Compound and Friends Podcast link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQrR4SVCbGA

CNBC Interview link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DVTvoFwa1U

Topics covered:
1) 0:00 Announcements
2) 0:15 Market Commentary and Index Review (Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Russell 2000)
3) 15:50 FOCUS LIST: NVDA, LLY, MSFT, ISRG, META
4) 18:55 Stock Review – Software: IGV (ETF), NOW, PANW, CYBR, CHKP, GDDY, CVLT, VRNS, SMAR, APP
5) 22:00 Stock Review – Semiconductors: SMH (ETF), AVGO, TSM, CRUS, MPWR
6) 23:55 Stock Review – Biotech/Medical Products: XBI (ETF), DYN, CSTL, SUPN, CRNX, ALNY, TMDX, HALO, MMSI, NTRA, NVCR
7) 26:25 Stock Review – Watch List/General Ideas/Commentary: NFLX, ASTS, CWAN, SFM, PLTR, ONON, CAVA, SHAK, DY, FTAI, HWM, SPOT, NEE, VRT, TEM, COHR, NVO, DECK, CBOE
8) 32:50 Conclusion/Summary

Market Summary:
When the recent downtrend broke below the 50-day moving average, I mentioned the things I wanted to see showing me that market conditions were improving: The selling to slow down, a follow through day (FTD) or two, the major indexes to regain their 50-days, growth stocks to set up, and for sentiment to get washed out. Well, most of these things happened this past week. This proves that things move quickly in the market and the power of being able to make decisions. Again, if this is an area of weakness for you, please keep in mind you can use lighter positions until you build that decision-making muscle and your overall confidence starts to improve.

