CNBCfix - Fast Money Review

[CNBCfix Fast Money Review Archive — November-October 2020]

Weiss hits Reggie-in-1971-All-Star-Game-caliber shot with MRNA

On Monday's (11/30) Halftime Report, panelists waded through the market selloff as if they couldn't wait to spear some more fish.

Bryn Talkington stressed that there's still really no alternative to stocks. Pete Najarian agreed how some stocks might be extended but could still keep going up.

Referencing the VIX around 20, Judge noted that Tom Lee has said that breaking below 20 would be a bullish sign, and then Judge basically threw up his hands, stating, "Does Tom Lee have to be right about everything all the time?"

Judge suggested Powell at the Fed and Yellen at Treasury is a "fairly formidable combination" in terms of putting Fed policy in a "pretty dovish place."

Joe Terranova insisted that he's not buying the notion that value names are suddenly going to outperform the growth linchpins. Joe said that moving forward, we need "organic economic growth" instead of the "artificial economic growth" that we've had for years.

Joe said the term "organic economic growth" at least 3 times.

Pete said a certain sector that's enjoyed a recent gain has more to go. "I don't think the energy move is over by a long shot," Pete said.

Joe said he sold ADBE and bought CRM. "Trading technology for technology," Joe said. (Actually it sounds more like trading "technology" for "news flow," but whatever.)

Pete admitted he owns GE January $5 puts (snicker). He said they'd been buying GE puts in the options market for a long time, but "Eventually the music stops," Pete explained.

Degas Wright suggested it's "maybe a little bit early" to jump aboard UAL. (This writer is long UAL.)

Karen Finerman on the 5 p.m. Fast Money complained that Monday's "blip" provided only "zero" opportunities to find bargains to buy.

He wasn't on Monday's show, but the star of November — a huge month for basically everyone, it seems — appears to be Steve Weiss, and not because JMIA has been ferocious (he deserves credit on that one but nevertheless waffled before the huge gains).

Weiss talked up MRNA at least a couple times in the last 2 weeks ahead of a meteoric surge. (This writer has had no position in MRNA this year.) Weiss on Friday 11/20 touted MRNA, then in the upper 90s, and said it was "incredible" that it had just recently pulled back to 88. On Monday 11/23, he made it his Final Trade at $100. We're also pretty certain — though we couldn't find the clip in our recent archive — that Weiss on either the Halftime Report or Closing Bell around that time dubbed MRNA a "gift" in the 80s. That was after the stock had already stormed out of the gates in early November from the 60s.

Obviously, MRNA is one of the most prominent or most-talked-about stocks of the year, but its July-through-October return was anything but special. The fact that Weiss detected what has so far been at least a 50%-plus pop in a couple weeks and trumpeted this forecast multiple times makes it a strong contender for the Halftime/Fast Money Call of the Year.

Judge’s viewers haven’t heard from Bill since March 18

It was a moment that rocked the financial world.

(OK, that's overselling it a bit.)

On March 18, Bill Ackman consented to a doomsday interview on Judge's show and called for a temporary closing of the economy and declared "America will end as we know it. I'm sorry to say so, unless we take this option."

By March 23, Bill had apparently converted his short positions into a $2 billion windfall, which he then poured into the long positions he had mentioned to Judge.

A lot of observers found the interview a little dubious. For example, this site decreed that the most provocative statement was Bill's claim that "I've never had more than like 200 bucks in my wallet, OK. I went to the bank, and I took out a large amount of money in cash, because of this concern ... more than a month ago."

Um, aside from the "never more than 200 bucks" line that doesn't pass the straight-face test, didn't he know that by March 18, everyone was paying for everything with a credit card?

As far as we can tell, CNBC has only booked Bill once since then, on July 22, when he told the Squawk Box crew "I really blame CNBC" for how the March 18 interview was publicized.

"It took 15 seconds of my interview and then went around scaring people because it was good television. ... I gave a very bullish message. I said I was buying stocks."

So Bill complimented CNBC for "good television." Congrats, guys.

If it’s a great deal for CRM, why was CRM down? (a/k/a Who does Joe have in mind for SEC chief?)

We heard one of those explanations on Wednesday's (11/25) Halftime Report that has always made us scratch our heads.

In the Futures Now segment, Jeff Kilburg touted gold, saying he wants to buy at 1,800 and ride it up to 1,850.

That's fine. Then Kilburg explained, "I'm risking 2,500 to make 5 thousand dollars."

That means nothing to anyone. That's like buying a Powerball ticket and claiming, "I'm risking a dollar to make 200 million dollars."

Imagine if someone on Futures Now actually said, "I'm risking 50,000 dollars to make 50 cents." Yeah. Didn't think so.

Meanwhile, at the beginning of the show, Rob Sechan apparently told Halftime producers that the last few weeks have been "transformational." Judge wondered what that meant. Rob suggested that the vaccines and the Biden transition are lining up well for the markets. (Translation: Rob kind of oversold the current environment to producers, and Judge fell for it.) (At least Rob didn't claim, as Jim Lebenthal did recently, that the notes were not correct.)

Judge asked Steve Weiss if there's "room left" in some of these retailers that have had monster November gains, and ambiguity ensued. Weiss said, "in my view," they shouldn't be where they are at, which didn't answer the question. Then he bashed the stocks he always bashes, the airlines, and then claimed "these stocks are trading as if COVID never happened," apparently referring back to retailers. (This writer is long AAL, UAL and SAVE.)

In a bit of hilarity, Weiss said that retailers have "purely been a momentum trade. Momentum trades go until they don't go." If there's anyone familiar with a Momentum Trade, it's Weiss.

Jon Najarian, while his mike was working, suggested the remaining value in this market is with stocks that have not had much of a recovery from the March slam, those "in that 50% or less" range of January-February numbers.

Joe Terranova touted JBHT and VNO.

Josh Brown wasn't on the show but dialed in to opine on the CRM-WORK talks, which Brown called "such a home run for Salesforce" and a "great exit" for WORK shareholders.

Doc said he saw "huge buying in Slack calls today," which Doc said would mean "somebody's gonna take a hard look at that." (Yeah, we bet sombody will.)

Doc pointed 2 fingers at his eyes, as he usually does, when he used the term "focus."

Steve Weiss protested that, despite a downgrade, F will keep going up, as GM has, because "these stocks trade in unison" and F is a "cheap stock." (But of course. The F chart looks great since late September.)

