With the rise in $VIX (the "fear gauge") over the past several trading days continuing to persist, we've been on the hunt for options premium selling opportunities. Higher volatility environments lend themselves to better opportunities for premium sellers who can manage their risks and size their positions conservatively.

As such, we're going to sell some premium in the banking sector to take advantage of elevated premiums and what appears to be a high likelihood of continuing sideways action.

When the ducks are quackin'... feed them!

With volatility still up since Friday afternoon's stock market freakout, we're going to continue to take advantage of this volatility rise to add an additional, much-needed delta-neutral credit spread to our portfolio to diversify our risks somewhat.

So today I'll be positioning into an index ETF near the top of the implied volatility charts.

"Jackson Hole" has delivered volatility once again. Seems we can always expect fireworks when the bigwigs gather at a luxury resort in the mountains. Must be nice...

We're going to take advantage of some of this volatility by positioning into a delta-neutral credit spread in the highest implied volatility ETF currently on the board.

Let's get to it.

That's right, we're in the 'hood. Robinhood stock $HOOD, that is.

Steve Strazza has been pounding the table about this name for so long that JC and I finally relented and agreed that it's starting to become that "put up or shut up" time.

With the stock swimming just below $10 per share, JC said: "Let's just leverage into this thing! If it's gonna work, we'll crush it. If it's not going to work, we'll know pretty soon. Below $9 we're out."

Here's the chart that has our attention:

The AVWAP from all-time lows is our support.

Today's trade comes from the latest Young Aristocrats report. And today's dip offers us a chance to get into this trade with a very nearby risk management level (today's low). Either this stock is going to make a run or it's going to fail, and we'll likely find out quickly.

As such, we're taking a long position in October call options.

...but it might win us cash-money gains, which is all we're really here for anyway. Give the participation trophies to the strivers.

Today's trade comes from a "dirty" sector. One some investors don't like to talk about in polite company. And it certainly won't win us any friends in the ESG crowd. But again, who cares?

Let's get right to it.

During our morning Analyst meeting today, the team was looking across a variety of asset classes and sectors to identify the current leaders, and those likely to continue tracking higher if the broader stock market rally is for real.

One sector that stood out starkly was Big Pharma.

There are some monster bases in the process of resolving higher here.

Will the commodity trade come roaring back? If so, we've got a play in a metals fabrication stock that we think we'll outperform to the upside.

This company recently broke out to 6-year highs and has a lot of runway left to reach decade-plus highs.

Every idea that we put on at All Star Charts starts with a technical setup that we like. We are students of price action and that supercedes everything.

It's nice when our technical analysis lines up with "other" factors that may support our idea, be they fundamental, news, or in this case, insiders and activist activity.

Here's what our team noticed in an email to ASC subscribers earlier this week:

The most significant insider transaction on today’s list is a Form 4 filing for Pinterest $PINS.

We wrote about PINS on July 15, when Elliott Management announced a large activist stake.

Now that the second quarter blackout period is behind Pinterest, CEO William J. Ready is also buying shares. He just reported a rather sizable $5 million purchase.

We can’t think of many things more bullish than the CEO getting involved following the insider activity from Elliott last week.

CEOs and Activists buying big positions? That has our attention.

Here's a chart of the setup as we see it:

It's a big wide world out there. Luckily for us investors in the U.S., we aren't just limited to trading domestic companies. Often via ADRs, we are able to participate in opportunities in the very best foreign companies and conglomerates.

And right now, there are good opportunities shaping up in if we look overseas at some banking stocks.

Today's idea comes to us from a $71B Indian bank!

Earlier this week, we got stopped out of Vertex Pharma $VRTX for a manageable loss. It happens. Now today, a vortex is pulling us in the direction of another Vertex -- Vertex Energy $VTNR. Crazy, huh?

In the end, stocks are all just ticker symbols with dollar signs attached to them that convey any kind of meaning to us. But nonetheless, what are the odds?

Weird coincidences aside, we're liking the setup in this energy name so let's get right to it.

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:

Tune into our twitter livestream today at around 2:30pm ET to hear JC's thoughts on this comparison.

If we think a similar scenario has a chance of unfolding for $META. then we've got a crafty play in mind to participate.