What Is Marc Lichtenfeld’s “No. 1 Penny Options” Pick?

Marc Lichtenfeld has released an interview-style pitch with host Kym McNicholas about his new Penny Options Trader service, which costs around $2k to join. And as part of the presentation, he teased his “current No. 1 penny options windfall opportunity.”

According to Lichtenfeld, this stock is “on the verge of six huge catalysts,” any one of which could “potentially send its shares soaring in the next few months.”

“This stock is on the verge of six huge catalysts, any one of which could potentially send its shares soaring in the next few months…

“And one of the most powerful catalysts is an upcoming trial result on a prized drug…

“Which can have a huge impact on the stock price.”

Source: https://pro.oxfordclub.com/p/PENNYTO2050TOTLTMLBCLO/ETOTY881/Full

What’s he recommending?

Instead of recommending a stock, Lichtenfeld talked about trading options, which allow you to “control” more shares of a company with less money. And while he didn’t reveal what specific options play he was recommending or what the underlying company was, he did share numerous clues, which I looked into to see what I could find.

So let’s unpack Lichtenfeld’s pitch, and I’ll show you what I found.

Lichtenfeld’s “Penny Options Summit” Teaser

Marc Lichtenfeld’s presentation (dubbed the “Penny Options Summit”) took place on the Oxford Club website and started out by talking about how some of his readers have made a bunch of money with his “penny options strategy” recommendations.

Long story short, the gist of his pitch is that you can pay less money for options than stocks and, therefore, “risk a lot less money in each trade” while still having “the chance to make outsized returns.”

“By using simple options, we’re able to hit a sweet spot that most people aren’t even aware of.

“Penny options allow us to literally pay pennies on the dollar for the same fundamentally sound stocks…

“Which regular shareholders are paying thousands – even tens of thousands – of dollars to own.

“Of course, all investing involves risk.

“But with penny options, you can risk a lot less money in each trade…

“And still have the chance to make outsized returns.”

What Lichtenfeld said there is true in that, with options, you’re putting less money at risk to speculate on the same number of shares than with regular stocks.

However, that’s only one side of the story.

The other side is that, with options, because you’re able to “control” more shares with less money, this introduces something called leverage, which can see the up and down price movements be a lot more extreme compared to the underlying stock.

In other words, the volatility can be very high. You may be risking less money on any given trade compared to buying the same number of corresponding shares, but the money you are risking can be wiped out a LOT faster.

Not to mention, with options, there’s a time limit. So you have to be right before the contract expires, or you risk losing the whole amount you’ve invested.

Whereas with stocks, if the price goes down significantly, you still own the shares, so you can hold them for years and potentially see the price recover in the long run.

There is a lot more to it than that, so I recommend doing your own research on how options work. What I’ve said barely scratches the surface. And to be clear, there are still risks involved with stocks (and any investment for that matter). So I’m not saying options are a “bad” idea. I’m just trying to point out that there is another side to the story.

Anyway, Marc Lichtenfeld says that his strategy involves buying “underpriced” options (aka penny options), which he suggests are options priced at “$5 or less.”

And he specifically targets options with “low volatility” and where the underlying company is “extremely valuable” and “overlooked.”

“The penny options we target are underpriced for a couple of key reasons…

They have low volatility… AND even though they’re extremely valuable companies, they’re being overlooked.”

Among other things, he also said he looks for companies with a “winning catalyst” and claims there are numerous catalysts that could send shares of the company he’s teasing “soaring.”

What’s his pick?

I don’t know exactly what call option contract Lichtenfeld is recommending, but after looking into his clues, I think I know what the underlying stock is. So let’s discuss that now.

What “No. 1 Penny Options Windfall Opportunity” Is Marc Lichtenfeld Teasing?

Here are the first main clues Lichtenfeld shared in the pitch:

“Over the past several months, I’ve been tracking one incredible opportunity just for this moment.

“It involves a small, $5 billion dollar drug company…

“That recently inked a partnership with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca… and it’s potentially worth $3.5 billion.”

Based on that, he’s teasing a drug company with a market cap of around $5 billion. Or, more specifically, a company that had a $5 billion market cap at around the time the presentation was released (July 2022). And we’re looking for a company that has just done a deal for around $3.5 billion with AstraZeneca.

Aside from that, Lichtenfeld said that the company recently received the “orphan drug” designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA):

“But it also recently received an important and often lucrative ‘orphan drug’ designation from the Food and Drug Administration… handing it seven years of market exclusivity.

“Now, if the Phase 3 data – which the company says will be out this year – proves the drug is safe and effective…

“The FDA could approve it in short order.”

Next, Lichtenfeld talked about the therapeutics in its pipeline, which might help explain what he said about there being “six huge catalysts” at the beginning of the presentation:

“This firm has not one, not two… but six therapeutics in its Phase 3 pipeline as we speak.”

