CEO Watchlist: Week In Review (3/8/26)

TOP NEWS AFFECTING THE STOCK MARKET THIS WEEK:

3 Ways To Hedge Your Portfolio Against The Backdrop Of War! (Source)

Stocks mentioned: $SQQQ

The geopolitical landscape has shifted violently over the last two weeks, following the launch of "Operation Epic Fury" on February 28, 2026. This joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign targeted the heart of the Iranian regime, resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a subsequent wave of retaliatory drone and missile strikes from Tehran across the Middle East. With Iran now targeting U.S. bases in neighboring countries and disrupting critical energy corridors like the Strait of Hormuz, we are no longer looking at a localized skirmish, but a broad regional escalation. While some argue that these decisive strikes could lead to a faster "regime change" and long-term stability, the immediate reality is a fog of war that threatens to draw in surrounding nations and permanently spike global energy costs.

This "black swan" event, an unpredictable incident that carries extreme consequences, is a direct hit to the stock market’s recent momentum, particularly for high-growth tech stocks. These companies are valued based on their future earnings; when war breaks out, the "risk-free rate" typically climbs as investors flee to the safety of government bonds. To put it simply, tech stocks are like high-performance sports cars: they thrive on smooth roads and cheap fuel, but they are the first to stall when the "road" of the global economy gets rocky and "fuel" (interest rates and inflation) becomes expensive.

Adding fuel to the fire is the historical "midterm election year" seasonality data. We are currently in a midterm year, and statistically, March often marks the beginning of a seasonal "downfall" or period of heightened volatility. Historically, the first half of a midterm year is notorious for "choppy" or negative returns as the market grapples with political uncertainty before a typical year-end rally. While some analysts point out that markets eventually "price in" election noise, the convergence of this historical weakness with an active war in the Middle East suggests that the path of least resistance for stocks is currently lower. We aren't just fighting a trend; we are fighting history and a headline-driven panic simultaneously.

To navigate this, we believe in hedging, which is essentially like buying an insurance policy for your portfolio. Just as you pay a premium to protect your home from a fire, a hedge is an investment positioned to gain value when your main holdings lose value, softening the blow of a market crash. Here are the 3 primary ways to hedge:

Inverse ETFs (e.g., SQQQ): Think of this as the "opposite" button for the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ - A big tech ETF). When the tech-heavy index goes down 1%, the SQQQ is designed to go up approximately 3%. It allows you to profit directly from a falling market with a form of leverage. Just understand this can work against you if the market decides to go up, and for every 1% the Nasdaq goes up, your SQQQ position goes down roughly 3%.
Put Options on the QQQ: A "Put" is a contract that gives you the right to sell the Nasdaq 100 at a specific price. If the market plunges, your Put option becomes significantly more valuable, acting as a direct offset to the losses in your long-term tech positions.
Cash: As the saying goes, "Cash is King." By moving a portion of your portfolio to cash, you aren't just avoiding losses; you are building a "war chest" that allows you to buy your favorite stocks at a massive discount once the dust settles.

It is vital to remember that these are short-term hedges. We remain high-conviction bulls on big tech and innovation for the long run, as these companies will continue to change the world long after this conflict is over. However, as professional investors, we must protect our capital today so we have the resources to win tomorrow. This disciplined, "protect-and-grow" mindset is exactly what we teach inside our Investment Club. Our students aren't panicking; they are executing. Just look at our testimonials from this past week: while the average investor was watching their screen in horror, our members were using these exact hedging strategies to make a ton of money!

As you can see, one of our students took 4 put options in a single day, and was able to net anywhere from 148% to 217%. Even more impressive than that, another one of our students shared their returns, and their ENTIRE Robinhood account was up almost 150% in under just one week!

We love to brag about our students who are crushing it in these market that most investors are stuggling with. If you feel like everytime you buy a stock, it starts to crash, or every time you sell a stock, it jumps up, then now is the time to join the CEO Watchlist Investment Club. Don’t trade through this war alone, join the club and learn to trade like a pro. Here is a newsletter exclusive $200 OFF discount code that's available for a limited time! [CLICK HERE] to grab your spot!

Earnings Season: Here Are 3 Stocks Reporting That We're Watching This Week... (Source)

Stocks mentioned: $ORCL, $RBRK, $AVAV

As earning season is coming to a close, we only have a handful of important names left to report. Of those, there's 3 names we're extremely interested in that are reporting this week:

