Topics covered:
1) 0:00 Announcements
2) 0:55 Market Commentary and Index Review (Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Russell 2000)
3) 6:30 Stock Review – Semiconductors: SMH (ETF), NVDA, AMD, ACLS, ALGM, LSCC, CRUS, PI, MBLY, AEHR, ON
4) 10:50 Stock Review – Software: PANW, AI, AYX, TENB, CDNS, ALTR
5) 13:15 Stock Review – Biotech: XBI (ETF), RVNC, CBAY
6) 14:35 Stock Review – Watch List/General Ideas/Commentary: SGML, WING, TXRH, TMDX, LNTH, PODD, AXON, PERI, ANET, FOUR, ASO, INOD
7) 19:50 Conclusion/Summary

Market Summary:
In the past two videos, I’ve used the phrase “Defense until we get more clarity.” By defense, I mean using lighter than normal positions if you are going to trade and keeping some cash to help deal with the expected volatility. The three things I’m looking for clarity on are: 1) What is the Fed going to do? Today, they raised rates by 0.25%. The good news is that they considered a pause at today’s meeting. The bad news is that Fed Chair Powell suggested there would be no rate cuts later this year. Those comments combined with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying that the FDIC would not guarantee all deposits were some of the reasons for the selloff today. 2) Is the problem with the Regional Banks contained? Of course, we don’t know yet, but the options positioning in KRE (the Regional Bank ETF) over the past week gives me confidence that it could be. 3) Is the strength in Tech going to lift the overall market, or is the weakness in other sectors going to weigh on the market? This is the biggest question that we still don’t have clarity on.

Whenever there’s a mixed picture, I resolve this by keeping exposure to some of the strongest stocks and also maintaining a larger cash position in case we see more downside. I am currently about 35% invested. The good news is that today’s selloff was on lighter than normal volume and I think a lot of it had to do with the market running higher ahead of Wednesday’s Fed meeting. In other words, this was a little bit of a “buy the rumor, sell the news” event. From here, I am still expecting volatility into quarter end, so please keep positions light, make sure to get those strong entry points, and stick to a loss cutting discipline if any of your positions have decisive closes below their 10-week moving averages. Thank you and good luck for the remainder of the week.

