The Setup Before the Spike — Inside the Week’s Biggest Trades VIEW IN BROWSER If you’ve been with me for a while, you already know this — the market doesn’t just snap its fingers and hand you a 500% winner out of nowhere. One thing I try to teach every single day on Masters in Trading LIVE is that when you see a stock explode, what you’re usually seeing is the end of a process. Big moves start quietly — sometimes weeks or even months in advance. And the people who know how to follow the money — real money — are the ones who end up in the right spot to ride the wave when it finally breaks. This week inside Masters in Trading LIVE, we weren’t reacting to news… we were watching the confirmation of trades we’ve been building toward for a long time. The Rotation Begins: Reading the Tariff Tape Before It Prints It started with the metals. Way back in Q1, we started laying out our thesis that industrials — especially steel and aluminum — were set up for a breakout. For weeks, we’ve been tracking the divergence between steel and aluminum building up as big money is braced for a policy shift. Now, we’ve talked about tariff setups before. But this one felt different because of the capital flows. Traders weren’t waiting for the July 9 deadline. They were already rotating into names like Nucor (NUE), Steel Dynamics (STLD), Alcoa (AA), and Century Aluminum (CENX). And when the divergence gets that wide, it tells us something bigger is brewing beneath the surface. It was the rotation we’ve been tracking for months. Steel names started to diverge from aluminum before the headlines even hit. That’s smart money doing what it always does — showing its hand early. 
In particular, CENX was flashing unusually high implied volatility. That’s a a clear sign the market was pricing in movement. And that’s where opportunity lives. The full breakdown is in Monday’s episode of Masters in Trading LIVE, where I walk through the five names we’re tracking and explain how volatility, market cap, and institutional positioning all feed into our approach. If you haven’t watched it yet, that’s a good place to start if you want to understand how these divergences become real trades. Smart Drones, Smarter Trades: The Defense Sector Wakes Up We’ve been talking about drones for years. I’ve been watching the slow-burning transformation in defense, logistics, surveillance and even construction for years. But only in the past few weeks have drones been making the headlines they deserve. Every modern military operation is going to involve drones. Full stop. And not just a few aircraft — we’re talking autonomous systems, AI decision-making, real-time battlefield mapping. That’s where the U.S. government is spending — and it’s where we’ve been watching for opportunity. This week, we broke it all down live: nine names across the drone landscape, from the leaders like Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS) and AeroVironment (AVAV), to more speculative picks still flying under the radar. My current standout is Leonardo DRS Inc. (DRS). It hits all the major verticals -- strong relative strength, solid volatility profile, and most importantly, it's still tradable. 
Unlike the names that have already popped, DRS is one of the few you can still build a position in smartly - especially through a covered call structure. It’s one of those rare cases where the math works and the momentum is still in your favor — if you’re patient. This won’t be a quick in-and-out trade. These are the kinds of names you build around — long-term conviction stories that become core pieces of your portfolio as the technology becomes critical infrastructure. If you missed the full breakdown, go catch the drone deep dive right here. This is how you prepare — not react — to what’s coming next. | Recommended Link | | | | During Wednesday night’s strategy session, I revealed a free top stock pick — and the following morning, the Department of Defense made a massive $400M move into it: MP Materials (MP). The result? A near 50% surge before markets opened. MP controls the largest rare earth mine in North America — critical for America’s AI and defense future. And this is just the beginning. Even if you missed this move… You still have a chance to profit, because I’m tracking 5 more under-the-radar stocks set to ride this AI wave. Learn more about these 5 additional explosive opportunities. |  | | Beyond Big Tech: How AI Is Reshaping the Real Economy You don’t need a PhD to see what’s happening in the Nasdaq. Tech’s been on a tear — up more than 30% from its Liberation Day lows. That’s not a bounce or a relief rally. It’s a sustained, structural move that’s pulled the QQQs right back to record highs. And there’s a reason for that. There’s a deep, growing belief that we’re standing at the edge of the next technological transformation with AI — one that could rival the dot-com boom of the late '90s. And sure, everyone’s got their eyes on Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Nvidia Inc. (NVDA), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) — trying to guess who’s going to drop the next mind-blowing AI demo. But here’s what they’re not talking about: how this tech is being adopted — not just by engineers and software developers, but by companies in the real economy, using these tools to rethink how their entire industry works. That’s where QXO Inc. (QXO) comes in. We called it early. Back in May, I shared it live on the show at $16 a share — not just as a ticker to look out for, but a fully fleshed out thesis. 
