Last month, I spoke about introducing more features to Profit Catalyst Alert to help subscribers make more money from my research. We had our first option trade with a put recommendation on VF Corp., the purveyor of the North Face clothing. This was a quick trade, opened and closed within three days for a 53% gain. While most of our option trades might not be so short term, most will be planned around a company-specific event. We’re working on a text alert feature to keep you up to date while you’re on the go. Many short-biased option trades tend to be volatile and often require a nimble approach. We’ll make sure to tell you when we expect the trading to be quick.

As I noted last month, my years of experience on the short side of the market will be obvious in most of our option plays. Short-biased ideas can be particularly sensitive to timing. I have an inventory of stocks that I’m quite bearish on and will be issuing short-term put recommendations on if I expect a decline in the near term. A few of them I consider to be terminal, meaning I expect a consistent down pattern in earnings and stock behavior over the next six months. I’ll be issuing longer-term LEAP (long-term equity anticipation) put purchases on those.

The second feature, which I’m excited to release this month, is called the Sandbox Portfolio (see page 4). This is a group of stocks that I’ve researched, but for one reason or another I haven’t been 100% behind. Often, they sport terrific fundamentals but are too expensive. This doesn’t mean they won’t go up, and some more risk-loving subscribers might wish to invest in them. Other stocks in this group might have too much debt or rely too heavily on a big customer. In those situations I’m often monitoring results and looking for those numbers to creep into my comfort zone before recommending the stock.

Mostly, I love that the Sandbox feature will give you more names to pick from if you like an industry’s fundamentals. Drew Industries, for example, one of my favorite names, operates in the RV industry. This industry is experiencing some pretty heady growth, and subscribers might also want to buy Patrick Industries, a stock that carries a higher valuation than Drew but still holds promise. I typically need to expect at least a 35% return to include a stock in our portfolio. I’ll be highlighting which industries each name is tied to. I won’t feature full reports on Sandbox companies but will keep you in the loop about my thoughts on each one as they evolve.

Finally, we sent out an alert yesterday that I’ve added Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI) to our portfolio. We’ll have more details on Acuity, plus a full profile, shortly.

But as I said in the alert, the company is a leading provider of lighting and heating solutions, and is a pure play on the explosive demand for intelligent lighting and heating for commercial, educational, industrial and residential buildings. Acuity’s recent acquisitions of Juno Lighting and Distech dramatically expand its reach.

Although it is larger than most of our small to mid-cap holdings, its growth prospects are too big to ignore. Acuity does trade options so we’ll be reviewing those to offer investors the chance to get on board with a smaller up-front investment.

Our target is $342 based on earnings of $10 in 2017.