RF's Financial News: January 2015

Sunday, January 25, 2015

This Week in Barrons: 1-25-2015

This Week in Barrons – 1-25-2015:

“Today’s Euro/QE announcement has come far too late and is akin to applying a defibrillator to a dead monkey.” Andrew Wilson, Towry Head of Investment

Thoughts:

Dear Ms. Yellen:

Ms. Yellen, ‘Hyper-Interventionism’ is when a government tries to change, bend, or control the laws of supply and demand. Quantitative easing (QE), price fixing, pegging currencies, and subsidies to offset trade imbalances are all methods of trying to control supply and demand. But as time passes (just like with a drug addict), more and more effort and resources are required to keep the hyper-interventionism effective. This week we saw what happened to the Swiss Franc when the Swiss National Bank (SNB) stopped their hyper-interventionism, and in minutes their currency rocketed 15% and their stock market crashed. Ms. Yellen, I wonder what would happen if you really stopped the FED’s hyper—interventionism in the U.S.?

Your next FED meeting is January 27 and 28th. I’m seeing:

- The dollar index continuing to rally,

- The EU doing ‘major-league’ QE,

- The Swiss unpegging their currency,

- The job market beginning to deteriorate,

- Wage growth continuing to stagnate, and

- The stock markets maintaining their rally.

Now, I think you’re going to attempt to talk the dollar down by being dovish in your remarks. That’s especially true given Mr. Plosser and Mr. Fisher (the only remaining ‘hawks’) are no longer voting members on the board. With only doves and staunch Keynesian economists on your board, you will most certainly lean toward more accommodation with your main fear being deflation. But history shows that inflation can come on suddenly – just look how far the Swiss Franc moved (15%) in minutes.

Ms. Yellen, is it just me, or is every nation in a race to destroy their own currency? The idea of slashing deposit interest rates to the bone is being implemented on a scale I’ve never before seen. I’d be curious to hear how you see this ending smoothly – without extensive collateral damage. I see this coming to a crashing halt right around the time of the next presidential election.

The Market:

Factually this week:

- Johnson & Johnson reported reduced year-over-year revenues, and (by GAAP standards) missing earnings by a mile.

- UPS warned on earnings due to a ‘weak’ U.S. market.

- McDonalds missed both top-line revenues and bottom-line earnings.

- eBay beat earnings by a penny, but had to buy back $1.2B of their own stock and lay off 2,400 workers to do it.

- U.S. Steel laid-off another 545 people (over the 1,300 previously announced) along with idling production facilities.

- John Deere announced an additional 900 lay-offs.

- China’s growth has slowed to a 24-year low, and U.S. manufacturing growth slowed to a 1 year low.

- The International Monetary Fund dropped their global growth outlook.

- Existing year-over-year home sales dropped for the first time in 5 years.

- On Thursday, Mr. Draghi announced a 1T Euro QE package consisting of 60B Euros a month until September 2016 – or longer.

- The Euro is in ‘free fall’ since Draghi went ‘all in’ for QE.

- Canada, Denmark, India, Switzerland and a handful of others have all cut their interest rates in response to European QE.

- Russia and China signed a $250B dollar high-speed rail pact – linking Moscow and Beijing by train.

- The Bank of Japan bought $5.6B worth of foreign stock last week.

- Since Obama’s State of the Union speech, we have seen over 32,000 announced job cuts.

For years the gold and silver bugs have been splattered all over the windshield. I’ve gone on record as saying that gold is not down because the world is rosy and no one wants it. Gold is lower because it has been manipulated downward. The Central Banks did NOT want gold competing with fiat currencies. China accumulated over $1T in U.S. Treasuries. When we were doing QE (devaluing our currency) we traded China ‘less expensive gold’ for not ‘dumping’ our Treasuries. But the other part of the Chinese situation is that they are adamant about being recognized as one of the world’s leading economies. They knew that if they could amass enough gold to ‘back’ their currency, then they would have a good chance of having their currency (Yuan) included in the weightings for the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) – being held in September 2015. So we kept a lid on the price of gold while the dollar was falling, thereby allowing China to purchase what gold they needed (at reduced prices) in order for the Yuan to be included in the SDR discussions. That is why gold has been taken down and capped for the last 4 years.

