Last Month's Income Report: July 1st, 2021
The S&P 500 closed out the second quarter of 2021 at a record high following a June rally that was led by technology stocks.
As we close the books on the first half of the year, I want to look back at what Options Income Blueprint members have accomplished thus far and what lies ahead.
First things first… after booking 61 winning trades in a row in 2021, we logged our first losing position of the year on June 25 on the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN).
As anyone who follows me knows, I’m very interested in investments in the clean energy space, particularly solar energy and electric vehicles. These stocks offer a combination of excellent growth potential and elevated volatility that option sellers love.
So far this year, we’ve taken advantage of this trend by trading First Solar (FSLR), General Motors (GM), Invesco Solar ETF (TAN), QuantumScape (QS) and Sunrun (RUN) with great success. We also traded ICLN successfully earlier this year.
But my latest recommendation put us in the wrong place at the time. In late April, we sold a put on ICLN just before the ETF hit a short-term peak and sold off.
So, I recommended members accept shares. We sold calls against those shares for nearly two months, bringing in additional income. But last week, I decided that we should allow our shares to be called away at a loss rather than continue to roll our call.
While I still like the clean energy sector, too many of the fund’s holdings were trading poorly despite progress on infrastructure negotiations.
We booked a loss of $0.63, or $63 per 100 shares. And while any loss is frustrating, I’m more than happy that our record for the first half of the year stands at 61 winners and one loser.
Options Income Blueprint members who sold just one contract of every option we traded could have earned $4,837 year to date.
Below is a quick rundown of June’s closed trades:
As we head into the third quarter, the bulls clearly have the upper hand. But I know from the emails I receive from members that many of you are worried about a market crash.
First, I’d like to remind everyone that a market sell-off, even a sharp one, is not the same thing as a correction. And a correction is not the same thing as a bear market.
Too often traders get spooked by short-term gyrations in the markets. While a larger correction and even a bear market are certainly possible, they are not likely.
Why, you ask?
Well, the main reason is that there is currently no better place for people seeking a return on their capital to put their money than in the U.S. stock market.
In June, retail investors made nearly $28 billion in net purchases of stocks and exchange-traded funds, according to Vanda Research. This was the highest monthly amount since at least 2014 and surpassed even the retail trading surge we saw in January during the meme stock mania.
By year-end, Goldman Sachs analysts expects consumers and money managers to increase cash inflows into equities by as much as $500 billion.
This influx of cash is likely to put a floor under any market sell-offs. But I will remind you that the options selling strategy we use in Options Income Blueprint is market agnostic.
In other words, I don’t really care if we are in a bull or a bear market. We trade through both kinds of markets… and sideways ones as well.
I am confident that we will continue to rake in cash in the second half of the year, earning excellent rates of return. If you’ve ever considered trading alongside us, now is a great time to start.