As broad indexes lately have chopped and rotated, leadership has been getting more selective, with capital finding a new home with parts of the energy complex that are showing follow-through rather than reacting to headlines. Within that, oilfield services have been acting less like a raw commodity proxy and more like a steady compounder, absorbing pullbacks instead of amplifying them. The tape has consistently rewarded names that can hold gains on weak days and expand them when buying reappears.
That behavior points to SLB (Schlumberger). Since last year’s Q4, the stock has been carving a clean series of higher highs and higher lows, and in late October its 21-day EMA crossed decisively above the 63-day EMA — a momentum inflection that has held rather than faded. Importantly, price now sits comfortably above both averages, suggesting the shorter-term trend is carrying the longer-term trend with it. In trader terms, it’s been a stair-step advance with participation instead of drift, the exact pattern we like to see in a price chart.
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Given that structure, a simple long call is a cleaner expression than a spread, especially when option premiums aren’t rich enough to justify selling much risk. A call keeps your downside limited to what you pay while preserving upside participation if the trend extends. At current pricing, there’s an SLB call that would generate about 104% profit if the shares were 10% higher at expiration — a conditional payoff that illustrates the leverage of the setup rather than a forecast.
If you want the full setup, strikes, and risk plan around ideas like this, we detail them in the Options For Income Newsletter. We’re currently offering a one-month trial for just $1. Members receive multiple income-focused option trades each week with the same tape-first framework. To get our top income-focused trade ideas each week, click here to begin your $1 trial!
Wishing You the Best in Investing Success,

Blane Markham
Chief Trading Strategist
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