Unusual Option Activity:
3/22/23 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) seeing a buyer of 10,000 May $379 puts bought for $5.70
3/22/23 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) also seeing a large buy here for 20,000 May $365 puts at $3.37
3/22/23 Regional Banks ETF (KRE) seeing 5000 June $46 calls bought at $4.20 in stock replacements
3/22/23 Retail ETF (XRT) with 5000 April $58 puts sell to open for $0.88
3/22/23 Financials ETF (XLF) with 11,000 April $31 calls bought for $1.58, adjusting the $34 calls
3/22/23 Marathon Oil (MRO) with 5000 May $26 calls sold to open $0.64
3/22/23 Halliburton (HAL) buyer of 1500 Oct $40 calls at $1.49 to $1.66
3/22/23 Chevron (CVX) large opening sale for 15,000 June $180 calls for $1.59
3/22/23 Range Resources (RRC) seeing 1000 October $35 calls bought for $1.05 offers, rumored M&A candidate
3/22/23 Merck (MRK) with 3500 April $112 calls sold to open $0.65
3/22/23 Madrigal Pharma (MDGL) opening sale of 910 Oct $330 calls for $16
3/22/23 Karuna Therapeutics (KRTX) seeing an opening sale of 1975 August $240 calls for $2.30
3/22/23 Boeing (BA) with 850 April 28th $175 puts sold to open $2.28
3/22/23 Boeing (BA) also large opening sale for 3000 June $180 puts at $6.11 to buy 3000 of the June $220/$240 call spreads for $4.21
3/22/23 Kinross Gold (KGC) buyers of 2000 January 2025 $5 calls for $0.75
3/22/23 Pan American Silver (PAAS) seeing 1000 Oct $18/$14 bull risk reversals open for $1.29 debits
3/22/23 Advanced Micro (AMD) 1000 July $140 calls bought at $1.45
3/22/23 Cloudflare (NET) buyer of 1400 April $56.50 puts at $3.85
3/22/23 Micron (MU) 1000 October $60 puts sold to open $6.85
3/22/23 Texas Instruments (TXN) large opening sale for 1700 January $190 calls at $13.95
3/22/23 Google (GOOG) opening sales of 2000 June 2024 $82 puts for $4.90
3/22/23 Unity Software (U) with 3300 July $30/$40 call spreads bought for $3.00
3/21/23 Regional Banks ETF (KRE) buyer of 18,000 April $51/$56 call spreads bought between $0.68 and $0.76
3/21/23 Japan ETF (EWJ) rare trade opens 5000 September $60/$55 bull risk reversals for $0.15 credit
3/21/23 Brazil ETF (EWZ) large buyers of 6000 June $22 ITM calls for $4.85
3/21/23 Russell Value ETF (IWN) seeing a block of 2000 January $130 puts bought for $7.55
3/21/23 Tesla (TSLA) seeing a buyer of 1600 May $220 calls for $9.45 and 1000 May $225 calls for $8.15
3/21/23 Tesla (TSLA) also large opening sales for 2000 December $135 puts sold at $11.90 bids
3/21/23 Occidental (OXY) seeing 1000 November $75 calls sell to open at $3.35 bids
3/21/23 Apache (APA) seeing 5500 April $30.50 puts sold to open $0.53
3/21/23 SL Green Realty (SLG) large buyer of 9000 May $20 puts for $1.95
3/21/23 CVS (CVS) opening seller of 5000 June $82.50 calls for $1.11
3/21/23 J&J (JNJ) seeing large opening sales of 3600 October $160 calls for $6.55
3/21/23 Kinross Gold (KGC) with 2500 January 2025 $5.50 calls bought for $0.64
3/21/23 Newmont (NEM) with 5000 January $70 calls bought at $1.00, adjusting the $60 calls higher
3/21/23 Apple (AAPL) large opening sales of 1100 Sept 2024 $195 ITM puts for $40.40
3/21/23 Google (GOOGL) large trade sells to open 1600 March 2024 $90 puts for $6.90
3/21/23 Google (GOOGL) also a buyer of 1400 March 2024 $120 calls for $8.30
3/21/23 Nvidia (NVDA) buyers of 3000 September $280 calls at $32
3/21/23 Applied Materials (AMAT) seeing opening sales of 2700 May $100 puts for $1.80
3/20/23 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) buyers of 45,000 April $374 puts at $4.17, adjusting hedge from the $370 puts
3/20/23 Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) a block of 8500 March 2024 $155 puts bought at $8.63, adjusting the Sept $155 puts
3/20/23 Gold Miners ETF (GDX) with 34,000 April $34 calls bought early at $0.60 to $0.66 offers
3/20/23 Ford (F) with 5500 July $12 calls selling to open $0.76
3/20/23 Uber (UBER) with 6000 April $29.50 puts sold to buy the $35 calls at $0.04 net credit, bull risk reversals
3/20/23 Ulta Beauty (ULTA) opening seller of 500 April $485 puts for $8.10
3/20/23 Ulta Beauty (ULTA) also with 500 Sept $410 puts sold to open at $10.90
3/20/23 Manchester United (MANU) with buyers of 2600 April $27 calls at $1.15
3/20/23 Marathon Oil (MRO) buyers of 3200 Sept $25 calls for $1.78
3/20/23 Citigroup (C) buyer of 1700 June 2024 $27.50 puts at $1.56 offers today
3/20/23 Block (SQ) large block trade buys 2500 January $67.50 puts for $11.10
3/20/23 Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) buyer of 1000 June $125/$175 call spreads for $16.70
3/20/23 Amylyx Pharma (AMLX) opening seller of 2000 August $45 calls for $1.20
3/20/23 Novocure (NVCR) large buy of 4500 September $80 calls at $6.42
3/20/23 Freeport McMoran (FCX) opening sale of 5850 May $42 calls at $1.27
3/20/23 Sigma Lithium (SGML) seeing 2200 October $15 deep ITM calls bought at $21 to $22
3/20/23 Docusign (DOCU) large block buys 5000 April $60 calls for $2.47
3/20/23 Nvidia (NVDA) with 13,000 April $310 calls sold to open at $1.63
3/20/23 Microsoft (MSFT) seeing late day trade open 3000 April $272.50 bull risk reversals at $0.82 credits