Taco Traders Meet Cahn; Bank Earnings; New AMD Win; Rush To Buy Quantum And Nuclear Stocks

Author: The Arora Report | October 14, 2025 12:01pm

To gain an edge, this is what you need to know today.

TACO Traders Meet CAHN

Please click here for an enlarged chart of JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM).

Note the following:

• This article is about the big picture, not an individual stock.  The chart of JPM stock is being used to illustrate the point.
• The chart shows a rising trendline.
• The chart shows that going into earnings, JPM stock pulled back to the trendline.
• RSI on the chart shows JPM stock has more room to run.
• Expectations going into JPMorgan earnings were very high, but earnings beat the consensus and were inline with whisper numbers.
• As full disclosure, JPM is in our portfolio. We are long from $34.14.
• In addition to JPM, earnings season kicked off this morning with earnings from other banks: Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS).  All three beat consensus and were inline with whisper numbers.
• TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) traders were extremely aggressively buying stocks yesterday.
• In our analysis, TACO traders are akin to the momo crowd in that they do not do any deep analysis.  This morning TACO traders are meeting CAHN (China Always Holds Its Nerve) traders.  
• China is not backing down. Here are the key points:
  • China has announced new sanctions on five U.S. subsidiaries of South Korea based shipping company Hanwha Ocean.
  • China says it will investigate the U.S. investigation into China's shipping industries.
  • China is now collecting additional fees from U.S. cargo ships.
  • China has not backed off from its position on rare earth minerals.
• Prudent investors need to remember CAHN.  The reason is that China has a long term vision of replacing the U.S. as the world's superpower.  In our analysis, China is likely to hold its nerve and try to out fox President Trump in trade negotiations.  
• As a result of China's actions, the three rare earth mineral stocks in our portfolio are seeing more gains on top of huge gains yesterday.  As of this writing in the premarket, Critical Metals Corp (NASDAQ:CRML) is up 33%, USA Rare Earth Inc (NASDAQ:USAR) is up 13%, and MP Materials Corp (NYSE:MP) is up 7%.
• JPMorgan's decision to invest $10B in four different sectors to help the U.S. stay ahead has brought in aggressive buying in many stocks.  The most notable are quantum computing stocks such as Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:RGTI), IONQ Inc (NYSE:IONQ), and D-Wave Quantum Inc (NYSE:QBTS) and nuclear stocks such as Oklo Inc (NYSE:OKLO), Nuscale Power Corp (NYSE:SMR), and Nano Nuclear Energy Inc (NASDAQ:NNE).
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD) has scored another big win this morning.  Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL) will deploy 50K AMD AI chips starting in Q3 2026.  After AMD's deal with OpenAI, this is a confirmation that NVIDIA Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) is likely to get more competition from AMD than previously thought.

Magnificent Seven Money Flows

Most portfolios are now heavily concentrated in the Mag 7 stocks.  For this reason, to get ahead and get an edge, investors need to dig below the surface of the Mag 7 stocks.  It is equally important to rise above the noise of daily news on the Mag 7 stocks.  The best way to get an edge, dig below the surface, and rise above the noise of the daily news is to pay attention to early money flows in the Mag 7 stocks on a daily basis.  When there is significant news in the Mag 7 stocks that rises above the threshold of noise and impacts your entire portfolio, it is covered in the main section above.

In the early trade, money flows are negative in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG), Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), NVIDIA Corp (NVDA), and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).

In the early trade, money flows are negative in SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 (NASDAQ:QQQ).

Momo Crowd And Smart Money In Stocks

Investors can gain an edge by knowing money flows in SPY and QQQ.  Investors can get a bigger edge by knowing when smart money is buying stocks, gold, and oil.  The most popular ETF for gold is SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD).  The most popular ETF for silver is iShares Silver Trust (NYSE:SLV).  The most popular ETF for oil is United States Oil ETF (ASCA:USO).

Gold

In our analysis, the short squeeze in silver is showing the first signs of ending.  This is also bringing in some selling in gold.

Oil

Oil is seeing selling as U.S. China tensions heat up again.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is seeing selling.

What To Do Now

Consider continuing to hold good, very long term, existing positions. Based on individual risk preference, consider a protection band consisting of cash or Treasury bills or short-term tactical trades as well as short to medium term hedges and short term hedges. This is a good way to protect yourself and participate in the upside at the same time.

You can determine your protection bands by adding cash to hedges.  The high band of the protection is appropriate for those who are older or conservative. The low band of the protection is appropriate for those who are younger or aggressive.  If you do not hedge, the total cash level should be more than stated above but significantly less than cash plus hedges.

A protection band of 0% would be very bullish and would indicate full investment with 0% in cash.  A protection band of 100% would be very bearish and would indicate a need for aggressive protection with cash and hedges or aggressive short selling.

It is worth reminding that you cannot take advantage of new upcoming opportunities if you are not holding enough cash.  When adjusting hedge levels, consider adjusting partial stop quantities for stock positions (non ETF); consider using wider stops on remaining quantities and also allowing more room for high beta stocks.  High beta stocks are the ones that move more than the market.

Traditional 60/40 Portfolio

Probability based risk reward adjusted for inflation does not favor long duration strategic bond allocation at this time.

Those who want to stick to traditional 60% allocation to stocks and 40% to bonds may consider focusing on only high quality bonds and bonds of five year duration or less.  Those willing to bring sophistication to their investing may consider using bond ETFs as tactical positions and not strategic positions at this time.

The Arora Report is known for its accurate calls. The Arora Report correctly called the big artificial intelligence rally before anyone else, the new bull market of 2023, the bear market of 2022, new stock market highs right after the virus low in 2020, the virus drop in 2020, the DJIA rally to 30,000 when it was trading at 16,000, the start of a mega bull market in 2009, and the financial crash of 2008. Please click here to sign up for a free forever Generate Wealth Newsletter.

Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

Posted In: $BTC AAPL AMD AMZN C CRML GLD GOOG GS IONQ JPM META MP MSFT NNE NVDA OKLO ORCL QBTS QQQ