Thrilling Thursday – Markets Blast Higher on Trade Progress (Again?)

There are still a lot of ways this can all play out and I think it’s a bit premature to be back near 3,100 on the S&P Futures (/ES) so I like shorting up here or below 25,600 on the Dow Futures (/YM) – both with tight stops above as you can’t really short this market .  We’ll see if the Russell (/RTY) fails the 1,600 line – that would be a good short too with VERY tight stops above (that’s what makes it a good short – having a very obvious place to stop out with a small loss vs a large, potential gain).  

Not that we should complain about the market.  We haven’t touched our Short-Term Virtual Portfolio since we published it in Monday Morning’s Report (sign up HERE to get our Reports every day or to access all our Member’s Virtual Portfolios) but we’ve gained another $3,558 (3.5%) in 3 days just leaving our 5 beautiful positions alone (and we are averaging 2.5% per week in gains – very nice!).  Now that I’m back in the Command Center (I was on a cruise ship) - I’m sure we’ll find more fund things to trade…

• Booking (BKNG) is a $40,000 spread currently trading at net -$4,890 so there’s $44,890 (917%) left to be gained if all works out on that spread PLUS we will be able to sell more short-term puts and calls along the way.  This one is a keeper!  
• Freeport MacMoRan (FCX) is a $5,000 spread currently trading at net $740 so there’s $4,260 (575%) left to be gained if all works out on that spread and it’s already 100% in the money.  Don’t you love options?  
• Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ) is a $45,000 spread currently trading at net $7,675 so there’s $37,325 (486%) left to be gained and I was very encouraged by Innovative Industrial’s (IIPR) earnings last night as they turned a nice profit (Disclosure:  PSW Investments works with IIPR in San Diego and they will be part of our $100M Cannabis Fund).  
• 20-Year Treasury ETF (TLT) is a $8,000 spread that’s already in the money at net $4,000 so it can only double from here for another $4,000 (100%) – the rund of the litter!  
• Tesla (TSLA) is a wildcat in a paper bag and has been all over the place.  We need it over $250 but under $340 with 8 days to expiration but it’s really a complex 2-year play where we will sell many sets of calls (but hopefully just the one set of puts).  I’d be thrilled to collect just our initial $26,500 and the current net is $24,037 so we’re up just 2,463 so far – about 10%.  

So there’s 5 trade ideas we initiated over the past two months that are on track to make another $116,975 (117%) over the next 2 years – not a bad way to play with our sidelined CASH!!! while we wait for the markets to calm down.  

There are still plenty of bargains to be had and a week from Sunday we’ll see if there really is a trade deal but all indications are that we’re pushed into at least December, when Trump is scheduled to add more tariffs.  If that happens, China retaliates and we’re back to scratch and the market tanks so forgive me for preferring to just play cautiously (yes, making $116,975 on 5 stocks is us playing cautiously!) for the time being.

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.