All it took was one "earnings trade" in $APP to get the vertical spreads scoreboard in the green YTD for 2025:
We never know which trade will be the one that delivers big gains. That's why it is so important to have a process for sizing our positions, allocating risk equally among ideas, and sticking to it. When we do this, the handful of big winners make up for all the small losers.
Here's a look at the six vertical spreads we've closed in All Star Options so far this year:
Prior to yesterday's exit, we were 0-for-5 on closed long vertical spreads. But now with one +320% win, the average return for every vertical spread we've exited in 2025 is $186 per $1000 invested, with an average hold time of 57 days. Not bad considering the 17% win rate!
At the risk of jinxing it, we've got another long vertical spread in $NET that is currently deep in the money and will likely add to the win total and increase our average gain per trade.
It isn't easy losing more times than we win. But sticking to the process and...
Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.
We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut.
These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.
It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.
The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.
We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.
Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.
Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.
Yesterday we saw the Nasdaq100 close at new all-time highs, on an equally-weighted basis!
I keep being told that market breadth is weakening, mostly from people who haven't even bothered to count.
So let me ask you...
Is the equally-weighted Nasdaq100 closing at the highest level in its entire history evidence of broadening strength, or a weakening market?
I'm old enough to remember when they were telling me that this was all just a "bear market rally" and that we shouldn't be buying stocks.
Then it was, "Only 6 stocks going up", so we shouldn't be buying stocks.
Now they're telling me that market breadth is weakening, when it's actually broadening, and that we shouldn't be buying stocks.
You know what we've been doing this entire bull market? We've been buying stocks, and laughing about it along the way.
You've had a front row seat to it all.
And this was just while it was mostly U.S. stocks doing well. Now we're seeing broadening participation all over the world, with areas like Latin America hitting new multi-month highs, Europe hitting all-time highs, and now Southeast Asia really getting going
I've consulted with the consultants, who agree that we should buy 52-week highs that would put us in spitting distance of all-time highs.
And so I shall do just that.
Today's name has somewhat elevated implied volatility, and it's a high-priced stock, so I'll be playing it with a call spread to keep my exposure in check and leverage the out-of-the-money call premiums in my favor.
In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega cap status (over $200B).
Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.
But the scan doesn't just end there.
We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.
Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.
When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...