Folks, you better brace yourselves because we've got three major things to discuss. Number One: The US sent missiles to wipe out hthy targets all across Yemen a few days ago, and as a result, Hoies have started retaliating and vowed Mass scale destruction and you're seeing this back and forth conflict escalate with each side getting more and more lethal with every iteration. We will discuss exactly what you need to know and why exactly the US delivered a private message to Iran What that means Number two: Taiwan Just elected a president. That is China's worst night.

In fact, China absolutely loves this guy. They hate hate, hate him. They think he's absolutely the worst thing in the world. What does that mean for Taiwan and China's chances of invading Taiwan and reunifying? Why are they sending more warships as we speak? Number Three: We're going to discuss markets, what's going on, what's the data behind the scenes, and what is an interesting Squeeze Play that we're seeing heat up week after week after week and how can you play? We're going to go over some options ideas because I Think that this this specific trade idea on a specific commodity is going to be really, really hot because of the geopolitical situation.

Let us get right to work. and if you appreciate videos like this and all the work that goes into them, make sure to hit that ravishing like button and subscribe. Okay, so let's go ahead and start with the Middle East So over the last few days, the US has been launching more and more strikes on Houi targets all over. Western Yemen Pretty far-reaching strikes as well.

The goal of this is to destroy the militia's ability to Target commercial shipping throughout the Red Sea. Now you can go pretty damn far with the US government. There's red lines and you can surpass them again and again and again. But the minute the minute that you surpass that trading red line and trade and money is really impacted all of a sudden, what happens? Well, Uncle Sam's like up your ass.

Once that happens, it is game over and escalation is all but guaranteed. And quite literally I mean blocking the Red Sea and by default the connecting SE Canal is basically sending global trade efficiency back to the Stone ages. Some trillion dollars a year goes through this area and if you are a western ship you trade with Israel you trade with the US Whatever It Is Well. You are aren't safe going through this canal anymore so that is a big big stinking problem.

I Don't care if you got Amazon Prime No one wants to send anything on a ship over there if you got these angry militants coming and randomly taking it over and and unliving everybody. Now, these strikes happened towards the end of last week and over the week and you've seen more and more and more back and forth battles and retaliations and the Houthis just launched a killer missile towards a US Destroyer hoping to completely knock it out. However, the US military said they managed to shoot it down before it did any damage. Now in terms of the trade route, I mean what? What's interesting right now is only friends of the East are able to trade in this area.

If not, you're at almost certain risk of attack. Boats have to display China Russia or other Houthi friendly countries on their correspondence devices in order to minimize risk of attack. and even then, it's not guaranteed that you're not going to be attacked. But quite frankly, I mean any ship that displays Israel or a Western Country I mean you're basically Ground Zero for a massive, massive hthy attack and you'll get the houy version of the Pirates of Caribbean up your rear end.

Now let me show you a satellite image showing the damage in this key City in Yemen after the US ledge strikes on Friday This key city is right here on the coast, which is a crucial, crucial area for attacking trade. Going through the Red Sea from the BBC quote, President Biden says the US has delivered a private message to Iran about the Houthis. in Yemen After the US carried out a second strike on the group, we delivered it privately and we're confident we're well prepared. He said, without giving further details, this is a disaster for Iran who likes to control the area via this port by proxy of course.

And of course, it's a big big step in the right favor for the West If the militants can't operate here, or if their operations are severely distressed because of the strike, well, that means that more ships can safely go through the passage. Unfortunately, there's a million other cities that they're able to attack from, but at least this key port here has been really, really destroyed according to satellite images. Okay, so here's the deal folks. You see: Houthis are attacking to show solidarity with Hamas Iran supports that attacking.

A lot of members in the East support that attacking. Even Turkey seems to support that attacking. Although they're not as direct with those words, it's pretty easy to read between the lines. But from the US perspective, this this confrontation in Yemen has nothing to do with Israel.

the US and the West is simply attacking to defend the trading route. As the BBC reports, the official Western Government line is that the ongoing air strikes on Houthi targets are quite separate from the war in Gaza. They are a necessary and proportionate response to the unprovoked and unacceptable Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. They say, however, again the Arab world that it's important to note this views this very, very differently.

