Video summary
The video begins with an energetic morning market overview on Wednesday, August 19th, where the presenter highlights a broadly positive start across major indices and commodities. The S&P futures gained 35 points, while the Nasdaq rose by 157 points, with the Russell leading the pack among the four major indexes. Precious metals like gold and silver saw significant gains, along with oil and natural gas, whereas the ten-year Treasury yield declined. Despite this general bullish sentiment in macro assets, the presenter notes a divergence within the technology sector, where memory stocks and chip manufacturers showed mixed performance, with some leaders like Nvidia and Super Micro Computer trading lower while others remained strong. The volatility index (VIX) fell to 15.16, indicating reduced fear in the market, though the presenter emphasizes that price action remains the primary focus without relying on technical indicators.
As the trading session progressed, the presenter focused heavily on specific stock strategies, particularly with Palantir Technologies (PLTR) and semiconductor stocks like QCOM. He executed a series of trades on PLTR, initially entering a position near the previous day's high and scaling in further as the price fluctuated. The strategy involved setting profit targets and stop-loss levels to manage risk effectively, acknowledging that the current market environment was not ideal for traditional double calendar spreads. Consequently, he shifted towards hedged iron condors and shorter-duration options to capitalize on specific moves. Throughout the session, he monitored the performance of major tech names like Apple, Tesla, and Meta, noting that while Apple displayed relative strength by pushing higher, chip stocks continued to struggle near their daily lows, creating a clear divergence between the broader market rally and the semiconductor sector's weakness.
The trading narrative took a turn as the chip sector faced renewed selling pressure, causing the Nasdaq to break below its pre-market range despite the S&P holding firm above its previous high. The presenter utilized this weakness in QCOM to scalp profits on put options, targeting the day's lows and eventually exiting positions after the stock failed to sustain a bounce. He expressed frustration with the "choppy" nature of the price action, which eroded option premiums through theta decay, leading him to close remaining positions in QCOM once his targets were met or the market direction became unfavorable. In contrast, PLTR ultimately turned into a losing trade for the session after failing to break out as anticipated, resulting in a net loss that balanced out some of the earlier gains. The presenter concluded the morning session by emphasizing patience and risk management, noting that while the chips continued to underperform, other sectors like banking and consumer staples showed resilience, before signing off to handle other trading tasks for the afternoon.
Read the full video transcript
Wake up. Wake up. It's time to get
going. Got to catch those runners taking
off like a If the volume spikes, then
it's time to trade. Mighty 90 setting
up. It's time to get paid. Navigation
trading on the mic. Time to get focused.
We don't need any indicator. Hocus
pocus. It's all about the price. Just
watch it move. Manage your risk so you
don't lose. First hour of trading is all
we need. Focus on the patience and
forget about greed.
Welcome every morning. Welcome every
morning. Welcome everybody. Good
morning. Today's Wednesday, August 19th.
The S&P futures are up 35 points. The
Nasdaq is up 157. Russell up 23 and the
Dow's up 255. Looks like the Russell is
the strongest of the four, up about 3/4
of a percent. Uh, gold's up over 2%,
silver's up almost 2%. Notes and bonds
are green. 10-year yield down 1.1%.
Oil's up about a third. Natural gas up
three. Soybeans, wheat, and corn all
green. Euro and the pound are both up
over a half percent. Bitcoin up a half
percent and the VIX falling down over 4%
currently at 15.16.
had a little pop in stocks
right at 7:30
was a US Treasury Department made an
announcement about the long end bonds
long end curve
market likey
biggest individual stocks
SKH highinex up 6% SNDK is up four. MSTR
is up two. MU up two.
So the cryptos are green. Couple of chip
stocks,
memory stocks.
Biggest red Nebius is down 6%. AVGO down
two.
SMCI is red. So some of the chips
are red. Some are green.
No one DTE iron condor today. As far as
double calendars, I'm just going to
watch. Just this environment has just
not been very conducive to the old DCs.
But we'll see. May get an opportunity
later.
I'm also going to look at I may look at
some longer longer duration ones that
I'll plan to hold for a day or two.
But I'll check that out later.
SPX
has an expected range today of under
just under 28 points.
Yeah, it's been a little little tough
sledding on the DCs.
They'll have their time to shine again,
though.
I'm really liking these hedged iron
condors that I've been posting about.
For some reason, this thread doesn't
display all the time. So, if you haven't
seen it,
here's the there's the link to the
thread. It's a thread in the transformer
chat channel.
So, I'll be talking about more of those.
I'll probably start kind of making those
official and do like a class on those
sometime sometime in September.
