CRWD is a clear leader in cybersecurity; growing ARR and margins plus AI leverage support a bright future outlook.

Cyber security names are on the winning end today as investors pile into crowd strike amid questions over the pace and safety of artificial intelligence.

All the noise while deflating other names put a bid into cyber security with Crowd Strike on pace to set a record close today. Yeah, real solid breakout today in in the stock. Uh, as you mentioned, 52- week high.

Uh, it's up about 15%. And that's with the NASDAQ being down.

So, you know, software is doing well today and and for, you know, for Crowd Strike, it's kind of a one-two punch in that software's having a great day. Um, and then also the security concerns.

So that that does benefit a company like Crowd Strike

But take it taking it back to Crowd Strike. Kevin, your take? Yeah, today's the day for software and cyber security, right? When you think about AI safety and that's been the discussion this morning that where do your eyes just go?

It's right to cyber. And so you're seeing some of the software stocks higher, cyber security. You mentioned uh uh Zcaler, PaloAlto Networks is also up today, but these companies and they're expanding um annual recurring revenue that's growing.

Their margins are growing. This is a company that's actually leveraging AI to be more efficient and bring in new services and acquire new customers. It just keeps getting better for these firms.

And you know, there was always a discussion when these stocks were doing well and they when they were doing poorly that the future was going to need these names. Now you're really seeing it start to pick up steam here in this name.

Crowd Strike appears to be one of the clear leaders. So yeah, this is a company having a good day and if you look out in the future looks pretty bright there too, Diane.

Yeah, I got I'm looking at selling a put spread. Uh it's in the October 2nd expiration. Now, I do want to apologize because when I sent you guys the trade a couple hours ago, you could get about 230 for it.

It's the um October 2nd 215205 put vertical selling it for about 230. I think that price has gone down to around a$180 right now as as the stock continues to rally. Uh you know, stocks up $31 today.

And as I mentioned, you know, just a couple minutes ago, it's an interesting dynamic where the implied volatility is still relatively, excuse me, relatively elevated. When you look at the um uh current IV percentile, it's above 60%.

Uh so option prices are still a little bit juicy in there, which for me, when I look at something like that, it it kind of skews my my thinking towards selling uh selling premium.

And and by selling a put spread, I'm doing it. It's a it's a bullish trade. Stock's breaking out today. It's at a 52- week high. Uh, it's cleared all the major moving averages and it's got really good volume today.

So, the the volume is above uh track as well, above the 20-day moving average on on volume. Um, overall uh it it looks like this is a stock that wants to continue to move up.

Diane Joe Maza making a really good case why this show should be on earlier in the day, right? His spread that he looked at has already made a half a dollar on on the spread. So the there's what happens when you sell a put vertical.

It's a bullish position. Now it's a bullish position that can also be profitable if the stock stays unchanged or moves slightly lower from where it is. And so selling the out of the money high probability short put vertical.

You're getting north of $2 for it. He put it in 230. It's drifted lower than that. Now you see that these can even though the riskreward is is lopsided because of it's a high probability spread.

Most you can make is what you sell it for. The risk is the distance between the strikes. In this case $10 I believe and whatever credit you take in. And so there is Joe's example of how quickly the the these can do well if the if the stock is moving in your favor in this case to the upside.

Diane mine that I looked at was something in the bearish camp because this is a bull bear and I looked at the expected move out till you know a couple of weeks selling October 18th buying October 25th.

So just a very shortterm uh spread but a twoe calendar spread on the put side spending about $25. Guess what Joe mine is down by a dime. So w with with with the stock moving higher, the put calendar gets cheaper.

The short put vertical gets gets way cheaper. And so this one's now trading about a $1.95, but it's just measuring, you know, a a $15 now about a $17 move to the downside. It's uh it's risk defined to what you have.

The the the debit paid is the risk. And if the market allows you, because it's a two-week wide uh put calendar, you can extend duration on this week's the September 18th, sell the next week out.

Well, I think I made it a one week actually. And so the that that means if it's a one week, then you have to convert this into a vertical spread or you you can just close it. The risk being the debit paid.

Uh Diane and Joe. So th this one is just looking for a little retracement of this big rally back into the 220 which is the expected move out till September 25th.

Yeah, I think retracement is the right word on that. If you expect that maybe this move today uh is either overdone or maybe kind of stalls out if you look at the break even on this and and remember those break evens will change uh due to time decay and due to changes in volatility.

But if you look at those break evens, as long as it doesn't rally too much further from where we're at, you know, that this trade can be profitable. If you do kind of get a grind back down towards uh even even above where the stock uh opened up or or where it closed on Friday, you know, this trade can still be profitable.

So, it gives you a wide window. Um but you're you're basically betting on the fact that it's not going to continue to to rally up from here. Uh and that's the one thing that I'm a little bit curious about uh in this is we just want to see kind of whether or not there's more momentum behind this because for a one-day move uh 15% pretty strong volume uh we'll have to kind of see whether or not there's carryover through the rest of the week.

I think that that's exactly right. What you're looking for is, you know, the stock is up significantly today. if it were to come back down and remember when you have a put calendar you have the dual exposure of about 6 and a half long Vega.

So if the implied volatility is lower in crowd strike which it's I I would say it's holding about the same. Uh you could if if it were to go back higher on any down move you would benefit from that as well. the short delta and the long Vega part of this trade. Diane