They're forming them now but it won't be obvious until we're on the other side and re-testing the January lows. By then it's a little late, isn't it? That's why, on Friday, we went back to CASH!!! and took a poke at 5 Trade Ideas that can Make 500% if the Market Falls.
Maybe it won't fall, maybe THIS TIME we're going to bust out to new, all-time highs despite all the woes in the World (see today's news round-up). Who cares? As you can see from our January Trade Review, where we had option trade ideas that returned 527% and 1,520% on TSLA (long hedges, we're overall short), 210% on SCTY, 32% on SSO, 633% on DBA, 43% on CLF, 1,340% on LULU, 496% on SLW and 3,150% on BRCM on our cash outlays. Those are just one-month returns!
And, of course, we have our Futures trades. In last Tuesday's LIVE Webcast, we demonstrated trading the Oil (/CL) and Natural Gas (/NG) Futures. This morning, we put our skills to the test, shorting /NG at $5.20 (/NGJ4) and $6.42 (/NGHF) in our Member Chat Room. Already (7:13) /NG hit $5.17, up $300 per contract, and the Egg McMuffins are paid for – but we think we can do much better today as the weather, as we expected, warms up a bit!
For example, KO dropped down to $37.18 from $40 on disappointing earnings but we feel good about them surviving, long term. While $37 is very attractive, $35 is about as low as they've been since early 2012 and we'd LOVE to own them down there. So, we SELL 2016 $35 puts $3.50 and that obligates us to buy KO for $35 but it PAYS us $3.50 in exchange for that promise. If we REALLY want to own KO for $35, then the $3.50 is essentially FREE MONEY – as our worst case scenario is getting to buy KO for $35.
If the Russell does pull back slighlty, our hedges will pay off $6,000 and we STILL have $1,300 in cash left from our short KO puts so now we have a $7,300 discount on our 1,000 shares of KO or, if the market recovers and KO holds $35, we simply make $7,300 for doing pretty much nothing.
Remember, our "worst-case" on these types of trades is that we end up owning a stock we REALLY want to buy for 15%-20% below the current strike while our best case is a $7,300 hedge against a small decline in the market. Keep in mind, if the market DOES NOT decline, then our other long positions should be doing nicely and, if the market DOES decline, then our $7,300 will go a long way to buying more stocks at a discount (because we remain long-term bullish).
We were artificially pushed off lower support on very low volume – that wasn't the kind of test that's likely to lead the market to new highs and the macro picture certainly doesn't support it so it's back to CASHY and CAUTIOUS into the end of February and, for those of you who heeded my call into the end of 2013 – you know how much more relaxing that position can be!
It's going to be an interesting week but Housing Data is going to batter us tomorrow and Durable Goods can be a real market-killer on Wednesday, so - be careful out there…