A nervy week waiting for the Federal Reserve to do what everyone expected - cut rates. Records flow and then the AI nerves come along
Portfolio News
In a week where S&P 500 dropped 0.57% and Europe rose 0.82%, my pension portfolio dropped 0.28% - half as much as the US. The big drags were nuclear power stocks with NuScale Power (SMR) down 14% - doing the lifting was Canada with its weight of marijuana and silver mining.
Big movers of the week were Bayhorse Silver (BHS.V) (73.3%), Tilray Brands (TLRY) (65.3%), Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED.TO) (50%), Curaleaf Holdings (CURA.TO) (34.6%), Cronos Group (CRON) (31.3%), Elevra Lithium (ELV.AX) (21.9%), Sun Silver (SS1.AX) (17%), Global Atomic Corporation (GLO.TO) (16.7%), Aurora Cannabis (ACB.TO) (16.4%), Advance Metals (AVM.AX) (14.3%), WhiteHawk (WHK.AX) (12.5%), AuKing Mining (AKN.AX) (12.5%), Pan American Silver (PAAS) (12%), Deep Yellow (DYL.AX) (11.8%), Sarytogan Graphite (SGA.AX) (11.1%), Hecla Mining Company (HL) (10.8%), Pursuit Minerals (PUR.AX) (10.8%), Aurelia Metals (AMI.AX) (10.6%), Peninsula Energy (PEN.AX) (10.6%), Broken Hill Mines (BHM.AX) (10.5%), Atha Energy Corp (SASK.V) (10.2%)
21 stocks in the big movers list - a bit shy. The long term themes are here - from the top: silver/gold mining (8 stocks), marijuana (5 stocks), alternate energy (2 stocks), uranium (4 stocks) - a week for 3 things moving
US markets were cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting, celebrated with records after the rate cut was announced and then got nervous in Friday trade on Broadcom (AVGO) earnings. Headed then for a big rotation out of technology stocks, especially AI.
Big market moving news that Trump is expected to sign executive order to reclassify marijuana as soon as Monday. Marijuana stocks soared - not necessarily good as many of my portfolio holdings have covered calls written against them.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/12/cannabis-stocks-trump-regulations.html
Crypto Struggles
Bitcoin price pushed higher testing resistance a few times and failing each time finishing the week 1.8% lower than the open with a peak to trough range of 7.4%.
Ethereum price pushed higher testing resistance above and failed finishing the week 0.7% lower than the open with a peak to trough range of 12%.
Loopring (LRCBTC) pops 86% against the downward pattern seen in altcoins - did give away more than half.
Nuclear Energy Holdings
Two changes in holdings and a small auto-invest on ASX accompanied by a 3% drop in valuations.
Change in mix of holdings sees Yellow Cake plc (YCA.L) move up one place into slot 2. Paladin Energy Ltd (PDN.AX) moves up a place into slot 8 and Range Nuclear Renaissance ETF (NUKZ) comes into Top 10 in slot 10. Dropping out of the Top 10 is IsoEnergy Ltd. (ISO.TO). Share of portfolios drops 0.7 points to 32.3%
Holdings by Stage sees Producing up just under half a point and Technology up half a point
Alternate Energy Holdings
One addition in lithium accompanied with a 0.9% drop in valuations. Opening balance changed to add in a missing parcel of the lithium stock just added.
A few changes in the mix of holdings. JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (JKS) moves up a place taking back slot 1. Sigma Lithium Corporation (SGML) rises one place into slot 5. Gevo Inc (GEVO) comes into Top 10 in slot 10 supplanting Vulcan Energy Resources Limited (VUL.AX) still sliding after the horror placement pricing. Share of portfolios drops a little to 7.4%
Bought
A few rights issues and placements to catch up on in personal portfolio
Panther Metals (PNT.AX): Base Metals. Rights issue taken up
Lightning Minerals Ltd (L1M.AX): Lithium. Share placement in personal portfolio - tranche 1 reported - tranche 2 requires AGM approval. Also added a small parcel in pension portfolio to average down entry price.
BPM Minerals Limited (BPM.AX): Gold Mining. Share placement in personal portfolio.
Arafura Resources (ARU.AX): Rare Earths. SPP closes Dec 9 at a price higher than prevailing market price. Bought a parcel on open market also at a lower price than the tranche of stock sold in personal portfolio the week before last. Now the SPP is closed pricing can return to normal trajectory - hopefully up.
