This Banking Stock Just Flashed a Buy Signal with 100% Upside

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average only up 1.58% so far in 2018, it's more important than ever to find individual stocks for market-beating gains. You can no longer sit back passively and own an investment that just tracks the Dow's performance.

Fortunately, thanks to our proprietary valuation system, we found a banking stock that could provide a return of 65% in the next 12 months.

Lloyds Banking Group Plc. (NYSE: LYG) is a financial service provider headquartered in London.

This bank stock is currently trading at a discount because analysts are worried about increased competition in the British mortgage market. Lloyds controls 20% of the market right now, but low interest rates could make finding profitable lending opportunities scarcer.

The Bank of England is keeping rates low now, ahead of the uncertainty Brexit may cause.

This Banking Stock Just Flashed a Buy Signal with 100% UpsideHowever, it's still the largest retail bank in Britain, and it executed a plan to keep its position as a leader. On May 18, it sold its Irish residential mortgage portfolio for 4 billion pounds to focus on the British market.

And while everyone else is missing the profit opportunity LYG stock could offer, we have two investing strategies we had to share that could yield double-digit returns...

How to Play This Bank Stock for Double-Digit Profits

The first strategy to profit from LYG is to buy the stock for the long haul.

The LYG stock price opened this morning at $3.39 per share, but that won't last long...

In the next 12 months, Jefferies projects Lloyds Banking Group will trade for $5.62 per share. That's a potential return of 65.78%.

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On top of that, the banking stock pays a very generous dividend of $0.17, which is a yield of 4.22%.

And as we mentioned earlier, that's not the only way to make a double-digit return...

For LYG, Money Morning Capital Wave Strategist Shah Gilani has an investing strategy to make money even faster, paying out in the next four months.

Gilani has more than 30 years of trading experience, including running a hedge fund and helping launch the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) in 1993.

And when he gives advice, we make sure to listen...

The Fast Profit Strategy for LYG Stock

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The fastest way to make a profit from LYG is through options.

Here's the play: Buy LYG Oct. 19, 2018, $3 calls (LYG181019C00003000).

A contract (100 shares) currently costs $0.55. That means you will pay a total of $55 for one call.

And here's the profit potential on the expiration date...

Call Price on Expiration Potential Return
Oct. 19, 2018 $4.10 100%
Oct. 19, 2018 $3.85 54.5%
Oct. 19, 2018 $3.55 9.09%

If you stack these potential gains on top of the long-term gains of 65% from the LYG stock price, you could be sitting on quite the windfall from Lloyds by the end of 2018.

Now, finding this kind of return is never easy.

When looking for the next big winners, most investors turn to the "Google-Search Method" of stock picking.

They'll spend endless hours doing Google search after Google search - compiling a list of potential candidates.

The problem with this method is that most of the information comes from journalists reporting the news, not bona fide market analysts giving you expert research.

So you end up with a list of companies getting the most coverage, but not the best investments.

Instead, you should see this.

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