Weiss called GOOGL a hold. "I think momentum continues in the stock," and of course, nothing else matters but the momentum.

Rob Sechan touted the Steelers game scheduled for Thursday night. Judge pointed out that it was moved to Sunday. Which gives the Ravens 3 more days to recover from their OT game.

It apparently hasn’t occurred to Judge that the market probably thinks the virus caseload has peaked

It was a quiet Halftime Report on Tuesday (11/24) in which panelists mostly just gawked at the great stock market unfolding in front of our eyes.

As far as the next decade, "It's gonna be like the Roaring 20s," claimed Jon Najarian, citing the pandemic of 1918 and what followed. "People want to get out" and do things, he said.

Ed Yardeni, who said it looks like everyone will be having a great Thanksgiving, said he too is "looking at the 2020s as having a lot of similarities potentially with the 1920s."

Yardeni also stated, "I did turn bullish on March 25th." So he missed the bottom by 2 days. (That's like Greg Brady driving the red Caprice Classic convertible 6 inches too far into the pylon egg.)

Judge interrupted the program for an important statement from President Donald Trump, who in barely a minute of remarks called 30,000 a "sacred number."

Where’s Bill Fleckenstein?
(And congrats to Kourtney)

Judge opened Friday's (11/22) Halftime Report with Brian Belski, who is predicting 4,200, or a 15% S&P 500 gain next year, as CNBC struggles to find any bears willing to go on TV.

In a bit of hyperbole in an otherwise straightforward, reasonable call, Belski said the "unprecedented" 2020 price moves will convert to "unprecedented" earnings gains.

Judge asked Belski why he downgraded tech for 2021. Belski said it's "too simplistic" to make sector calls; he'd rather just pick stocks.

Pete Najarian touted PENN and DKNG. (This writer is long DKNG.) Pete indicated PENN is more of a trade and DKNG is more of a long-term play. Judge realized Jenny Harrington, who was on the show, isn't on board with this trade because he was "quoting from the note" (translation: what Jenny and others told the producers before the show) in which Jenny cites "low barriers to entry" and "unrealistic" valuations. Jenny said that's true and also claimed that "user profitability declined."

Jenny claimed, "I know it was a really good quarter for sports" because "all" the big sports had their finals at the same time. (Actually football didn't, and it really wasn't a good quarter for sports, empty stands, seasons out of sync, still no college basketball, limited college football.)

Judge told Jenny, "You can't hide from the note." Actually, Jim Lebenthal did that on Oct. 26, when Judge claimed Jim had predicted big tech would "disappoint," and Jim insisted that's "not accurate" and that he's "not sure how you've got that at all."

Steve Weiss explained again how he's back into JMIA (translation: tape started going higher after the plunge 2 weeks ago) and said he bought more BABA, "added meaningfully yesterday" though he "didn't catch the bottom."

Jenny Harrington stressed that WBA is "too cheap," though she allowed, "I don't know what the right price is."

On Thursday, Josh Brown offered an eye-opening forecast, "We're gonna have a year-end meltup," which is also what Tom Lee says. Judge announced Kourtney Gibson joined the board of LULU; Kourtney was congratulated by Judge and others. Judge also mentioned it Friday, when Steve Weiss admitted he sold LULU and said Kourtney going on the board "is only going to be positive for that company." However, Weiss said "I think I'll get another chance to buy it," suggesting the consumer is "bored; how many more Lulu pants do you need."

Gotta root for an investment vehicle with the symbol JOET (even if it is a Momentum Trade)

Early on, we had given up on Wednesday's (11/18) Halftime Report.

But still listening around the 47-minute mark, we heard the news of the day: Joe Terranova launched an ETF that began trading Wednesday.

And then we started paying close attention.

"So Buy High, Sell Higher, basically identifying high-conviction investment opportunities and that's exactly what we're doing in the introduction here of a new strategy," Joe explained. "There's this debate between growth and value. I'm not trying to offer a solution for that debate. I'm offering a compelling alternative in the capacity of a better index.

"So it's 125 large-cap U.S. equity names, equally weighted, they are initially screened by momentum, which is so incredibly important in capital markets right now, because of the quantitative participation," Joe continued. "And then graded further by quality. Return on equity, debt to equity and annualized sales growth over the prior 3 years, then you've got 125 names that I truly believe will offer an opportunity for long-term investors to gain index exposure."

Joe explained that on Oct. 30, ABBV and CTAS "went into the index."

Hmmmmm. OK. We're going to do a bit of research and opine on JOET later.

At first glance, it sounds like an ETF of great companies whose stocks have recent ... you know the word ... momentum.

Jim Cramer predicted "the young people are gonna go crazy for this" because they want only "the good stocks" in an index. "I like it," Jim said. "Joe did it! He culled the losers."

The only problem is that "losers" typically aren't "losers" forever, nor are they winners forever (witness BA).

The problem with Momentum Investing is that it works until it doesn't ... and then you're in face-ripped-off land.

But as for JOET, we'll reserve analysis until later, but note that, no matter what might be said, we are hoping for Joe and other investors to succeed. (And by the way, we think it'll be fun to own a piece of this.)

Joe told Judge, "By the way, this does not help- uh, this does not happen with, without you and Jim and Steph and all of the Halftime universe."

"Proud moment for you. We're, uh, we're proud of you. Congrats," Judge told Joe, as others also offered congratulations.

KO, AXP, IBM, how exciting

Judge spent probably about half of Tuesday's (11/17) Halftime Report egging on panelists to declare something informative from the Berkshire 13F, but basically coming up empty, he himself had to declare that perhaps the biggest "statement" of the filing regards the banks, that "these stocks stink."

Josh Brown and Steve Weiss pointed out why 45-day old data on Berkshire's AAPL holdings may not be that relevant. Jim Lebenthal said Warren Buffett is one of his heroes but that he's not infallible, such as "selling the airlines exactly at the bottom back in March."

In a comment that raised the Risk Management Mumbo Jumbo Alert, Brown said he was "forced" to trim AAPL this year, "because of how much it went up not in absolute terms but relative to the entirety of the portfolio." (Note to readers: AAPL shares don't care what else is in Brown's portfolio.)

Momentum Man Weiss said he's back in JMIA, "right about where I sold it." (Translation: The tape turned higher.)

For a Final Trade, Weiss offered MRNA: "Buy it with both hands."