This past week, we saw two FTDs on Tuesday, August 13th and Thursday, August 15th. While I would have preferred to see better volume, the market doesn’t care what I want. More importantly, we regained the 50-day moving average and we did NOT see any distribution days this past week. In this video, I take time to discuss the importance of psychology behind moves in the market, and the quick sentiment shift we saw during this recent decline. From here, I would like to see sideways digestion. In other words, light volume consolidation giving time for stocks to build proper handles and safer entry points. Of course, we don’t want to see any heavy distribution, and if we do see shakeouts in the market, I would like to see them recover quickly or at least close in the higher end of the daily/weekly ranges. If you missed most of the move last week, please be patient and wait for better entry points. If this is going to be a true, sustained power trend, there will be plenty of time to make money. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Unusual Option Activity:
8/16/24 S&P 500 ETF (SPY) 4000 Sept 27th (W) $565 calls sell to open $4.37, implies upside cap near $570 for 6 weeks out
8/16/24 Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) 2500 Sept 6th (W) $480 calls bought for $5.73
8/16/24 Semiconductors ETF (SMH) 5000 Sept $270 calls buying $3.56, adjusting some of the $260 calls
8/16/24 Junior Gold Miners 2x Bull ETF (JNUG) rare trade sees 1000 Sept $46 puts sell to open $5.20 as Aug short puts adjust
8/16/24 Tesla (TSLA) buyers of 2700 Dec $320 calls $6 to $6.25
8/16/24 Ulta Beauty (ULTA) 600 June 2025 $450 calls sell to open $30
8/16/24 Dave and Buster (PLAY) Sept $34 calls bought 1000X at $2.70 offer
8/16/24 Criteo (CRTO) sees 5000 Oct $47.5/$52.5 call spreads buy as the $45 calls adjust
8/16/24 Wingstop (WING) sees an opening seller of 450 Sept $370 puts at $9.55
8/16/24 AppLovin (APP) with 650 June 2025 $130 calls selling to open 6.40
8/16/24 Exxon (XOM) opening sales of 1000 Nov $115 puts at $3.50
8/16/24 PayPal (PYPL) another 2765 Dec 2026 $67.5 calls buy $19.25
8/16/24 Morgan Stanley (MS) 1650 Nov $95 puts sell to open 2.54
8/16/24 Abbott Labs (ABT) 750 June 2025 $120 calls sell to open $6.10
8/16/24 Terns Pharma (TERN) late day unusual buyers of 1000 Oct $7.50 calls at $2.57
8/16/24 Tempus AI (TEM) buyers of 500 Sept $50 calls at $2.95
8/16/24 Rocket Lab (RKLB) buyers of 2100 Dec 2026 $12 calls at $2.10
8/16/24 CrowdStrike (CRWD) opening sale 1700 Sept 27th $200 puts for $2.24
8/16/24 DataDog (DDOG) 4500 Sept 27th (W) 102 puts sell to open 1.06
8/16/24 DataDog (DDOG) 650 Dec 120 calls being sold 9.75 to 9.60
8/16/24 Advanced Micro (AMD) another 1075 Dec 2026 $145 calls bought $49.65
8/16/24 Salesforce (CRM) another 800 Dec 2026 $260 calls buy for over $5M
8/16/24 Broadcom (AVGO) buyer 500 August 2025 $100 calls $70.40
8/16/24 Clear Secure (YOU) buyer 300 Oct $25 calls ITM for $3.78
8/16/24 Nvidia (NVDA) seeing buyers of 2000 Feb $122 ITM calls at $22.20 to $22.45
8/16/24 Nvidia (NVDA) seeing 900 August 2025 $120 puts sell to open $20.82
8/16/24 Western Digital (WDC) buyer 1500 February $80 calls $2.75
8/16/24 Dell (DELL) reports 8/29 and seeing an opening seller of 1000 Feb $100 puts for $10.30 bids, over $1M
8/16/24 Palantir (PLTR) with 6500 Oct $24 puts sell to open at $0.21
8/16/24 Cadence Design (CDNS) opening seller of 2000 Sept $255 puts at $2.31
8/16/24 Constellation Energy (CEG) 2350 Oct $155 puts sell to open 2.30 to 2.25
8/16/24 AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) 2000 Jan $40 calls selling to open 8.60 to 8.30
8/16/24 AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) also 2000 Jan $50 calls selling to open for 7.10
8/15/24 Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) seeing 12,500 Aug 30th $480 calls buy at $4.24 as the Aug 23rd $469 calls adjust
8/15/24 Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) also seeing buyers of 1250 Sept 6th $477 calls at $6.40 to $6.91
8/15/24 Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) 2000 Dec 2025 $294.78 puts sell to open 3.85
8/15/24 Regional Banks ETF (KRE) with 24,000 Sept $56/$58 call spreads buy at $0.58
8/15/24 Gold ETF (GLD) 1400 March 240 calls selling to open 8.65 bids
8/15/24 Tesla (TSLA) buyers in Sept 6th (W) $235 calls $2.90 to $3.80
8/15/24 Tesla (TSLA) also the Sept 13th (W) $240 calls being bought 5000X
8/15/24 Tesla (TSLA) 34,000 Oct $210 calls bought $21.90 as August $260 adjust
8/15/24 Tesla (TSLA) 800 Feb $160 puts sold to open $8.85
8/15/24 Colgate (CL) 480 Jan. 2026 $100 calls bought $11.90
8/15/24 Target (TGT) large opening sale 10,000 Sept $130 puts $3.10 to $3.05 into earnings next week
8/15/24 Phillip Morris (PM) 750 Jan 2026 $105 puts sell to open for 6.10
8/15/24 Disney (DIS) large buyer for 4137 Nov $95 calls at $2.37
8/15/24 Uber (UBER) buyer 880 Nov $77.50 calls $4.00 offer
8/15/24 Uber (UBER) buyers active for 1500 Jan $87.50 calls at $2.48 to $2.68
8/15/24 Uber (UBER) also buyers of 1500 Jan $82.50 calls at $3.70 to $4
8/15/24 Starbucks (SBUX) another 3050 Dec 2026 $95 calls bought $17.35
8/15/24 Caesars Entertainment (CZR) Jan 2026 $50 calls being bought another 8000X $5.20
8/15/24 DoorDash (DASH) 1350 Sept $135 calls sold to open 2.99 to 2.84
8/15/24 Visa (V) 400 March $290 calls bought 8.55 offer
8/15/24 Novocure (NVCR) unusual buy 1000 Sept $17.50 calls $2.65 offer
8/15/24 Lennar (LEN) opening sales of 1100 Feb $180 calls $13.30
8/15/24 Rocket Labs (RKLB) seeing 15,000 October $8 calls bought $0.14
8/15/24 Vertiv (VRT) buyer of 2300 Sept $87.50 calls at $3.80 as $82.50 calls adjust
8/15/24 Micron (MU) buyer of 750 December 2025 $130/$160 call spreads at $6.90
8/15/24 Advanced Micro (AMD) buyer 1135 Dec 2026 $145 calls $46.85
8/15/24 Advanced Micro (AMD) sees 1500 August 2025 $150 calls selling to open at $28.91
8/15/24 Nvidia (NVDA) massive opening seller of 20,000 Aug 30th (W) $121 ITM puts for $15M premium, reports 8-28
8/15/24 Nvidia (NVDA) also large opening sales of 2250 Sept 13th $134 ITM puts at $16.85 to $16.25
8/15/24 Nvidia (NVDA) also 1550 Sept 6th $116 calls buying at $9.50
8/15/24 Arm Holdings (ARM) another 1880 Dec 2026 $130 calls bought $58.35
8/15/24 Apple (AAPL) buyers 14,000 Sept 27th (W) $230/$240 call spreads for the iPhone launch
8/15/24 Salesforce (CRM) 838 Dec 2026 $260 calls bought $63.25
8/15/24 Dell (DELL) 2000 Sept $110 calls bought 8.70 offer adjusting up the $95 calls
8/15/24 Dell (DELL) seeing 3500 Aug 30th $110 calls buying at $7.98 as the Aug 23rd $100 calls adjust
8/15/24 Amazon (AMZN) buyer 1245 Dec 2026 $175 calls for $42.70
8/15/24 Meta (META) with 4500 November $600 calls buying at $19.40 to $20
8/15/24 Coherent (COHR) sees 1500 Oct $80 calls bought to open $3.20 offers
8/15/24 Qualcomm (QCOM) buyer 400 Feb $195 calls $12.05
8/15/24 Constellation Energy (CEG) with 3250 Sept $160 puts sell to open $1.52