As CEO of TheStreet Pro, the team sometimes lets me do cool things. Like Tuesday, I got to host TheStreet Pro’s Stocks & Markets Podcast in place of regular hostChris Versace. I was joined by three of my favorite contributors, Stephen “Sarge” Guilfoyle, Bob Lang, and Louis Llanes, all of whom should be familiar to readers of this column.
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Trade TSLA with leverageThree Scenarios for How the Iran War Might End on This Week’s Stocks & Markets Podcast
I kicked it off with a discussion of how the war in Iran might impact portfolios and ways that investors can protect themselves. According to TheStreet Pro’s Peter Tchir, who is a geopolitical expert, there are “Three Potential Outcomes in Iran.”
In scenario one, the war lasts for another week before the Trump administration declares “victory,” citing regime change, although many initial goals are not finished. The Middle East might not be back to normal, and this might not be a good result for the rest of the world. Peter puts the odds of this scenario coming to fruition at 40%.
Scenario two takes longer, but results in actual regime change and some level of normalcy in Iran, where multinational corporations begin to conduct business in the region. This is the best outcome, but Peter only sees 25% odds for this scenario.
Scenario three ends in a stalemate, where the US does not get its desired outcome. The resulting inflation hits different industries like food producers and semiconductors, as well as the more obvious energy companies. The odds of this outcome happening are 35%.
Our panelists believed that there’s a fourth option, some sort of a hybrid, which might be more possible. Regardless, they all felt that the market will remain volatile for the foreseeable future and that we should focus on price action over headlines.
What sectors could do well? You’ll have to tune in to our YouTube channel to check it out.In fact, if you join TheStreet Pro, you can access to our podcast early, as well as have the opportunity to interact with our contributors every day.
I can, however, tell you that none of our panelists were bullish. Sarge has started to nibble on a few positions, but all three agree that the stock market remains in a downtrend. They’re watching price action to tell them when it will be safe to jump in, specifically looking for a sustained reduction in volatility and a W-shaped bottom pattern, where the market retests a low and then rallies on strength.
We also cover stocks like Costco (COST), Oracle (ORCL), SoFi (SOFI), and Palantir (PLTR).
I encourage you to watch the whole conversation. It’s a good one.
In the meantime, I’d like to cover two trading ideas from one of today’s panelists, Bob Lang.
Dell is a Value at $170. Here’s an Options Trade We Like
In 2026, the average stock is down. Tech stocks have been terrible. So why is Dell (DELL) up? Earnings. In February, the company announced record numbers and ambitious forward guidance. The results ignited shares, which jumped more than 20% in a day and continued rising to where they were up nearly 50% on the year. Over the last week, shares have dipped 10%, and Bob thinks that Dell, which has emerged as a rare bright spot in a rough tech market is a buy. Here is his options strategy.
Bob likes the June 170 Call, which was trading around $20 at the time he wrote his article and were under $15 on Tuesday evening, following the stock’s additional decline, which Bob noted could happen.
So, why is Bob bullish on Dell? It’s the technicals. Shares are in a strong uptrend, money flow is bullish, and the MACD remains on a buy signal. Bob’s short-term target is $200.
But there’s more. We know that earnings and revenue growth were strong, and the company suggests that it will continue to perform well. The best part is that shares trade for just 13x trailing earnings according to TipRanks. So, the stock is not overvalued, which gives investors less reason to take profits. That’s supportive for Bob’s $170 calls and target price of $200.
Tesla’s Batteries Are Drained
Each week, Bob sifts through the market’s diamonds to find pieces of coal. He’s on the lookout for stocks that he thinks will decline, normally because of a poor chart pattern and indicators. In up markets, it’s hard to find those potentially poor performers. In down markets, like what we’ve had in 2026, it’s much easier. If a rising tide lifts all boats, then a falling tide drops those same boats.
Tesla (TSLA) is one of those stocks that Bob thinks will continue to fall. Why? Poor price action. For one thing, shares are exhibiting a textbook downtrend, marked by lower highs and lower lows. In other words, following each bounce up, the stock declines to a lower low. The MACD indicator is flashing a sell signal, too. Money flow, which combines price and volume, shows that bears are more aggressive than bulls. Selling dominates the price action in this stock. You can read more about Bob’s bearish bent in Tesla Among Top-3 Stocks to Short as Downtrend Continues.
Although Bob’s analysis is based on the price chart, I took a look at TipRanks’ website for additional reasons to be bearish (or bullish!) on Tesla. While positive factors include a strong balance sheet, negative factors include weakening revenue and profit margins. Tesla has lots of competition in the EV space that it once owned.
Not only that, but I also struggle to understand how anyone can willingly pay 432 times trailing earnings for a company with negative revenue growth. As a comparison, you can buy Toyota shares at less than 9 times. In fact, the company trades at over 15 times revenues. Which means that, for you to get your money back over the next 15 years, Tesla would have to take each year’s earnings, and instead of paying their bills, like suppliers, employees, and even taxes, they would, instead, send every penny to shareholders. That’s not realistic. This stock doesn’t trade on fundamentals. It trades on hype. Like a meme stock.
Even if Elon Musk can turn Tesla into the robotics company he claims is the future, the market for robots would have to be huge, and he’d have to do it quickly.
Bob’s target price is $280, 25% below current prices. However, Bob would cover this short if the stock rises much above its 200-day SMA. He suggests a stop at $405.
Wall Street is mixed on Tesla, too, with seven out of 31 analysts believing the stock is overvalued. Just 13 of the 31 think it’s worth buying, and the most optimistic of them believes it could hit $600 over the next year. But among the bearish analysts, they have an average target price of just $215, and the most pessimistic among them is looking for $24.86 a share.
I’m biased. I called Tesla dead money back in 2024. And I still think that’s the case. Even though shares are within 25% of their all-time highs, they’re still trading at prices first seen in late 2021. That’s four years of nothing but volatility for Tesla shareholders.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard to read the markets when geopolitical events are taking center stage. At any moment, President Trump can move markets in unexpected ways. However, that doesn’t mean you should sit back. News-driven markets can be analyzed, too. A great example of this is how Peter Tchir considers different scenarios and places odds on each one.
In times like these, you have to be aware of your risk tolerance. Make sure that you’re thinking long-term, even as you make some short-term trades. As we’ve discussed before, this might include adding some short positions to hedge your long-term bullish portfolio. In this article, we’ve discussed one stock that’s bucking the downward trend, and another that’s overpriced and falling.