Episode 8 of my new podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaFaM0sbFHM
You can also subscribe on Spotify and iTunes (Apple Podcasts) under Joe’s Happy Hour

Topics covered:
1) 0:00 Announcements
2) 1:10 Market Commentary and Index Review (Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Russell 2000)
3) 12:30 FOCUS LIST: NVDA, ISRG, META, VRT, TSM, ONON, TSLA, PLTR, AVGO
4) 18:30 Stock Review – Software: IGV (ETF), NOW, APP, MSFT, PANW, FTNT, CRWD, CRM, DDOG, DOCS, TWLO, NET, DAVE, INOD
5) 23:25 Stock Review – Semiconductors: SMH (ETF), SMTC, MRVL, ALAB, AAOI
6) 24:30 Stock Review – Biotech and Medical Products: XBI (ETF) NVO, TARS, SWTX, CRNX, NAMS, NTRA
7) 25:35 Stock Review – Others/General Ideas/Commentary: VST, CEG, NRG, BE, WIX, CLS, XMTR, HON, Z, FOUR, RKLB, LUNR, NFLX, GEV, EXPE, GEO, YPF, AXON, BROS, UPST, AFRM, COIN, MSTR, SPOT, DECK
8) 33:10 Conclusion/Summary

Market Summary:
As many of you know, I always like to approach the market with an open mind and look at both the positives and the negatives. Positives: 1) The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 are still above their 10-week moving averages. They both bounced off their lows last week to close roughly in the middle of their ranges. Also, the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) bounced off the 510 area, a level that has seen huge put writing recently. 2) Many of the growth leaders are still in strong uptrends and above their key moving averages. 3) Seasonality is still strong with the potential upcoming Santa Claus rally. 4) Some sentiment measures are starting to show extreme fear. Negatives: 1) Sentiment being fearful comes from the biggest negative which is that the overall market breadth is weak. In this video, I review the energy, healthcare, and homebuilder ETFs to show you they are in big downtrends. Also, the NYSE Composite, Russell 2000 (IWM), and MidCap 400 (MDY) are all below their 50-days. 2) The Nasdaq Composite has seen 4 distribution days in the past 10 trading days.

What’s the conclusion from all this? I’m going to do my best to stick with the leading growth winners and cut losses on any of my weaker positions. I’m constantly “weeding out” my portfolio and sometimes replacing positions with the stronger relative strength names, especially the ones that appear during pullbacks. I review many of them in this video. Personally, I still think the market can grind higher into mid-January, but as always, I will take this day-by-day. What you should do depends on your timeframe, risk tolerance, and overall investment plan. I do my best to give you transparency into what I’m doing, but I always encourage members to make their OWN decisions based on your personal situation. If you have any questions, you can ask them during the next LIVE webinar, which will be this Monday, December 23rd at 7PM EST. Thank you and enjoy the remainder of your weekend.

