Another week and more elevated fears in the marketplace. The Nasdaq QQQ's breached the 300 level intraday today and that's got everyone chirping --- and for good reason.
Of course, the contrarian bird sitting on my shoulder has been uttering the phrase: "the wider the rubber band is stretched, the harder the snap back!"
Now, I'm not going out on a limb and declaring that the bottom for stocks is in and we rally from here. But I do like the odds of a viscous snap back rally materializing at some point this week. And if something like that were to come to pass, I want to be in names that have held up the best in this tape.
In the All Star Charts recent Monthly Charts Strategy Session, JC highlighted a bunch of stocks that have held levels that feel significant.
And since we've seen a lot of damage to bullish charts in recent weeks, the best bets on the board right now appear in stocks that have held up better than the rest.
One mining stock that held up well after hot money ran for the exits is Newmont Corporation $NEM.
It's no secret the oil and energy sectors have been outperforming in 2022.
Of course, when a trend like that is no secret, it tends to become a crowded trade. And we've seen a taste of the ramifications of that in recent weeks. There were some vicious pullbacks in all the biggest winners about two weeks ago.
Fast forward to today, and the smoke has cleared a bit. Many of these names survived the exits of hot money and are now showing signs of resuming their prior uptrends.
At the top of this list right now is Exxon Mobil $XOM.
Hey everybody. We aren't able to put up a video Jam Session this week as the whole team is off-site in Washington, D.C. attending the CMT Annual Symposium.
Need proof? Here's me, JC, Strazza, and friends in front of the White House at midnight last night! :)
But I still want to update you on action in our open trades this week, as it's been a busy one. So here goes:
The frenetic trading activity that defined the end of last week appears to be continuing into today. And we're seeing VIX north of 30. If I liked selling premium last week, I should love it today, right?
Well, it just so happens we've got an ETF with pricing in June options that is giving us a lot of wiggle room to sell premium into. So we're going to do just that, betting on consumers to chill.
I've been talking recently about how coming out of the March expiration cycle, if feels to me that volatility (as tracked by $VIX) has changed regimes. During the first quarter of this year, buyers of vol dips were rewarded. But now it is my belief that sellers of vol spikes will be rewarded.
With that quick peek into my thinking as a backdrop, the price action in the broader stock market indices over the past few days has caused VIX to pop from 20 to north of 24 in short order and it feels to me that this might offer an advantageous opportunity for us to step in and sell some premium.
Don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.
Sentiment has only been this bearish four times over the last 40 years: Coming out of rampant 1970's inflation, the Savings & Loan crisis of the early 90's, the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-09, and the "Fiscal Cliff" circa 2012.
Do you remember those times?
And you see what happened in the S&P 500 after, right?
Is history going to repeat itself? And if so, how do we protect ourselves and our portfolios from the "risk" of being underinvested if that happens?
Energy names have been working for us. So there's no reason to turn off the spigot just yet. Of course, mindful of our exposure in energy-related sectors already, I want to try to keep any additional risk exposure as limited as possible.
With this in mind, today's play is a bullish bet that we think will take some time to materialize. And we're going to use that assumption to help us lever into a trend at a cheaper cost of participation using a calendar spread.
I caught the last 30 minutes-ish of the live Elon Musk interview on TED Talks Thursday morning and I found it riveting. Sadly, I missed most of the discussion regarding his recent splashes with Twitter.
Picking up when I did, there were other things I should’ve been doing (writing this note, for example), but I was immediately hooked. I couldn’t peel myself away from it.
It felt like a real earnest look into the mind of a savant.
Say what you will about Elon Musk the Man, Elon Musk the Innovator, Elon Musk the Political Animal, or Elon Musk the Podcaster and Tweeter. I’m not here to pass any judgments on who he is, what he stands for, or how he accomplishes his aims.
What stood out for me during the chat was the laser focus he has on things he puts his mind to.
When he mentioned that he understands deeply how EVERY piece of his cars are made and assembled, and when he uttered that there is nobody on Planet Earth currently living who knows more about manufacturing then him, I believed him. He wasn’t trying to impress us with this information. He was saying it matter-of-factly.
I read a book recently that got into the fact that any and all edges in trading, no matter how robust, degrade over time.
The author listed a variety of reasons, but the biggest one that caught my attention is that if the edge is so good, then the simple act of making a bunch of money exploiting this edge will eventually get discovered.
This is an incestuous business where people talk. Brokers talk to their clients. Clients talk to their industry contacts. Word gets around about so and so making all kinds of money. And then copycat traders act and move in to also take advantage of said edge. And this crowding in will work to eventually minimize or trivialize the edge.