The IMF will rebalance their SDRs this fall. China will prove that it has accumulated between 2.5% and 3% of its GDP in gold, and the Yuan will then be included in the SDR weighting. It is at this point that the cap on the price of gold will be removed. Why? Because once China has their needed amount of gold and is in the SDR, they will no longer want the price of gold to be capped and will gladly allow gold to go to $2,500, $3,000 or more. So, does China have enough gold? Judging by the way gold is acting I have to say that we are darned close to seeing the bottom in both gold and silver. I'd like to believe that 2015 would mark the end of their manipulation, and I won't be surprised if I see both of them meet and beat their old highs next year.

The following chart shows some technical predictions concerning various currencies: Euro versus U.S. Dollar, British Pound versus U.S. Dollar, U.S. Dollar versus the Japanese Yen, along with technical predictions for the S&P and DOW averages. It’s telling you to think strongly about buying PUTS on the FXE (the EURO ETF), and about buying PUTS on the FXY (the Japanese Yen ETF).

Right now the S&P is in a bit of a tight box between its 50-day moving average of 2,046, and its double top of 2,064. I’m not going to add to any directional positions until the S&P goes over 2,064, and I won't take profits until the S&P closes under 2,046. Also remember, we are in the middle of earnings season, with a lot of really big names declaring earnings this week. Our markets could easily pop to the upside for 100 points on the heels of a good earnings beat, and then fall for another 200 on a couple ugly reports. This volatility will only be resolved by patience. Keep an eye on the precious metals over the next several weeks as I think there will be some interesting plays setting up.

TIPS:

The following is a list of ‘short’ ETF’s that you could take advantage of if the market ‘goes south.’ So if you sense the market ‘tanking’ – think about putting some money into:

TZA = Russell 2000 3X Short / VOL = 61%

TWM = Russell 2000 2X Short / VOL = 40%

FAZ = Financials 3X Short / VOL = 50%

SKF = Financials 2X Short / VOL = 27%

EDZ = Emerging Markets 3X Short / VOL = 55%

EEV = Emerging Markets 2X Short / VOL = 40%

NUGT = Precious Metal Miners 3X Long / VOL = 130%

DUST = Precious Metal Miners 3X Short / VOL = 133%

DUG = Oil & Gas 2X Short / VOL = 50%

DIG = Oil & Gas 2X Long / VOL = 53%

SQQQ = QQQ 3X Short / VOL = 49%

DXD = DOW 2X Short / VOL = 30%

QID = QQQ 2X Short / VOL = 33%

SDS = SP500 2X Short / VOL = 33%

SCO = Oil 2X Short / VOL = 109%

ERY = Energy 3X Short / VOL = 79%

I’m looking to sell iron condors on the indexes, buy strong stocks on pullbacks, and sell weak stocks into rallies. I’m looking toward:

- Priceline (PCLN) – to sell a Call Credit Spread,

- Tesla (TSLA) – to sell a Call Credit Spread,

- RUT – to sell an Iron Condor,

- IWM – to sell an Iron Condor,

- Chipotle (CMG) – to sell a Put Credit Spread,

- Facebook (FB) – to buy a Call Debit Spread,

- Apple (AAPL) – to buy a Call Debit Spread,

- Lumber Liquidators (LL) – to buy a Call Debit Spread,

- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) – to buy a Call Debit Spread,

- Amgen (AMGN) – to sell a Put Credit Spread after earnings,

- UPS (UPS),

- Timkin (TKR),

- 3-D (DDD), and

- The Energy Sector ETF (XLE).

