Let's explore an Options Strategy known as a Bullish Synthetic spread, which allows an options trader to control 100 shares for less capital compared to buying 100 shares of a stock. Options chain for AAPL expiring on Apr 19 Suppose one is bullish on Apple, and Apple is currently trading at $181 (as of the time of this writing). If you want to buy 100 shares, the capital required (not including commissions) is $181 x 100 = $18,100. For every $1 rise in the stock of Apple, the gain on the position is $100, and vice versa. Let's explore a strategy that allows you to control 100 shares of Apple for less capital, and that is done by a Bullish Synthetic spread, by entering a Call option on a buy leg, and a Put option on a sell leg. First select an options expiration, in which I have selected Ap

A recent article on SCMP revealed that pessimism in Chinese stocks has been the highest amongst foreign investors.  The recent fund managers survey by Bank of America Global Research found that fund managers are now more net short on Chinese equities compared to the previous three months, and also are more bullish on the Japanese market.  BofA Global Research FMS survey Indeed the Chinese CSI 300 index, which comprises of 300 top companies listed on Shanghai & Shenzhen Exchanges is now down 4.5% in 2024. Over the past 6 months, it is down 14.3%, and past one year down 20.7% Stocks like Alibaba, perhaps a hot favourite among investors here have suffered greatly. Year-to-date Baba is down 12.2%, after paring back some losses on Friday afternoon due to monthly options expiratio

A hypothetical portfolio Suppose if I had only US$10,000 to invest, what stocks would I pick? Well we could just easily say that we choose only the Magnificent Seven (M7), made up of Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon & Tesla. However that would mean that our stocks are heavily concentrated in technology, communication services and consumer discretionary and would result in a highly unbalanced portfolio that might leave us to quite some downside risk should the market crash, as most of these stocks have similar correlations in price movements. Let’s say we are only allowed to pick 2 of the M7, so I would choose Alphabet & Amazon. Alphabet is the parent company of Google, YouTube and are used by millions, if not billions worldwide. Alphabet’s EPS is expected to grow at

2023 was better than expected, as we headed into the year fearing that a recession would happen.However as ChatGPT played out at the beginning of the year, technology stocks like Meta & Microsoft started gaining traction. Recall that in 2022, Meta was one of the most hated stocks, that advertisers were not spending their dollars, and people were calling that it was the end of Meta. In terms of realised loss, the worse was Disney as I decided to cut losses and exit my position in the house of mouse. Rate of return as of December stands at 56%. @TigerStars $Amazon.com(AMZN)$  $Walt Disney(DIS)$ 

The S&P 500 closed at 4,594.64 points on Friday December 2nd, 2023 to advance 0.77% for the week and notches its best close of 2023. A few reasons for the strong move in the broad market index this week, as Cyber Monday that followed last week’s Black Friday had set new records for consumer spending. On Wednesday, the second estimate of U.S. Q3 GDP growth was revised to 5.2%, surpassing the previous estimate of 4.9% and stronger than the rise of 2.1% in Q2. On Thursday, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation guage, core PCE advanced 3.5% Y/Y in October and cooling from September’s 3.7%, while PCE gained 3.0% in line with estimates and retreating from 3.4% in September. On Friday, Fed chair Jerome Powell was speaking at a fireside chat at Spelman College, and in his opening remarks h

Price action on Yum China (which is the China business of KFC, Pizza Hut in China) has created a bear trap to lure in retail traders who are thinking of shorting YUMC. Price action has taken out stop losses of retail who have placed stop losses below previous swing low, and has formed with a bullish green hammer on Thursday's trading session.  If follow up price action on Friday (Dec 1st) can push above previous close, enter a buy stop limit at around $43.25. Attach a stop loss of $40.25 if the price breaks below.  Morningstar carries a fair value of $80 for Yum China. @TigerStars  @CaptainTiger  $Yum China Holdings, Inc.

When a new investor starts his journey in picking stocks, very often no thought process is given to the economic moat or management quality of the company. What is economic moat? An economic moat is a concept popularized by Warren Buffett, describing a company's sustainable competitive advantage that allows it to maintain its market position and fend off competition. Similar to a castle's moat protecting it from invaders, an economic moat protects a company from competitors trying to erode its profits and market share. There are several types of economic moats that can contribute to a company's competitive advantage: Cost Advantage: When a company can produce goods or services at a lower cost compared to its competitors. This could be due to proprietary technology, efficient processes, ac

As we head towards the last 1.5 months remaining in 2023, I currently believe the market will soon be testing all time highs soon. As of Friday's close of 4,514.03 on the S&P 500, the bench mark is now around 5.8% of the closing high of 4,796.57 made on Jan 3, 2022. Year-to-date, technology sector is up by 43.79%, followed by communication services +43%, and consumer cyclical +25.25%. Meanwhile laggards are utilities -11.17%, real estate -5.16% and consumer defensive -4.78%. My portfolio top and bottom performers Top Performers Meta +114%,  Microsoft +40%,  CME Group +21%,  Google +16.9%, Bottom Performers (or bagholders) JD -26%,  Estee Lauder -21.7%,  Alibaba -15.6% @TigerStars 

WeWork has filed for bankruptcy protection. Once backed by Softbank and other top VCs and valued at $49 billion, the company made its stock market debut via SPAC merger in October 2021, trading for $11 at a market cap of $9 billion. Today it’s 99% down. The company has been burning cash since its statements are made public. Revenue growth inconsistent, net income & EBITDA negative. Free cash flow and operating cashflow has been negative. No economic moat. Not everything that IPOs is investable. In fact IPOs are used to transfer wealth from investors to the venture capitalists who have stakes in the IPO company. If the investor had done some basic checks using Gurufocus, Seeking Alpha & Morningstar, he would have known that this wasn’t a good investment to begin with. How to dec