Jeff Clark is the editor of the several investment advisories which focus on profiting from options in any market environment.
For over 15 years, he edited two successful trading letters for Stansberry Research, The Short Report and Pro Trader.
Jeff began writing newsletters after retiring from his independent, San Francisco-based brokerage house and private money management firm at age 42. Before that, Jeff developed the curricula for an international Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program and founded an investor education firm.
Now, Jeff takes the same strategy he used for his clients – around 100 of California’s wealthiest individuals – and exclusively shares these techniques with his loyal subscribers.
The strategies in Jeff’s advisories are both conservative and speculative, depending on the situation, to take advantage of short- and sometimes intermediate-term moves in the market. And to limit downsize and maximize upside, Jeff also shows subscribers the unique strategy he uses to trade his own money. It’s also how he was able to retire when he was only 42 years old.
Jeff’s strategy allows you to potentially make money no matter what a stock does – whether it goes up, down, or just stays the same. That’s what makes him one of the best traders around.
And his track record can attest. Since 2005, subscribers have had the opportunity to make triple-digit gains over 50 times and double-digit gains more than 160 times.
He continues that success with his new suite of services. Jeff Clark Trader, his introductory options service, offers option trading fundamentals and lower-risk trades to teach investors the power of using options to amplify their returns, and shows how to fund a comfortable retirement trading just three stocks. Jeff’s advanced options service, the Delta Report, provides more advanced options strategies, with more frequency, and higher return potential.
His trading blog Delta Direct archives Jeff’s minute-by-minute observations of the stock and options markets, allowing subscribers to take advantage of the trade setups Jeff sees forming, as well as specific advice for short-term “scalp trades.”
In the Forever Portfolio, Jeff will identify a portfolio of stocks that can provide great returns over the long run… By taking advantage of stocks that have historically been “recession-proof.” You’ll have two ways to enter positions: buying the stocks outright, or his “no money down” options strategy.
Jeff lives in Northern California with his family.
If you had fallen asleep last Tuesday evening, and then just woke up this morning, you wouldn’t notice anything different about the stock market. You wouldn’t know the S&P 500 suffered a 43-point drop last Wednesday. You wouldn’t know about the three-day-rally since then that has nearly recovered the entire decline.
As I went through my chart review this past weekend, the first thing I thought of was, “Is it possible last Wednesday’s 1.8% drop in the S&P 500 was just a one-day correction – designed to shake out weak bulls, and get overly aggressive bears to make big downside bets just before the market blasts higher one more time?” After all, most of the technical momentum indicators never reached extremely overbought conditions. We never got a breakdown in traditional leading sectors like high-yield bonds and semiconductor stocks. And technical conditions quickly reached oversold conditions on Wednesday’s decline – which is why I advised my Delta Report subscribers NOT to add short positions into the decline.
Happy option expiration day. Longtime readers know I’m not a fan of establishing new trades on a Friday, right in front of a weekend. I’m even less a fan of trading on option expiration day. The potential for “funny business” is too great. So, instead of writing about the technical condition of the stock market today, let’s open up the mailbag and see what sort of comments were inspired by this week’s volatility. But first… a little background…
We’ve been looking for the stock market to make a significant, intermediate-term top sometime soon. Up until yesterday, though, the market hasn’t done anything to suggest a top was in place. High-yield bonds and semiconductor stocks – two market-leading sectors – have been holding up well. Most technical indicators remained in “neutral” territory, with plenty of room to push higher before getting overbought. And the S&P 500 continued to trade above the support of its 9-day exponential moving average (EMA) line.
The bulls haven’t given up yet. Stocks rallied to a modest new high yesterday. The S&P 500 is still trading below my 2411 minimum upside target. Most technical indicators have room to run before the reach overbought territory. High-yield bonds are still trending higher. So, it’s still too early to put on a lot of bearish trades. But it’s not too early to get defensive. Take some profits off the table. Raise stops on existing positions. Be selective with new long-side trades. And be willing to hold onto your cash.
Friday marked the end of the seasonally strong period for stock prices. If the bulls were going to make a move towards new all-time highs, then that was the day to do so. That doesn’t mean the market still can’t rally from here. But the seasonal winds are now in the face of the bulls rather than at their backs. So, it’s a tougher job.
Today marks the end of the seasonally strong period for stock prices. Starting next week, the winds shift bearish. That doesn’t mean stocks are going to start falling right away. But it is going to make it more difficult for the market to rally. The S&P 500 still hasn’t made it up to my 2411 minimum upside target. The index got as high as 2404 this month. Perhaps today will be the day. But the bulls are running out of time. Here in the Market Minute, we take a look at the setups in the broad market and plan for the trading day ahead.
This is a dangerous situation. It’s not obvious. Major turning points in the financial markets rarely are. Nobody rings a bell at the top of a bull market, right? But Quasimodo is hanging out in the high-yield-bond bell tower. And he’s just about ready to pull on the rope.
In the final hour of the day yesterday, the S&P went from +1.50 to -2.50. The index closed down 0.1%. Meanwhile, in the final hour, gold stocks – as represented by the VanEck Vectors Gold Miners Fund (GDX) – went from -0.25 to just -0.02. Okay… neither of these are big moves. In the bigger picture, this sort of action is just “noise.” But, in a tight trading range market, traders are going to look for any sort of evidence that confirms their convictions.