They view this again as the West directly getting involved in the conflict and working for Israel doing Israel's bidding. Which means that these defensive strikes that the West is doing against Houthi targets is angering them about 10 times more because they see that as an encroachment of the West into the entire Middle East region, which then motivates them even more to attack. which is why this escalation is happening so fast and over the coming days. Unfortunately, you're likely to see bigger and bigger and bigger retaliations and escalations, so brace yourselves.

Okay, moving on. Taiwan So Taiwan just elected Li Ching TI as their new president. He's a former doctor from from a poor mining family who has long campaigned for Taiwan's Independence and for democracy for the island. He's seen by many as Pro Us and anti-china Of course, most Taiwanese presidents are pro- Taiwan Independents and accordingly, anti-china but this guy is a whole other level.

I mean pretty much anyone else could have won and China would have been a lot more happy. Xiin ping would have been a happy teddy bear. China's dislike for Taiwan's new president stems from a lot of different areas, but specifically his strong and outspoken stance against China. And for Taiwanese Independence other politicians in Taiwan they were for the same thing, but quite frankly they were a lot more softspoken about it.

But this new guy has openly criticized China for years years, making his opinions and intentions Crystal loud and Crystal Clear Furthermore, Li Che Tings criticism of China extends beyond the issue of Independence. You see folks, he challenges the entire idea of China One Of the primary reasons that China despises him is because of his lack of support for communism, their whole entire system. Of course, China Being a communist, this country views any opposition to their political ideology as a threat to their hold on power. They don't want this to spread.

Li Ching T's refusal to align with communist principles puts him at odds with China's one party rule, leading to a strong, strong disdain from the Chinese government. Having a sovereign territory right off the coast of China that China's eventually trying to reunify with become more and more anti-communist is a very, very big problem because the more that you do that, the more that the Taiwanese people have their own identity and the harder it's going to be to ever reunify. Of course, commun is M can only really exist if you silence the opposing views. And having this big country island country that acts like a Sovereign Nation off the side of China is a big big problem.

The Chinese government perceives Li as a threat to its territorial integrity, and National Unity Li's public speeches and statements have struck a cord with the Taiwanese people who share similar concerns about China's influences. Lie has raised concerns for years about China's alleged interference in Taiwanese elections, citing incidents of cyber attacks and disinformation camp campaigns. He has also expressed worries about China's efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically by putting pressure on countries to sever ties with the island nation. Now, in reaction, Biden came out and said that the US doesn't support an independent Taiwan and this is confusing a lot of folks.

So then that begs the question: Why doesn't the US support Taiwanese independence? Why shouldn't the US be supporting pro-western pro-democracy capitalist countries? Well, besides the fact that the US has a hard time historically promoting those values, well, the truth is that this is a very complicated issue. You see. of course, China has its famous One China policy, and the US agrees to it because it doesn't want to jeopardize its relationship with its biggest trading partner if it jeopardizes it. Not only could that destabilize the region and perhaps bring the US and China into an eventual direct confrontation, but there would also be far-reaching consequences both economically and politically.

The issue of Taiwan status is highly sensitive and has the potential to escalate tensions quite a bit in the strategically important East Asia region. So you see, right now, the US feels that it's in their best best interest to maintain a Cooperative relationship with China on trade with North, Korea, Global, Security and so on and so forth. The less power it has with China and that relationship, the more that China can build an East versus West Coalition. And so that's why the US doesn't want to support outright Independence for Taiwan, They want the status quo.

The US wants Taiwan right where it is. It doesn't want China to overtake it. It wants it to remain self-ruled But at the same time doesn't want to piss off China by actively supporting its independence. And that's really the status quo here.

So anyways, what do you think? Do you think that China is going to invade Taiwan soon as Xiin Ping has promised? Or do you think that the status quo will remain in place for a long time? Let us know. Down Below In my view, it is just a matter of time before Xian Ping's promise comes true and the massive clash between East versus West happens right on that island country. Okay, moving on. markets.

So what are the hottest plays headed into this week and what does the data suggest is coming next for the market of stock? Well, it would be the understatement of the century to say this year has started off slow as Traders in the market. we all like to see aggressive moves whether up or down, and quite frankly, we haven't gotten much either. We sold off the first four trading days of the year and then we recovered from those sell-offs and now we are basically flat with year end markets right now are still stuck within a wait and see formation. You don't have that strong upward direction that you got towards the end of last year.

You don't have that strong selloff that you got in 2022. Right now, we need a few green trading days and a break above 478 cycle highs, then you could start rebuilding momentum. But right now, markets aren showing much momentum at all. All they are showing is holding power, so that begs the question.

