The stock market has unfortunately not gotten much better since the last time I was writing. A massive sell off of shares was caused by a few reasons, of course led by the Russia and Ukraine conflict. This conflict, combined with the threat of higher inflation has erased all gains from our end year rally back in 2021. These massive changes in price bring about one question though…

Why?

If there is one thing you need to know about the stock market, it’s the fact that uncertainty is the worst thing for it. Investors hate putting their trust into something that isn’t guaranteed, and a post-pandemic market isn’t the most reassuring place to invest. Add a foreign war, one that includes talks of NATO and our access to natural resources, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Luckily for investors, opportunities arise in times of disaster, especially in a case where something as impactful as oil supply is put on the table. Of course, everyone’s least favorite daily expense has been skyrocketing, and this is due to the basic supply and demand laws we learned when we were kids. Sanctions on Russia forced the supply of oil in the United States to fall drastically, quickly raising prices. This decision in hand raises gas prices here based on speculation by companies who own gas stations. This news sounds bad, well, because it is, however there is some sort of a silver lining. It is possible for investors to buy shares of oil companies, popular gas stations, and even trade the price of a barrel of oil itself. Because of the rising prices in oil itself as a commodity, companies selling said oil directly benefit. Naturally, investors want to own shares in a company that is making money, so shares of companies such as ExxonMobil have seen around a 30% increase since the beginning of the year. Essentially, if you put $1,000 dollars into this company back in January, you would have netted yourself $300 dollars off of this one company alone.

A common misconception, however, is that you can only make money on the increasing side of the market. Luckily for investors, you can profit from a company going down through a multitude of different strategies. In a red market, especially one weakened by war and inflation, opportunities were pretty much everywhere for the taking.

Andrian Rybka, a trader just like myself, and I were both watching in horror as the markets tanked over our February break. This quickly sparked an onset of research into what our best move was going forward during such a volatile market. We somehow stumbled on the ability to trade a Russian ETF, a stock that tracks the state of Russia’s economy and puts it into quantifiable data.

Naturally their economy was falling day in and day out, and for good reason. The stock fell with it, and we swiftly executed the purchase of multiple put options, contracts that would allow us to profit from this stock’s downfall. This approach was a rinse and repeat strategy that seemed like it could go on forever, until eventually the stock exchange responsible for the trading of this security froze it all together, seizing all orders in the process. However, this situation was an eye-opening experience for me and investors all around the world. There are endless opportunities within the market: you just need to know how to find them.

Luckily for anyone willing to learn, Andrian and I have created a club along with the help of Mr. Gaudio where we talk about everything you need to know in order to start investing, including how to identify opportunities such as the one mentioned above. Whether you’re completely new or an expert, everyone is welcome to join.

Classroom: 6daewzq