Chris’ note: It’s scary out there. After three brutal days of selling, the S&P 500 is down 16% from its peak. And the tech-laden Nasdaq-100 is down 25%. That puts it in a bear market.
So today, I’m keeping the spotlight on master trader Jeff Clark. He’s been a professional trader for more than 30 years. He’s made millions for celebrities, entrepreneurs, and Silicon Valley executives.
And he’s racked up some of his biggest gains in bear markets.
That’s why I’m excited for Jeff’s big event tomorrow. At 8 p.m. ET, he’s lifting the lid off a new trading strategy. It works in any market environment. And it involves quick trades that could double your money dozens of times over.
So make sure to secure your spot here. Then read on for more about Jeff’s secret to making money as a trader over time…
A few years ago, I recommended my subscribers buy a call option.
Think of a call option as a bullish “side bet” on a stock. You profit when price of the stock goes up.
This call option was on one of the world’s largest investment managers, Invesco (IVZ).
In just over a month, my subscribers had the chance to make 125%.
Not bad.
But after I closed the trade, IVZ kept climbing. Over the next few weeks, it rose another 10%.
Some of my readers weren’t too happy about it. They wrote in and asked me, “Why did we close that trade? We could’ve made even more if we held on.”
It’s a natural question to ask.
And the answer is critical if you want to make money over time as a trader.
So today, I’ll share with you what I told them…
Imagine you’re a contestant on the game show Let’s Make a Deal back in its heyday.
Monty Hall yanks you out of the audience. He flaps $2,000 in cash in your face and says, “This is your money. You can take it and keep it. Or you can trade it for what’s behind the curtain.”
If you don’t know the show, here’s how it works…
There’s a 50% chance that what’s behind the curtain is an all-expenses-paid trip, say to Mazatlán, Mexico. It’s valued at $5,000. There’s also a 50% chance what’s behind the curtain is virtually worthless, like a farm animal.
What do you do?
One way to look at it is…
“I came here with nothing. If I take what’s behind the curtain, the worst case is I’ll leave here with nothing. But there’s a 50% chance I’ll increase the value of my prize by 150% (the $5,000 vacation over the $2,000 cash prize). So I’ll pick what’s behind the curtain.”
But if it’s me in that situation, I’m taking the cash.
I’m thinking, “I came here with nothing. If I take the $2,000 in cash, there’s a 100% chance I’ll leave here better off. But there’s only a 50% chance I’ll leave here happy if I take what’s behind the curtain. Either way, my life won’t change dramatically. So I’ll take the $2,000 and be happy no matter what.”
Let me explain why…
If I get a $2,000 cash prize, I’ll be happy.
If I win a trip valued at $5,000, I’ll be ecstatic. But I’ll feel like an idiot if I give up the $2,000 and get the booby prize.
So I’ll pass on ecstatic. And I’ll take happy.
Every time I close a trade I’ve recommended, a little voice in the back of my head asks, “What happens if it moves even higher?”
This is like Monty Hall asking if you want to keep the $2,000 in cash… or forgo it for what’s behind the curtain.
If I close the trade right now, I know I’ll be happy. If I try to eke out more gains, I could be happier. But I could also feel like an idiot for being greedy.
I choose to err on the side of happiness. And there’s a reason for that…
It has to do with a painful lesson I learned when I was just starting out as a trader.
I was 19 when I made my first options trade.
I had a gut feeling the stock market was headed higher. So I bought some call options.
A few hours later, I sold them for a 200% gain.
Flushed with success, I made 17 more trades… each one a winner. This allowed me to turn a $5,000 grubstake into $50,000 in just six weeks.
Going 17 for 17 was a remarkable feat for a rookie. I thought I was a genius. So I decided to get serious.
“No more tiny trades,” I told myself. I was too good for the small stuff. I’d figured out a way to beat the market!
So I took the $50,000 in my account, added it to my $25,000 in savings, and put it into a handful of options trades.
You can probably guess what happened next…
The stock market has a habit of humbling folks who think they’ve figured it out. For me, the humbling started right away.
One by one, each position blew up on me. It was too painful to watch. I kept the TV off and avoided reading the newspaper for fear I’d see something bad about the stock market and my positions.
When I finally got up enough courage to check my account, I learned that all the gains I had built up over the previous six weeks were gone.
“Just sell everything,” I sobbed down the phone to my broker.
That was an expensive lesson.
But it’s one every trader learns at some point…
If you want to consistently grow your wealth over years, you have to choose happy over ecstatic.
If a trip to Mazatlán is behind the curtain, you’ll feel disappointed.
But you’re heading home with more money than you had. And you’ll have another shot at even bigger gains next time.
So take the money when it’s flashed in front of you.
At least you’re not going home with a goat…
Regards,
Jeff Clark
Editor, Market Minute
P.S. The next 44 days will be absolutely critical for traders. That’s due to a highly lucrative window is set to open on Wednesday, May 11.
During this time, you’ll have the chance to double your money over and over again. And I’ve discovered a way to spot which stocks are pre-determined to explode during this 44-day window.
Make sure to secure your spot.