Where are the plays is spy still on for a pump in Q1? Well, in absence of clear direction, we must continue to look at history that suggests that markets do pump prior to Fed rate cuts that First Fed rate cut. And also you got to also look at that overall momentum that is heated up towards the end of the year without a proving of downward Direction and acceptance of statistically significant downward Direction Well, you have to assume that the overall direction is still heading towards more momentum, because that is what history has said. The minute that technicals the technicals on the chart suggest a statistically significant break down. Well, that's the minute that that thesis changes.

But until then, you can't really accept that this is a downward direction. We're in a holding pattern right now, we're holding that momentum and markets are waiting and seeing to see if we can get that breakout past previous cycle highs I Don't know how long markets will be patient. My guess is a couple extra weeks, but still, we're in that middle ground. We're in financial Purgatory Right now where we're waiting to see what's next and history still suggests a pump.

But in terms of things that are actually moving what I would look at given the geopolitical situation around the world right now is specifically uranium. Oil is also an interesting setup. But right now I Want to focus on uranium? Uranium is exploding. excuse my poor choice of words, but it's going up quite a lot.

You look at Ur which is a top uranium fund by assets under management. It's been going parabolic this year. Why is that Charlie Well, firstly, I mean there is a growing demand for Uranium. As more countries are investing in nuclear power over the last decade, it's a very, very powerful means of reducing carbon emissions and meeting energy needs.

At the same time, this increased demand is driving up prices as The Limited Supply struggles to keep up. Another factor that is impacting uranium prices is the declining production of uranium mines you see over the past few years when uranium was much cheaper. Well, many uranium mines had either closed down or reduced their output due to low prices, making it hard to be profitable. As a result, the amount of uranium produced has shrunk massively at the same time where demand is now going through the roof.

This scarcity in the market has driven up the prices as buyers compete for a very limited quantity of uranium. Furthermore, of course, geopolitical factors play a massive role in increasing uranium prices. The harder it is to transport uranium, the more expensive it's going to be, and the less people are going to want to do it. So how do you play this uptick? Well, I'd Focus on options of course, wait until uranium has a day or two push back and then proves that it can rebound.

But current momentum suggests an easy break above 35 bucks is coming within the next month and there's a few ways you can play that. I mean you can pick up 35 strike calls for February 16th expiration at just around 65 to. 75. C Now if if you wanted to go farther out to March well the pro of that is that time value depreciates a lot slower because you're farther out and time depreciates a lot faster as you get closer to expiration.

But you also have to pay more for that extra month of coverage. So it's a push pull, a pro and a con situation. So I'd say February 16th calls are a better deal If you're playing this for a two or three week play, you're not holding through that last week. If the current momentum continues, those should print quite a lot.

You are a bounce from 26 to nearly 32 in a couple weeks. It wouldn't be much harder for this to jump further and of course to 35. And Beyond Of course you don't need it to go to the strike price at 35 to be profitable because you just need the contract to appreciate in value so you can sell it. You don't need to hold to expiration.

It's actually stupid to hold it to expiration. although. I Understand that a lot of people say you have to hold to expiration because they don't know what the heck they're talking about. But of course, with options, while you have a lot of opportunities for growing a small account, since the leveraging power of options is so much more substantial versus the leveraging power of just buying straight up shares, well, at the same time, you got to remember that there's a lot more variables to options.

Of course, we talked about time. Decay There's also a million other things like how sensitive the option is to movements in the stock price. There's also different risk management techniques and different ways to play with options to legitimately and powerfully manage your risk. So that's why we just launched this brand new options course if you'd like to learn how to trade options A through Z This was built for complete beginners and for people that quite frankly maybe they learned options, but they never really got a strong Foundation Well, this course is for you.

Coupon code hello 2024 will get you 50% off and that code is expiring soon. so if you do want to join, make sure to check that out before that expires. In any case, right now Ur is hot and I see the call options as continuing to be a pretty damn good opportunity. Once this breaks momentum, you can always turn around and play puts a lot of people don't understand that they think oh, you have to be One Direction or the other as Traders We don't care about the direction you trade with the trend and then when the trend bends you play the other Trend Anyways, that caps off today's video.

Make sure to hit that ravishing like button and subscribe if you found value in it. Make sure to check out that new options Course link Down Below Have a good one folks. We appreciate you see you in the next video.