“The Iron Condor is a risky trade!”

This comment was shared today during my appearance on the Morning Show with JC and Strazza.

We were discussing this trade in $TSLA we put on yesterday.

Sure, this trade might have some risk in it. 

Newsflash: ALL trades have risk. If there was no risk, there would be no potential reward!

An Iron Condor is a four-legged options spread consisting of equal amounts of short out–of-the-money puts and calls, and long further out-of-the-money puts and calls that protect the position and define the risk.

Here’s the PnL Graph for the $TSLA trade and this is a pretty common structure for an Iron Condor trade:

Look what we have here: a $VIX popping its head up to two-month highs.

Are investors getting a little spooked by the prospect of a tricky earnings season?

We'll be able to figure all that out after the fact. In the meantime, we will use these elevated options premiums to help us ride out some portfolio profitability.

I asked my analysts to find me a big cap name that is trading sloppy.

And the one they came with is a widely followed mega-cap name that has been flopping around in a sideways choppy range which, coupled with upcoming earnings, is helping to juice options premiums.

Here's everyone's favorite EV car maker Tesla $TSLA:

One of the areas I’ve identified where I can improve my trading is in trade selection. Specifically, my trade avoidance.

Due to my early trading experience as a stock trader, it was ingrained in me during my formative trading years to avoid positioning in stocks that are about to announce earnings.

And for good reason.

Once a stock trade is on, our only real defense against punishing losses is to have a stop-loss order working. That’s fine if you trust yourself to always honor your mental stops. But for most of us mere mortals, the good-til-canceled stop-loss order is our best protection.

99% of the time, a stop-loss order works as intended. Sure, we might suffer a little slippage here and there. But it works like a charm in preventing disaster. Especially for intraday trades.

But for overnight holds, a stop-loss order has its limits. And these limits are fully exposed in the event of a binary news release – most notably earnings announcements.

Don't let today's headline scare you. I'm still bullish overall.

But with the S&P500 still bumping its head against overhead resistance, it wouldn't hurt to provide a little ballast for a mostly long portfolio here.

So with this in mind, I'm putting on a bearish trade in a stock that has not been participating in this bull market, and will likely continue to push lower as long as the broader indexes keep struggling here.

Today's trade is in a name that many American shoppers are familiar with.

You've probably seen TJ Maxx stores everywhere, frequently located in strip plazas throughout the suburbs. And there's a good chance your family has dropped some loot in there, taking advantage of the deals they are famous for.

JC commented today that he's invested in $TJX in his long-term account as a hedge for his wife's spending at this store. I think many of us can relate.

But what's got me most excited about this setup is the recent base just below $100, which would be an all-time high. Around here, we call that the hundred-dolla-roll, and it's one of my favorite setups:

I'm showing my age here, but I've never used the social media platform Snapchat. Nor do I have any plans to do so.

But I'll happily trade options in the stock when there are favorable setups. And we have one now.

Let's get right to it.

Healthcare is an early leader out of the clubhouse to start the year. We've already seen some big moves in names like Merck, Amgen, and Lilly.

This is a sector rotation that makes sense to us. And for this reason, today's trade is in a name we think will play catchup to these leaders.

But first, lets zoom out to observe this chart of $PFE, highlighting the stock sitting near a level that has acted as strong support for numerous times over the past decade:

Today's trade is in a name that has caught the fancy of aggressive short-sellers. As of the latest update, approximately 25% of the outstanding shares in Chewy Inc $CHWY are held in short positions.

Now, I'm sure the short-sellers have done their homework and have very compelling reasons to be short. I will concede their points to them.

However, short-sellers are human too. And being human means they can also be wrong. And if they are wrong, the only way they can make the losses stop is to buy stock to cover their short positions. If 25% of the float has to cover their shorts, that sets up the possibility of a wildfire to the upside.

We're here for that possibility.

Check out this chart:

The bull market continues, and the broadening out of participation continues to widen. Today's trade is in a Chemicals company that is beginning to show some relative strength and has two upside targets that could potentially be met, if conditions cooperate.

We'll reduce our position as the closer target, and hold the rest for a run at the big prize!

It was remarked during our Analyst meeting this morning that "bullish Wells Fargo" is a phrase that hasn't been uttered within our digital walls in a long, long time.

But we're looking to get more exposure to the banking sector, and $WFC is consolidating nicely after a fresh breakout last week. With all-time highs within bull market distance, we feel like we can get aggressive with this name for a run.

Implied volatility in $WFC call options is pretty tame here, so that affords us the luxury of going out six months to play the June options which will give us plenty of time to see if $WFC has the stuff.

Here's a chart of $WFC to set the stage:

One of the things we like to do repeatedly at All Star Charts is position ourselves in leading stocks in leading sectors. Just writing that out may sound completely obvious to some, but too often I see traders trying to get cute to find the "undiscovered gems" that will be the next big winner.

Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer getting involved in stocks that are already doing what we want them to do, and I want to let inertia take over.

Today's trade in Southern Copper is one in which both inertia and "magnets" may play a part in delivering gains to us.

Short-term traders will classify today's trade as a "hard trade."

We're positioning in a stock that has already had a significant run over the past two months. But if we widen out our lens and look at weekly or monthly candles, we'll see that this stock is making fresh all-time highs out of a monster base which can fuel a dramatic push higher.

Check out this chart of Lululemon $LULU: