Rocky’s Weekly Stock Picks

This week we’re just going to dive on in. The holiday season is gearing up, and no matter what sector of the economy you work in, it’s going to impact you in some way.

Not us. We’re immune to such silly things as celebrations and Christmas cheer. You though, you’re definitely going to have other stuff going on besides work and finances. Until January, at least!

We like to have fun here. Of course we enjoy the merriest season of the year. Crank up the Dean Martin and pop a few bottles of sparkling grape juice and we’ll be partying until at least 10PM!

1. PBR.A - $9.93/share, ex-div 11/22, annualized dividend payout of $5.82, distributed monthly. These preferred shares are cheaper than the common shares, PBR. This is unusual in this price range, and just for fun, they’re both ADRs! Frankly, we’re not entirely sure what this means for us if Petroleo Brasileiro declares bankruptcy, nor are we educated whatsoever on how South American markets work.
   
   What we do know is that Brazil is a massive beast of an economy that your TV prefers you don’t know about. More importantly, PetroBras finds, harvests, refines, and exports oil and oil derivatives.
   
   Oil is more powerful than any silly government.
   

2. GOGL - $8.42/share, ex-div 11/25, annualized 16.63% paid quarterly. The share price is down slightly compared to our cost basis, but not by a significant margin. This Bermuda based shipping company transports stuff. Below is an excerpt from their company summary.

   
   The Company’s vessels transport a range of bulk commodities, including ores, coal, grains and fertilizers, along worldwide shipping routes.
   
   We can dig it.
   

3. SI - $24.73/share , options trade weekly, volatility is high. We’re looking at some Deep ITM covered calls, but might just do a vertical spread. The company’s profile sounds ominous, and they’re facing substantial litigation at the moment. Silvergate Capital Corporation is a holding company for Silvergate Bank.
   
   We’ve done very little research, because we want to live dangerously. From what we can gather, Silvergate is a significant player in the digital currency infrastructure of the United States (all of our currency is digital, so this isn’t some new Fed-coin type deal. Just good old regular digital dollars, the kind we’ve had for 50-some odd years).
   
   Our take on this one is, if you’re going to get risky, go big or go home. We’re not putting many eggs in this basket, though. Here’s a little snippet we found on TDAmeritrade regarding SI.

   
   INVESTIGATION ALERT: The Schall Law Firm Announces it is Investigating Claims Against Silvergate Capital Corporation and Encourages Investors with Losses to Contact the Firm
   

   If losing your investment is going to ruin Christmas, just give this one a pass. Or bet less.
   Full disclosure, we’re 100% gambling here. This is our idea of a good time.
   

4. RIOT - $4.46/share, options trade weekly. We’re looking at selling the $5 Put option, as it comes with a premium of ~$0.65. What a glorious price range to start a wheel, if the price stays where it’s at or dips lower.
   
   We expect it to go back above $5, but if not, that’s just dandy. Assignment would lower our average cost-per-share.
   
   If you’re less enthusiastic about RIOT, the $4 Put is looking like an easy $10 in your pocket. The nice thing about RIOT is that you can check the price of Bitcoin pre-market and correlate the price movements. This correlation is starting to diminish somewhat, but we’ve got a long ways to go before RIOT is moving without regard to BTC.
   

5. CCJ - $23.84/share, 0.38% annualized paid quarterly, options trade weekly. CCJ is a major player in the uranium world, which is the real reason we want more shares.
   
   Weekly options, though? Yeah, why not? Sounds good. Now if we can just find $2400 in our couch, we’ll buy a full lot and write a call.