Exits, 5/8/2026
How we did on the trades we exited this week.
This Week’s Trade Exits
As soon as I exit a trade, I note that in the comments of the post where I first mentioned the trade; at the end of the week, I try to track them all in one post. Starting in July, 2024, I have also been tracking them in this spreadsheet. These are the trades I exited this week.
Stocks or Exchange Traded Products
None.
Options
4-leg combo on Wolfspeed (WOLF 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $0.80 on 11/4/2025; exited the put spread at a net debit of $3.73 on 3/20/2026; exited the call spread at a net credit of $4.00 on 5/7/2026. Loss: 9% of max risk (66% on premium outlay). Signal: PA Top Names.
Put spread on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA 0.00%↑). Entered at a net credit of $0.43 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 3/3/2026; exited half at a net debit of $0.10 on 5/4/2026. Profit: 77% (return on max risk: 15%). Signal: PA Top Names.
Put spread on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA 0.00%↑). Entered at a net credit of $0.43 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 3/3/2026; exited the second half at a net debit of $0.10 on 5/6/2026. Profit: 77% (return on max risk: 21%). Signal: PA Top Names.
Put spread on Novo Nordisk (NVO 0.00%↑). Entered at a net credit of $1.22 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 4/10/2026; exited at a net debit of $0.20 on 5/7/2026. Profit: 84% (return on max risk: 27%). Signal: Multibaggers.
Put spread on GlobalFoundries (GFS 0.00%↑). Entered at a net credit of $1.45 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 3/3/2026; exited at a net debit of $0.20 on 5/5/2026. Profit: 86% (return on max risk: 35%). Signal: Multibaggers.
Put spread on iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY 0.00%↑). Entered at a net credit of $1.40 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 3/25/2026; exited at a net debit of $0.20 on 5/8/2026. Profit: 86% (return on max risk: 33%). Signal: PA Top Names.
Put spread on Frequency Electronics (FEIM 0.00%↑). Entered at a net credit of $1.40 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 2/11/2026; exited at a net debit of $0.20 on 5/5/2026. Profit: 86% (return on max risk: 33%). Signal: Market Watchers.
Short call on Ouster (OUST 0.00%↑). Sold-to-open for $3.23 as part of a 4-leg hybrid combo on 11/19/2025; bought-to-close for $0.20 on 5/7/2026. Profit: 94%. Signal: PA Top Names.
Calls on Opera (OPRA 0.00%↑). Bought for $1.85 as part of a 3-leg combo on 12/1/2025; sold half for $4.50 on 5/4/2026. Profit: 143%. Signal: Deep Value + Bottoming Setup.
4-leg combo on Seagate Technology (STX 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $4.40 on 3/13/2026; exited the put spread at a net debit of $0.20 on 4/14/2026; exited the call spread at a net credit of $16.00 on 5/5/2026. Profit: 259% (return on max risk: 121%). Signal: PA Top Names.
Calendar spread on Lumentum Holdings (LITE 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $10.75 on 4/24/2026; exited at a net credit of $25.88 on 5/7/2026. Profit: 141%. Signal: PA Top Names.
4-leg hybrid combo on Intel (INTC 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $1.10 on 2/18/2026; exited the put spread at a net debit of $0.20 on 4/10/2026; exited the calendar at a net credit of $4.05 on 5/7/2026. Profit: 250% (return on max risk: 44%). Signal: PA Top Names.
4-leg combo on Cognex (CGNX 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $2.45 on 10/10/2025; the put spread was assigned and exercised at a net debit of $5.00 on 11/24/2025; exited the call spread at a net credit of $16.00 on 5/7/2026. Profit: 349% (return on max risk: 115%). Signal: Rare Earths Reaction Trade.
4-leg combo on Micron Technology (MU 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $2.62 on 3/3/2026; exited the put spread at a net debit of $0.20 on 4/8/2026; exited the call spread at a net credit of $16.00 on 5/5/2026. Profit: 504% (return on max risk: 173%). Signal: PA Top Names.
