Nike, RH, Five Below, 0DTE options, small caps, a jade lizard, seven new trade ideas and more. First time reading? Join other risk-takers, entrepreneurs, traders, investors, data geeks and alpha types. Sign up for free here.
TGI Thursday! (4/17) The Federal Reserve’s ringmaster finds himself on a tightrope without a net. Jerome Powell admitted yesterday that Trump's tariff tsunami threatens to leave the central bank choosing between two economic poisons: runaway inflation or economic stagnation. "We may find ourselves in the challenging scenario in which our dual-mandate goals are in tension," Powell confessed to Chicago's financial elite while markets tanked behind him. This morning, Trump weighed in.
The Fed chief's bureaucratic doublespeak barely conceals the obvious truth—they're screwed. His team expects to start slashing rates in June, but tariffs could torpedo those plans, forcing them to keep rates elevated while growth flatlines. March's retail bump appears more desperate than encouraging—panic buying ahead of Trump's import apocalypse.
Powell's "wait and see" approach betrays the Fed's impotence. Wall Street's reaction? A swift kick in the teeth as stocks cratered and Treasury yields reversed. The central bank isn't driving this economy—Trump's social mediafeed is.
Trump’s trade tactics have affected Nike (NKE), Restoration Hardware (RH) and Five Below (FIVE), sending share prices plummeting 25%, 30% and 40%, respectively. Yet Luckbox analyst-at-large Andrew Prochnow views these companies not as hapless victims but instead as powder kegs of probability of profit waiting for a tariff rollback spark. Their global supply chains—once strengths but now vulnerabilities—could quickly flip from liability to asset. These battered consumer discretionary companies offer a rare chance to capitalize on political volatility. Read Full Story
Warner's Minecraft Resurrection Story
While Warner Bros. (WBD) hemorrhages at a paltry $7.97 per share, its Minecraft movie just shattered video game adaptation records with a block-busting $163 million domestic opening and $314 million global haul. And its still big—in the two and a half weeks since its debut, the film has grossed half a billion dollars worldwide. As Wall Street vultures circle the media giant's corpse, this unexpected cubic savior—starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa—outperformed industry projections by 100% and even outpaced Barbie's opening weekend. With analysts projecting a 61.5% upside to $12.87 and a franchise-launching tentpole now delivering, perhaps the studio isn't quite ready for its funeral. Read Full Story
Medical Delivery Revolution: OPCH's 40% Run
While Wall Street wallows in uncertainty, Option Care Health (OPCH) has quietly surged 40% this year. The healthcare disruptor is transforming treatment delivery by bringing specialty infusions directly to patients' homes instead of administering them in sterile hospital settings. Despite this impressive run, the company remains curiously undervalued with a P/S ratio less than half the sector median. This company isn't just riding a temporary pandemic-fueled trend—it's reconstructing healthcare delivery for the long haul. Opportunity rarely announces itself so clearly. Read Full Story
An EV Chip Maker at Bargain Prices
ON Semiconductor (ON) is down a staggering 45% from its highs despite its dominance in the electric vehicle revolution. At a laughable 9.8 P/E ratio (compared to the sector's 25.2 average), this Phoenix powerhouse has been sacrificed on the altar of market panic. With 19 of 32 analysts screaming "buy" and average analyst's price targets at $59 vs. today's $36, it's time to take a closer look. Read Full Story
Zero-Day Options Are Reshaping Market Volatility
As stocks rise and fall on the wild rides triggered by tariff policies, active investors are responding by trading more zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) contracts. Volume has surged 23% since January and reached 8.5 million contracts in April alone. Critics complain these instruments amplify movements in the markets, but they also serve crucial functions. Informed investors use them for their immediate hedging capabilities or for tactical positioning during uncertain times. As one analyst notes, they accelerate trends already underway in the markets—serving as a powerful mechanism that rewards precision timing and strategic deployment. For a savvy trader navigating these choppy waters, zero-day options have become essential pieces of equipment instead of mere speculative playthings. Interested in learning more? Find out how to trade 0DTE options here.