Yeah. mostly one DTE sometime sometime
the day before there's no there's no
specific time and like the one that
expired yesterday so the one I should
have put on Monday I forgot to put it on
before the close so I ended up putting
on putting it on right at the open
yesterday so it had it was with zero DTE
options so you can do that as
little bit of a dip in the Russell kind
of rejecting yesterday's high.
Yeah, check out that thread, Jeno. Just
go through the thread.
Well, we had about a 16point range in
the S&P until
the last five minutes kind of broke down
a little bit lower to give us about a 20
point range.
See if we get more action today.
Cryptos are pumping.
Bitcoin's up above right at yesterday's
high, but Circle is up 7% now. Just made
a big push. MSTR's up almost four. Coin
up almost three.
PLTR nice push
Tesla nice push
Microsoft soft pushing a little bit.
But the crypto is really the the most
strength this morning.
Circle the strongest of the cryptos.
So the cryptos and Tesla
and PLTR
are the strongest.
Meta week again
facing a potentially $1.4 Four trillion
dollar lawsuit.
Netflix strong as well.
Netflix continuing that strength ever
since the earnings
the last quarterly earnings
announcement. Tesla kind of rejecting
more like chopping at previous day high.
Apple trying to make a move.
Chips a little weaker. AMD in the red.
SMH down to unchanged. Intel in the red.
SNDK about to go red. MU about to go
red.
I'm going to look at uh I'm going to
load up some PLTR calls. I would look at
the 177.5s.
I'm going to start a position in PLTR
here right at previous day high filled
at 212
smaller size with room to add
NASDAQ rejecting previous day high a
little bit. S&P coming down to its
previous day high.
Russell pushing lower.
put in an order to scale out of some
PLTR at 240 filled.
Wow.
Was trying to get a little bit closer to
highs of day, but it hit it.
TZY big rejection
back down through lows.
SpaceX coming down.
Apple's getting stronger.
Chips are getting beat up.
No follow through in PLTR yet after that
initial little bounce off previous day
high.
S&P now below previous day high.
Apple pulling back to previous day high
after showing some good relative
strength. Hondao, where you at, Hondao?
Honda loves Apple. I don't see Hondao
here today. Oh, yeah. There he is.
What do you think, Hondao?
Honda's ignoring me.
All right,
PLTR is back down to previous day high.
Need to hold here.
Yeah. All good. Don't don't don't
respond to me if you're in the middle of
a trade.
AVGO still falling. AMD down to previous
day lows.
Come on, PLTR.
Hold strong.
Shake off the weak haters. Russell's
starting to bounce.
S&P a little little bit of a bounce off
previous day high.
Apple looking like it. It's trying to
bounce off previous day high.
PLTR right there.
Order filled.
I'm going to add back in to PLTR
filled at 211 on that ad.
Oh, that's not a good fill.
But
see if we can get another another pop
here.
Apple ticked a new high.
Tesla trying to reclaim previous day
Okay.
I'm going to scale into a little bit
more PLTR here.
Filled at 189.
Still I'm still undersized as far as my
normal position size, but
that's good for now. If it if it breaks,
I'll breaks below, I'll cut. If we
bounce, I'll scale.
Apple pushing.
Honda, are you in?
Lando's in.
Uh, you followed me in PLTR. You picked
the wrong horse, Hondao. You got to
stick with you. You got to stick with
what you know.
See, Lando knew better than to follow me
in.
All right.
May need to cut here if it doesn't
bounce.
SpaceX going through Lowe's.
Chips going through Lowe's.
Uh, I'm getting an error. I can't. Toss
is frozen. Oh.
Uh, I'm trying to get out of here.
Trying to get out of PLTR here.
All right, I'm out. 141.
Darn. That That was uh I was trying to
get out earlier. I toss was freezing on
me.
All right, so got a little first profit
target and then added back in. So, it's
going to be a red trade.
Still smaller size. I'm just keeping my
trade size smaller. It's just because
this price action has been
not my favorite.
Tesla big rejection. Nvidia going
through yesterday's lows.
Q's dropping through yesterday's lows.
Nice, Lando.
Oh, nice. Elliot,
of course, the UK guys going for London
lows.
Yeah, Apple
>> waterfilled
>> Apple playing the safety
the safety stock in the face of
weakness.
Chips getting pounded.
Nebia is down 12%.
Let's see. I forgot I did a
Where's Moel?
Moel lied to me.
He said Target was going down. Target's
up 5%.
Of course, Moel didn't show up today.
Show your face, Moel.
Cryptos are staying strong,
just kind of chopping after their
initial push.
Meta's trying to bounce.
PLTR still falling.
Yeah, you picked the right horse there,
Lando. That's for sure.
Tesla trying to bounce back in the
green.