Paul Hornung:
Missed in Super Bowl I

Paul Hornung, the "Golden Boy" of Notre Dame who won a Heisman and then 4 NFL titles with the Green Bay Packers, died Friday at 84.

Given the press coverage of this death, it did not receive publicity on this site. Rather, a special posting is in order.

Hornung is a persona of what could be called the end of the Golden Age of postwar America. A sports hero of the late '50s and '60s, he won the Heisman in 1956, set the NFL scoring record in 1960, and he nearly missed the 1961 NFL Championship game because he was drafted — yes, before Vietnam, when it happened to people like Elvis too — and needed a nudge from JFK to be allowed to suit up.

Hornung's Packers collected another title in 1962, then, in a reflection of how many felt about the world in general, things went south in 1963. He was suspended a full season for gambling. He returned in 1964 to the Packers, his best years long behind him, and hung on long enough to win 2 more titles, in '65 and '66 with modest production.

The latter season was the season of Super Bowl I. Those who appreciate either sports history, pop culture or the 1960s (or all 3) view this game with reverence ... the start of something enormous in a very tumultuous world, although, oddly enough, not really viewed as such at the time, with tens of thousands of unsold Coliseum tickets.

Hornung, sadly, didn't play. He had a pinched nerve. He was injured much of that season and played his final game, coincidentally, in the Coliseum against the Rams in the last week of the 1966 regular season. 5 carries, 19 yards; 1 catch, 5 yards, no touchdowns.

He missed the playoffs, which for the '66 Packers amounted to 2 games: The famous NFL Championship in Dallas (the year BEFORE the Ice Bowl), and Super Bowl I.

Ah, but there was Super Bowl II. Except that was not an option. Nor would Hornung play in the Ice Bowl of that season. Vince Lombardi made him available that year to the New Orleans Saints in the expansion draft, and rather than continue his career, Hornung retired.

Virtually every other famous Packer of the 1960s played in Super Bowl I, with the exception of Jim Ringo, the Hall of Fame center, who at that point was long gone, having been traded by Lombardi in 1964 (according to legend, it was because Ringo supposedly brought an agent to Lombardi's office to negotiate a contract).

Hornung is the 4th Packer great of the 1966 team to die this year. The others are Herb Adderley, Willie Davis and Willie Wood. Hornung's career is one of considerable glory but a sad reminder that not everyone goes out like John Elway, Ted Williams or Sandy Koufax.

Hornung's absence from I is similar to Walter Payton not scoring a touchdown in the Chicago Bears' blowout win of XX. According to the AP obituary, Hornung was dressed but declined to enter the game in the 4th quarter (above). It was his last appearance with the Packers. Perhaps he didn't feel well enough to play, or perhaps, like virtually everyone else, he underestimated the significance of that day in L.A.

Panelist suggests Chick-fil-A would be hotter stock than MCD

On Monday's (11/16) Halftime Report, which extended the stock market's newfound streak of euphoric virus news on Mondays, Pete Najarian hailed Tony Dwyer's "Banks & Tanks" trade.

Pete went on to rattle off so many sectors that are performing well, it sounded less like "Banks & Tanks" and more like "Virtually Everything."

Pete indicated ZM, PTON and TDOC are overpriced; he contended they'll still be around after the pandemic, but they'll have to settle into a "hybrid place in the future."

What everyone knows is that the reason Pete isn't high on those stocks is assuredly because he hasn't seen any unusual options activity in those names. (This writer has no position in those names.)

Meanwhile, Joe Terranova suggested "further stimulus" from the Fed is possible in mid-December and that Joe Biden might have a more "favorable relationship" with China than the current White House occupant.

Meghan Shue, one of 3 stunning panelists on Monday's program (sorry, Pete and Joe), told Judge "it is a time to be thinking about adding to risk in portfolios, but I would not be going full bore on the value trade."

"There are some short-term risks," Shue added, citing Georgia and potential "hiccups" in the category of "further fiscal stimulus" (well, as of now, there isn't any, so not sure why there'd be a "hiccup").

Shue, who touted emerging markets, actually suggested a "return of active management." (This site touts Shue's op-ed that Judge mentioned during Monday's show.)

At one point, Judge said, "I'm putting everybody on the spot right now," asking panelists for their best "quick-serve or fast casual stock" that viewers should look at.

Bryn Talkington said, "If Chick-fil-A were public, I would say Chick-fil-A." But it's not, so she (and Pete and Brenda Vingiello) said MCD.

Pete gushed about MU call activity. We remember a few years ago, when MU had surged into the 60s and every analyst was rolling out a $100 price target, and the stock went straight to $30.

Bryn Talkington twice stressed that the vaccine revelations of the last week are "just announcements" and not products available at Walmart or Walgreens.

Actually, we thought Fish was the driving force behind ONN and OFF (a/k/a Lee Cooperman’s 9-point plan for the country in November 2011)

It's been a long, long time since we've heard about the ONN and OFF ETNs.

Josh Brown brought them up on Thursday's (11/12) Halftime Report, suggesting it's counterproductive to analyze short-term market moves and referring to 2011 being a year of daily CNBC discussions about the market being "risk on" or "risk off."

He even mentioned Dennis Gartman creating ETNs called ONN and OFF and explained, "I don't need to tell you how this ended. In 2014, 3 years later, they were liquidated, because they were nonsense." But, Brown said, "That kind of way of looking at the market always ends up being nonsense."

Well, it wasn't just Dennis Gartman. It was Gartman and Mark Fisher, who touted these products during a Nov. 30, 2011 appearance on the 5 p.m. Fast Money with guest host "Judge" Scott Wapner.

Anyway, back to Thursday, Brown argued that ZM and PTON are "still in a bull market."

Steve Weiss predicted the next 3 months will be "very rocky from an economic standpoint," so even though he took a "small position" in DAL, he's not buying any more now.

Immediately after, Judge sounded stunned in telling Jenny Harrington, "That's not, Jenny, the narrative that was earlier in the week." (Doesn't Judge know that Weiss follows the direction of the tape not week by week but hour by hour?)

Jenny told Judge the good news from Monday means we're not in an "endless abyss."

Weiss said he sold PTON at 130.

Back to that November 2011 Fast Money episode. Judge during that episode showed a clip of Lee Cooperman earlier in the day on the Halftime Report offering a 9-point critique of the Obama White House, a critique that Lee had said starts with "get out of Iraq and Afghanistan." Referring to Lee, Fish said, "Unless you can do a better job, shut up."

‘Asking Mike Mayo if he likes the banks is like asking Spike Lee if he likes the Knicks’

Wednesday's (11/11) Halftime Report produced another outstanding tribute to veterans, highlighted by the presence of Degas Wright and Jim Lebenthal.

Panelists opined on the latest twists and turns in the emerging growth-vs.-megacap tech battle. Jim shrugged off the day's reversal that was going in favor of big tech, stating, "It's time for a pause" in value.

Jim asserted, "There is room for both large-cap tech, uh, and value to continue to perform well."

Joe Terranova said that if the bond market were open Wednesday, we'd be seeing pricing over 1% for the 10-year.

Joe also said it's too early to buy energy.

Jim caught our ear when he told Judge, "I think financials are the next sector to start rallying."

That especially caught our ear because later in the day, CNBC's Closing Bell took up Wells Fargo's call that "now's the time to get bullish on banks" by ... yes ... Mike Mayo.

Josh Brown, who wasn't on the Halftime Report but was on Closing Bell, told Wilf and Sara, "Asking Mike Mayo if he likes the banks is like asking Spike Lee if he likes the Knicks."

Judge fails to ask Brad Gerstner about The Board Challenge despite 29 minutes on the air

Judge on Tuesday's (11/10) Halftime Report brought in Brad Gerstner, the driving force behind The Board Challenge (more on that in a moment).

Judge introduced Gerstner saying that Gerstner has increased his short book.

However, getting Gerstner to say he was shorting tech high-fliers was like watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers try to score against the New Orleans Saints; the closest Gerstner got was saying he's positioning his portfolio for a "rotation" back into "stocks which have been uninvestable."

Judge mentioned how Halftime panelist Tiffany McGhee is dabbling into some of these tech high-fliers this week. In one of those bogus-type statements, Gerstner said he has "no problem" with someone like McGhee buying those stocks with a long-term horizon and willingness to ride out dips, but he said he worries about "Robin Hood traders" who have been rewarded "all year long buying every single dip" who don't realize "we have an event now that is likely to check- to, to change the course of, of the long end of the market, right."

Hmmm ... that sounds like Gerstner is claiming this week's dip in high-flying tech is NOT a buying opportunity.

In other words, a short-term market call.

What Gerstner is really saying is 1) He doesn't want to offend anyone on the panel and 2) he thinks ZM will go down more before it goes up.

Gerstner called McGhee "a great investor" but said, "She doesn't have any idea, I don't have any idea what (tech high-fliers) they're gonna do over the next 30 days."

If he doesn't have "any idea" what these stocks will do over the next 30 days, why is he also saying that buying the dip this time won't work for Robinhood traders?

How does he know McGhee has no "idea" where the stock might be going in 30 days?

If people on a show called "Fast Money" (or its derivative) have no "idea" where stocks are going in 30 days, why are they on this program?

Judge asked Gerstner about airlines. Gerstner said the sector is "idiosyncratic" and needs to be analyzed "company by company," but he thinks there's "extraordinary pent-up demand" for traveling.

Steve Weiss said he took a new position in DAL, because this is a "momentum" market (translation: last hour of trading was good). Gerstner said, basically, after rattling off earnings forecasts, that the downside of airlines is priced in. However, "These are not for the faint of heart," Gerstner said.

And this is the portion of the post where we point out how Judge asked Gerstner as to whether there are any new signees to The Board Challenge, which Gerstner touted Sept. 9 in basically a full program.

Except on Tuesday, Judge didn't even ask Gerstner about it.

At all.

Despite Gerstner being available for a full 29 minutes of the program (we checked).

It was back on Sept. 16, a week after Gerstner touted The Board Challenge, when Judge asked Gerstner if Gerstner's latest hot investment, SNOW, had an African American board member. It sounded like SNOW's lead director, Mike Speiser, wasn't even aware of The Board Challenge. Gerstner said SNOW did not have an African American board member because "they don't wanna make more change right at this point in time." Judge asked if that was a "mistake." Gerstner said it's a "matter of timing" and even told Judge, "I'm glad you're calling me out about it."

Evidently, Judge is no longer calling him out about it.

So, as is the case with many Halftime Report/Fast Money subjects, it's up to this page. (You want us on that wall. You NEED us on that wall.) (Thanks to Steve Cortes for uttering that line on the Halftime Report years ago.)

On its website, The Board Challenge identifies companies that have signed on but is not listing a running tally by date.

Based on a Google search of press releases, it looks like two companies, Tamr and AZEK, accepted The Board Challenge on Oct. 19 and 20.

A company called Alucio said yes on Sept. 24.

Not bad ... but it's 3 companies since the Sept. 9 launch. And initiatives such as this can lose momentum the farther we go since the launch. And given the importance of this subject, is there some reason Gerstner is not even mentioning it during 29 minutes on TV, part of which was spent talking up SNOW again?

Or why Judge doesn't mention it?

Jim claims ‘this time is different’ regarding value vs. growth; we’ll give the ‘rotation’ a week or less

Jim Lebenthal opened up Tuesday's (11/10) Halftime Report with a bold proclamation on value vs. growth.

"I know it's dangerous to say that this time is different with regards to the rotation," Jim said, but he asserted that the rotation into value was happening before Monday's vaccine announcement.

"There is a path to normalcy ahead of us," Jim stated.

Judge asked Tiffany McGhee, who bought more PTON on Tuesday, what she thinks about Jim Cramer's opinion on the stay-at-home stocks. According to Judge, Cramer had warned to "prepare for a multi-day selloff."

So, "Why not wait for more of a pullback that Cramer says is still to come," Judge asked McGhee.

"Um, well listen, with all due respect to Cramer, I like to make my own determination of when to buy," Tiffany said, one of the best comments of the day.

Judge asked Pete Najarian if it's time to get out of some of these tech high-fliers, and Pete took everyone to school on filibustering. After a very lengthy non-answer, he said some Nasdaq stocks will fall, but he doesn't think "every single name in the Nasdaq is a sell."

Momentum Man Steve Weiss contended "there's light at the end of the tunnel," predicting that by the inauguration, "you'll have panacea," despite the "caveat" now of not knowing yet who controls the Senate.

(A couple weeks ago, the "panacea" was a blue sweep with a "simple majority" in the Senate, but whatever.)

(Honestly, we're kinda getting the idea that the "panacea" was ANY outcome of the election, as panelists such as Weiss do the backfilling of theories after the votes are counted.)

