As we move into the last few weeks leading up to the next earnings season, it should be no surprise that there is little in the way of earnings announcements this week, or next week for that matter.


Earnings season “officially” begins in just over two weeks. On April 12, several of the big banks (WFC, JPM, C) are due to kick things off. As always, we will look to take on a few trades around that time. Until then, we patiently wait, sitting on our hands, for the earnings calendar to provide us with ample opportunities.

Earnings season is behind us, but as always, there are a few companies yet to report earnings. Micron (MU) is our focus this week. With an IV rank of 93.1, it makes sense to look at a potential trading opportunity in the company, which I’ve done in the trade ideas below. The range we created looks nice and wide, while the premium is at attractive levels. The company is due to report after the closing bell today, so if we decide to place a trade look for an alert around mid-day Wednesday.

Earnings season is mostly behind us, but there are a few stragglers yet to report on the calendar. Oracle is on the agenda this week. With an IV rank of 99.9 it makes sense to look at a potential trading opportunity in the company, which I’ve done in the trade ideas below.

The company is due to report after the closing bell today, so if we decide to place a trade look for an alert around mid-day today.

Earnings season is mostly behind us, but there are a few stragglers yet to report on the calendar. Target is on the agenda this week. With a decent IV rank (58.9) and the ability to create a fairly large range outside of the established expected range, Target (TGT) looks like a potential trading opportunity.

The company is due to report prior to the opening bell Tuesday, so if we decide to place a trade look for an alert around mid-day today.

We are on the downside of earnings season, but there are still a few opportunities ahead. Early this week, Lowe’s (LOW) is due to announce earnings. Per usual, I’ve gone over an example in the “Trade Ideas” section and this week I’ve highlighted Lowe’s. The stock is coming into earnings with a decent IV rank (49.8) and an opportunity to create a fairly wide range around the expected move for the stock (224-241) while maintaining a nice premium. Moreover, the premium is decent enough to where we have the ability to widen the range even more while again bringing in a decent premium.

We remained on the sidelines last week and by the looks of what is on the earnings calendar this week, we might be sitting on the sidelines again this week. No worries, our patient approach continues to serve us well. I say this because this earnings cycle has been one of the most volatile in years. More active earnings traders have struggled while those that have remained patient, waiting for real opportunities to arise, have been rewarded. And while my goal is to make 8 to 10 trades per earnings season, sometimes we just don’t get there and that’s OK. Successful trading has always been about quality, not quantity. Who cares how many trades one places, if success isn’t a direct byproduct?

We made our fourth straight successful trade for this earnings cycle late last week. We were thankful to take quick profits in Amgen (AMGN) Wednesday morning. All went as planned as AMGN opened well within the chosen range of our iron condor and, as a result, we were able to take off the trade for a nice one-day gain of 5.6%. Our total return for this earnings cycle stands at 28.8%, one of our best performing earnings cycle since we initiated Earnings Trader back in mid-July 2022, smack dab in the middle of the most recent bear market.

We made our third straight successful trade for this earnings cycle late last week. We were thankful to take quick profits in Microsoft (MSFT) Wednesday morning. All went as planned as MSFT opened well within the chosen range of our iron condor and, as a result, we were able to take off the trade for a nice one-day gain of 11.1%. Our total return for this earnings cycle stands at 23.2%.

We made our second straight successful trade for this earnings cycle last week. We were thankful to take quick profits in Visa (V) Friday morning. All went well as V opened well within the chosen range of our iron condor and, as a result, we were able to take off the trade for a nice one-day gain of 9.9%. But remember, even though these are short-term trades, this is a long-term strategy – a strategy based on the law of large numbers and statistical probabilities.

As we discussed on our subscriber-only call last week, this begins a four- to five-week period of major earnings announcements. More importantly, this week offers us several potential opportunities to trade a few earnings announcements.

Per our discussion last Friday, Visa (V), IBM (IBM) and American Express (AXP) offer the best opportunities with United Rentals (URI) not far behind. Surprisingly, Microsoft (MSFT) and Texas Instruments (TXN) didn’t offer any decent opportunities, or at least that was the case when we took a look Friday. But who knows, maybe implied volatility will kick up a bit higher before earnings and offer some better opportunities to sell premium.

As I discussed in our first subscriber-only webinar of 2024, the week after the initial big banks announce is slow. Yes, there are a few more big banks that announced prior to the opening bell (GS, MS) this morning, but, as we talked about, we didn’t really want to hold an earnings-based position over the long weekend.

Okay, everyone, the wait is over: Earnings season is back. While the next few weeks will start rather slowly for earnings announcements, we should still see two to three trades before earnings season begins to truly pick up.

This week we have the big banks kicking things off, per usual. My hope is that we can get one, if not two trades off this week. As always, I’ll be focusing on stocks in the weekly watch list below, with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase at the forefront.

I will be exiting our Amgen (AMGN) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming weekly issue and within our subscriber-only call this Friday.

Amgen (AMGN) is due to announce earnings today after the closing bell.

I will be exiting our Microsoft (MSFT) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming weekly issue.

Microsoft (MSFT) is due to announce earnings today after the closing bell.

I will be exiting our Visa (V) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming weekly issue.

Visa (V) is due to announce earnings after the closing bell today. The stock is currently trading for 271.33.

I will be exiting our JPMorgan Chase (JPM) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming weekly issue.

Okay, everyone, earnings season is finally upon us. I suspect we are in for an interesting earnings season, and to get us started, I will be holding a subscriber-only webinar tomorrow at 12 p.m. ET.

I will be exiting our Home Depot (HD) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming weekly issue.

Remember, as is always the case, risk management is the key to long-term success when using high-probability option strategies. It’s the only way to truly allow the law of large numbers to work in your favor. Don’t get greedy and enamored by the quick nature of these trades. Stay disciplined!

I will be exiting the Wynn Resorts (WYNN) trade today. I will discuss the trade in greater detail in our upcoming weekly issue.

Wynn Resorts (WYNN) is due to announce earnings today after the closing bell.