Oracle (ORCL): We expect Oracle to show massive growth in its cloud division as more companies rent space in their digital "warehouses" to run AI programs. If they show that their "backlog" of promised work is growing, it proves that big businesses are still betting long-term on AI. This is a name that we have had on our "sell list" for the past few months, but because of how much it has sold off, and had its valuation compressed, it now offers a much more attractive entry. If earnings are even half way decent, this is a name that could rally 7% to 10% in a single day!
Rubrik (RBRK): In a world where hackers are getting smarter, and war is as prevelant as oxygen, Rubrik acts as the ultimate digital "undo" button for companies under attack. We expect this cybersecurity company to show high subscription growth, meaning more companies are signing up for their backup services to protect their data from being held for ransom. We think that cybersecurity is in a great spot, and currently, Rubrik is one of 4 key names in the space that we own in our personal stock portfolios. If you're an Investment Club Member [CLICK HERE] to see the 3 cybersecurity names, we own today, that we like better than Rubrik.
AeroVironment (AVAV): This company makes the "Switchblade" drones seen in modern defense and being used in wars around the world today. We expect to see a jump in sales due to global demand, but investors will be watching their "profit margins", essentially checking if the cost of building these high-tech drones is eating up too much of their actual earnings. Recently, they had some bad news with a restructuring of their largest drone deal to date. For this reason, the stock has been selling off into this earnings report, so if they can shed some light and clarity on the situation on the earnings call, then we think the stock could have a good chance to rally.

The main thing to take away is that we will be watching for "guidance," on the earnings calls. In the current climate, a company can beat every expectation for the past, but if their outlook for the future is even slightly cautious, the stock will likely be punished. We are looking for the sweet spot: companies that are growing fast enough to be exciting, but stable enough to survive a world where the "easy money" has already been made.

"Super Investor" Spotlight: Leopold Aschenbrenner (Source)

Stocks mentioned: $BE, $CRWV, $INTC, $LITE, $CORZ, $IREN, $APLD, $SNDK

This week’s "Super Investor" Spotlight turns to Leopold Aschenbrenner, the 24-year-old prodigy and founder of Situational Awareness LP. For our newer readers, a "Super Investor" belongs to an elite class of fund managers, often overseeing billions, whose quarterly "13F" filings provide a mandatory look at their high-conviction stock market moves. Now, for those that don't know, Leopold is a former OpenAI researcher who transitioned from the Chat GPT team to investing in the physical infrastructure required to build Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Since launching his fund with backing from tech leaders like the Collison Brothers and Nat Friedman, his portfolio has reached a reported $5.52 billion in US equity exposure as of early 2026.

Leopold's latest filing reveals a portfolio that is less about "chatbots" and entirely about industrial horsepower. He is rotating heavily into the "unsexy" backbone of the digital age, including power, cooling, and specialized compute, betting that the biggest bottleneck for AI isn't the code, but the electricity and hardware needed to run it. His strategy is incredibly concentrated, with his top 10 holdings making up over 80% of his reported portfolio. This "high-conviction" approach (investing a large percentage of capital into a small number of stocks) signals a manager who isn't just going to blindly diversify his investments for the sake of diversification, he’s playing for maximized returns in his highest conviction bets, while accepting a lot of risk.

Here is the breakdown of Leopold's top 10 positions and high-conviction options:

Bloom Energy (BE) – 15.9%
CoreWeave (CRWV) – 14.0% (call options)
Intel (INTC) – 13.5% (call options)
Lumentum (LITE) – 8.7%
CoreWeave (CRWV) – 7.9%
Core Scientific (CORZ) – 7.6%
IREN (IREN) – 6.0%
Applied Digital (APLD) – 5.0%
SanDisk (SNDK) – 4.5%
Cipher Mining (CIFR) - 2.8%

What we can learn from Leopold is the importance of investing in the "bottleneck". While retail investors are chasing the newest AI apps, the person who actually helped build the most advanced models is buying fuel cells, fiber optics, and flash storage. He is teaching us that "Situational Awareness" means looking past the software interface and toward the physical hardware; the silicon, the electricity, and the cooling, that makes the digital world possible. For the everyday investor, the lesson is clear: in a gold rush, don't just buy the gold; buy the companies that own the land and the shovels!

We like Leopold because he brings the "insider" perspective of a Silicon Valley researcher to the ruthless arena of the public markets. His latest filing is a masterclass in thematic concentration, shifting away from general software, toward the energy and hardware infrastructure that will power the next decade. In summary, Leopold isn't betting on who wins the AI "personality" race; he is betting on the physical foundation that everyone must pay to use.

INSIDER STOCK TRADES FROM THE WEEK:

1. Trade Desk (TTD) - Jeff Green (President & CEO) bought roughly $150,000,000 worth of TTD at an average price of $24.68/share on Mar. 2, 2026, but it wasn't reported to the public until Mar. 4, 2026. (Source)

2. Shift4 Payments (FOUR) - Jared Isaacman (Director) bought roughly $13,600,000 of FOUR at an average price of $46.11/share between Feb. 26-27, 2026, but it wasn't reported to the public until Mar. 2, 2026. (Source)

3. ServiceNow (NOW) - William McDermott (Chairman & CEO) bought roughly $3,000,000 of NOW at an average price of $104.60/share on Feb. 27, 2026, but it wasn't reported to the public until Mar. 2, 2026. (Source)

Over 2,000 people have already signed up for my FREE Masterclass video on how to unlock my exact strategies for finding winning stock/options trades! I'll share everything including how to find what Politicians and CEOs are buying. Don’t miss your chance to get in for FREE before spots fill up!