Weiss said, "I believe cyclical and technology growth stocks can coexist." However, he said he'd "respectfully disagree" with Tiffany McGhee on PTON: "I think that their best days are going to be behind it (sic trouble with plural/singular)."

On Tuesday's 5 p.m. Fast Money, Steve Grasso called the rotation real and said it's a "20-year unwind" bringing a "gross outperformance of value."

Judge chides Mike Farr for having the audacity on a stock-picking show to request guest name names

On Tuesday's (11/10) Halftime Report, Judge introduced Dubravko Lakos by saying Lakos is predicting "4,000 by early next year." Lakos said the equity market has one of the "best backdrops" in years. (Steve Weiss calls it a "panacea" and seems to feel that way regardless of how the election turned/turns out.)

Mike Farr asked Lakos to define what a "momentum" stock is. That's what critics call an interesting question. Lakos said "momentum" is a "very generic word" and said the FAANGs aren't even in the "upper echelon of momentum."

Lakos suggested other names could be at "more risk." Farr asked him to "name a few," but Lakos said he'd prefer to "stay away from individual stocks."

"That's not his ballgame, Michael Farr," Judge chimed in.

"Darn," Farr was heard to say.

‘Could be seeing 3,900 before the end of the year’

Around 7 p.m. Monday (11/9) morning, we were all set to write a novel about the day's apparent stock-market activity.

And yet by the closing bell, it almost felt like "meh" land.

Not surprisingly, Judge rounded up Tom Lee for the Halftime Report; Lee said that once the vaccine takes hold, there's a "really strong cyclical recovery that will take root."

And not surprisingly, Lee thinks Monday's move is only a "baby step" before what could be a "much larger move."

Invoking years that don't often get a mention on Fast Money or the Halftime Report, Brian Belski invoked 1995 and 1996 and even 2019, saying that like those years, the current market has "the potential of a Goldilocks-type scenario."

Belski contended that "this is a quintessential stock-picking moment."

But Lee wasn't done. "I think we could still rally another 10% from here," said Lee, floating the idea that "it's possible that we could be seeing 3,900 before the end of the year."

Belski said he thinks Lee is "exactly right."

Meanwhile, Joe Terranova said, "Expect more money to come out of fixed income into equities themselves (sic last word redundant)."

Joe made TCBI his Final Trade; that's a name we haven't heard from him in at least a year.

Marc Lasry said of Donald Trump's election-fraud claims (after including an "at the end of the day" or two), "If there was anything that was real, the campaign would've already mentioned it."

Weiss calls Biden a 1-termer; Paul Richards says Democrats want 1 Biden term, then a Harris term

Steve Weiss, who at the beginning of this week (hit PgDn a few times) was claiming that a Democratic sweep with "simple majority" in the Senate was the "panacea" for the financial markets, on Friday (11/6) changed that theory a bit.

Weiss on Friday's Halftime Report said the market wants "consistency and outcome," but, "The market's also saying, 'We got the right outcome.'"

(See, that's what Momentum Trading is all about — the last hour's tape is always right!)

Weiss said he sees another move up in stocks on "vaccine data."

"To me, this is a perfect backdrop for the market," Weiss asserted.

As for COVID ... a panelist was drawing pandemic parallels to ... a hit comedy movie.

Kourtney Gibson said, "I do not want to sound non-empathetic, and it may come off that way, but I said this several weeks ago, um, and I'm actually OK with the cases rising ... the cases are rising, and it is a problem that cases are rising, but just like in 'The Hangover,' the question is, 'But did you die?' And I know that people have made that case before ... And I feel as though if we can get a vaccine and even if we can't, if we can control the bad outcomes, the, the the bad outcomes from COVID ... as long as we can get to a place that allows for some level of control or consistency of being able to navigate this, we will be OK. ... Now if we start to see people begin to die, that death toll rising, then we're not getting it under control."

"I just don't-" Judge gradually cut in, "I don't know why it has to be a, a binary, um, and morbid way of discussing this, um, you know, it's either death or no death."

Judge added that "the death rates are way down, thank God," but "the real question is to what degree do consumers pull back, if at all, as these numbers continue to climb."

Paul Richards, who hasn't been on the show for a long time but often makes exceptional calls, said we need a "reset" and that "we're on borrowed time on stimulus."

Richards said of COVID, in reference to "the previous speaker," that he doesn't think it's "about living with it, it's about resolving it."

Richards suggested that if a drug developer reports that a vaccine trial didn't work, "the market could fall 20%."

Actually, we doubt that. There are a bunch of vaccines in progress, and people are so eager to buy this market on any drop, no way it's going down 20% on a single vaccine setback.

"I don't think President Trump wants to sign off on anything between now and January," Richards added.

Richards said that under a new administration, there should be more bipartisanship in Congress, though the presumed GOP Senate will resist the president and House.

In a long-winded series of questions/statements, Weiss said he agrees with Richards that Biden will be a "better negotiator" but asserted Biden is "likely a one-term president," so Republicans likely won't be digging in from Day 1 to thwart his agenda (and we're not sure exactly what that is).

"I don't view it as a one-termer," Richards countered, adding "I think the Democrats are trying to get 2 terms, but they're just gonna split who's sitting in that seat."

That seems kind of hard to pull off, but maybe they will. (We remember when some Republicans wanted George H.W. Bush not to seek a 2nd term in 1992.)

Meanwhile, Pete Najarian said you have to wonder if ROKU is "a little bit frothy."

Weiss said he's "highly confident" that Z continues to climb, though if it misses a quarter, "it's really look out below."

Amy Raskin: Unanimous win-win scenarios typically occur ‘at tops’

On Friday's (11/6) Halftime Report, Judge said it "took me aback" that Scott Minerd thinks stock valuations make sense, however, Judge said, it does "make sense," because, "It's almost like liquidity trumps everything else."

Amy Raskin, though, offered, "What I find so interesting right now is that almost every scenario that people are talking about is an optimistic scenario ... big stimulus package ... vaccine ... it's a win if Biden wins and we get a blue wave; it's a win if we have divided government. Um, you typically hear those scenarios, win-win scenarios, at tops."

More from Friday's Halftime and the landmark week later.

What viewers really need is a little more from Robert Shiller

Wednesday's (11/4) Halftime Report had barely gotten going when Pete Najarian uncorked one of those lines he uncorks about, oh, seemingly every 3 weeks.

