For today’s trade of the day we will be looking at a Daily Price chart for Zscaler, Inc. (ZS), states Chuck Hughes of Hughes Optioneering.

Before breaking down ZS’s daily price chart let’s first review which products and services are offered by the company.

Zscaler, Inc. operates as a cloud security company worldwide. The company offers Zscaler Internet Access solution that provides users, workloads, IoT, and OT devices secure access to externally managed applications, including software-as-a-service applications and Internet destinations; and Zscaler Private Access solution, which is designed to provide access to managed applications hosted internally in data centers and private or public clouds. 

Now, let’s begin to break down the Daily Price chart for ZS. Below is a Daily Price Chart with the price line displayed by an OHLC bar.

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Buy ZS Stock

The Daily Price chart above shows that ZS stock began reaching a series of higher highs and higher lows since early September. This pattern of bullish trading suggests the stock will march on to a further advance. You see, after a stock makes a series of two or more higher highs and higher lows, the stock typically continues its price-up trend and should be purchased. Our initial price target for ZS stock is 175.00 per share.

96.3% Profit Potential for ZS Option

Now, since ZS stock is currently making a series of higher highs and higher lows this means the stock’s bullish rally will likely continue. Let’s use the Hughes Optioneering calculator to look at the potential returns for a ZS call option purchase. The Call Option Calculator will calculate the profit/loss potential for a call option trade based on the price change of the underlying stock/ETF at option expiration in this example from a flat ZS price to a 12.5% increase.

The Optioneering Team uses the 1% Rule to select an option strike price with a higher percentage of winning trades. In the following ZS option example, we used the 1% Rule to select the ZS option strike price but out of fairness to our paid option service subscribers, we don’t list the strike price used in the profit/loss calculation.

Trade with Higher Accuracy

When you use the 1% Rule to select a ZS in-the-money option strike price, ZS stock only has to increase 1% for the option to break even and start profiting! Remember, if you purchase an at-the-money or out-of-the-money call option and the underlying stock closes flat at option expiration it will result in a 100% loss for your option trade! In this example, if ZS stock is flat at 164.79 at option expiration, it will only result in a 7.2% loss for the ZS option compared to a 100% loss for an at-the-money or out-of-the-money call option.

Using the 1% Rule to select an option strike price can result in a higher percentage of winning trades compared to at-the-money or out-of-the-money call options. This higher accuracy can give you the discipline needed to become a successful options trader and can help avoid 100% losses when trading options. The goal of this example is to demonstrate the powerful profit potential available from trading options compared to stocks.

The prices and returns represented below were calculated based on the current stock and option pricing for ZS on 10/24/2023 before commissions. When you purchase a call option, there is no limit on the profit potential of the call if the underlying stock continues to move up in price. For this specific call option, the calculator analysis below reveals if ZS stock increases 5.0% at option expiration to 173.03 (circled), the call option would make 44.6% before the commission. 

If ZS stock increases 10.0% at option expiration to 181.27 (circled), the call option would make 96.3% before the commission and outperform the stock return by nearly ten to one. The leverage provided by call options allows you to maximize potential returns on bullish stocks. The Hughes Optioneering Team is here to help you identify profit opportunities just like this one.

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Learn more about Chuck Hughes here.