It’s where hundreds of market makers debriefed every day after moving the biggest money on Wall Street.
On this particular night, I was scanning the bar to see if anyone interesting was there when my friend - a fellow market maker - said something to make me snap out of it (back to my story).
“Wait….what did you just say?” I asked.
“I filled a huge CocaCola order today. Tens of thousands of puts sold, and it’s the third day in a row they’ve done this. I have no idea who’s on the other side of this but… they’re making a huge bet Coke is going up.”
This was interesting to me because 1991 wasn’t the time to bet stocks would go up.
In fact, everyone was betting the opposite.
Wall Street was trapped in the middle of the infamous Savings and Loan Crisis that would eventually see half a trillion dollars go up in smoke.
Stocks were at all time lows. The trading floor was so quiet and empty I expected to see tumbleweeds.
No one - and I mean no one - was betting stocks go up.
Until this Coca Cola buy.
I finished my martini and went home. The next day, I tracked the order.
Again, tens of thousands of CocaCola puts sold. Again and again… for nearly three weeks. Every day, no one was buying ANYTHING, only this huge position in Coca Cola.
The position got so large it was the only thing any market maker was talking about, and at one point I even remember it moving the ENTIRE market up.
Fast forward six months later, and Warren Buffett announces he has taken a huge stake in CocaCola, over $100 Million. Ahha! Our put seller. Over the next few years, the position I first heard about across the bar at Ceres went up 728%.
To this day, Buffett is still holding this position.
To 99.99% of people, the conversation I had at the bar would have meant nothing.
To me, it meant everything.
It was the difference between being on the right or wrong side of the market. It was the difference between a six-figure win and a six-figure loss. It was the most important conversation happening about the market in the WORLD that day, and it happened on $13 dollar stools in a dimly lit, dingy bar no one had heard of and no one ever went to… except those who had access to the most important moves in the US stock market..
What I realized over the next six months as I watched the one conversation I had about Coca Cola in early 1991 turn into billions in profit was this:
You could be the best option trader in the world, but if you’re not in a room where you can follow institutional buying, you’ll never win.
Never.
Because you know what I didn’t do back in 1991 when I heard about this order?
I didn’t follow it.
If I had, well… let’s just say I wouldn’t be here writing this to you today.
Institutional interest dictates EVERYTHING.
Without it, you fly blind. You guess. You shoot at a target with both hands tied behind your back.
CocaCola taught me that tou have to - no matter what - get a seat at THAT table in THAT room.
I used to be “in that room” by sitting at the bar at Ceres.
By processing orders and seeing firsthand what the institutions were doing and where their money was moving.
But there’s another way to be “in that room.”
You see, when institutions make million and billion dollar moves, they leave something behind. I call it their “fingerprint.” And over a decade of watching trades just like this move on Coca Cola, I discovered a way to be IN THE ROOM without ever needing to eavesdrop at the bar.
I follow their fingerprints.
Now, I’m not in this game for the thrill of the forensics. Although… watching the face of an institutional insider who drank five Lemon drop martinis the night before as I rip them off on their trade the next day… that will truly never get old.
I’m in this for the money.
I’m in this for the GUARANTEE.
I care when institutions buy a stock because they are the “kingmakers” of the stock market.
When Warren Buffett bought all that CocaCola back in 1991… he was the first step in a series of events that all but guaranteed CocaCola stock would go up.
When institutions buy stock…
Or they buy huge quantities of long dated options….
They force the market makers to multiply the move.
Let me explain.
When an institution places that order, a market maker (me, back in 1991) has to FILL that order. And when the market maker fills that order, they don’t just fill it and move on. They fill the order and then they HEDGE the order. This means that the initial bet from the institution gets 2X’d… almost immediately.
It’s a self-fulfilling destiny.
Institutional order → order filled by market maker → order hedged by market maker (2X’ing the bet) → stock goes up
It’s as close as you can get to a guarantee.
In fact, it’s so certain that over the last four years… 268 stocks that received the type of institutional backing I used to overhear inside Ceres…. 262 of them went up.
Not just 1 or 2%, either.
An average of 37%.
Let me repeat that.
98% of stocks that received institutional investment in the last four years went up. Those that went up, went up an average of 37%.
That’s not an accident and it’s not a coincidence.
And it doesn’t just happen once in a blue moon, either.
Around 8 stocks on average per month receive huge backing by institutional insiders. It may not be an institutional backing like I saw on CocaCola back in 1991, but it doesn’t need to be!
Institutional insiders caused…
Robinhood to go up +1,084% in 15 months
Chewy to go up over 400% in 6 months
Roku to go up 123% in 7 months
Qualcomm to go from $120 to $205
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company to go from $44 to $94
Li Auto Inc to go from $20 to $47
Institutional interest is the great equalizer.
Where institutions go, stocks move higher.
For years, the ability to see these institutional moves and follow them has been a sealed door. Only the most crafty market makers and floor insiders know exactly what to look for and where to look for it. And even then, tracking their moves was a manual process.
Next Thursday at 7pm ET, I’ll reveal exactly how I’ve automated this process.
How YOU can be INSIDE THE ROOM just like I was back at Ceres.
How you can catch the biggest stock moves in the next year and beyond.
How this is going to change what you thought was possible in the stock market – forever.
Join Hannah and I on Thursday March 19th at 7pm ET for the finale event of a 3-day training series. Trust me, this is something you can’t afford to miss.
-Andrew
SAVE MY SEAT!