Unusual Option Activity:
12/20/24 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) large buyers of March 2026 $585, $590, and $600 calls, over $24M in premium combined
12/20/24 Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) 7500 August $175 puts sold to open at $2.85, collecting some far OTM premium
12/20/24 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) buyer of 2800 March $40/$55 call spreads at $8
12/20/24 Semi Bull 3x ETF (SOXL) buyers for 1400 Jan 31st $26 calls at $4.15
12/20/24 Tesla 2x Bull ETF (TSLL) unusual buyers of 1100 Jan 31st $27/$37 call spreads for $4.35
12/20/24 Tesla (TSLA) seeing 3800 May $860 calls bought way OTM for nearly $5M TSLA
12/20/24 Tesla (TSLA) also with 5000 Jan 2026 800/900 call spreads bought
12/20/24 Tapestry (TPR) sees more put sales as 3500 August $55 sell to open 3.11
12/20/24 Tapestry (TPR) also 600 May $60 puts sell to open 3.50 bids
12/20/24 Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) opening sale of 480 Feb $390 puts at $8.90 as the Jan 24th $420 short puts adjust
12/20/24 Floor and Decor (FND) opening sales 3755 Jan. 85 puts 0.80
12/20/24 Target (TGT) opening sale of 1600 June $140 calls at $8.56
12/20/24 Valero (VLO) 1000 January $110 calls bought ITM 10.55 to 10.85
12/20/24 YPF ADR (YPF) with 1000 April $42 puts sell to open at $4.67 as Dec $40 puts adjust
12/20/24 Exxon (XOM) seeing over 6000 Feb $110 calls bought at $2.46 up to $2.60 in large lots
12/20/24 Visa (V) 500 Jan 2026 $345/$310 bear risk reversals opening
12/20/24 Wells Fargo (WFC) 7500 March $75 calls bought for $2M, rolling January calls
12/20/24 Novo Nordisk (NVO) with a seller to open 1100 April $80 puts $5.25
12/20/24 Eli Lilly (LLY) sees 750 June $800/$1000 call spreads bought at $57.80, also sells the $690 puts to open at $30.21
12/20/24 Structure Therapeutics (GPCR) unusual buy 1500 Jan $32.50 calls $1.80
12/20/24 Pfizer (PFE) sees buyers of over 27,000 Feb $28 calls at $0.45 to $0.50 offers in large blocks
12/20/24 Microsoft (MSFT) seeing large opening sales of 5000 August $430 puts at $30.10
12/20/24 Amazon (AMZN) opening seller of 2800 Jan 31st $195 puts at $2.36
12/20/24 Google (GOOGL) buyers hot for Sept $220 calls 3400X for $3.7M
12/20/24 Teradyne (TER) 5000 Feb $105 puts sell to open $2.10
12/20/24 CrowdStrike (CRWD) keeps seeing way OTM call buys, another 2550 March $560 bought, stock at $355
12/20/24 Meta (META) 1350 April $670 calls being bought for $3.4M
12/20/24 IonQ (IONQ) buyer of 500 Jan 2027 $50 calls at $26.15, over $1.3M
12/20/24 Broadcom (AVGO) sees 5500 Jan 10th $240 calls bought at $4.70 up to $5.20
12/20/24 Applied Materials (AMAT) large opening seller of 10,000 March $150 puts for $6.50 to $6.40
12/20/24 Palantir (PLTR) sees 1600 Jan 10th $78 calls bought at $5.12 as some Feb $95 calls adjust
12/20/24 Palantir (PLTR) seeing late day opening sellers of 6000 Feb $80 puts at $9.85 to $9.75 bids
12/20/24 Nvidia (NVDA) seeing 2000 Sept $275 far OTM calls bought at $2.69 offers
12/20/24 Astera Labs (ALAB) seeing late day buyers of 3000 Jan $140 calls at $7.70 to $8.15
12/19/24 Housing ETF (ITB) 10,000 Jan 99/94 put spreads bought
12/19/24 Russell 2000 ETF (IWM) large bull trade put on 5000 June $244/$209 bull risk reversals at credit of $2.01
12/19/24 Equal Weight S&P ETF (RSP) size opening sale 2000 Jan 2027 $175 puts for $12.30
12/19/24 Tesla (TSLA) buyers of 1700 May $960 max strike calls for $10.05 to $10.95 offers
12/19/24 Tesla (TSLA) opening sellers 1100 March $355 puts for $2M premium
12/19/24 Tesla (TSLA) also a buyer of 600 Jan 2026 $950 calls at $34.09 and buys the $960 calls also at $33.35
12/19/24 Costco (COST) 1065 March $980 short puts open $50.35 adjusting some Jan 10th (W) $1000
12/19/24 Tapestry (TPR) 4000 May $57.5 puts sell to open $3.11
12/19/24 Hims and Hers Health (HIMS) buyer 2000 Jan 10th (W) 25.50/31 call spreads
12/19/24 Uber (UBER) more put sales with 1000 December 2025 $72.50 ITM puts sold for $15.25 bids
12/19/24 DoorDash (DASH) large opening sales of 3200 March $155 puts at $7.05 as the Jan 10th $170 short puts adjust
12/19/24 Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) 2000 Jan $40 calls bought 1.49 adjusting 42.5 strike
12/19/24 Starbucks (SBUX) 1400 Jan 31st (W) $91 puts sell to open 4.50 to 4.45
12/19/24 Floor and Decor (FND) buyer 500 April $100/$110 call spreads for $3.90
12/19/24 ConocoPhillips (COP) after large insider buy sees opening sales of 1200 August $75 puts at $1.83 to $1.79
12/19/24 Exxon (XOM) 2350 Jan 24th (W) $107 calls bought $2.89 to $3.10
12/19/24 Coinbase (COIN) buyer 14,615 Feb $280 calls for $36.10 adjusts the $320 calls
12/19/24 Coinbase (COIN) seller of 11,400 March 200/180 put spreads and buys 11,400 of the $370/$430 call spreads
12/19/24 Coinbase (COIN) also seeing 1000 Dec 2025 $450/$650 call spreads bought for $21
12/19/24 SoFi Technologies (SOFI) buyer of 4200 Sept $25 calls for $1.64
12/19/24 Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B) buyer of 400 Feb $435 ITM calls at $28.35
12/19/24 Citigroup (C) sweep buyers for 2400 June $77.50 calls at $2.35 offers
12/19/24 Revolution Medicines (RVMD) 1000 Jan $43 puts sell to open 1.70
12/19/24 uniQure (QURE) buyers of 5000 Jan $17 calls at $0.65 up to $1.00
12/19/24 Howmet Aerospace (HWM) buyer 1000 Feb $120 calls $3.25 as Jan 110 adjust
12/19/24 Microsoft (MSFT) opening sale of 3000 August $440 puts at $30.35 to $30.10
12/19/24 Microsoft (MSFT) also a buyer 350 August $485 calls $23.15
12/19/24 Advanced Micro (AMD) 1200 May $100 calls bought $27.50 as March adjust
12/19/24 Advanced Micro (AMD) with 1000 Nov $105 puts selling to open 11.75 to 11.25 range
12/19/24 Google (GOOGL) large opening sale 1000 Sept $180 puts 12.60
12/19/24 Taiwan Semi (TSM) buyer 600 June 2026 $190 calls $44.35 offer
12/19/24 Veeva Systems (VEEV) buyer of 150 Jan 2027 $250 calls at $39 to $39.40
12/19/24 Crowdstrike (CRWD) with 110 Jan 2027 $300 puts sell to open at $46.60
12/19/24 Crowdstrike (CRWD) also buyer of 100 Jan 2027 $500 calls at $26.25
12/19/24 Crowdstrike (CRWD) buyers 2500 way OTM March $560 calls $1.73 to $1.85
12/19/24 Crowdstrike (CRWD) buyer 350 June $480 calls for 14.55
12/19/24 Marvell Tech (MRVL) opening sale of 1700 Jan $115 ITM puts for $9.25 bids
12/19/24 Cloudflare (NET) buyer 900 Feb $105 calls $11.51 adjusting some Dec calls
12/19/24 Dell (DELL) 350 Dec 2026 $95 puts sell to open $14.40
12/19/24 DocuSign (DOCU) large ITM sale of 1700 Jan 2026 $120 puts for $31.20
12/19/24 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) large opening sellers of 9800 Feb 28th $566 puts at $9.16 to $8.63, willing buyers near the Oct lows
12/19/24 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) massive buyer of 11,000 March 2026 $610 ITM puts at $41.50 to $43.85, over $50M bought ITM