S&P trying to get back above previous
day high.
Still within its pre-market range.
NASDAQ broke below its pre-market range.
Meta's Meta looks like it made a little
liquidity sweep and rally.
Apple going gang busters.
I mean, it's it's only up 1.67% but all
up since the open.
Coinbase kind of chopping around
previous day high.
Same with IBIT.
Chip starting to get a little bounce.
NASDAQ back up to previous day low.
S&P nice bounce back above previous day
high.
So, got the S&P staying fairly strong.
NASDAQ weak with the chip weakness.
Big banks are all a little bit red.
Question is for me does NASDAQ have
another leg lower?
Little rejection of previous day low.
Not a lot of confluence with the indices
here.
Elliot, are you still in MNQ?
Where did you get your target? Got your
target. Got it.
I mean, the chips are going to have to
stay weak if that's going to keep going
down.
Yeah, you can do any time frame you
want.
BB.
I like going longer. you get you get the
there's a lot of gamma more gamma
exposure on the shorter duration you go
meaning the P&L swings will be much
greater
and um obviously you have less range for
price to move around in but yeah you can
do anytime frame you want
S&P looks like it wants to potentially
rip NASDAQ
>> retesting previous day low.
Apple doesn't care. Ripping through
highs.
All right, I'm going to I'm going to
look at some QQQ puts. I'm look at the
7-Elevens 0 DTE
right here. our previous day low.
Get my first fill at 75 cent.
Try to see if I can scalp a little bit
of these under previous day low. Or we
could just tank. That would work, too.
Try to scale out of some at 95
filled.
If Q's can go through lows, that would
be nice. Chips kind of rolling over.
Intel back through lows today. SMH down
to lows.
MU, AMD, SNDK, all dipping a little bit.
PLTR still going down.
Apple still going up.
SpaceX week.
Tesla trying to stay green.
Netflix still going up.
Netflix is up
almost 3%.
Q's just that little reaction off
previous day low, but no follow through
down to lows of day yet.
Chips are staying pretty weak.
Tesla trying to bounce
Q is just kind of chopping, eating my
theta for
Order cancelled.
Order filled.
I've got an order to take some more off
at uh$110, which is right at lows of
day. If it can get down there.
be back in one minute.
grinding its way down. I need a flush
S&P back to previous day high.
Chips are staying near lows. SMH is
going through lows. So is Intel, SMCI,
SNDK.
Apple still near highs.
Nvidia at lows.
I'm going to move my next order to 105.
I want to get out at lows of day here.
Get out of some more.
Come on. Hit it. There we go. filled at
105.
Now, let's see if we can get bloody.
The lows from August 6th are kind of my
next target in the cues.
It's a pretty decent drop.
S SNP now below previous day Hi.
Take some more off at 140.
Google all of a sudden coming to life.
going green. Big bounce.
Amazon, also Microsoft, Meta. So, mags
are starting to pump,
but chips are still in the dump
and moving lower.
Google rejection at previous day high.
Now
quick push up, quick pullback.
Q's putting in new lows. Russell putting
in new lows.
A little bit lower. We'll hit my 140.
Got up to about 136.
S&P back above previous day high. Q's a
little bit of a bounce.
Chips a little bit of a bounce.
All
right, I need the keys to reject back
down here. I'm going to cut my remaining
Apple going through highs.
PLTR finally bounced off a previous day
low.
Order filled.
Order cancelled.
Watching waiting.
Come miserating.
I'm going to take a little ad in the
cues here.
Filled at 95 cents on those.
If we bounce back up above that 715ish
area, I'll just cut it.
I'm going to take that ad off at a$120.
If we keep going down
back towards lows
Tesla hit previous day high again. It's
rejected there a bunch of times.
MU AMD all the chips little bounces keep
getting pushed back down.
All right, there's my fill at 120.
Man, every little bounce just sucks the
premium premium out of these zero DT
ears.
SMCI is a chip that's starting to
bounce.
All right, one more flush cues. Need one
more good flush out of you.
We'll call it a morning.
S&P still right at previous day high.
chips just kind of chopping at lows
here.
What I don't want to see is for the
chips to all of a sudden catch a bid.
Apple finally pulling back.
Google still rejecting
Tesla trying to reclaim for about the
eighth time.
About to go through highs.
All right, I'm just going to have to
I want to give the cubes a chance here,
but starting to
starting to eat
my premium.
All these little choppy bounces.
All right, I'm going to cut.
All right, so we had the winner in the
Q's
and
what was my loser?
Oh, yeah. PLTR.
All right, all that's a wrap for the
stream. I'll be back for power hour.
Going to go handle some other trading
stuff. And uh everybody have a good day.
Talk to you soon.