AXP Energy (AXP.AX): US Oil. Announced tie-in of Charlie 1 Well in Oklahoma indicating cash flows will begin. Doubled holding in personal portfolio to build back to breakeven exit. This has been a long hard road starting under a different name in Colorado and going through some iterations to arrive at drilling in Oklahoma.
Energy Fuels (UUUU): Uranium. With price opening at $15.29 (Dec 9) put in place a June 2026 16/25/13 call spread risk reversal. This offers maximum profit potential of 343% for 61.4% price move on the call spread. The sold put (13) fully funds the call spread premium with 16% price coverage
Let's look at the chart which shows the bought call (16) as a yellow ray and the sold call (25) as a green ray and the sold put (13) as a dotted yellow ray with the expiry date the dotted green line on the right margin. (All shown by the big yellow arrows - there are a lot of trades open). Sold call (25) is around and just below the recent highs. The sold put (13) is around the recent lows - breakeven is $12.36 should that happen. Price needs the two blue arrow price moves to reach the maximum BUT this trade will make the maximum long before expiry and will trade over the top if the run up is as big as the last one.
The slew of trades expiring in Jan 2026 are mostly topped out by sold calls below the current price - hence putting this trade on up above. This trade does add to the stock purchase made last week.
Next day with price opening at $15.25, worked a risk reversal in the pension portfolio - put on a 22/14 diagonal risk reversal with April and January 2026 expiries. Thinking was to do it a ratio but did not work out that way - what it did was double up the April expiry call (22) already held and funded part of that with the sold put (14). Step one of the adjustment was to sell more puts (same strike) next day making a 4 to 3 ratio. Still not fully funded. Will adjust that by selling a call above the bought call (22) to make it fully funded.
Going back to the chart above - the bought call (22) up near the top is in light purple = open-ended for a big move and the sold put (14) gives a solid breakeven below the last reversal.
Lightbridge Corporation (LTBR): Nuclear Technology. With price opening at $16.81 (Dec 9) put in place in managed portfolio a May 2026 17.5/25/15 call spread risk reversal. This offers maximum profit potential of 207% on the call spread for 48.7% price move. The sold put (15) fully funds the call spread premium with 10.8% price coverage.
The chart shows why this trade was made - no other call trades open and price has made a reversal off short term support with clear precedence to go higher. Let's look at the chart which shows the bought call (17.5) as a blue ray and the sold call (25) as a red ray and the sold put (15) as a dotted red ray with the expiry date the dotted green line on the right margin. Sold call (25) is below the recent highs. The sold put (15) is around the recent lows - breakeven is $14.55 should that happen. If price follows a blue arrow price scenario this trade will make the maximum long before expiry and will trade over the top if the run up is big as the last one.
Lightning Minerals (L1M.AX): Gold Mining. Company announced an expansion of their Queensland gold mining project - significant gold, base metal and silver mineralisation was intersected in eight of nine holes and multiple new gold targets have been identified in phase 1 drilling. Now for phase 2. Doubled holding in pension portfolio to average down entry price to work toward a breakeven exit. Price paid was 31% below the last placement price - no SPP. Trade did use funds moved in to fund two month's pensions - do have an idea what will be sold when the shortfall has to be addressed. Next Investors idea - originally bought for the lithium tenements in Argentina
Ur-Energy Inc (URG): Uranium. Announced a $100 million convertible debt issue - price tanked 10%. Took the opportunity to increase position size in pension portfolio by half to average down entry price.
Chart shows there is 86% headroom to recent highs.
NuScale Power Corporation (SMR): Nuclear Technology. Assigned early on sold put in pension portfolio. Breakeven $25.95 vs $18.34 close (Dec 12) - two cycles - going to have to be quite a long hold for this. Pretty clear to me the hedge funds are trying to kill this business. Thus far the pension portfolio is ahead on the idea considering both options and stock trades
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Sold
Mineral Resources (MIN.AX): Base Metals. Price has been recovering after the debacle of related party transactions with the CEO and a crunching lithium price. Took the chance to close out holding in personal portfolio for 43% blended profit since January/August 2024/July 2025. Averaging down helped. Intelligent Investor idea - read their recent review after earnings - structure problems have been fixed, plenty of upside in iron ore and lithium as prices recover and now the Onslow road has been rebuilt.
