Record-High Wednesday – Stop Worrying and Love the Rally?

Up and up we go.

We’re hitting new record highs this morning but there’s an awful lot of protective hedges being sold as traders are starting to cover their bets.  With U.S. equities rising for seven months running, the market underbelly shows institutional managers are bidding up protective options, while signs of restraint are emerging in the speculative world of retail investing. 

Rather than add more hedges, we simply cashed out positions but yesterday we added two positions to our Money Talk Portfolio that can make $53,500 by Jan 2023 and we can keep doing that with our cash every week and make another $2,782,000 in a prolonged rally – so we certainly don’t have any fear of missing out.

In our Live Member Chat Room yesterday, we were discussing Rio Tinto (RIO) who are $15 off their highs after paying out a $5.61 special dividend on August 12th and $75 per share is a $121Bn market cap for a complany that made $10Bn last year and made $12Bn in the first half of this year – so it sure seems cheap to me!  

When a stock is volatile like this, you take advantage of it by selling puts, which are promises to buy the stock at a set price on a later date.  At the moment, the 2023 $62.22 puts are $7.15, which means you get PAID $7.15 in exchange for your promise to buy RIO for $62.22 between now and January, 2023.  You can be assigned the stock at any time so make sure you REALLY want to own it but, no matter what, you get to keep the $7.15/share.  

That means, even if assigned at $62.22, the net cost of the stock would be $55.07 per share, which is $20 (26%) below the current price.  We can also establish an ownership position buy buying 2023 $72.22 calls for $10 and selling 2023 $82.22 calls for $5.50 for net $4.50.  That means we can do this:

• Sell 5 RIO 2023 $62.22 puts for $7.15 ($3,575) 
• Buy 7 RIO 2023 $72.22 calls for $10 ($7,000) 
• Sell 7 RIO 2023 $82.22 calls for $5.50 ($3,850)

That spread works out to a net

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Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.