| Hey Traders, Andrew here – it’s time for our weekly “1 stock I love, 1 stock I hate” analysis. Ahead of our Ticker Highlight Show every Monday at 10 a.m. ET (this week it’s Tuesday), the Option Pit trading team gathers their favorite and least favorite stocks of the week. Then during our live show, Mark Sebastian uses his cheap options scanner to find an easy, directional options trade for one of these stocks – and we give it away for FREE. On Monday, we entered a trade in International Business Machines Corp (Ticker: IBM) that was a quick win.. You can view the trade in our free portfolio here. If you don’t want to miss out on next week’s trade, be sure to add it to your calendar here! Anyway, here are my picks for the week. My Short Pick: VXX Last week’s Apple Inc. (Ticker: AAPL) pick was okay for a while but AAPL moved up $10 Monday/Tuesday this week. We are coming into the holiday and President Trump might have a win on his hands with the Big Beautiful Bill. I think it does not cut spending enough but as of Tuesday afternoon, markets are okay with it. That should make the bid for volatility a touch weaker and an ETN like the iPath Series B S&P 500 VIX futures ETN (Ticker: VXX) take on some water.
3 month VXX chart with 1 day candles 20 day realized volatility with 60/90 day implied volatility for VXX Realized volatility is very low in VXX as most volatility has been quiet since Iran lost some Nuclear Enrichment capability last week. I would view that as a recent win for the White House I think this is a scale in short as we might have some noise into Jul 09 when Trump is going to go down the tariff rabbit hole again. Or he could declare victory, keep some mild tariffs and that would hit the VXX hard. My Long Pick: META My ENPH from last week is doing well as at least some of the solar credits will stay in the BBB. It was $37.60 last week. Meta Inc (Ticker: META) is a winner in the AI data game. The stock recently made an all time high and I do not see that changing. META is in the category of AI adjacent stocks that will use it to boost profitability and interactions.
3 month META chart with 1 day candles 20 day realized volatility with 60/90 day implied volatility for META This stock is a buy on weakness and I expect some blockbuster earnings. Zuck does what he needs to do to keep META on top and I do not see that changing. After the end of quarter rotation, it is a scoop to run to $750. Option premiums are at 3 months lows so they are very affordable. Add the Ticker Highlight Show to your calendar here. To your Trading Success, AG | 