For next week I’m mainly selling premium into this volatility with:

- AMZN – JAN5 – SELL the +245/-250 to -350/+355 Iron Condor – taking this off on Thursday AM before earnings,

- GILD – JAN5 – SELL the +89/-90 PCS – cashing this in before earnings,

- AAPL – MAR – SELL the +95/-100 PCS,

- AAL – SELL the 45 / 47 PCS – and BUY the 52.5 / 55 / 60 Call Butterfly,

- RUT – MAR – SELL the +1040/-1050 to -1290/+1300 Iron Condor,

- RH – FEB / MAR – BUY 94 Calendar,

- UPS = JAN5 = 101 / 103 / 104 PUT Broken Wing Butterfly,

- SPX – FEB – SELL the 1870 / 1870 PCS, and

- TLT – BUY in the 125 to 126.5 zone.

To follow me on Twitter.com and on StockTwits.com to get my daily thoughts and trades – my handle is: taylorpamm.

Please be safe out there!

Disclaimer:

Expressed thoughts proffered within the BARRONS REPORT, a Private and free weekly economic newsletter, are those of noted entrepreneur, professor and author, R.F. Culbertson, contributing sources and those he interviews. You can learn more and get your free subscription by visiting: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com> .

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Sunday, January 18, 2015

This Week in Barrons: 1-18-2015

This Week in Barrons – 1-18-2015:

Thoughts:

Dear Ms. Yellen:

Were you ‘tipped off’ in advance of last Thursday’s announcement by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) deciding to: (a) cut interest rates to negative 0.75% and (b) remove the Euro floor & ceiling cap on their currency? Obviously this threw the world into a currency avalanche as people scrambled to square out of positions. After all, prior to Thursday the Swiss Franc was pegged to the Euro, and this move by the SNB resulted in an overnight 23% spike higher for the Swiss Franc. By Friday morning two currency brokers were already declared insolvent, and one of the publicly traded companies (FXCM) was halted in pre-market trading as they tried to find capital to keep from declaring bankruptcy. The SNB believes that next week the EU will launch a form of QE, which will lower the value of the Euro. For the past 3 years, the SNB has been buying Euros to keep the Swiss Franc capped and balanced. However, if you're buying a currency that you know will be devalued, and therefore you will lose a lot of money – you can either: (a) take one for the team, or (b) decouple your currency and move on. What also is interesting to me is that for months Mr. Thomas Jordan (the headman at the SNB) has been telling the Swiss that all is well, and that they didn't need any ‘gold-backed’ currency. And then (out of the blue) they remove the peg to the Euro, cause a massive avalanche in the Swiss economy, and crush many exporters. I understand that the SNB Balance Sheet was completely out of control, and it was going to be a bloodbath when the EU announced its QE on January 22^nd. But that isn't my issue. My issue is that the SNB (for 3 years) has looked their people in the eye and said point blank: “We've got your back.” Then in a flash they said: “Sorry, we changed our minds.” The SNB directly lied to the Swiss people. All those who were deluded into voting against a Swiss gold initiative in November – are now in shock because they now realize that all of the promises that the SNB made to them were lies. I’m assuming that our FED is NOT doing the same thing (behind the scenes) to us?

And what about Mr. Draghi? For 2 years, he’s been jawboning about pulling out all the stops, and going ‘all in’ for QE. Now (on Thursday January 22^nd), he has everyone wondering whether he will be true to his word, or whether he’s going to be like the Swiss and stab everyone in the back. But if the SNB was willing to make such a monumental move ahead of the EU announcement, at minimum the SNB thinks that the announced EU program will indeed be big enough to bash the Euro definitively lower. So despite the EU courts giving their approval for QE (with restrictions), many now feel that Draghi’s announcement will be significant enough that everyone gets their fair share of the "Free Money Pie”.