"Scott right now I have the most amount of stocks that I've had all year," Pete said.

(He referred to volatility something or other, as he always does, but we didn't catch any references this time to "they're buying all kinds of options now, but only the SHORT-DATED OPTIONS!!!!")

Rob Sechan said he never bought the idea of a blue wave as great for stocks (um, that's at odds with Momentum Trader Steve Weiss) (Weiss also said on Oct. 28 ... just a week ago ... that "markets are way overvalued") and considers the unfolding outcome as "much more benign" than a blue wave.

Rich Saperstein said he actually sold INTC.

Yeoman late-night effort: Judge, Mel joined by Joe, Degas for 2:41 a.m. election commentary

It's pretty much an all-nighter for a lot of folks.

Yet we were still impressed to turn on CNBC after 1 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday morning and find Judge and Mel co-handling election updates with Shep Smith, and even bringing in Halftime Report stars Joe Terranova and Degas Wright.

Judge sounded ... what's the correct term here ... frustrated/irked/fatigued over the fact the election isn't over, suggesting in an enormous scoop of hyperbole that there could be a "whole new realm of chaotic uncertainty."

Then, not even attempting a question, Judge turned to Joe, "The markets hate uncertainty. Better get used to it."

Yeah, Joe said, before deftly suggesting, "I think we go back to the prior script," which means megacap tech as a "bond proxy."

Joe also said something happened that is "very good" for risk assets, which is gridlock in Congress. (Translation: Chuck and Nancy kinda got thumped. Joe didn't say that or imply that, but we will.)

Joe noted "there's a surprise in the Senate." He omitted the equal surprise in the House, which stays Democratic but hardly a "blue wave."

Degas Wright pointed out that the "market is really putting in a future volatility" up to January.

So much for Steve Weiss' stock market "panacea" of a Democratic sweep (but only a "simple majority" in the Senate). (See below.)

One thing we didn't hear — whether Carl was scooping up those overnight S&P futures like he supposedly was on Nov. 9, 2016.

While the hosts grumbled over the "truth" of Donald Trump's late-night remarks, no one questioned how those NBC News/WSJ polls (including the LAST one with a 52-42 Biden edge) could be so "untrue" or why anyone should even have reported them.

After 4 a.m. Eastern, Mel brought in Jon Najarian, Tiffany McGhee and Tom Lee. Lee stressed, "There's a lot of cash on the sidelines." Judge told Lee that Donald Trump called the election a "fraud" and told Lee, "You act like he barely did anything." Lee said those were "unfortunate words to be used."

Sounds a like a real page-turner — a book called Narrative Economics (a/k/a Momentum Trading With Joe)

On Monday's (11/2) Halftime Report, Joe Terranova said he sold TWTR because the "technical (sic redundant) momentum" has been "negated." (Translation: Predict panelists' trades simply by watching the CNBC ticker.)

Joe also said he sold FSLR, which over 6 weeks was a "significant positive performer," but he wanted to take profits ahead of Nov. 3 "not knowing how the outcome of the election was going to be."

Sounds simple enough. But at the end of the show, Joe for some reason asked for time to explain his FSLR sale. Apparently not satisfied with his first explanation, Joe added that there was "an extreme volatility move, 3 times standard deviation," from 97 to 81, and "that dictates risk management (snicker)."

So on the one hand, he was unsure about the election ... and on the other hand, it's because of the "extreme volatility move."

Got it.

Judge sensed Joe was hearing footsteps. "You lettin' the big barkers on social media get to you Joe?" Judge chuckled. (This site is not on social media.)

Meanwhile, Steve Weiss said of LULU, "I don't like the way it's acting." (Translation: Bad Momentum Trade.) (This writer is long LULU.)

Late in the show, Judge announced a teaser to what would be Bob Pisani's interview with Robert Shiller, and Judge bluntly admitted he didn't know whether Shiller thinks stocks are overvalued or undervalued.

By the end of this utterly useless interview, we had no idea either.

Shiller told Bob Pisani that the recovery in stocks since March is not justifiable, but, "I'm not sounding an alarm." He predicted long-term investing will be "somewhat disappointing (Zzzzzzzz)." He said this all with his trademark chuckle, which we've never understood. (Guess financial crashes are funny.)

Shiller said the market is "driven by narratives"; he said he wrote a book called Narrative Economics.

Then Shiller stressed how he asked regular Main Street Joes, and they apparently think the market is "overvalued." Better bet the ranch on that one.

After the "interview," Judge had to tell Bob Pisani, "There are 2 degrees, if you will (we/they always will, Judge), of irrational exuberance," one being the Greenspan quote and the other being Shiller's use of the term, and according to Judge, "People really remember" the Greenspan version, even though stocks kept going up.

Weiss seems to imply Biden, Democratic Senate would reduce COVID

Well, this was an interesting call.

Steve Weiss on Monday's (11/2) Halftime Report said the "best-case scenario" or "panacea" for the stock market is for Biden to win and the Democrats to win the Senate "not overwhelmingly" but with a "simple majority."

That actually wasn't the really interesting part, but more on that later. Judge called Weiss' comment "one heck of a statement" that would've been "blasphemous" to market observers not that long ago.

Weiss reiterated his "simple majority" in the Senate (translation: If they ran the Senate 60-40, it would be Green New Deal, but if it's 51-49 plus VP, then they have to worry about Joe Manchin and Hickenlooper defecting on key votes) and asserted the economy was "declining before COVID came along."

However, "this gets political, which I'm not sure we wanna go there," Weiss said.

Speaking of "political," Judge seemed to miss a more provocative statement made by Weiss regarding a Democratic sweep:

"Yes you would get a tax increase ... down the road," Weiss conceded, but "we've seen before that markets can handle tax increases," and he added: "The key thing in my mind is that you'll also get confidence that you're going to be ending COVID climbing cases."

"Confidence" that COVID cases will start falling?

If Weiss is attributing this confidence to Democrats in D.C., then we should've installed them in April, and so should've Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron and Felipe VI.

If Weiss is merely stating that cases will start falling by Jan. 20 ... then why would it have anything to do with which party controls the Senate?

"Investors just want clarity," opined Joe Terranova.

Joe suggested Elizabeth Warren as Treasury secretary may be unlikely because then a Republican Massachusetts governor would appoint Warren's replacement in the Senate.

