In a recent note, I shared performance stats for our All Star Options Paid-to-Play portfolio, and in the time since, I’ve fielded numerous emails/DMs that all ask basically the same question:

How did you earn money in such a challenging market environment and do so with far lower volatility than the indexes?

Rather than responding individually, I thought it would be better for everyone if I just shared my thoughts here. After all, we can all benefit from good ideas, yeah?

I’ll try not to get us lost in the weeds with the mundane tactical maneuvers employed each trading day. Instead, I’ll stick to the high-level concepts which guide my thinking.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

It was a powerful day in the market. $SPY closed its gap at 396.31 and pushed along.

I said in the live trading room a week back that SPY has potential up to 405, then 410.  

This is the video recording of the January 12th, 2023, Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche.

1/12/23 2:00 PM ET

We had a resting GTC order filled at our profit target in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Louis Sykes

Every child loves a bedtime story.

These stories allow their mind to wander from busy thoughts into an adventure. It provides a comforting reality and a narrative they can consciously control.

Comically, in this sense, children and investors are more similar than we let on.

It's just that one obtains comfort from an adventurous tale while the other derives solace in news headlines.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is bad or wrong. I'm just noting its existence.

The vast majority of investors need to understand why a stock is moving rather than solely following technicals and money flow.

I totally get it.

Today's Hot List is a short one.

The only Form 4 on our list was filed by the chief marketing officer of Dave & Buster's Entertainment $PLAY, who revealed a small purchase of $149,684.

This activity comes on the heels of a handful of Form 4 and Form 13 filings for PLAY by Hill Path Capital over the past month.

From the Desk of Kimmy Sokoloff

With the December CPI up on deck for release at 8:30 a.m. ET, I think I'll hold off on talking about ideas until the data is released.

Let's see how the market reacts.

A question that keeps coming up to me is why Consumer Staples and Low Volatility stocks are outperforming.

These are normally the types of things you see when stocks in general are under pressure.

This is the kind of rotation you get in bear markets.

But the back half of 2022 was good for stocks. The 4th quarter was great.

Most stocks have been ripping for almost 7 months now. This is NOT the type of environment where Staples and Low Volatility stocks tend to outperform.

And while they might be making new multi-year highs relative to the S&P500, it's pretty easy to outperform an index with so much exposure to growth stocks. So can we even call that 'outperformance'?

This week we're looking into the Infrastructure sector.

We retired our "Five Bull Market Barometers" in 2020 to make room for a new weekly post that's focused on the three most important charts for the week ahead.

This is that post, so let's jump into this week's edition.

It's the weekly currency edition of What the FICC?

Is the dollar going to finally bounce?

I have no idea, but the euro will likely answer that question in the coming days.

Check it out!