Unfortunately Ms. Yellen, Mr. Jordan proved that the global economic situation is far beyond what most people think. In the past we could all be assured that the Central Banks would work together to promote their agenda. But because of breakdowns between the major players, we are beginning to see an ‘every man for himself’ type of attitude shaping up. We're in a fiat currency war that will end badly for everyone. In the end, I believe that it’s whoever owns physical gold that will win the war. Even Alan Greenspan can't talk fast enough about how the only real money is gold, and how not even the U.S. dollar can touch it. That's because after being a central bank insider himself, he knows that fiat currencies are avalanches waiting to happen. He is simply trying to tell us to get out of the way.

The Markets:

Factually last week:

- The Michigan Consumer Confidence survey came in at a record high of 98.2. The U.S. consumer clearly loves their lower gasoline prices.

- Citibank and Banc of America missed their own earnings estimates.

- BP is cutting 300 workers due to the drop in oil prices.

- The PPI (Producer Price Index) fell 0.3% on lower gas prices.

- J.P. Morgan missed their own earnings estimates, and announced that they had incurred yet another $1B in legal fees as investigators continued to probe JPM’s currency fraud and manipulation techniques.

- And December Retail Sales completely missed the boat as actual sales ‘decreased’ 0.9% over estimates.

Last week’s market action was ‘choppy’ to down, and there are several reasons for this:

- Investors that have been riding the ‘market gravy-train up’, have decided to lock in some profits and take money off the table.

- Earlier this week there was a question over whether the European courts would actually allow some form of QE to be enacted.

- There is a major push/pull going on between the people that believe the economy is firing on all cylinders, and those who look at the economic reports and realize we are sinking.

- There is the continued yes/no debate over whether the FED will raise interest rates this year.

- And the Central Banks themselves are manipulating the markets by ‘jawboning’, and by actually buying stocks and bonds.

The whipsaw action (in and of itself) isn’t terribly important. But when a market gets this wickedly volatile, it generally means that the prevailing trend is coming to an end. So that means that the general ‘UP’ trend that has been in place for the past 5 years – could be coming to an end. Therefore, all of this insane chop could be warning of an impending market avalanche. After all, other than ‘free money’ from the EU, India and Japan, there is very little reason for our markets to move higher. Banks and financials are missing their earnings targets. Retail sales are coming in well below estimates. And the energy sector remains weak, and getting weaker as the layoffs are starting.

This coming week should continue our market volatility. If the EU unleashes a massive QE program, it will cause a short-term market run-up that could challenge the highs of Jan 8 - 9. But it will also cause some major players to realize that the Europeans subverted their constitution and printed money just to keep the wheels from coming off their own economy. That thinking should lead to higher gold prices, and lower yields on Treasuries as the world eventually flocks to safety. But it won't be until Thursday that we hear what the Europeans are going to do. If the markets decide that the EU is doing ‘too little – too late’, then we could see the market roll over and plunge in a big way. I'm going to base any buying of gold and the mining stocks on what I hear from Europe on Thursday. If they go big, then I think the miners and gold will continue to push higher. If they go ‘quietly into this good night’, then the metals may temporarily cap here. The stage is truly set for Mr. Draghi at 8:30 am on Thursday morning.

TIPS:

Factually:

- Copper (/HG) can be used as a economic leading indicator. When the price of copper is over $3 per pound, the world economies are growing. Why? Because 400 lbs. of copper are used in each home, and 50 lbs. of copper are used in each automobile. Right now copper is $2.50 per pound, and that is telling me that overall global demand is slowing.

- The falling price of gasoline is putting (on average) $150/month additional into a family’s pocket. Since most families live paycheck to paycheck, these additional funds are being spent on restaurants such as Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) and Papa John’s Pizza (PZZA).

- The bond indicator (TLT) is flashing a ‘flight to safety’ sign as it is hitting all time highs.

- And gold is moving higher, which compliments the ‘red flag’ that copper is giving us in terms of a global slowdown, currency fears and a ‘flight to safety’.