TWTR plunges 21% a day after Josh Brown says it’s going higher, ‘purely on technicals’

On Friday's (10/30) Halftime Report, Judge asked Jon Najarian about TWTR.

Doc explained, "Trump has brought so many people into this universe of Twitter, that if he's gone, and I- I don't think he'll ever really be gone, Scott, but if he was not-"

"He's not gonna put the phone down, Doc. C'mon. C'mon!" Judge chuckled.

"Ah. He's probably not putting the phone down, but, I don't think- if you're not president, then you're just somebody out there, you know just, tilting at windmills," Najarian asserted, before adding this kicker: "I don't think that they have a shot at getting back to these numbers ever if he indeed is out of office."

"Really?!?! You think it's- you think it's that binary. That's- that's interesting," Judge said.

"Absolutely. I mean, I think he has done so much for Jack Dorsey even though they hate each other. I think he's done so much for that company Scott by that being must-watch on that vehicle," Najarian said. "If he's not there anymore, I don't know what Twitter does."

"Yeah, I don't- I don't know. I'll take the other side. I don't think uh, I don't think the tweets are going away," Judge said.

Judge is missing Doc's point by a mile. Doc did NOT say Trump would stop tweeting. He said it won't have nearly the same impact. There's a HUGE difference between tweeting while you're president and tweeting while you're NOT president. As in the latter, hardly anyone will care.

What some people WILL care about even if Donald Trump loses is the rally. He will be able to pack auditoriums over the next 4 years, although it's unclear who'd be paying for that unless/until he's officially a candidate. (And then, in that case, get ready for all of this again 4 years from now.)

Basically everyone on Friday's Halftime Report was saying tech is hardly dead yet. On the 5 p.m. Fast Money, Steve Grasso contended that value is going to outperform (snicker) growth in a way we haven't seen "in decades."

If the virus is really in the ‘7th inning,’ then aren’t stocks a raging buy?

Josh Brown on Thursday's (10/29) Halftime Report mentioned something about the coronavirus crisis that is somehow getting scant attention.

Brown said that 6 months ago, if you were in the hospital with COVID, you had a 1 in 4 chance of dying; now, Brown said, those chances are "under 8%."

We don't know if those numbers are precise, but they are definitely in the ballpark. No question, there has been great improvement in treating this disease over the last 7 months; for contrast, consider whether the cases of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson might have turned out much differently if each had been infected at the time the other was.

There's nothing to celebrate in this crisis, but those numbers are definitely good news.

Anyway, on the Halftime Report, Judge said Ken Frazier said a vaccine is "not a silver bullet."

Steve Weiss said he's long MRNA and also owns 50 puts in the name. But Weiss cited Evercore's study of Pfizer data suggesting any vaccine is "only 70% effective."

Well, the only thing we could say about those numbers is that, if true, it's not much of a vaccine.

Later, Weiss returned to his flavor of the month — Donald Trump's purported unwillingness to agree he lost the election if the AP tally shows 450-90 tally (we don't think that will be the tally; just making a point here) — and opined of the vaccine trials, "You could get that Phase 3 data before you know who the president is."

Judge actually said, "It's funny you say that Steve … I was literally just thinking that."

Liz Young chimed in on this useless investment theory: "In 2000, Al Gore didn't concede until December 13th."

It was up to Josh Brown to bluntly state, "Everyone on earth expects a contested election." (Well, at least everyone on CNBC. Some of us aren't too concerned about it.)

Still nothing more about
the Einhorn ‘bubble’ call

Josh Brown on Thursday's (10/29) Halftime Report cracked up Pete Najarian a couple times with his comments on visiting SBUX and especially SHAK. Judge gave it all a "good stuff."

Josh Brown said that of Thursday’s Big Tech reports, AMZN has the "most potential for upside surprise." It actually sold off afterhours. (This review was posted overnight Thurs/Fri.)

Pete said PINS has "a lot more runway in front of them."

Pete said TWTR 52.50 calls in November were popular; Josh Brown said the stock is going higher, "purely on technicals."

Liz Young said any correction that's not accompanied by a recession is a long-term buying opportunity.

Steve Weiss touted F, saying the key words ("momentum's there"), and Pete said COP was a recent buy.

Judge asked Pete, "It may sound like a silly question, but, why even bother. Why bother owning any oil stock at all."

Pete responded, "That's actually a legitimate question." He said he thought the stock had been "pounded enough."

"Flat in oil is the new up now," Judge shrugged.

Later, Judge hectored Jeff Kilburg over Jeff's recent "momentum" (that's the key word) call on crude. Kilburg claimed there'd actually be "healing" in crude if the tech earnings reports later Thursday turn sentiment back to "risk on."

Weiss says stocks won’t retest March low in part because of the number of virus cases in Malaysia

David Einhorn's bubble call is so scary ... yet no one mentioned it on Wednesday (10/28).

So it was up to Grandpa Steve Weiss to paint the gloom picture on the Halftime Report.

"Markets are way overvalued, and corona is a big issue," Weiss said.

However, "I don't see returning to the March lows," he continued, because he looked up the number of cases in China, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam and found it's "very much contained."

Then Weiss claimed, "We're not gonna know who's president for a number of weeks after the election."

Oh, put a cork in it. We're tired of hearing this nonsense. Just because someone gave a non-answer about the transfer of power doesn't mean the United States is turning into Venezuela on Nov. 4. (If the president declared that cows fly, we'd be hearing people on this show saying, "We have to be careful in case there's cows flying.")

Weiss concluded there's "no upside catalyst" to stocks.

Jenny Harrington contended that if you're in megacap tech, the stock market is "overvalued," but if you're invested in the "value-y side," then "it's so cheap."

Tom Lee implies airlines aren’t doing enough to tout the safety of flying

Judge on Wednesday's (10/28) Halftime Report brought in Tom Lee, who's still recommending his "epicenter stocks."

Lee, who's one of our favorite guests though he's almost unabashedly bullish (which is, in fact, the correct call for the last 11 years), said "the market's in a tough spot" until Election Day. But he said the current outbreak is "primarily in 30% of the country" that didn't have big outbreaks previously and that New York, Connecticut and Florida are "relatively benign" in terms of rising cases.

Grandpa Judge insisted, "Tom, you're not gonna get stimulus on November 4th, right? And you're not gonna get a comedown in virus cases on November 4th either. This virus is gonna be raging into the fall and winter. That- that's not from me, that's from the, the experts like Dr. Scott Gottlieb."

