Optik Options 193% in 2021 – Happy New Year!

We have had a number of days that the markets have retreated due to concerns over the Covid variant Omicron but now the excitement seems to have waned. While Omicron appears to spread much faster it also appears less impactful – i.e., it’s a cold and not a life and death situation for most. That said, Covid’s death toll has surpassed 800,000

The S&P set a record high this past week of 4725.79 by Thursday’s close, finishing shortened week with a 2.3% gain. Big Tech, such as Tesla (TSLA) and Nvidia (NVDA) contributed a third of the S&P 500’s gains this past year.

GAMMA stocks: Alphabet (GOOGL), Apple, Microsoft (MSFT), Meta Platforms (FB), and Amazon.com (AMZN), have had a 32% gain. The GAMMAs have had high sales growth and returns on equity, but also much higher valuations.

The stock market’s performance in the first five days of a given year can sometimes predict the market’s direction for the rest of the year, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, which studied the “first five days” phenomenon going back to 1950.