Comments
Stocks or Exchange Traded Products
No exits this week, as I haven’t been doing our basic strategy, which involves buying stocks and ETFs, and have been focusing on options instead. Nevertheless, the performance of our system’s top names have nearly doubled that of the SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY 1.32%↑) since I launched this Substack in December of 2022.
Options
14 Profitable Exits Out Of 15
This was another strong week for our options trades: 15 exits, 14 of them profitable, with the one losing exit limited to 9% of max risk.
The losing trade here, Wolfspeed, was a 4-leg combo where the put spread went against us, but the call spread later recovered enough to offset most of that damage.
The other 14 exits were profitable, and several of them were large wins. Micron Technology closed as a 504% winner on premium outlay. Cognex closed as a 349% winner. Western Digital closed as a 336% winner. Seagate Technology closed as a 259% winner. Intel closed as a 250% winner. Lumentum Holdings closed as a 141% winner, and Opera gave us a 143% gain on the first half of the calls.
The AI Stack Kept Paying
That cluster of winners wasn’t coincidental. This was another week where the market rewarded parts of the AI stack: memory, storage, semiconductors, optical connectivity, and data-center infrastructure. Chip stocks were strong again, AI-related names helped drive the major indexes higher, and earnings/guidance from key names kept reinforcing the idea that this buildout is broader than just GPUs.
Earlier in the week, AMD’s strong forecast sparked a broad AI stock rally, and the Nvidia / Corning partnership underscored something we’ve been emphasizing for a while: the AI buildout isn’t just about GPUs. It’s also about the physical infrastructure needed to connect them. Corning’s optical-connectivity expansion fits right into that theme.
That’s the backdrop behind several of this week’s exits. We didn’t need to predict every individual move perfectly. We needed to be in the right parts of the stack, with defined-risk structures, and then take the money when the options market gave us the chance.
Harvesting Premium While The Bullish Side Works
Several of this week’s exits were the less glamorous but important kind: put spreads and short calls coming off after doing their job.
The put-spread exits on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Novo Nordisk, GlobalFoundries, iShares MSCI South Korea ETF, and Frequency Electronics generated profits from 77% to 86% on premium collected. Those exits reduced risk while leaving the bullish side of the related trades alive.
The Ouster short call exit did something similar from the other side of the hybrid structure. We sold that short call for $3.23 and bought it back for $0.20, locking in a 94% gain on the short call while leaving the January 2027 long call in place.
Taking Big Wins Before The Tape Changes
This week also showed why I like to have standing exit targets.
Seagate Technology, Western Digital, Micron Technology, Cognex, Intel, and Lumentum Holdings all gave us strong exits, but they didn’t all get there the same way. Some were call spreads hitting their targets. Some were calendars or hybrids where the short leg had already been managed. Some were full packages where the financing legs had been handled earlier and the bullish side was left to work.
That matters in a tape like this one. The AI rally was strong, but it wasn’t smooth. Chip stocks cooled at times as investors digested earnings and renewed U.S.-Iran uncertainty, then firmed again as AI-related names regained their footing.
When trades are up triple digits, there’s always a temptation to wait for more. Sometimes that works. But the repeatable process is to take profits at pre-set targets, and let the next trade do the next trade’s job.
Defined Risk In A Messy Macro Tape
The macro backdrop still isn’t clean. The U.S. and Iran exchanged fire again in the Strait of Hormuz this week, but U.S. officials said they didn’t consider the shooting an end to the ceasefire. That’s the kind of situation where the market can rally one day on de-escalation hopes and wobble the next on renewed Gulf risk.
At the same time, earnings have been strong, the labor market has been resilient, and investors have been willing to look through high oil prices and geopolitical risk when the company-level numbers justify it. That’s a good environment for options structures, but only if we stay disciplined.
This week’s exits are a good example of that discipline paying off. We harvested premium on financing legs, bought back short calls when they collapsed, exited call spreads when they hit our targets, and let several bullish structures work long enough to turn into triple-digit winners.
The goal isn’t to avoid every losing trade. The goal is to keep the losses contained, let the winners get big, and keep using structures that give us more than one way to make money.
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