Titan Minerals (TTM.AX): Gold Mining. Recent drill results indicate an important increase in resource in the Ecuador gold tenements. With rising gold price, share price has popped - chose take out profits for 160% profit since May 2024. Next Investors idea
Tilray Brands (TLRY): Marijuana. Spike in marijuana stocks took out a few covered calls that were written well away from price at the time - not much one can do when prices run so hard. Generates a 33% stock loss since November 2025. This parcel arose from sold puts assigned after a long series of sold puts. Income from these over the last 12 months covered this capital loss tice over. Marijuana has been a poor investment - the process over the last few months has been to write tight sold puts and wide calls and claw back through premium income or profits on assignments.
ASX Portfolio
The segment reports trading in ASX fractional share portfolio. Trade entries are made based on stock screens looking for undervalued stocks (price to book, price earnings, price to sales) that are showing technical signs of breaking a downtrend. Exits are made at 35% profit or 25% if 52 week high is lower than 35% advance. New buys are in $500 lots. Scale ins and top ups in $250 lots
New Buys
Flight Centre Travel Group Limited (FLT.AX): Travel Services. Price popped on announcement of UK cruise tour operator, Iglu. Added a holding but chose to go half size in line with the NZ-based travel stocks.
Chart shows the pop - the most recent broker target is a bit below a 52 week high target but there is plenty scop getting back to the previous high.
Hedging Trades
GoGold Resources (GGD.TO): Gold Mining. Closed portion of holding in pension portfolio at 52 week high locking in 38.8% blended profit since January/June/August 2022/July/December 2023. LIFO profit a lot larger. Time to go back to the original idea
Someone commented on a Twitter post about the big silver mining moves by Stroud Resources (SDR.V) the week before telling me about this mining company which has tenements in the same location in Mexico. I went looking and find the latest drill results have better silver intersects. The close in charts suggests the market has not caught up yet - that had me buying a small parcel.
Here is that chart.
That got me looking at comparative charts going back to the same start and overlaying the Gold and Silver ETFs. Notable is the size of the gap now between the two companies - maybe time to add back some Stroud Resources (SDR.V).
Original trade note in TIB584
Stroud Resources (SDR.V): Silver Mining. Closed position in pension portfolio at 52 week high locking in 157% blended profit since March 2024/July 2025. Scaled in portion was 100% profit. Original idea was to find penny stocks in silver - first purchased in 2021 in one portfolio. These parcels just sold came along later. Read the note for these entry trades in TIB539
Cryptocurrency
Aave (AAVEBTC): Lending Protocol. Price breaks the downtrend and conforms a higher low - time to add a parcels - the standard $100 deal - plenty of scope to make 50% profit target beneath the previous cycle high
Income Trades
Covered Calls
Five covered calls written across 3 portfolios (US 3 Canada 2)
Naked Puts
Sold puts happy to own at lower prices:
- iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (IEF): US Treasuries. 0.11% Return Coverage 1.5% - 10 days only
- iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT): US Treasuries. 0.76% Return Coverage -0.7% - 5 days only
- ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. (CHPT): Electric Vehicles. 8.3% Return Coverage -5.9% - in-the-money on purpose
- Tilray Brands, Inc. (TLRY): Marijuana. 6.6% Return Coverage 2.3% - 10 days only - now 73% coverage
Sold puts on stocks that might get assigned on covered calls:
- Elastic N.V. (ESTC): AI Software. 1.2% Return Coverage 1.7% - 5 days only
Kicked the can down the road on sold puts likely to be assigned on covered calls:
- Cameco Corporation (CCJ): Uranium 27% profit on buyback. 19.5% cash positive.
Credit Spreads
One new credit spread added - a regular play on hydrogen:
- L'Air Liquide S.A. (AI.PA): Specialty Chemicals. ROI 19% Coverage 2.9%
Resources
Cautions: This is not financial advice. You need to consider your own financial position and take your own advice before you follow any of my ideas
Images: I own the rights to use and edit the Buy Sell image. News headlines come from Google Search. All other images are created using my various trading and charting platforms. They are all my own work
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Charts: http://mymark.mx/TradingView - this is a free charting package. I have a Pro subscription to get access to real time forex prices
Investing: Interactive Brokers provides comprehensive global markets coverage with very competitive commissions. Open an account to earn up to USD 1,000 in IBKR stock. https://mclnks.com/ibkr
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December 8-12, 2025