The 3 C’s of trading (Comprehension + Confirmation = Confidence) will never be more apparent than over the next several quarters as many are looking for a 10 to 20% correction in the equity markets. I personally am going to:

- Begin to sell my winning puts on the Yen currency (FXY) and buy more puts on the FXE after Draghi’s January 22^nd announcement – assuming that he does announce European QE.

- I also started playing NUGT (the triple leveraged gold miner ETF) this week to the long side.

- And I also re-initiated my 3% per week play on NUGT & DUST. (NUGT and DUST are the same ETFs only one is the exact opposite of the other. Therefore if you purchase both in equal quantities (thereby off-setting their stock movements) – you can then sell ‘weekly covered calls’ on both – pocketing the proceeds without fear of the underlying ETFs moving against you.

My current list of potential candidates for this week is as follows: Restoration Hardware (RH), Lumber Liquidators (LL) – look at a Feb / March Calendar trade, Costco (COST), Kroger (KR), Starbucks (SBUX), John Deere (DE), Nordstrom’s (NORD), Amgen (AMGN), and the Energy Sector ETF (XLE). I’m also looking at some after earnings plays for: American Airlines (AAL) and Federal Express (FDX). You’ll find that after earnings there will be a volatility crush and it’s the ideal time to buy a Calendar trade.

For next week I’m mainly selling into this increased volatility with:

- AMZN – JAN5 – SELL the +245/-250 to -350/+355 Iron Condor,

- GILD – JAN5 – SELL the +89/-90 PCS,

- IBB – FEB – BUY the 310 / 320 / 335 Call Broken Wing Butterfly,

- AAPL – MAR – SELL the +95/-100 PCS,

- AAL – SELL the 45 / 47 PCS – and BUY the 52.5 / 55 / 60 Call Butterfly,

- RUT – MAR – SELL the +1040/-1050 to -1290/+1300 Iron Condor,

- SBUX – FEB – BUY the 80 / 85 / 90 Call Butterfly,

- SPX – FEB – SELL the 1870 / 1870 PCS, and

- TLT – BUY in the 125 to 126.5 zone.

To follow me on Twitter.com and on StockTwits.com to get my daily thoughts and trades – my handle is: taylorpamm.

Please be safe out there!

Disclaimer:

If you'd like to view RF's actual stock trades - and see more of his thoughts - please feel free to sign up as a Twitter follower - "taylorpamm" is the handle.

If you'd like to see RF in action - teaching people about investing - please feel free to view the TED talk that he gave on Fearless Investing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Z9I_6ciH0

Creativity = http://vimeo.com/user8991651/review/105373017/0d0c374c28

Investing = http://vimeo.com/user8991651/review/105373016/a5e84dd610

Marketing = http://vimeo.com/user8991651/review/105373015/d7237d026d

Sales = http://vimeo.com/user8991651/review/105373014/0e44b43962

To unsubscribe please refer to the bottom of the email.

Note: Joining BARRONS REPORT is not an offering for any investment. It represents only the opinions of RF Culbertson and Associates.

Remember the Blog: <http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com/> Until next week – be safe. R.F. Culbertson

<mailto:rfc@culbertsons.com>

<http://rfcfinancialnews.blogspot.com>

Sunday, January 11, 2015

This Week in Barrons - 1-11-2015

This Week in Barrons – 1-11-2015:

Thoughts:

“Just when you have all the answers – I change the questions”… Rowdy Roddy Piper

Dear Ms. Yellen:

As I understand it, the game plan was to: a) lower interest rates and increase the money supply, b) this would spur borrowing, c) then borrowing would spur spending, d) spending would boost revenues and profits, and e) increased revenues and profits would boost job hiring. The theory was that this would create a weaker dollar – which would also help to increase exports and more U.S. manufacturing jobs. With a bonus being that the weaker dollar would allow us to repay our debts with a devalued currency. The weak dollar would also make U.S. real estate attractive to international buyers. However, every other nation also devalued their currency making the U.S. dollar the strongest horse in a very week race. Isn’t this strong U.S. dollar working against you? I remember from your writings that a strong dollar increases the risk of deflation, which causes recessions and economic stagnation to a nation. So how far will you allow the dollar to rally before you take action? Will you (if the dollar remains strong) continue with your zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) and perhaps launch another QE program?