And finally, he dropped some more hints about the AstraZeneca deal and said the company has “$2 billion in cash on the books.”

“The company has already received $200 million as part of its potential $3.5 billion deal with AstraZeneca for testing on this one drug.

“But that’s extra.

“Because it already has $2 billion in cash on the books.”

What could it be?

I think the company he’s teasing here is Ionis Pharmaceuticals (ticker: IONS).

As for why, this one was pretty easy to figure out…

All I did was look into what company has done a deal with AstraZeneca to the tune of around $3.5 billion, which bought me to this article on fiercebiotech.com.

In short, the article talks about a partnership between AstraZeneca and Ionis Pharmaceuticals related to Eplontersen, which the Ionis website describes as an “investigational antisense medicine.”

I have no idea what that “medicine” is all about or how it works (it’s way beyond my understanding), but the fiercebiotech.com article I shared states that the deal involved a “$200 million upfront” payment from AstraZeneca to Ionis, $485 million in additional “conditional payments,” and “up to $2.9 billion in sales-related milestone payments,” which works out to around $3.5 billion when you add it up.

So, that clue’s a match.

And as for the others:

• According to a June 2022 press release, the FDA “has granted orphan drug designation and rare pediatric disease designation to ION582,” which is an “investigational antisense medicine” Ionis Pharmaceuticals is working on.
• The company’s market cap is currently sitting at around $6.2 billion (August 2022), but the stock price (and market cap) have risen since the presentation was released in July, so that looks like a match, too.
• And finally, according to Yahoo Finance, the company’s cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments were at around $2 billion at the end of June 2022.

What does the company do?

Ionis Pharmaceuticals is a California-based biotech company that specializes in discovering and developing RNA-targeted therapeutics.

And according to the company website, Ionis has been the leader in RNA-targeted therapy for more than 30 years, “pioneering new markets” and “changing standards of care” with its novel antisense technology in the process.

You can see exactly what therapeutics the company is working on its pipeline page, too. So you might find that helpful if you want to know more about the “Phase 3 pipeline” comment Lichtenfeld made in the presentation.

The science behind what this company does is beyond me, and I won’t speculate on whether I think its share price will go up or down, but this appears to be Lichtenfeld’s pick.

As for what options trade Lichtenfeld’s recommending, based on what he said in the pitch, he’s almost certainly recommending a call option, which is where you bet on the company’s stock price appreciating. But beyond that, it’s unclear what his recommendation involves.

The only way to know for sure would be to see the report called “Marc Lichtenfeld’s No. 1 Penny Options Windfall Opportunity,” which comes with a subscription to his new Penny Options Trader service for $2k. I haven’t joined the service or read that report, but let’s take a look at what it’s about in case you’re thinking of giving it a go.

What Is Penny Options Trader?

Penny Options Trader is an options trading service run by Marc Lichtenfeld of The Oxford Club that focuses on what Lichtenfeld describes as “fundamentally strong” and “highly valuable” companies that are “being overlooked by Wall Street.”

“In Penny Options Trader, my team and I target fundamentally strong, highly valuable companies…

“That are being overlooked by Wall Street.

“And I’m going to make this promise to our viewers, right upfront.

“You’ll be able to get into every one of our penny options recommendations for $500 or less per contract…”

Each month, subscribers of the service receive two to three “penny options” recommendations (which he describes as options with an entry price of $5 or less) or up to 36 recommendations each year in total. And since the minimum options contract is 100 shares, that means it’ll cost you $500 or less per recommendation he makes.

Aside from the monthly picks, subscribers get the report I mentioned earlier that details the options play he teased in the presentation and other resources aimed at helping you follow his options trade recommendations.

As for how much it costs, the presentation states that it retails for almost $5k, but as part of the pitch, the Oxford Club (the company behind it) is letting people join for $2,050 for 12 months.

And unfortunately, it’s not possible to get a refund if you’re not happy with the service. Although they do offer a “credit” to use on another service if you decide you don’t like it within 90 days.

I’ll let you decide if you think it’s worth it or not. As I said I’m not a member, so I don’t know if it’s worth it or not. But if you want to know more about some of Lichtenfeld’s past recommendations, check out this archive page. It shows you all the posts I’ve published about his picks and is updated when I publish new articles.

Bottom Line

It wouldn’t surprise me if some of Lichtenfeld’s picks turned out to be winners, but keep in mind that there are risks involved, as with any investment. And as with every service, even the ones I recommend, there’s no guarantee you’ll make money.

I completely understand the temptation to join a service in the hopes of making “fast money.” I’ve done this myself with different services. But the reality is that most traders either underperform or barely outperform the S&P, so I wonder how well some of these strategies will work over the long run.

Time will tell, I guess. In the meantime, if you agree with my earlier guess, at least now you don’t have to spend $2k just to find out what company Lichtenfeld’s teasing.

Thanks for reading!