“America’s Next Move”...CHECKMATE!

People are still raving about our “America’s Next Move” event.

But even most of our team missed one of James’ most important lessons.

It happened during the cocktail party — when James was playing chess with 10 separate opponents.

I’ll explain what I learned just by watching in a second… along with other highlights from our conference.

First, though, let’s look at our Top Stories and the Reader Forum.

Your Top Stories & Analysis of the Week:

• “The South Is Rising Again!” (Rude Awakening, Sean Ring): The Northeastern United States is home to many prestigious colleges. But a combination of bad weather, high tuition and campus protests is causing more and more students to seek higher education in southern locales. Sean digs into this cultural shift… and reveals what it means for the U.S. economy. Brian H. tells us, “I greatly enjoyed” this story. See why this was one of Sean’s most-liked articles last week.

• “Reporting LIVE From Baltimore!” (Altucher Confidential, Davis Wilson): The “America’s Next Move” conference was one of our biggest events of the year. And Davis — a relatively new addition to our team — was your eyes on the floor. He recaps Zach Scheidt’s artificial intelligence income strategies… Ray Blanco’s AI-powered biotech insights… and James Altucher’s role in ending the 2009 bear market. If you couldn’t join us last week, Davis offers a glimpse into what you missed!

• “A Vance Victory,” (Strategic Intelligence, Jim Rickards): While there’s some question about who really won the first presidential debate, the winner of the vice presidential debate is crystal clear. Jim offered his Strategic Intelligence readers a full recap — from Tim Walz’s shortcomings to the moderator’s failed attempts to shut J.D. Vance up. Jim’s insights set a new record for our most-liked story since we started keeping track. Dana B. says, “Hearing or reading what Jim has to say is ALWAYS informative and well worth my time.” So it was an easy decision to unlock it for you!

Remember, we publish tens to HUNDREDS of stories. The write-ups above are our TOP ones for the week — including one that had been roped off from the public. If you want to stay ahead of the pack, make sure you’re caught up now.

And if you’d like to nominate any of our stories for next week’s “Top 3,” just let me know at concierge@paradigmpressgroup.com.

The Reader Forum:

First for today, Claudio B. wants James to know:

I have found in James Altucher and this eponymous Network what I consider a gem and truly one of the most interesting, encouraging, positive and potentially valuable… resources I've ever come across…. I also have to thank Mr. Jim Rickards and Paradigm for the introduction, to be fair. I believe that my investing, trading and financial future — regardless of what comes — will be greatly benefited from these resources. It has already, and I look forward to even greater things.

Wow, Claudio — that’s quite a compliment! We’re glad to have you aboard… and I’m positive you will continue to benefit from your memberships.

I also appreciated the shoutout to Jim Rickards. We often get flak for touting our other services and analysts. But as you demonstrate, it’s the only way to introduce people to our entire team.

Thanks for writing in… and I hope you’ll share your future successes with us, too!

Next, Omega Wealth Circle member Christina H. shared her thoughts on last week’s “America’s Next Move” event in Baltimore:

The presentations were outstanding and so very insightful. The best part was being able to meet and talk with some of the guys I follow: Zack Scheidt, Greg Guenthner, Chris Cimorelli, James, and of course Matt Insley. This was my first conference… Thank you all for everything you do for us, and thank you to the staff that worked so very hard, I’m sure, to put this event together. It was truly fabulous.

Thanks for attending, Christina! Baltimore may get a bad rap, but the Four Seasons really showed the best the city has to offer.

And our team put on an amazing show — offering insights and recommendations they haven’t shared anywhere else. (More on that in a minute.)

Several people couldn’t believe it was a free event — even as they were enjoying complimentary cocktails while James played chess.

You can bet that all the positive feedback we’ve received means we’ll do it again soon. I’ll let you know the second I have any details!

Finally for today, Mark M. challenges the big Income Alliance win that I mentioned in last week’s Forum

How did you come up with a gain of 159% in 16 days? BABA went from $83 to $108; that's ~30+, not 159%!

You’re right, Mark — shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (BABA) jumped 29% between Sept. 11 and Sept. 27.

But you missed the key word in my original sentence. I made it clear that the gains came from BABA calls. That is, call options on the stock.

Zach recommended BABA call options with a strike price of $80 and an Oct. 18 expiration.

Options are leveraged instruments. That means they often cost a fraction of a stock’s share price… and can magnify small price gains in the stock.

In fact, at the time, the BABA calls were trading for $6.30 a share.

Two weeks later, when the BABA shares were heading towards $108, the calls Zach recommended were worth $16.37.

So a 29% stock increase in the stock’s price became a 159% gain for anyone who followed Zach’s recommendation!

And he wasn’t done yet. A few days later, he used BABA calls to deliver 36% and 121% gains from a 19% rise in BABA’s share price.

If you want to know more about how stock options can pad your profits, I urge you to read the free guide we’ve put together for you.

Check out The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Stock Options on our Wealth Desk.

That wraps up this week’s Reader Forum.

Remember, your feedback is vital to our success… so please email me at concierge@paradigmpressgroup.com.

Questions? I’ll get answers! Comments? Let me hear them! Problems? I’ll try to solve them!

This is YOUR forum!

(And don’t forget, as I mentioned, we also have a FREE library of introductory investment guides on our Wealth Desk. For customer service issues, please use our contact page.)

Now, here’s what’s happening around the water cooler this week…

The Water Cooler — Upcoming Events and More

Our cocktail hour was in full swing, and James had already checkmated several of his 10 chess opponents.

By then, most of the crowd had dispersed throughout the Baltimore Four Seasons’ ballroom, forming small groups with fellow members and their favorite analysts.

Only a few chess diehards were paying close attention to the boards. I don’t know much about chess, but I was close enough to the tables to see what was going on, too.

So I had a front-row seat when it happened…

Keep in mind, this was after a full day of top-notch insights from our team.

James shared a few anecdotes I’d never heard before — and reminded us that he’s technically a presidential candidate.

Chris Cimorreli put a spotlight on some “wild and crazy” microcap speculations… including a popular “pot stock” that’s due for a resurgence.

Chris Campbell explained why the next phase of the cryptocurrency boom is all about YOU. Companies are lining up to create locally sourced crypto applications — ready to reward people for monitoring things like weather and air quality.

He’s bullish on Ethereum because many of these up-and-coming projects are based on the crypto’s network.

With so much to mull over and discuss, I’m not surprised that the chess audience had shrunk…

But I was surprised when James suddenly offered his hand to one of the remaining players and said, “You won!”

The man looked at the board in confusion. James wasn’t in check. He was conceding.

Still, the player didn’t know why.

So James walked him through it. “If I go here, you’ll go here. If I move this instead, you’ll counter with this…”

In other words, James knew where the game was going… and realized he didn’t have a chance to win.

He could have kept playing — ignoring his hopeless position or praying for some sort of miracle… wasting his time and efforts.

Instead, he accepted the reality of the situation, ended the game and moved on to the next board.

In the end, that was James’ only loss among nine other wins.

But the game he conceded provided the most important investment lesson of all.