Ms. Yellen, you obviously knew that the other Central banks (Japan and Europe) would launch huge QE programs of their own. And by now you must have heard The Ben Bernanke’s quote from last week – when in the U.K. he said: “See, we did it. We solved the nation's problems". But to quote the great WWF hero - Rowdy Roddy Piper: “Just when you have all the answers, I change the questions.” I’m guessing that you were surprised by the strength of the strong dollar, and you’re only recourse (now) is to continue to talk ‘up’ how good things are, and then increase interest rates by a small amount in late 2^nd quarter. I do NOT think that you will introduce any new QE. I do (however) think that you will look for any event on which to blame our weak economy and reinstitute a new QE program. Right now, that event seems to reside in the Ukraine.

Ms. Yellen, it’s my guess that the U.S. will try and lure Russia into a confrontation in the Ukraine. Russia will generate a response large enough to make a major newspaper headline. Our response will be that Putin’s a madman, hell bent on taking over Europe, and therefore, we will be forced to build more jets, bombs, nukes, and high ticket defense items. This political reaction will give the FED the opportunity to institute a new QE program due to: war fears, defense spending, and a sagging economy. At that point you may even ‘take back’ the rate hike that you gave us before this all happened. I think that you will accept virtually anything big that goes ‘bump in the night’ as a reason to come up with more stimulus and thereby weaken the dollar.

That’s my 2 cents.

The Market...

This week:

- The ISM Services Index and the Factory Orders Report were both lower than expectations,

- The Prices Paid Index fell to levels not seen since 2009.

- Oil continued to fall, and fall hard,

- The Baltic Dry Index (a measure of the shipping industry’s health) continued to fall,

- Global bonds continued to trade below zero yield (negative interest rates),

- Greece is on the rocks,

- The Eurozone is being rocked by the sanctions placed on Russia,

- And even China announced about a Trillion dollars of infrastructure spending to try and boost their economy.

On Friday we had the monthly Jobs Report. The headline told us that our Unemployment Rate fell more than expected to 5.6%, and that we created 252,000 jobs in December. On the surface this appeared like a great report, but the markets fell. So let’s dissect the report a bit:

- Average Hourly Wages fell 0.2%, and over 273,000 people dropped OUT of the labor force in December.

- This lowered the Labor Participation Rate to 62.7% - a level not in almost 40 years.

- Doing the Math: 246,000 NEW jobs were created, but 273,000 people dropped out of the workforce = creating a net LOSS of 27,000 individuals.

- Factually: 6.75M people have LEFT the workforce since 2008.

- If we ADD back the 6.75M people who have left the workforce (and count them as being unemployed), the unemployment rate becomes 9.5%.

- So the REAL unemployment rate is 9.5%, which is a ‘far cry’ from the headline report of 5.6%.

- So, THAT is the reason for the market decline following the jobs report on Friday.

Our markets are being propped up by Central Banks that have purchased over $29T worth of stocks. We are (however) beginning to see cracks: (a) In 2014, the longest losing streak for stocks was 3 days. In 2015, we’ve already had a 5-day losing streak. And (b) the S&P has not suffered a 1.5%+ down day during the first week of a year since 2001. We broke that record in 2015. This market has been so ‘bizarre’ for so long, it’s finally getting ‘back to normal’. For example, during 12 days in December the market moved almost 2,000 poionts. And in January, we lost 452 points in 3 sessions, and then proceeded to gain back 533 points in two other sessions.

