The Best Options Trade to Double Your Money on the Christmas Shopping Season

We're nearing the start of Christmas shopping season, and that means cash will be flowing into retailers. And cash will be flowing into our bank accounts if we play the right retail stocks.

Fortunately, we've uncovered a sleeping giant in retail, which makes it one of the best options plays heading into Black Friday.

Everyone "knows" that Black Friday can separate the top retail stocks from the crowd. But unfortunately for most investors, they wait until the sales results come out before buying shares in their favorite company.

By then, it's usually too late to make any real money. Waiting until you learn the news can mean missing most of the stock's gain, which often happens ahead of the actual news.

Worse, buying after the news can mean buying the peak, just before the profit takers arrive.

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That's why it makes sense to enter a position now, before everyone else jumps in, especially because the economy is still going strong. And - if you're options trading - options prices are even more sensitive to the news than stocks themselves.

That's especially important since analysts believe this could be another excellent holiday season for top retail stocks...

Why Retail Stocks Are Going to Make a Killing This Year

Adobe Analytics forecasts that holiday spending will surpass $143.7 billion, just for online shopping, up 14.1% from last year. It also says that Cyber Monday, the Monday following Black Friday, will also ring up record sales.

Deloitte expects U.S. retail sales in November and December this year to top last year's levels by 4.5% to 5%. It forecasts that holiday sales will top $1.1 trillion through January.

Retail has clearly come back from the dead. Just consider the S&P Retail SPDR ETF (NYSEArca: XRT), which is up 15.3% just since Aug. 15 and scored a technical breakout on its charts. It is also above its 200-day average for the first time since November of last year.

Don't give Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) credit for that move, either. This ETF holds 85 stocks, with none weighing in at more than 1.7% of its value. Amazon only gets a 1.2% weighting.

Still, retail gets a bad rap in the investment world, thanks to its truly dreadful performance over the past several years relative to the market.

That means now is the best time to exploit its comeback - before everyone else really picks up on it.

And they certainly will as this holiday shopping season smashes records.

Our play is one of the best retail stocks around, but buying options on it could even double your money...

The Best Options Strategy Could Take Your Money Further

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Investors may have noticed some retailers shedding their brick-and-mortar legacies and figuring out how to compete in an online world. One of them may surprise you.

Money Morning's options trading specialist, Tom Gentile, sees a company that bent but didn't break. Department store chain Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS) just announced some big changes that should add up to one of its best holiday shopping seasons ever.

That makes it the perfect candidate for the strategy of getting in before the rest of the market realizes it is an emerging tiger.

Ahead of the holiday season, the company is opening a space called "Curated by Kohl's" in 50 of its 1,100 stores. It will feature six different brands that will rotate in and out over the course of the holidays. The store is also setting up an "Outfit Bar," where a mannequin fully dressed in different brands will help drive younger shoppers to purchase an entire set.

Kohl's is also launching a ton of new brands in-house alongside some big names.

Among them is a new home goods brand called "Scott Living," created with HGTV's well-known "Property Brothers." Another is "Koolaburra," the product of a brand partnership with Australian footwear company UGG, selling Sherpa blankets and pillows. One of the most highly anticipated brands is "Ellen DeGeneres Pets Collections."

Kohl's is also expanding its square footage dedicated to both athletic apparel and cosmetics - two growth segments.

Retail does not have to be adversarial, either. Kohl's announced a partnership last July where it would accept returns to Amazon. So far, it has been a good deal for Kohl's as foot traffic has increased. According to Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass, 80% of customers who come to Kohl's to return an Amazon package end up then shopping at the store. It's a win-win situation, and it showcases Kohl's upgrades to a whole new audience.

That is a great argument for the stock, and you could buy shares expecting 10% gain over the next few weeks.

But Tom recommends buying a call option on Kohl's expiring before the end of December. The strike price should be near or just below the current stock price of $50.95.

Such an option could easily double in price if the stock catches fire.

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