A year ago, I made a commitment to healthier eating. Not that I was a slob or anything, it was just that my attitude about what I was willing to put into my body (basically anything) needed to change. At my age, you begin to think about these things.

That said, I'll still happily get long stocks of fast food companies that are poisoning the human race if there's a way for me to profit from it (then spend the earnings at the local vegan grocer!). And one household fast food chain is setting up for a big potential move.

You probably thought this would be a piece about US stocks, didn't you?

While it certainly looks like the Christmas lows in the US are going to stick around for a while, the All Star Charts team is also detecting some broader potential breakouts overseas that we can participate in with options on index ETFs.

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir? ~ John Maynard Keynes

This quote has been on my mind as I am about to publish a trade idea that runs contrary to an existing position we're currently carrying. And if the Market Gods are smiling, we may be able to win on both of them!

The cool thing about working with smart people is being able to learn from them. Having Sean McLaughlin on our team has made everyone better, not just our clients but us as well. In today's video, we tackle the question of when it makes more sense to finance an options position by selling a different contract to collect the income vs simply just buying calls or puts. As usual, Sean does a nice job of explaining this in a way that anyone could understand.

You've probably noticed a few recent blog posts and twitter comments from the All Star Charts team singing the praises of "cash". There's nothing wrong with cash as a position if there aren't any compelling ideas to get you excited about. In fact, its often the best move.

However, we options players can still structure trades that will profit in sideways markets. But a big challenge currently is that we prefer higher options prices driven by relatively high volatility to sell into -- and its hard to find that anywhere right now. Across the board, options prices are getting extremely compressed everywhere. What to do?

How about a strategy that positions us to benefit from sideways action while also getting a goose from any reversion to the mean (er, higher) volatility?

Imitation is the best form of flattery. And we liked our trade idea in $WYNN so much that a nearly identical play setting up in a completely different sector warrants us the opportunity to repeat the same mechanics.

There's something appealing about stacking edges in my favor while taking a shot on the short side of a casino stock that gives me a little extra juice. Waitress? I'm going to need another cocktail...

On last night's All Star Options monthly conference call, we laid out a play to buy a potential bounce in a leading name in the materials sector. For completeness, the trade plan is below.

This is the video recording of the March 2019 Conference Call for Members of All Star Options

If you're of the mind that the broader stock market is set to top out soon, then it makes sense to start hunting for short selling opportunities amongst the weakest sectors. One sector ripe for this right now is the shipping sector. And one stock in particular is offering a rare opportunity to play the downside with straight long puts.

We're headed into another monthly expiration cycle and its time to take some action on open positions with options expiring in March. Not going to sugar coat it -- March positions have been challenging!

Don't look now, but all-time highs are starting to pop up for some well known names. And after just completing the "hundred-dollar-roll," we've got an old classic offering us a cheap opportunity to play for some outsized relative gains.