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These kinds of encounters really make my day.
We've seen how trading is perfect for setting up extra regular income, but I want to share this one with you because it really drives home how folks can use trading to pocket a timely windfall... at a time when we could all use some extra money.
I was getting some work done on my house, and one of the construction guys asked me what I do for a living. Naturally, I told him that I'd been trading for nearly 30 years as a trading coach for everyday investors, and that my specialty was turning people on to low-cost, low-risk, high-profit trades.
He mentioned that the stock market was going ballistic, of course, and asked me how a guy like him might cash in on these all-time highs and pull in a little more cash for the holidays.
In less than 10 minutes, I'd taught him exactly what I'm going to teach you...
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Picking Trades Is Much Easier Than Picking Stocks
You could spend hours upon hours researching the historic post-Black Friday performance of every single "holiday stock" out there, like Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), or Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), or even Build-a-Bear Workshop Inc. (NYSE: BBW) or Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF)...
Or you could save your (extremely) precious time - and simply trade the whole sector.
And here's how...
Black Friday 2016 is in the history books. There are fresh, updated reports of how well each toy, clothing, electronics, and car company retailer did.
Don't worry; I've already read them for you. This kind of data is all you need to set up your trades.
The reports I've seen and heard recently are to the effect that the post-Thanksgiving sales for automobiles have been okay, but not great. The pundits are also reporting that while people are shopping more this year, they're spending less per purchase by 3.5%. So it looks like traffic is up, but sales are about the same (or a bit less) for now.
Personally, I think the "Trump effect" is in play. We'll see how it plays out and trade accordingly, but right now people seem to be a bit more optimistic about the incoming administration, a bit more willing to spend more this holiday season, albeit a tad less per purchase.
So, as I told my friend the inquisitive construction guy, this is where options come into play.
And the best way to do it is to trade options on an extremely liquid exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector Index...
About the Author
Tom Gentile, options trading specialist for Money Map Press, is widely known as America's No. 1 Pattern Trader thanks to his nearly 30 years of experience spotting lucrative patterns in options trading. Tom has taught over 300,000 traders his option trading secrets in a variety of settings, including seminars and workshops. He's also a bestselling author of eight books and training courses.