QXO wasn’t selling a hot new algorithm. They were using tech to consolidate and streamline one of the most fractured, inefficient sectors in the economy: building materials. We mapped out the public companies in their crosshairs — GMS Inc. (GMS), BlueLinx Holdings (BXC), SiteOne Landscape Supply (SITE), and Builders FirstSource (BLDR). Within weeks, GMS was snapped up in a bidding war between QXO and Home Depot (HD). Now we’re watching the rest play out in real time — not just as a trade, but as a shift in how AI is quietly reshaping businesses most investors haven’t even looked at. That’s where the edge is. Because the future doesn’t always show up wearing a hoodie in Silicon Valley. Sometimes, it shows up in a hard hat with a data platform and a buyout offer. If you haven’t seen the full breakdown, go watch it now — it’s one of the best trade setups we’ve ever shared publicly, and the story’s far from over. Magnets, Momentum, and Military Money: The MP Materials Explosion And just when it felt like we had already discovered a full week of trade setups, another one of our long-standing targets finally popped… We’ve been watching the deep-sea mining space for months now. Long before the government stepped in, we were building a position in a name most investors didn’t even know existed — MP Materials (MP). The thesis was simple: if the U.S. is going to compete in the next decade of AI, defense, and energy technology, we’re going to need rare earth magnets. Even better, there are only a handful of companies in North America positioned to provide them. MP was already building out the supply chain. The Pentagon just happened to make it official this week. When the Department of Defense dropped a $400 million preferred equity investment into MP Materials late Wednesday, the stock exploded like Krakatoa from $30 to $50 in one move. The news sent shockwaves through the industry. And it handed us the biggest single gain in the history of Advanced Notice. This is the kind of move you can’t predict with a chart, but you can prepare for if you’ve been following the institutional breadcrumbs. We were long the $34 calls. We closed them into strength. The chat lit up as members of our community locked in triple-digit gains in under three trading days… 
This wasn’t a one-off play. It was part of a bigger bet we’ve been tracking in the critical minerals space… And if MP is any indication, this story may just be getting started. I walked through the full breakdown — including the trade mechanics, our timeline, and why we positioned when we did — in Thursday’s episode of Masters in Trading LIVE. If you want to see how this trade was built, why it made sense before the Pentagon showed up, and what else we’re watching now, go check out that video. None of this happened by accident. These trades didn’t show up in a screener the night before. They’ve been building. Quietly. Patiently. And when the moment came, we were ready — not surprised. If you missed any of this, the full breakdowns are on our YouTube channel. Go watch them. Not because they’ll tell you what already happened — but because they’ll show you what to look for before it happens again. Don’t Blink — Earnings Season Is Here With the MP trade erupting, the drone sector heating up, and QXO marching toward a breakout, we could’ve wrapped the week and called it a win. But that’s not how we operate. At Masters in Trading, we’re always scanning the horizon — not just for what’s moving, but for why it’s moving, and which strategy fits best for the situation. Most of the time, Wall Street plays its cards close to the vest. That’s why we dig into the overlooked corners — where the signals are harder to see but can be massively rewarding like they have been with QXO and MP... But there’s one catalyst they can’t hide — one moment every single quarter where even the biggest players have to show their hand: earnings. And when it comes to earnings, we don’t guess. We don’t chase. We follow a system that’s delivered a 68% win-rate on directional option trades, with every single position timestamped, risk-defined, and tracked to the decimal. It’s the same framework I’ve been using since my days as a market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange — and it’s exactly what I’ll be teaching in next week’s three-part earnings series. This isn’t about buying Apple or Amazon. Everyone sees those. The edge is in the names that don’t show up on CNBC — the ones where options are mispriced, movement is underappreciated, and the volatility cycle works in your favor. We’ve used this system to quietly pull 30%, 50%, even triple-digit wins out of the noise for years. And starting Monday, I’m walking you through exactly how it works — step by step, trade by trade. If you want to be ready before the fireworks start, watch the full breakdown on YouTube and get yourself prepped for Monday’s kickoff. This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Let’s make it count. Remember, the creative trader wins, | 
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