We were bullish on Microsoft all summer, and with $MSFT printing another new all-time high this week, our stance hasn't diminished in the least. The only thing that's changed is we've raised our price target. That tends to happen in bull markets.

In our October conference call for subscribers, we teased a bullish trade idea in $MSFT. And upon further reflection, I think I've come up with an even better probability play with an opportunity for better risk adjusted returns.

We've got 46 days until November expiration and it's always good to have some income trades on for every monthly expiration. It just makes good sense for somewhat diversifying our portfolio. We don't want to have only directional and/or long premium plays on. If the market goes sideways or falls somewhat from here, we need to have some cushion built in somewhere.

After reviewing all the most liquid ETFs we track, I've identified our best candidate based on relatively high implied volatility and range-bound trading action.

As the Technology sector goes, so often goes the market. And the Tech Select Sector ETF $XLK has been going nowhere -- increasingly so -- over the past several weeks.

Does anybody here think broader market indices go sideways from now until the end of the year?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

If, or rather when, indices start busting a move, we're pretty confident that the technology sector will have a major say in the direction and pace. And we've got a plan to participate, whichever way it goes.

This is the monthly conference call for Members of All Star Options. In this call we will discuss the current market environment and focus on price and volatility behavior. Throughout the session, J.C. Parets will add commentary on the technical outlook moving forward, and Sean McLaughlin will discuss the options strategies available to profit from the market activity.

This month’s Conference Call will be held on Tuesday October 2nd at 7PM ET. Here are the details for the call:

Sometimes I think I have a little too much fun writing headlines. But, when we're looking into opportunities in the gaming space, I guess it comes with the territory.

We recently took a look into the newly configured Communications Services Sector and highlighted some component stocks that stand out as notable opportunities. From an options trading perspective, Take-Two Interactive $TTWO offers us the best chance for a profitable play.

With markets having a big breakout on Thursday, our bullish US equities case continues to be confirmed. And with new all-time highs usually comes lower and lower volatility being priced into options.

For the past month, we've been keeping it pretty simple here at All Star Options. We like simple, so it comes naturally to us. But more importantly, the market is telling us to keep it simple. When volatilities are low and charts are pointing higher, it pays to be a buyer of your friendly neighborhood call option. Options Trading 101. Being buyers of calls in this environment puts us on the other side of the trade from the pikers who fill up ballrooms and banquet halls at Turnpike Hiltons and Marriotts to learn about the latest and greatest Covered Calls Road to Riches.

You're better than this. You're willing to take smart risks and reap the upside rewards.

Casual readers of All Star Charts will notice we've been warming up to the idea of being bullish Precious Metals and Miners for a turn. Check these recent posts to get up-to-date on our thoughts:

Defining Our Risk in Precious Metals  (Sept 13)

Is the Market Ready for a US Dollar Collapse? (Sept 18)

If you're a believer that a short-term bottom is in for Gold Miners, I think a nice short-term, high-probability trade with a clearly defined risk level has presented itself in the Junior Gold Miners ETF $GDXJ. This isn't a sexy play, but it helps diversify our portfolio a little bit by getting us short premium in a high probability (not a guarantee) set up with a good chance of turning us a profit.

Continuing with a theme I discussed coming out of Labor Day Weekend, volatilities continue to remain low across major stock indices, within the majority of sectors, and by extension many key stocks. Until that changes, there's no need to deviate from my current plan of keeping things simple. When bullish opportunities present themselves, it is pretty simple -- I want to be long calls. There's no need to overthink things here.

Not surprising, there is a stock on our radar that it is breaking out to all-time highs with options pricing in volatility near the lowest levels seen in the past year. A perfect candidate for straight naked calls.

If you've been paying attention, we've been bullish and long Nike $NKE for a little while now. Here's our trade from July 2 where we got long calls (still holding), and here's our more recent trade where we are fading the hysteria and elevated vol from September 11th. Well, sometimes we're a sucker for what works and often go back to the well. With that in mind, we've identified some similar action in Pfizer $PFE that has us interested and is pretty compelling.

From time to time, a slowly developing opportunity presents itself and in doing so gives you multiple ways to profit -- while also incrementally reducing your risk as time goes along. This type of situation is presenting itself currently in Marathon Oil $MRO.

Continental Resources $CLR has been consolidating in a range just below 4-year highs, and recent price action has brought it to a level where I like our odds for an income trade.

Following up on our discussion from the September All Star Options conference call, we will lay out here the trade in $CME that we presented to subscribers. The stock move is underway, but there is still plenty of meat on the bone and I like the trade even more now.