We are all witness to computer driven, algo-trading gone wild. However, I’m noticing that the algorithms are ‘volume-biased’ to SELL harder than they BUY. In other words, on the bad ‘down’ days the volume is usually really strong, but on the up days the volume is normally weak. How can this be? Well, when the selling hits, it is on fairly good volume, and when the selling is over it doesn’t take too much buying to produce oversized moves. This is an indication of a ‘troubled’ market.

This week marks the beginning of earnings season. A company’s ability to ‘fudge’ their numbers will be the determining factor as to whether this market kicks into high gear and rallies, or if this choppy consolidation breaks to the downside. To support a market at these nosebleed levels, earnings would normally have to be spectacular. But in our current FED, QE, Japan carry trade, and zero interest rate policy environment earnings could stink and we could still go higher. How? A mere mention by a FED official that they won’t raise rates, or Mr. Draghi (in Europe) passing a giant QE program would ignite this market.

I do NOT think we're past the extreme volatility. Between trying to game the earnings season, guessing what the EU might do concerning Greece and QE, and guessing what our own FED will do – we are going to see more chop. The tug-of-war between those wanting out of the market and those wanting in – will continue. Right now, it feels like we have a better chance at fading lower, but that could change in an instant if companies start telling us how wonderful things are.

TIPS:

Volatility is here in a BIG way. Intra-day swings are adding up to 500 point moves. There’s a big push between those that know the economy is a fraud, and those that toe the Wall Street line and see the U.S. as a shining beacon of strength. Some want out, some want in, and that is causing this entire chop.

My current list of potential candidates for this week is as follows: Gilead Pharmaceutical (GILD), Russell Small-Cap Index (RUT), Bio-Tech Index (IBB), S&P Index (SPX), Nasdaq Index (NDX), Costco (COST), Restoration Hardware (RH), Starbucks (SBUX), Nordstrom’s (NORD), Amgen (AMGN), Kroger (KR), Celgene (CELG), and Disney (DIS).

For next week I’m selling into this increased volatility using Iron Condors, and by using a specific stock’s bias via Put Credit Spreads (PCS) and Call Credit Spreads (CCS) – and playing the other side with a Broken-wing Butterfly.

- AMZN – JAN5 – SELL the +245/-250 to -350/+355 Iron Condor for $0.62,

- GILD – JAN – SELL the +90/-91 PCS – and BUY the +94 / -99 / +102 Call Butterfly, there is an upside ‘weekly squeeze’ in place,

- IBB – JAN – SELL the +297.5/-300 PCS – and BUY the +307.5 / -315 / +320 Call Butterfly, there is an upside ‘4-hour squeeze’ forming,

- IBB – FEB – BUY the 310 / 320 / 335 Call Broken Wing Butterfly,

- LULU – JAN – SELL the +53/-55 PCS – and BUY the +58 / -60 / +61 Call Butterfly, there is an upside ‘Daily squeeze’,

- PFE – FEB – SELL the 30 / 31 PCS – and BUY the 32 / 34 / 35 Call Butterfly, there are 30-min, 1-hour, and Daily squeezes forming,

- RUT – MAR – SELL the +1040/-1050 to -1290/+1300 Iron Condor,

- SBUZ – FEB – BUY the 80 / 85 / 90 Call Butterfly,

- BABA – JAN – BUY the 90 / 97.5 / 105 Put Butterfly (playing the downside),

- NFLX – JAN – BUY the 290 / 300 / 310 Put Butterfly (playing the downside), and

- TLT – BUY in the 125 to 126.5 zone.

Look for:

- UNH as it approaches my buy zone of $101.54,

- DPZ as it approaches my buy zone of $96.60, and

- PZZA as it approaches my buy zone of $58.28.

To follow me on Twitter.com and on StockTwits.com to get my daily thoughts and trades – my handle is: taylorpamm.

Please be safe out there!

Disclaimer:

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