My gut tells me the odds of a pullback in the markets are increasing. And the next pullback in the direction back to recent lows will likely come with a lot of noise. There will be lots of shouts about "retesting lows," from some camps, and other shouts of "this was just a dead cat bounce, we're going much lower!" from other camps.

I have a hunch of how that plays out, which I discussed on this morning's Options Jam Session.

But if the market gets slippery here, and especially if the shouting class gets it right, I think housing sector stocks are vulnerable.

Today's trade is a similar trade to the one I did in Kingsoft Computing last week. It's a bet on a previous highfligher, who had it's legs kicked out from under it during the recent market turmoil, that appears to be setting up to resume its former prominence.

If the market is serious about making a V-Bottom happen, I have a hard time believing it'll happen without the semiconductors.

And right now, in my opinion, Broadcom has the best-looking chart. So that's the horse I'm going to ride back to highs.

Sorry for the obnoxious title. Sometimes, these things just write themselves.

You would think that a company involved in sports betting would be doing well, considering it seems I can't escape the barrage of advertising for sports betting apps I'm seeing everywhere I turn.

Apparently, there is a company in this space that can't seem to figure it out. Or at least, that's what their stock price action is saying. 

Today's trade is in a name that has been on my radar for a couple of weeks. I've been waiting for a trigger. And today, we're getting it.

During a recent Analyst meeting, it was discussed now that we're getting further confirmation that the lows may be in for the broader stock market, it's time to start shifting our attention to stocks that displayed strong relative strength in recent months.

The chart of Groupon $GRPN (remember them?) is exhibit A for relative strength as it's on the verge of printing new multi-year highs. And the team feels if this one goes, the stock could double. If it does, some strategically selected long calls could pay handsomely.

Yesterday, we saw large gains in the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow Jones Industrial Averages. While I would've preferred to see these big rallies come on overwhelming high volume that far exceeds the average, we did close on an increase in volume, which technically qualifies as a "follow-through day." 

While this isn't a guarantee that we've seen the bottom of recent price action, it does add some credence to the idea that the recent lows may be a little more durable and hold for a while.

If the market turn is here, then now would be a good time to take some fliers on previously high-flying names that took a dip with everything else in the recent morass.

Today's trade is that.

With a slew of important earnings coming up over the next few weeks, we're going to start getting a real sense of the negative impacts of the f-d up policy communication strategy out of "The Administration."

We're going to see more dialed back forward guidance, and meaningful impacts to bottom lines.

I think Amazon might soon find itself at the front lines of this discussion. Their earnings release, scheduled for May 1st, may kickstart that conversation. And I don't think it goes well.

Ok, the stock market has bounced. Now what?

Well, now that the bounce feels like it's running out of a little steam, it's time to scan the universe of stocks that have been underperforming and had tepid bounces (at best) during this week's counter-trend rally.

Today's stock is one of the laggards in the semiconductors space.

Since there seems to have been a bit of confusion about the $QQQ campaign that I embarked upon back on Wednesday, I'm creating a new post to help make new trades clearer for you all.

So far this AM, I've closed one of our put spreads at my profit target, and I'm adding a new one.

These feel like unprecedented times. And when that happens, we need new tactics. New tools. New mindsets.

Today, I'm beginning a campaign of undetermined length, in an attempt to harvest some of these monster options premiums.

With $VIX showing signs that perhaps yesterday was a blow off top, I'm going to gingerly wade into the premium selling pond with a defined-risk Iron Condor trade on a semiconductor stock that may be entering a wide range of sideways chop.