Last weekend's foray into drone stocks stumbled out of the starting gate. Meanwhile, the sectors that have been carrying us for months — energy and precious metals — went right back to work, delivering triple-digit gains across several of our positions. There is a lesson in that. We don't need to find a new story every week. We don't need to manufacture trades simply because it's the weekend. And we certainly don't need to abandon sectors where both the fundamental story and the charts continue to point in the same direction. Since I'm trading these recommendations right alongside subscribers, I'll put it simply: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Premium Service Active Positions Before looking forward, let's look at where we stand today. The table below tells the story better than I can. Energy and precious metals have produced the lion's share of our biggest winners, including multiple triple-digit gains. But there is something else worth noticing. These aren’t one-shot trades. We have just closed two USO positions: the August calls at a 553.19% gain, and the September calls after they violated our –50% hard stop. It is a perfect example of how, with options, one enormous winner and one controlled loss can still produce an exceptionally successful campaign. Going forward, we remain long the October $150 calls, with 55 days remaining for the trade to develop. As a trend proves itself, we are willing to re-enter, extend duration and roll winning exposure forward rather than trying to identify one perfect entry and one perfect exit. Just as important is our trade-management discipline: losses are cut at predetermined levels, while triple-digit winners are given room to run. Once a position reaches a 100% gain, our trailing-stop methodology is designed to preserve at least half of the maximum gain thereafter. Cut the losers. Press the winners. Let the trend do the heavy lifting. Energy USO Weekly USO — The Trend Isn't Finished The weekly USO chart is increasingly consistent with an Elliott Wave advance in which the July low marked Wave 2 and the current breakout is the beginning of Wave 3. If that interpretation is correct, the move we're participating in may still be relatively early. My first intermediate-term objective is north of $170, corresponding closely with the 61.8% extension shown on the chart. Beyond that, the larger Elliott Wave structure leaves open considerably higher targets as Waves 3 and 5 develop. That's why I don't view USO as a trade we simply close when the current October calls mature. Assuming the chart continues to confirm the bullish count, expect us to roll forward and maintain USO exposure into 2027, with the longer-term structure capable of carrying the ETF above $200. The important qualification is the same one we always use: the chart has to continue confirming the thesis. XLE Weekly XLE — The Broader Energy Confirmation USO isn't operating in isolation. XLE has now broken above its own declining resistance, providing important confirmation that this is becoming a broader energy-sector move, rather than simply a rally in crude oil. And look at what we're actually buying through XLE: ExxonMobil and Chevron alone account for more than one-third of the ETF, supplemented by ConocoPhillips, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, Valero and other major energy companies. In other words, USO gives us direct leverage to the oil move; XLE gives us diversified leverage to the companies benefiting from it. That's exactly the kind of confirmation I want to see. Precious Metals GDX Weekly - Gold & Silver Miners GDX — Wave 5 Appears Underway GDX may be the cleanest precious-metals chart of the group. After peaking near $117 in March, GDX spent nearly five months correcting. That decline appears to have completed a textbook Wave 4 near the rising long-term trendline. Price has now broken decisively through the declining resistance lines drawn from the Wave 3 high. That's our signal that Wave 5 may be underway. The first obvious objective is a retest of the March high near $117. A clean breakout above that level would open the door toward the Fibonacci extension area in the $130s. We already own the October $100 calls, currently up over 350% from our $2.10 entry. With the trend accelerating, our job now isn't to predict the exact top. It's to manage the winner and maintain enough exposure to participate if Wave 5 develops as shown. As GDX approaches the old high, we may roll some or all of that exposure into higher-strike calls, effectively taking money off the table while maintaining leverage to Wave 5. GDX Top Ten Holdings SIL Weekly - Global Silver Miners SIL — Silver Miners Join the Breakout SIL is telling essentially the same story. The correction from the Wave 3 peak carried the ETF back toward long-term rising support, completing what appears to be Wave 4. It has now broken above declining resistance. That puts the silver miners back into an advancing technical structure with a potential Wave 5 ahead. What makes this particularly interesting is that we're not relying on a single company. SIL gives us exposure to Wheaton Precious Metals, Pan American Silver, Coeur Mining, Hecla and other major silver-related names. That's Confirmatory Analysis in action: gold miners are breaking out, silver miners are breaking out, and, as we'll see next, the underlying metals themselves are confirming the move. Gold & Silver — The Big Picture Finally, step back from the options and ETFs and look at the underlying metals themselves. Both charts tell essentially the same story. Spot Gold Spot Silver Gold and silver experienced enormous advances, corrected back toward long-term trend support, and are now attempting to emerge from what I have labeled Wave 4 corrections. If those counts are correct, the next major move is Wave 5. And that's the reason I am reluctant to take our profits in GDX, GLD, SIL and the related trades and simply walk away. We may be transitioning from “great trades” into a much larger secular move. There will be corrections. There will be failed breakouts. And some individual option positions will inevitably hit our stops. That's the nature of leveraged trading. But until these charts tell us otherwise, the strategy remains remarkably simple: Stay with the trends that are working.Cut losses when we're wrong.Roll winners when appropriate.And don't put an arbitrary ceiling on how far a genuine Wave 5 can carry us. As always, these are roadmaps, not guarantees. A decisive failure below the breakout levels would force us to reassess the Wave 5 thesis—which is exactly why our stops remain in place even when the larger picture looks this compelling. Above all:If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Active Options PRO Service Premium Service
