Day: March 5, 2018

Skip Intro. $NFLX is Next up on your Watchlist.

Jim Cramer was on Fast Money Halftime today and said something that caught my attention. He said that one of the big knocks on Netflix USED TO BE that they were having to pay up for content, both original and otherwise. As recently as January, Michael Pachter of Wedbush continued to call Netflix a ‘House of Cards’ and that their purchases of content would sink them.  

Today NFLX was up on a note from Macquarie Research that raised the price target $300 to $330 and from neutral to outperform. They based this on subscriber growth and quality of content.  

I bring this up to show a flaw in fundamental analysis. Here an analyst in the past (maybe still now) has been bearish on a stock for the same reason that another analyst now says is bullish for the stock. 

Previously I have said there are flaws in technical analysis. If it was easy to call price movement based on technical analysis, everybody would be rich. Same with fundamentals. The truth is that we should all be skeptical of all the analysis. There is no guru that gets it right all the time. Most don’t get it right most of the time.  

What do I base my decisions on? First, I think that the macro trend is the most important. If the market goes up, most of the time that is a tailwind for other stocks. When consensus is overwhelmingly positive, that’s the time I’ll put on either a put spread or a calendar put spread and if there is a pullback in the market or the individual name, then I write credit spreads against them. 

I also love it when a name I am interested in pulls back for no real reason. For instance, I bought calendar call spreads in WalMart after its pullback and then added put spreads when it gets a little strength.  

As for $NFLX, I was already long May/April calendar put spreads. I rolled up and out on a few call spreads which I was able to do using the ‘custom’ strategy on my trading platform. I sold a March 16 260/270 call spread and bought a April 20 300/310 call spread in its place. I was able to pull 3.4 out of each set of contracts with this.  

I think the bull run in NFLX continues and I will keep buying calendar spreads on the way up. 

Trump Holds Firm on a Trade War, Let’s Hope it Gets Derailed.

Aside from Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, almost everyone disagrees with Trump’s new steel and aluminum tariffs. Even Paul Ryan today admits he is very worried. And worried he should be. 

I promised last post to outline why I think these tariffs may very well pose a real hazard to the market and the value of our trading and investing accounts.  

The corporate tax cut has predictably accelerated the economy. The problem is we didn’t need the stimulus right not. Stimulus should be saved for recessions. But, the reality is that the tax cuts have passed and been signed. No going back. 

Predictably, the tax cuts have ballooned the deficit. Trillion and a half, more or less. No problem, say its proponents. Accelerated growth of the GDP will take care of it, and in the meantime, interest rates remain low.  

But now with these tariffs there is real concern that growth could stall because input costs could rise. If input costs rise then finished products cost more. Voila, inflation! 

Inflation could hinder the growth of the GDP and inflation could force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more quickly. If this happens then our ever-widening deficit could become much more expensive to finance. Voila, recession! 

I think this line of reasoning is why the market took a knee jerk swoon when Trump announced these tariffs. Should they become enacted against the wishes of everyone but Trump, Ross, Navarro and every steel and aluminum CEO, we might see a repeat.  

I’m holding out hope that someone can talk him out of it, but I keep coming back to this quote by the Existentialist, Ralph Waldo Emerson: 

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.”