In the Spring of 2022, JC came to me and said: “What do you think about managing an options income portfolio for me? I’m looking for some more strategy diversification in my portfolios. It doesn’t need to be anything sexy, just steady.”

Ok, I’m probably paraphrasing a bit, but that was the gist of his ask.

So I got to work on putting a plan together for him. When we looked at it together, it became obvious that we should offer this portfolio to the All Star Charts community who might also be interested in some further diversification. Even if people don’t take our trades, it could be a productive learning experience for everyone.

So we got to work and we launched the All Star Options Paid-to-Play (P2P) service in May 2022.

Each trading day, we either enter a new delta-neutral options credit spread in a liquid ETF (from a list of the most liquid Index and Sectors ETFs), or we play defense on an open position with an adjustment to put us in a better position to win. And we leave resting GTC (good-till-canceled) limit orders to close our credit spreads at profit targets which get filled periodically at the whim of the markets.

No doubt Gold Bugs have been enjoying the price action in gold instruments recently. It has been a profitable few months to be long just about anything shiny -- even silver!

The All Star Charts research team published a continued bullish piece on the sector today.

Today's options trade is a conservative bet on a continuation of this pattern. Let's get right to it.

The latest Young Aristocrats report is out, highlighting companies with steady and increasing dividends that are also displaying strong relative strength -- a powerful combination. These are some of my favorite stocks to get long when the conditions warrant.

Today's trade is in a sporting goods retailer that just broke out and looks like it's ready to start sprinting.

Have you ever resisted something?

Ok, that question answers itself. Of course you have. We all have.

For our purposes today, I’m more specifically focused on the periods when we resist something that deep down we know would be good for us. Or the right thing to do. Or the intelligent thing to do. Or the helpful thing to do.

When nothing but goodness can result from taking a specific action, why do we resist it? Why do we willingly sabotage ourselves like that?

Author Steven Pressfield in his bestselling book “The War of Art” terms this “The Resistance”. Capital T, Capital R.

We all do it. And we often don’t know why.

Happy New Year everyone. How are you playing it?

This morning, our analyst team was bouncing ideas around when I posed the group this question:

"It's the beginning of a new year. Do we want to continue buying strength (as we have been)? Or do we want to buy some well-selected dips on stocks in sectors we like?"

In other words, what's our appetite?

The prevailing sentiment that won out was that we have been buying strength -- and that has worked well in some areas, particularly homebuilders, Chinese stocks, and metals stocks. But the reward-to-risk opportunities right now may be more favorable in the "buy-the-dip" camp.

So with this in mind, let's take a look at a stock in the semiconductors sector that has our attention.

Consumer Staples continue to be one of the leading sectors as we head into year-end. And if you know anything about the gang here at All Star Charts, we love to be long stocks and sectors that are showing strong relative strength.

So for our last new trade for 2022, we're going to take a big swig of an energy drink maker.

We've covered before how much I like buying stocks that are making new all-time highs. I like them, even more, when I can buy call options because premiums are low. And it's a cherry on top when the stock pays a meaty and steady dividend which lends price action support over the long run!

Today's trade checks all these boxes.

The bottom line is that the bottom is in for these stocks. The evidence continues to build in the bulls’ favor.

~ @sstrazza

Starting off with fire! We're not mincing words here.

But I'm not going to steal any of Strazza's fire. Head here to read his piece on what's going on with Chinese stocks. It sets the stage beautifully for today's trade.

Caught up? Great, let's get into it.

At this point, it is almost becoming a cliche. But whenever the market sells off and Berkshire Hathaway takes a dip, it's almost becoming money in the bank to sell puts.

It's already worked for us numerous times this year. This won't work forever, of course, but until it stops working we should keep giving it a go.

With this in mind, let's get to work.