Category: INO.com Contributors

U.S. Crude Inventories Continue To Climb

Posted on by Robert Boslego

According to the Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude inventories (excluding SPR) built by 14.9 million barrels last week to 1.415 billion, whereas SPR stock built by 2.1 million. They stand 129 mmb above the rising, rolling 5-year average and about 129 mmb higher than a year ago. Comparing total inventories to the pre-glut average (end-2014), stocks are 356 mmb above that average.

Oil Stocks

Crude Production

Production averaged 11.400 mmbd last week, down 100,000 b/d from the prior week, and 11.600 mmbd over the past 4 weeks, off 4.9 % v. a year ago. In the year-to-date, crude production averaged 12.580 mmbd, up 4.2 % v. last year, about 500,000 barrels per day higher than a year ago. Continue reading "U.S. Crude Inventories Continue To Climb" →

COVID-19 - An Agile Options Strategy - Part 2

Posted on by The INO.com Team

COVID-19 was the black swan event that culminated in bringing the worldwide economy to its knees. The spread of the virus globally, along with intermittent spikes, has crushed stocks and decimated entire industries such as airlines, casinos, travel, leisure, and retail while others are battling to remain in business. COVID-19 was the linchpin for the major indices to drop over 30% over the course of 22 days. This COVID-19 induced sell-off has been the worst since the Great Depression in terms of breadth and velocity of the sell-off while inducing extreme market volatility that hasn’t been seen since the Financial Crisis.

Although options trading provides a margin of downside protection and a statistical edge, when hit with a black swan event, no portfolio is immune from the wreckage. Thus, proper portfolio construction and optimal risk management are essential when engaging in options trading to drive portfolio results. One of the main pillars when building an options-based portfolio is maintaining ample liquidity via holding ~50% of one’s portfolio in cash. This liquidity position provides the ability to adjust when faced with extreme market conditions such as COVID-19 rapidly. An agile options based portfolio is essential, and the COVID-19 pandemic is a prime example of why maintaining liquidity, risk-defining trades, staggering options expiration dates, trading across a wide array of uncorrelated tickers, maximizing the number of trades and selling options to collect premium income are keys to an effective long-term options strategy.

Maximizing Return on Capital

Options can be sold with defined risk while leveraging a minimal amount of capital to maximize return on investment. Whether you have a small account or a Continue reading "COVID-19 - An Agile Options Strategy - Part 2" →

Is A Blow-Off Top Setting Up

Posted on by Chris Vermeulen

Our research team has become increasingly concerned that the US Fed support for the markets has pushed price levels well above true valuation levels and that a risk of a downside price move is still rather high. Recently, we published a research article highlighting our Adaptive Dynamic Learning (ADL) predictive modeling system results showing the US stock market was 12% to 15% overvalued based on our ADL results. Today, Tuesday, May 26, the markets opened much higher, which extends that true valuation gap.

We understand that everyone expects the markets to go back to where they were before the COVID-19 virus event happened – and that is likely going to happen over time. Our research team believes the disruption of the global economy over the past 70+ days will result in a very difficult Q2: 2020 and some very big downside numbers. Globally, we believe the disruption to the consumer and services sector has been strong enough to really disrupt forward expectations and earnings capabilities. We’ve been warning our friends and followers to be very cautious of this upside price trend as the Fed is driving prices higher while the foundations of the global economy (consumers, services, goods, and retail) continue to crumble away.

Our biggest concern is a sharp downside rotation related to overvalued markets and sudden news or a new economic event that disrupts forward expectations. Q2 data will likely be a big concern for many, yet we believe something else could act as a catalyst for a reversion event. Possibly global political news? Possibly some type of extended collateral damage related to the global economy? Possibly something related to earnings expectations going forward through the rest of 2020 and beyond? We believe Continue reading "Is A Blow-Off Top Setting Up" →

Silver Hits Charts As Gold Fails To Perform

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

In my earlier post this month, I shared hot trading opportunities for silver and gold. It’s time for an update as we’ve already seen how it played out.

Before we start, I would like to show you the metals performance month-to-date in the graph below.

Futures Board
Chart source: finviz.com

This month silver showed the best performance gaining impressive an +18.15%. The second best wasn’t gold; it’s platinum with a +9.05% gain. Gold is in third place this month, with a +2.39% rise. The most precious of these four metals, palladium, could score only a +1.29% gain.

You were accurate again with your forecast as most of you bet on silver (see chart below) under my last post. Seers in action!

Silver Gold Poll

Let’s get down to the updated charts, and I will start with silver. Continue reading "Silver Hits Charts As Gold Fails To Perform" →

Tug-of-War: Disney Streaming vs. COVID-19

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Clearly, COVID-19 has been very damaging with an unquantifiable impact across Disney’s (DIS) business segments. Disney has had to shutter all of its worldwide Parks and Resorts. ESPN has been hit with the cancellation of virtually all sports worldwide. Advertising revenue coming through its media properties has been hit as companies scale back ad spending. All of its movie studio productions have been halted, and movie releases postponed. Despite these headwinds, Disney’s streaming initiatives have been major growth catalysts for the company. Disney+ has racked up over 50 million paid subscribers in just five months, Hulu has 30 million paid subscribers, and ESPN+ has 7.9 million paid subscribers. Disney+ has been wildly successful via unleashing all of its content (Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, and Pixar) in what has become a formidable competitor in the ever-expanding streaming wars domestically and internationally. Hence the tug-of-war on Wall Street between the COVID-19 induced negative impact and the success of its streaming initiatives in terms of valuation. The stock is selling at a steep discount of ~30% from its highs of $151 per share. At these reduced COVID-19 levels, Disney is a compelling buy as its legacy business segments get back on track in conjunction with these successful streaming initiatives.

COVID-19 Perspective

As economies around the world reopen and certainty washes over the COVID-19 landscape, Disney’s business segments will regain their health. Parks will reopen as seen with Disney Shanghai, movie productions will resume, movie theaters and resorts will reopen, and sports will inevitably play-on. The resumption of all of these activities will feed into Disney’s legacy businesses. Disney continues to dominate the box office year after year with a long pipeline of blockbusters in the queue. Parks and Resorts continue to be a growth avenue with tremendous pricing power. Disney is going all-in on the streaming front and acquired full ownership of Hulu, and the company is launched its Disney branded streaming service with great success. I feel Continue reading "Tug-of-War: Disney Streaming vs. COVID-19" →