A month of trying has yet to push this brick above a 234.82 target that first hit our marquee months ago. This is notwithstanding recent hype from JP Morgan promising that bull-mania would soon shift back from growth to alleged ‘value’ for a significant period of time. This manifestly did not occur last week, but sometimes it can take a while for the chimps who manage your money to get on the same page. Technically speaking, the pattern shown is too beautifully head-and-shoulders-y to ignore as a potential bearish signpost, but a crash would seem to be most unlikely, given the rosy outlook for other indexes tracked herein. We shall see, but for now IWM does not look like a scintillating bet. If you’re keen to have a horse in the race anyway, I would encourage you to butterfly the July 16 175/180/185 puts for under 10 cents. (They were being quoted on a bid/asked of -0.07/0.22.) If you’re not sure how to do this, watch the free video on butterfly spreads that’s accessible via your account dashboard. _______ UPDATE (Apr 21, 8:12 a.m. ET): Subscribers have responded enthusiastically to my trade suggestion, reporting a flutter of butterflies. Now, as always, cash out of half of them if they double in price — and please let me know. _____ UPDATE (Apr 21, 5:24 p.m.): Subscribers went butterfly crazy today, netting some excellent specimens tied to the recommendation above. Check out the discussion in the chat room for details and ideas, including a strategy for legging into the ‘fly for nothing. If you’re in on the game, offer half of the spreads you acquired for twice what you paid, good till canceled.
IWM – Russell 2000 ETF (Last:222.50)