like just yesterday Jack Dorsey was America's most hated CEO. "Pick one!" the masses screamed. Everyone thought he had taken on too big of a workload as the stocks of both companies languished in prolonged downtrends. Amazing what twin upward trending stock prices can do for Public Relations.

While both stocks look compelling here, we're going to take advantage of some attractive volatility being priced into $SQ options and an earnings event to play both sides against.

With two weeks to July expiration, it's time to review our July positions that will be expiring soon and take any actions that are necessary to reduce risk or take profits. This is the time of the cycle when the theta cost of our long premium plays will start to accelerate against us, or the gamma risk in our short premium plays will start to ramp quickly against us. No bueno in either case.