If tech stocks are signaling that a bottom is in, we're of the mind that we'll find some significant beta in a badly beaten household name: The recently renamed Meta $META (otherwise known as Facebook...).
Chatting with JC this morning, he was drawing a comparison of META to what Gold Miners $GDX did in 2016:
While I prefer to let stocks prove themselves to me before taking a position, sometimes a situation sets up where the stars are aligning for a low risk bet that makes it worth the effort to get ahead of the crowd.
One such situation has developed in a name discussed recently in our Hall of Famers report.
The latest Quarterly Playbook is out, which has given us a bunch of ideas to begin exploring.
One idea stood out for me in particular because of a recent pullback offering a good entry point. It's in a bellwether dividend-paying stock that we wouldn't mind owning for the long term, but we're going to take advantage of elevated options premiums to leverage into a high-probability bet for some opportunistic income.
That's a blog post title I never thought I'd write. LOL.
Even more strange, the trade we're putting on today is in a public company with an unusual name I've never heard of before!
Weird times, indeed.
Steve Strazza and I looked at it a bit on Tuesday during our "Flow Show" on twitter and I was less than enthusiastic at the time. But as the trade has marinated around my brain a little bit since then, it has grown on me.
I’ve written in the past about how I had been invited to join a local Improv Comedy group here in Colorado for a one-off show back in May.
While this may sound random, I do actually have some professional improv training. I took a year of classes at Chicago’s famous Second City Theater and then a couple more sessions at Improv Olympic (also in Chicago) back in 2006. It was just for fun. I had no illusions of ever becoming an actor of any kind.
Well, the show I was invited to participate in back in May went off without a hitch. We played in front of a sold-out room (it only seats 110 people) and by all accounts, it was a fantastic success. For me personally, I was just happy I didn’t suck! LOL!
We were eventually invited to come back again and I was once again asked to participate.
We've seen some bullish thrusts in sectors with ties to the medical and healthcare spaces, and if the broader market has designs on moving higher deeper into the summer, we think leaders will continue to emerge from this area.
Today's trade is a bet on one of those next leaders.
On both an absolute and a relative basis, healthcare names continue to perform. I guess the need for quality healthcare is a stronger driver of stock prices than interest rates and global macro? At least for now, that appears to be the case.
One name we've been watching, Cigna $CI, is knocking on the door of a major base breakout.
Internally, we were talking yesterday about the energy space and the recent pullback in prices. While still the strongest sector in the market in 2022, this move off the highs has been notable.
Is the trend over? Or was that just the "hot money" taking profits?
I'm not sure we have a definitive answer to that question yet. It looks to me that the market is still sorting that out. And this condition of indecision, coupled with high implied volatility priced into options is combining into a nice opportunity to collect some options premium while energy figures itself out.
So we're going to wade into the energy pool with a delta-neutral short-premium options trade.
I'll cut right to the chase: JC put out a piece this morning highlighting the relative outperformance of the Healthcare space.
The XLV sector ETF for the space has more or less been consolidating sideways as the broader markets sold off, and one of the bellwethers here is already making new all-time highs. Feels like we'll start to see more candidates here begin to participate as well.
There is probably a certain segment of the investing population that would look askance at me if I mentioned we're seeing "strength in China." They wouldn't believe that is possible. According to the news media they consume, China is "a mess." Perhaps that is true? But we only follow price here at our shop, and price is beginning to tell a different story.
Today's trade idea comes from TWO seemingly unlikely places: China and Internet! (what??????)
And when you see this chart of the Chinese Internet ETF $KWEB, you'll see why:
