 Hello there everyone. This is Melissa Armel with the Stock Swoosh and I'm finally getting a chance to go over the results from 2021 and it's February. In fact, it's almost March in two weeks. So it has been, needless to say, a very busy start to 2022, but we cannot forget 2021, which was still a good year. And again, it's very hard to believe that we're almost two years out of COVID. The volatility that we're experiencing at this point even now kind of reminds me of COVID, but 2021 was really not a volatile year. If you go back and look, in fact, let me pull up, let me pull up the, here, we can go back and look at 2021 right now. This was 2021. I mean, this is where we started the year and I had the queues up here. So we're on the queues and then we ran all the way up, up, up, up, up, up. Last high in the market was 1122. It was around Thanksgiving and then this was the end of the year. So it was a very bullish year for the market and it really wasn't volatile because we had many dips that got bought. We had many new highs and it was a very, very bullish year for the market. The interesting thing was the backdrop of the economy. I just didn't see it resulting in the year that we had. I was really surprised when we kept rallying and I think it's kind of like all coming together now where we're seeing this volatility this year and you're not seeing the smooth moves and the follow through to the upside like you did in 2021. We did shorts. We did calls. We did puts, which are shorts. We did calls, which are loans. We did, we did everything last year and I do everything on the newsletter. Again, a long, I look for bullish gaps. We do calls. Any short is a put, which is I look for bearish gaps. So I rate the gaps in the morning using my rating method and then I send the trades out emailed usually in the pre-market. There are some times that I'll send trades out during the day, but like today, everything went out in the pre-market pretty early and we didn't do anything in the live day. So I had sent everything out in the morning before the open. If you have questions, you can email me at melissathestalkswitch.com. You can feel free to call me at 929-3200 Gap. You can also email me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Skype. So right now it's earnings season. We're towards the end of it and then we'll start second quarter too. Again, this year's just flying, flying by, but it's a great time to trade in earnings season because you get a lot of gaps and that's what everything I do is based on. That's why it's called the Gap Options newsletter. So I'm very excited about 2022. It started out to be a great year. Again, it has been an active year. I wanted to show everyone the results for 2021 though because people always like to look at a bigger scope, a wider time range of things just to see what we did in the calendar year of last year. So there were 302 winners last year. There were 156 losers, 13 break-even trades, total win ratio of the letter year to date last year. That was 2021. 67% win ratio. An average risk per trade was around 7500. You do not have to risk that. That's an advanced trader risk, but that's what we're talking about here with these types of stats over 1.6 million. So again, you can take one contract to trade and I've been trying to do more, really been trying to do more to show people with a beginner account what you can achieve. And I'm going to try to continue that even though it's a lot of time for me and my assistant to do it, just to show you if you take a lot less risk. Now, again, I've been trading since 2008, but it took me three years to figure out my program. So really since I had pulled everything together, it was three years after that. So I'm going on 10 years having the business now and 13 years trading. I'm at an advanced level. When you start out when you're new, you can start out with a beginner level. You can start out with a $200 risk, with a $300 risk. Again, one contract. And I do think it's important for people to start out at the beginning slowly and work themselves up. And you can do that even if you have a large account. So these were all the trades starting from the beginning of 2021. So the parentheses show the trades that were losses. Okay, just so you know. And we did have a few breakeven trades. And I get this question a lot. And you can tell that here from the results looking at all the winners and all the losers. So say I first of all, I call the weeklies. Okay, so I call trade on a Monday that expires on that Friday, because that's how I call it. Like I wouldn't do it two week out unless it was a holiday. So I call trade on a Monday that expires on the Friday on the newsletter. And say the trade Monday goes, it's profitable. It's like 100% winner right away. You can get out you can get out that initial day, you can take it the day I call it you get out that day. Just because you have a lot of time in something doesn't necessarily mean you want to hold it if the trade goes and it works and you get the momentum, you can book the profits. Like today I called trades all the trades today, except for one went right away today, you could still be in them, because even week and a half, but you could have gotten right out. Anyways, what if I call trade on a Monday? And that trade is down. Do I kill it? No, I don't kill it. I don't kill it because I give trades a chance to work and it has a whole week. You see what I'm saying? So that's why the amount of risk that you take is very, very important so that you can hold it, you can hold options overnight, that's the benefit of doing options. Again, I'll pull up a chart in a minute. But anyways, you can hold it. And then the reason some of these look like full losses is because they were because like I might take a trade and if it never goes right, never goes green, never goes positive, never gets some momentum, never works, basically, just goes flat loses, then I'll write it out until the very last day of expiration for the possibility that may flip and work and go green. So that's why I'm just I play to win. So I take the train when or lose and that's how I play it. There are people in the letter that kill the trade if it's down 30% or 50% if it doesn't go the first day, but then they miss out on trades that do go I will tell you that because not every trade goes the same day I call it and you need to know that. So pick a risk and choose a risk and a number of trades you could do at one time if you have to hold them. So that is also why the the losing trades are almost the full amount basically of the position size or a partial if I was able to get out of it with the move like here with the Twitter, like it might have a move the last day and then it just doesn't fully go around. Okay? There's something else so it's going to say we're talking about to think about what else was going to say and I just lost my train of thought. Um oh I know. So some of the ones that were smaller winners were ones like that I I was in it and then I was holding it was down okay and then I'm holding it right up until like if it expires Friday right up until Thursday if I'm up something like like this HD 1750 I'm not going risk losing a total amount in it if I'm up into it into the Thursday. Do you know what I'm saying? Because it is a positive trait. I remember every amount of risk that you had you have the full amount at risk like let's say you had a thousand dollars risk and say you were up a thousand and something yes you can hold it but you're risking not only the thousand you risk plus a thousand you're absolutely risking two thousand like that's how I look at it seriously that's how I look at it. I'm risking the full amount of men plus the profit if I don't get at when I'm up okay at some point you have to come to terms with where you're going to exit trades but all of them are looking for momentum actually let me just show you what I mean by momentum here and again all the positive traits all the losing trades here's a break even let me show you the best example actually still is really PayPal here for what for momentum is that a nice move today this like this is a good move here high was 139 lowest 129 that's momentum it continued okay but this is like a move in something um what would not be a move I'll tell you tell you right now this is not a move this trade was slightly up yesterday apple calls but it didn't really move it reversed today but anyways you wouldn't have gotten in and got out of this yesterday what would have been the point so this is no more momentum even though it was slightly positive so I mean that's an example so we're looking for momentum so that is how I look at the whole big picture some days I will call like today I called a bunch of trades you don't have to do them all you could say I'm going to do one a day that's it boom there are maybe days I don't call any trades it's the same thing with the room if we don't have any good rated gaps I'm not doing anything I don't know until I get up in the morning now I think we're probably going to have something to every day right now in earnings season and that has been the case but it's about the criteria I use the rating criteria to do the work in the morning that's why the trades go out so early so that's what you have to watch and know um I remember this Disney that just didn't work out Disney wish today actually let's see how Disney clothes we didn't do it I didn't like it it was a bullish cap I didn't didn't like it what did it do nope thank god we didn't do it I did not like this I'm gonna see what this did anyways the set earnings the earnings were last night I watched it this morning and I saw what the market was doing but this was up this was up it had a one quick fast move if you wanted to get out of it as a day trade or go along but I knew it wasn't going to be right as an option and I was right I was right shut this fell and it had good earnings and it was up so it closed your gap dot but it couldn't hold on so again all the trades we're doing are we're buying calls and selling them when they're up or we're buying puts and we're selling them when we're they're up if I'm in a trade to the last day I will sell out of it I don't forget to get out of your trades it's a good habit to get out of your trades when you are even up or down on the last day don't not get out of them there's they will convert into shares if you don't when you're up the last day so even just get into regular habit even if you're selling something at zero seriously and time value goes every single day you know this if you've done options in the past the difference between Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon is time value the difference between Friday morning and Friday afternoon is a different time value too so you got to be aware of that some of the bigger trades we did last year Facebook was a big one look how how many how many times we did that there we didn't we've done the market a lot this year we did the market more I think in 2020 Adobe was a nice stray there all of these you can see you recognize all the ticker symbols we do everything that has volume I'm always looking for volume in the options strain we don't do things that don't have volume that just makes no sense to me we want stocks to move I'm looking for institutional money that's either moving the stock price higher or moving the stock price lower okay so I'm always looking for something that has volume MCD that was a nice strain remember that Microsoft too some of the bigger ones here we did and then it like if it's a break even it's probably the last day that I'm getting out break even to UPS was a nice one Twitter we did not do that today I didn't like that paypal we did several times that's been another one for us NVIDIA didn't work out that one time but NVIDIA has is something that can be a good stock to trade as an option because it has big moves Palatine remember that that was a big train BYND some nice moves in that stock too I have to look at when those earnings are Google is expensive to train what if something cost outside your price range and I call it then you don't do it you don't do it like I called an Amazon today it was expensive so if I call something that is pricey and the price point where you can't even do one is out of your price range you're not doing that trade it doesn't happen that often but you need to know that you need to stick within the parameters of whatever you're doing with the size of your account zoom is something else we did a bunch of times last year some nice trades in that and again the market I think the market's great to play like today was a volatile day and a great day to play the market and we played the market to the downside today and it worked so when I if I see the market will do something which I did this morning in the morning then I will look at it and I will call whatever things I think are the best gaps and I'll call them directional moves with the market oh here was NVIDIA here was the one with the NVIDIA not all the NVIDIAs yeah NVIDIA is still pretty strong I will say that though some nice moves here tests of Boeing we did Boeing more in 2020 but we did do it in 2021 some big Boeing trades another stock and rock and roll some of these things are so nice to do as options why they're expensive to do estate trades even though I do them they can be spreading estate trades but you know the cost of the options really sometimes it's just it's so worthwhile for the moves these things can have particularly particularly if they move overnight if they move overnight in your direction and you're in them and that's how some of these trades are just monster trades that's how you can get a 200% return on investment a 300% return investment I mean we have those types of trades how you're in it overnight you're in it overnight you're in it overnight and it goes like that boom you're golden um and and we that's what we did in this Facebook here hold on let me pull this up this was this year I don't want to confuse because I'm going over 2021 we were in this into the drop this was a huge trade for people so I had called the 290 puts and then it dropped and opened at 244 so it dropped basically crashed on the earnings and it was like 40 some points from the strike and this was Thursday it expired Friday so that's how you get these really big moves overnight sometimes when you're in trades and they go in your direction if you're going to call on a gaps up if you're in a short or a putt and a gaps down so here's an example of one that we did this was this year though this is what the letter looks like and actually my assistant is working on a new format for the letter which looks really really nice actually which we're going to start I think this week but you get the symbol whatever we're doing strike whatever it is so you know expiration date boom this was 18th this is Friday like I said type is a putt it was $21 for one which actually for Amazon is cheap so you could have paid 2100 sold at 72 profit 50 100 return an investment 243 percent I'll show you the chart in a minute and then if you had an advanced risk for contracts risk of 8400 sold at 72 20,400 243 percent return investment so that was in here we did that on the 18th and then again we're playing the momentum so it's a putt so we want selling and we want a shorting and we get a drop and then we get the drop and we get out so you get the drop out boom out you take it get out again gap trading for me is about momentum you got to get the direction right and with options you've got to get the timing right so I'm showing you from 2021 the results with an 8,000 our risk per tree we're we're off to a really good start for this year though I will say that I did do the 2022 results so far year to date but again this year has been very volatile so that makes for good trades you got to get the direction right just like I did today today was tricky um but having conviction knowing what to do all of these things help you can you trade with the beginning risk yes yes you can like I said you can take one contract and if you have a small account you can trade options with a cash account you do not need a margin account to trade options if you don't know what I mean pick up a phone and call your broker they will answer all your questions for you trust me they want your business they want your account if you want to learn my method you could take my golden gap course I do that usually once a month although I have not done the class this year so far it's been a busy year for me like I said I'm just getting to do the last year's results now I do have a class plan for the end of February the February 26 and 27th if you want to sign up but if you want to sign up for the newsletter you just sign up and join you can get the trades tomorrow for a lot of people right now we had that inflation number this morning it was a disaster I'm telling you you're getting to the point where you've got to start thinking about your future and what you're doing to make things happen for yourself you can't rely on other people and I know people got nice stimulus checks you know since covid but that wasn't the never gonna last and now you look at you see what's happening to the prices of things you know you gotta make more money so you know there's ways to do it in the market but you've got to know what to do you can sign up for the newsletter you can take the golden gap course again this is the class that I teach once a month but the newsletter itself has no prerequisites at all 12 month subscription is $69.99 and a half annual subscription is $49.99 the newsletters are emailed to you and again no prerequisites and there's no trials if you want to sign up you can email me you can sign up and again it's one of these things where people have been doing very very well you can always email me for upcoming class dates go check the website see what's on the site again February 26th and 27th it's the first class of this year and then March 1st is the first trends class for the combo so join today if you're interested in getting involved pick up a phone and call me if you have questions email me if you have questions have a great night everyone