The flagging retail sector was in sharp focus this week with weaker-than-expected sales reported, and a series of lackluster earnings reports hitting the headlines.
And to put the cherry on top, all the steam in the memstonk trade has evaporated…
Ryan Cohen — the chairman of GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) — unloaded all of his shares of Bed Bath and Beyond Inc. (NYSE: BBBY), crushing the ape army’s hopes and dreams as shares dropped 40% overnight… Ouch!
That news helped sour the mood on Wall Street, creating a challenging sideways market set to finish lower for the first time in weeks…
But as you know, we’re traders here at New Money Crew. And even in this choppy mess, our strategies are hitting sizable scores!
Because no matter which way the markets are moving, we stay nimble and pounce on the companies and events that can move prices no matter the trend!
Flagging Retail Sector Trade Scores Big for Blitz
The New Money Crew strategies started the week off with another fantastic set of wins, with calls on Coupang Inc. (NYSE: CPNG), Enovix Corp. (Nasdaq: ENVX) and even shorted the apes with gains on AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC) puts for Wiretap Alerts!
The trades make us 6-for-6 so far in August, and marks the strategy’s 14th hat trick of winning trades — edging that all-time win rate up to over 69% since our launch — NICE!
Our Weekly Blitz Alerts strategy was able to follow that up with its own trio of wins this week, scoring 66%* over a wild 10-day ride with Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NU), adding another 35%* overnight win on Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU)…
But trade-of-the-week honors have to go to our puts on the flagging retail sector and Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN)…
This little piggy got a massive 9% boost in its share price off of Tuesday’s better-than-expected WalMart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) earnings, making it ripe for slaughter.
And when the plug got pulled Thursday on the BBBY trade, we were able to take 62%* in gains on the second half of our Aug. 26 expiration, $26 strike puts — BANG!
The wins improved our record to a 68% lifetime win rate with a 14.55% weighted average return, and an eight-day average holding period!
These wins are perfect examples of the trader’s mindset… All the retailer options were juiced with high implied volatility over the meme trade…
So when we start hearing the bears roaring and lighting up these retail options, we follow that flow!
August Opex Turbulence
Looking at the options tape, market makers have the major players of the S&P 500 pinned heading into Friday’s August options expiration (aka “opex”), keeping markets choppy.
But with nearly $2 trillion in assets tied up in expiring options, markets could see some turbulence ahead as Wall Street gets back to the office and set up for the end of the quarter.
The way I see it, I don’t want to get super committed with a ton of capital tied up in all this chop.
Traders need to have enough ammo on the sidelines so when an opportunity opens up, we can go full bore.
So keep position sizing small, stay nimble and keep your eyes on your indicators, institutional options flow and binary events like earnings to break through the noise, and you’ll be in great shape.
P.S. Over 90 days ago, 80 traders took a HUGE leap of faith…
They joined me inside a beta test group to explore a brand-new way to trade options…
I didn’t promise them overnight success, or guarantee we’d even beat the market…
All they knew was we were going to leverage the $120 trillion market force thats caused some of the most prominent stocks to rise and fall…
They had that much faith in me that things would work out… And boy did they ever!
We uncovered some of the most incredible trades during some of the worst market conditions I can remember…
We scored a 42%** gain on PYPL in three days, 38%** gain on SU in four days, and a 38%** gain on SDGR*…
And not I’m ready to reveal how these 80 brave traders and I outsmarted 2022’s dumpy market.
All I Can Say Is… WOW!
*Stated results are atypical for given period. Past performance is not indicative of any future results. Trade at your own risk.
**Stated results are typical for given period. Past performance is not indicative of any future results. Trade at your own risk. From May 19, 2022, through Aug. 18, 2022, the average win rate was 71%. The average return on options was 13.04% over a six-day average hold time.