Stock Market is Struggling with Mega-Cap Earnings this Week

Dear Traders,

The market collapsed yesterday with QQQ being down over 5% in one its worst days since the pandemic. Tesla was down over 12% to below $900 levels. I guess the universe decided to send Elon Musk a message because it did not like how he made fun of Bill Gates on Twitter for shorting Tesla. That is how the universe works (I suppose!). In the chatroom today, Brian and I traded AMD, NVDA, and Tesla, very nicely and very successfully. Thor joined us for the recap and talked about his trade on T. You can watch our recap here.

Global Financial News
It is a big week for tech earnings reports. Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet kicked off the week yesterday with a mixed bag that won’t fully soothe jittery tech investors. Alphabet posted a rare miss on slower European ad sales and lackluster YouTube performance. YouTube was hit by its rivalry with TikTok and Apple’s privacy changes. Nevertheless, Microsoft beat estimates, fueled by robust growth in cloud-services demand. This comes after last week’s report of a huge loss in subscribers by Netflix. Facebook parent Meta Platforms reports later today. The recent selloff in FANG stocks looks more significant than those that preceded it.

Tesla shares wiped out about $126 billion in value on Tuesday as investors worry that Musk may sell shares to complete Twitter Inc.’s $44 billion takeover. Questions remain surrounding how he plans to cover the $21 billion equity portion of the transaction that he personally guaranteed. Meanwhile, Twitter fell in pre-market trading today, extending losses to dip further below Musk’s offer price.

Germany is meeting with European Union partners regarding gas supplies after Russia said it’s cutting off gas to Poland and Bulgaria. Moscow is making good on a threat to halt gas flows to countries that refuse President Vladimir Putin’s new demand to pay for the fuel in rubles. The EU has rejected Russia’s demand. Four European gas buyers have already paid for supplies in rubles, according to a person close to Russian gas giant Gazprom.

At Bear Bull Traders…
Ardi and I have made the decision to go live on a regular basis on YouTube. You will catch us three days each week, before the Close. We did a few test runs and found they were quite fun to make, especially during earnings season when the largest companies in the world are being traded up and down like shitcoins. I encourage you to join us on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you will receive a notification when we are getting ready to go live. Don’t forget to also follow Ardi on Twitter.

Aiman has now posted to the Education Center his webinar on taking extreme reversals. The title is: TradeBook: Parabolic Reversals. If you are an Elite member, I urge you to check it out. If not, this is an excellent time to upgrade your membership. Here’s a link. Being able to take extreme reversals is pretty handy these days.

At Peak Capital Trading…
We have less than five spots left for our next boot camp. Thanks to everyone who signed up so fast and resulted in this boot camp being (almost!) sold out two weeks before it starts! PCT’s boot camp is your chance to join with a committed group of traders and learn how to build a winning TradeBook. You may be asking yourself: What is this boot camp really about and what do I need to succeed in it? Well, in the briefest of terms, what you need is commitment. By joining and paying for this boot camp, you commit yourself to improvement, and all of our mentors are there to support you in building a successful TradeBook.

Ardi and I have been working with a great personal trainer, Nick, for several years now. We work out two days a week, one day for chest and back, and one day for arms and shoulders. The sets for each day have been exactly the same for the last five years, and we still pay him $100 per session to go and work out with him in his gloomy gym in the downstairs part of our office building in downtown Vancouver.

Ardi and I could do the same sets in a better gym, with some beautiful people, and with a view of the waterfront, but yet instead we descend into Nick’s underground semi-private gym. Why do we pay him? The answer is “accountability”. If we do not pay Nick, we are not committing ourselves to Nick. We would be very apt to talk ourselves out of going to the gym each and every session. Who wants to go and push their limits under heavy weights? We often tell Nick that he is being paid because we are lazy in managing ourselves. And the three of us laugh about it. But it is not just funny, it is also true. Aside from the actual physical training that we receive, there is the accountability factor, and there is also Nick’s mentorship and support in the heavy lifting we are doing.

The reasons that Nick, Ardi, and I meet twice each week are the same reasons behind Peak Capital Trading’s boot camp. It is not that we are giving you the recipe to a secret sauce, it is that we are pushing you to your limits in order for you to become a better trader. I hope you will join with us. You’ll find the details here.
To your success,
Andrew