Small Caps, Leverage and Lag
$TNA—a triple-leveraged small cap exchange-traded fund—offers a chance to board a rocket still on the launch pad. Small caps lag during panic and then explode when big money finally exhales. In this post-crash purgatory, as the suited class tiptoes back to large caps, perhaps the real windfall awaits those who bet on America's forgotten companies before the herd arrives. Read Full Story
Taming Delta's Descent With a Jade Lizard
In the latest installment of Nick Battista's popular Life Cycle of a Tradeseries, the veteran investor reveals the elegant brutality of the jade lizard strategy. See how it worked on Delta Air Lines (DAL) after its spectacular 40%-50% nosedive. Viewed another way, Battista shares the real time trade management of a naked put paired with a tactical call spread. As delta climbed from the wreckage, this strategy extracted profit with the efficiency of a Vegas card counter working a weak dealer. Watch the video here.
The 'Fair Share' Fallacy
While Tax Day has passed, your costs are still adding up. The National Taxpayers Union calculates we're hemorrhaging $464 billion each year in time and treasure simply to comply. Yet amid this misery persists the grand delusion that our $37 trillion national debt stems from insufficient taxation. Federal revenue has ballooned from $2.03 trillion in 1999 to $5.08 trillion today and is projected to reach $6.83 trillion by 2029—tripling in three decades.
Meanwhile, the wealthy aren't exactly escaping their obligation to pay their “fair share.” The top 1% pay an average rate of 26.1%—nearly seven times higher than the bottom half's 3.75%. These economic elites earn ~22% of total adjusted gross income yet shoulder ~40% of all federal income taxes. The bottom 50% earn 11.5% but contribute less than 4%. The problem isn't that Washington can't extract enough blood from the stone—it's that our government is a fiscal vampire with an unquenchable thirst. Our deficit isn't a revenue crisis; it's a spending addiction that no tax hike will ever satisfy.
Predatory Playbook: How Meta Devoured Its Rivals
The Meta (META) corporate strategy of swallowing up competitors has finally attracted the scrutiny it deserves. While countless copycat clones have withered and died, the original’s billion-dollar acquisitions—Instagram and WhatsApp—have flourished so spectacularly that regulators are crying foul.
In a Washington antitrust showdown, the Federal Trade Commission is demanding Meta's digital dismemberment. In particular, the FTC is targeting those suspiciously prescient purchases from 2012 and 2014. Their smoking gun? Zuckerberg's own emails reveal the Instagram takeover wasn't just a matter of fancy filters—it was about crushing competition during Facebook's desktop-to-mobile metamorphosis. Instagram now accounts for more than half of Meta's U.S. revenue.
MoreCowbell
Netflix reports earnings after the close. Here’s a preview.
Scott Bessent made a directional market call on the VIX.
JJ Kinahan talks to Bloomberg about tariffs and earnings.
This recent All-In pod features a great debate on tariffs.
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Luckbox Magazine is a product and service offered by tastylive, Inc. (“tastylive”). Luckbox Magazine content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, trading or investment advice or a recommendation that any security, futures contract, digital asset, other product, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any person. Trading securities, futures products, and digital assets involves risk and may result in a loss greater than the original amount invested. The information provided in Luckbox Magazine may not be appropriate for all individuals, and is provided without respect to any individual’s financial sophistication, financial situation, investing time horizon or risk tolerance. Transaction costs (commissions and other fees) are important factors and should be considered when evaluating any securities, futures, or digital asset transaction or trade. For simplicity, the examples and illustrations in these articles may not include transaction costs. Nothing contained in this magazine constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, promotion or offer by Luckbox Magazine or tastylive, Inc., or any of its subsidiaries, affiliates or assigns. While Luckbox Magazine and tastylive believe that the information contained in Luckbox Magazine is reliable and make efforts to assure its accuracy, the publisher disclaims responsibility for opinions and representation of facts contained therein. Active investing is not easy, so be careful!
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Three Consumer Stocks Set to Surge
