The Battle For Iowa
A Dark Saturday For DeSantis In Iowa
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida probably isn't a Metric fan, but if he were, the song going through his head today would probably be "Dark Saturday". Despite the sun in Iowa, Saturday was a dark day for his campaign.
DeSantis spent some time handing out hard boiled eggs on popsicle sticks,
DeSantis is putting some work in at the egg on a stick booth inside the Agricultural Building: pic.twitter.com/oWHfDzUBHy
— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) August 12, 2023
But whenever he serves people food on the campaign trail, particularly in a shirt with his name on it, he comes across like the manager of a chain restaurant.
“Welcome to DeSantis Hard Boiled Eggs.”
— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) August 13, 2023
“Our family has been serving quality hard boiled eggs on popsicle sticks for three generations, and I’m proud to manage our newest location here in Des Moines.” pic.twitter.com/q9Y1uIDZDq
Worse for DeSantis, is that he got overshadowed by Trump twice. When he sat down to be interviewed by Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa, he was drowned out by chants of "We Want Trump".
🌽#IowaStateFair🎡takeaways
— miguelifornia (@miguelifornia) August 12, 2023
1. Governor Kim Reynolds got triggered.
2. Rob DeSantis was defended by a girl🤣 pic.twitter.com/N0WJJwiCPt
And during one of DeSantis's other appearances, Trump's plane drew more attention than Desantis.
Trump already overshadowing DeSantis at the Iowa state fair, as the crowd turns away from DeSantis event to watch Trump’s plane encircle overhead pic.twitter.com/nsMo3WpKZO
— Joyce Koh (@JoyceKohTV) August 12, 2023
No Boiled Egg Duty For Trump
The former President spent less than an hour on the ground in Iowa, but was met with the largest crowds.
Why can't I see this on @cnn, @MSNBC and @ABC, after @maddow, @jrpsaki and others aired part 1, part 2 and part 100 of "Trump Indictment Special"? SEE IT: Massive crowd welcomes @realDonaldTrump in Iowa. WATCHpic.twitter.com/1dejAME92p
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) August 12, 2023
He didn't bother to be interviewed by the Iowa governor.
Ramaswamy Saber-Rattles China
Vivek Ramaswamy did sit down with the Iowa governor, and said that if Thomas Jefferson were alive today, he'd write a Declaration of Independence from China.
One could make similar comments about our relationship with India.
— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) August 13, 2023
Would Thomas Jefferson think it wise to have some of our largest companies run by Indian immigrants? https://t.co/v0y2grlr16
Ramaswamy continues to gesture toward America's Founders, saying their ideas are ones we can rally around today as Americans, but it's not obvious how close his ideas are to theirs. Ramaswamy is a product of post-1965 America, which in many ways represents an ideological break from America's founding.
In Case You Missed It
Speaking of Ramaswamy, in case you missed it, last week we looked at his career in pharmaceutical entrepreneurship (How Did Vivek Ramaswamy Get Rich?).
.@realMeetKevin’s skeptical take on Vivek’s pharma bro career (h/t to our friend & subscriber @sbakertx) $EPM $AMR $ROIV $SIOX $AXON https://t.co/UkvZgYulRT
— Portfolio Armor (@PortfolioArmor) August 11, 2023
And in a post yesterday (Exits, 8/11/2023), we looked at preliminary results of the trading experiment we wrote about here last week.
How we did on the trades we exited this week, and what we learned from them. https://t.co/baukQa8g9r$LCID $BYND $AMR $FOSL
— Portfolio Armor (@PortfolioArmor) August 11, 2023
Exits 3, 9, and 10 were from trades entered earlier, but the other 7 exits below were from trades that were part of our experiment using Piotroski F-Scores when selecting earnings trades.
Options Trades
Put spread on Lucid Group (LCID -2.71%↓). Entered at a net debit of $0.61 on 8/7; exited at a net credit of $0.25 on 8/10. Loss: 59%.
$2 strike puts on Fossil Group (FOSL -14.04%↓). Entered at $0.10 on 8/9; exited at $0.10 on 8/11. Profit: 0%.
Split strike put butterfly on Beyond Meat (BYND -1.38%↓). Entered at a net debit of $2.22 on 6/13; exited at a net credit of $2.36 on 8/9. Profit: 6%.
Call spread on XPEL (XPEL 2.37%↑). Entered at a net debit of $2.25 on 8/8; exited at a net credit of $2.45 on 8/11. Profit: 9%.
Split strike put butterfly on Sonos (SONO -14.08%↓). Entered at a net debit of $2.03 on 8/9; exited at a net credit of $2.52 on 8/10. Profit: 24%.
Put spread on 23andMe (ME -3.92%↓). Entered at a net debit of $0.35 on 8/8; exited at a net credit of $0.46 on 8/10. Profit: 31%.
$3 strike puts on Fossil Group (FOSL -14.04%↓). Entered at $0.71 on 8/9; exited at $1.05 on 8/10. Profit: 48%.
Put spread on The Cheesecake Factory (CAKE -2.43%↓). Entered at a net debit of $0.62 on 8/2; exited at a net credit of $1 on 8/11. Profit: 61%.
Call spread on Alpha Metallurgical Resources (AMR 0.00%↑). Entered at a net debit of $2.45 on 6/28; exited at a net credit of $4.50 on 8/7. Profit: 84%.
Put spread on Allegiant Travel (ALGT -0.38%↓). Entered at net debit of $2.08 on 8/1; exited at a net credit of $4.23 on 8/8. Profit: 103%.
Our conclusion was that the Piotroski F-Score probably makes more sense for trades over longer periods, so we plan to start using longer time periods next week. If you want a heads up when we place a trade based on our lessons from last week, feel free to sign up for our trading Substack/occasional email list below.
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