The 10 Worst S&P 500 Weeks of the Year: https://twitter.com/WayneWhaley1136/status/1698774223823528164

Topics covered:
1) 0:00 Announcements
2) 0:25 Market Commentary and Index Review (Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Russell 2000)
3) 6:25 FOCUS LIST: NVDA, MSFT, ORCL, ADBE, CELH, LLY, NOW, UBER
4) 11:50 Stock Review – Software: IGV (ETF), CRM, CDNS, SNPS, WDAY, APP
5) 13:35 Stock Review – Semiconductors: SMH (ETF), AMAT, AVGO, LRCX, KLAC, ONTO
6) 15:30 Stock Review – Energy: XLE (ETF), XOP (ETF), OIH (ETF), HAL, SLB, TDW, VLO, MPC, DINO
7) 17:15 Stock Review – Watch List/General Ideas/Commentary: CLS, EXTR, VRT, NVO, TSLA, MEDP, SYK, AYX
8) 21:10 Conclusion/Summary

Market Summary:
Over the past few videos, I discussed to expect some weakness towards the second half of September for the following reasons: 1) The week after OpEx tends to be weak. 2) The Jewish holiday trend of “sell Rosh Hashanah buy Yom Kippur.” 3) Sept 19-26 is one of the worst weeks of the year (see link above). 4) End of the quarter portfolio rebalancing. 5) The seasonal weakness (see Ryan Detrick graph in this video). I mentioned that shorter-term traders can lighten up this past week in anticipation of this weakness. Also, if you are going to initiate new positions, I continue to suggest using lighter than normal positions until we get through this expected weakness. It looks like the selling started on Friday and from here the theme remains the same: Please be patient until we get through this seasonally weak period.

Many members are asking me what to expect from here. My answer depends on your timeframe. Shorter-term, I am still expecting weakness and will remain defensive until conditions improve. Longer-term, I still think we will finish the year strong. It will simply require patience and sitting through some volatility. That’s why I always stress getting those strong entry points. In order for conditions to improve, some things I would like to see include: 1) More stocks setting up and forming strong bases to provide safer entry points. 2) Signs of a slow down in the selling. 3) A follow through day. In the meantime, I will always pay attention to relative strength and present the stocks that are holding up well in these videos. Again, please be patient, know your timeframe, and stick to your plan. I will continue to monitor the markets and keep you updated in these videos. If anything important happens in between videos, I will email members a Market Note. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Unusual Option Activity:
9/15/23 Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) with 15,000 Nov $325 puts sold to open for $1.31, adjusting Oct $325 short puts
9/15/23 Semiconductors ETF (SMH) seeing large buys of over 12k of the December $160 calls at $3.35 offers
9/15/23 Rivian (RIVN) with 2000 Nov $27.50 calls bought into the close for $1.49
9/15/23 TJX (TJX) large opening sale of 12,400 Oct $95 calls at $0.87 to $0.84
9/15/23 First Solar (FSLR) with 1150 June $180 puts sell to open at $26.67, adjusting Feb $170 short puts
9/15/23 Hess (HES) with 1500 Nov $180 calls bought at $2.37, adjusting $170 calls
9/15/23 Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) buyers 3000 January $17 calls $2.40 to $2.55
9/15/23 Amazon (AMZN) buyer 1000 February $155/$185 call spreads
9/15/23 Oracle (ORCL) with 2000 Sep. 29th (W) $114 calls bought $2.41 to $2.78, Sep. 22nd (W) adjusting
9/15/23 Adobe (ADBE) seeing some buyers of 1000 Oct $530 calls at $16.20, some spreads vs the $575 call sales
9/15/23 Broadcom (AVGO) buyer 200 June $950 calls for $64 to $65.70
9/15/23 Microsoft (MSFT) large buyer of 2000 June $430 calls at $5.60 offer
9/15/23 Shopify (SHOP) with 2850 Nov $50 puts sold to open at $0.87
9/14/23 Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) with 60,000 November $176 puts bought at $2.03, adjusting $174 puts
9/14/23 Homebuilders ETF (ITB) with 6400 January $71 puts sold to open for $1.30
9/14/23 Financials ETF (XLF) large opening sale 4000 Jan. 2025 $39 puts $4.30
9/14/23 Ultra-Nasdaq 100 ETF (TQQQ) with 7500 November $42 calls bought today for ~ $2.5M, size lots
9/14/23 Target (TGT) opening sale 200 Sep. 2024 $120 puts for $22.20
9/14/23 Pinduoduo (PDD) opening sale 700 November $100 puts 7.35
9/14/23 Home Depot (HD) seeing 300 June $340 ITM puts sell to open at $26.15 to $25.25
9/14/23 Marathon Petroleum (MPC) opening sale 500 January $155 puts down to 8.25
9/14/23 Conoco (COP) seeing 5000 Nov $130/$115 bull risk reversals open for net debits
9/14/23 Devon Energy (DVN) seeing similar flow as COP with 10,000 Nov $52.5/$45 bull risk reversals opening $1.28 debit
9/14/23 Visa (V) buyers 1300 November $250 calls $3.90 to $4.05
9/14/23 Visa (V) also seller to open 800 March $230 puts into weakness today at $7.50
9/14/23 89 Bio (ETNB) quiet lately with a big buy of 3000 October $20 calls for $2
9/14/23 AbbVie (ABBV) opening seller 750 Jan. 2025 $160 ITM puts for 16.75
9/14/23 Applovin (APP) opening sale 2000 October $40 puts for 0.75
9/14/23 Micron (MU) seeing 4000 Sep. 29th (W) $75 calls sell to open
9/14/23 Nvidia (NVDA) massive opening sale of 2700 Dec 2025 $480 ITM puts for $114.40
9/14/23 Microsoft (MSFT) opening sale of 1900 Oct 27th $330 puts at $6.55 down to $6.40, captures earnings 10/24
9/14/23 Google (GOOGL) buyer 5000 December 2025 $165/$225 call spreads for $14.70
9/14/23 Qualys (QLYS) seeing 630 Nov. $150 calls open $10.50 as Sep. 145 adjust
9/14/23 Adobe (ADBE) seeing 450 Oct $555 calls sell to open $22.79 and also 330 January $670 calls sell to open at $8.45 to $8.30