Lee said Gottlieb has "really been speaking the truth ... I just think we're not going to see New York City under lockdown again."

Steve Weiss started talking about "point of entry" again and said Lee's "way too optimistic" because the point of entry is "too high."

Weiss asserted, "You're not going to see the lockdowns that we're seeing now in Germany and France, but to your point Scott, which is very well-taken, there's self-imposed lockdowns. Nobody's telling me not to go out and eat in a restaurant indoors. But I'm not going to do it."

Weiss again claimed the election may not be decided for "weeks, maybe months." (Stick a fork in it.)

But Lee suggested there's a "huge messaging problem," that people have lower risk of catching COVID-19 on a plane "than walking the streets of New York City."

After a moment, Judge interrupted, "Tom, we don't have a messaging problem. We have a virus problem. ... We cannot contain the virus. We CANNOT."

Weiss also said he disagrees with Lee in that the virus is spiking in the Northeast to "unconscionable levels."

Jenny Harrington said Scott Gottlieb also says the virus is in the "7th inning."

Jenny said she's not as negative as Weiss, because it's hard to see the economy not doing better a year from now. "You don't bet against the U.S.," Jenny cautioned.

Weiss insisted, "I'm not betting against the U.S. ... I haven't sold Microsoft, I haven't sold Skyworks."

"You're also assuming it's a 9-inning game," Judge told Jenny. Hmmm ... the virus ... going extra innings ...?

Joe informs Judge, ‘I’m not an epidemiologist’

Joe Terranova on Wednesday's (10/28) Halftime Report opined of the market, "This is the most classic example Scott of good news and bad price action."

But Joe raised eyebrows when he said he was looking to crude for guidance, contending that "oil has been for the better part of 2020 the proxy for a surge in virus cases."

Judge exclaimed, "That could be a long wait, right; I mean, you're really gonna bank- you're banking on energy to be the tell??"

"Not necessarily," Joe said.

"How can energy bottom with a virus that hasn't topped?" Judge asked Joe. "Aren't they related??"

"Of course they are. That's what I just said," Joe responded. "They're a proxy. Scott, I'm not an epidemiologist. I have no idea how energy can bottom related to the virus. I'm telling you, I'm watching energy as an indicator for risk assumption."

Joe reiterated, "The right trade is no trade." Judge said, "I understand."

We’d never heard before that Judge is a Dodgers fan, convenient time

Judge on Wednesday's (10/28) Halftime Report trumpeted Jim Cramer's earth-shattering call to "wait" to buy MSFT, but Sarat Sethi said he'd "nibble" at the name with new money.

Judge wondered if Sarat really believes "the big ones" in tech "have more to come down." Sarat said he does, that big tech is priced "as if, you know, they're going to go to the moon."

Joe Terranova asserted that BBY is contingent on the holiday season. That's going out on a limb for an electronics retailer in late October.

CNBC's Ylan Mui said Sen. Ted Cruz was "literally yelling" at Jack Dorsey.

On the 5 p.m. Fast Money, panelists, namely Guy Adami and Karen Finerman, seemed to think the VIX at 40 might be around a peak. "I'm selling some of my hedges," said Finerman.

Meanwhile, on the Halftime Report, Judge was heard to say, "The Dodgers are my team." We knew about the Redskins Washington Football Team, but hadn't heard that about the Dodgers. Sounds like Judge's coming-of-age in sports fandom took place in the '80s.

Josh bursts Judge’s bubble about the importance of Einhorn’s call

A day earlier, it was Bill Nygren.

On Tuesday's (10/27) Halftime Report, it was David Einhorn (via a note being read by Judge) who was calling a 1999-like tech bubble.

Judge, practically breathlessly, opened the show quoting Einhorn as writing, "We're now in the midst of an enormous tech bubble," stating the top was Sept. 2.

Judge first turned to Pete Najarian for reax. Measuring his commentary (as he typically does), Pete offered that there are "certain sections of tech that are definitely in a bubble- uh, uh, a bubble right now, Scott. There's no doubt about that."

Pete went on to mention ZM, "the poster child."

Then Judge went to Josh Brown.

Brown sighed, "At first, I was like, oh no, not another bubble. Another tech bubble! Um, because I'm old enough to remember the last few tech bubbles. And, uh, I was in the audience at Ira Sohn, when David Einhorn unveiled his first bubble basket. And it wasn't in 2016, it was in 2014, it was in April of that year, so we're talking about 6½ years ago, and Amazon was in his bubble basket. He was shorting the stock."

So, we've seen this movie before.

(By the way, what's the latest on Carl's "Day of Reckoning" that supposedly was coming in 2016?)

Judge told Brown that in Einhorn's note, "He does admit they were wrong," but Judge said Einhorn is referring to a 2016 call, while Brown said it dates to 2014.

Brown said that nevertheless, he regards Einhorn as "one of the must-read investors."

Brown went on to reiterate what he sees as the importance of Fastly's earnings. The last time he mentioned that, "I got laughed at by Weiss, for a change," Brown said.

Judge suggested to Josh that "TAM" sounds like "eyeballs" of 1999. Brown said you have to be "selective" and touted how companies such as RNG are a necessary part of business.

CNBC's graphics crew couldn't spell Bill Baruch's name (see below).

Jim predicts stimulus deal ‘immediately’ after the election

For those getting worried about government inaction as COVID once again spikes, Jim Lebenthal had perhaps some reassuring words on Monday's (10/26) Halftime Report.

Jim said that "immediately" after the election, he would "expect" Congress to "pass something."

Jim said that the fiscal risk is low because of low rates, and the political risk, as far away at that point from the next election as possible, is "close to zero."

Hmmmmm ... There are, actually, some people in both parties who simply don't want to do the deal under the Mnuchin/Democratic middle terms, regardless of the politics involved ... so we're not sure actually that it happens.

Jon Najarian bluntly accused "both sides" of Congress of "playing God here with the consumer."

Either Jim doesn’t remember what he told producers, or someone is making up his thoughts

It hardly seemed like a controversial statement on Monday's (10/26) Halftime Report when Judge asked Jim Lebenthal to comment on Jim's purported view that Jim was "expecting" tech giants to "disapppoint."

Jim said, "Nope. I'm not sure how you've got that at all."

Judge then read from his notes, stating, "It says, 'Jim, he owns Microsoft, he owns Apple, he owns Alphabet, quote, I'm expecting these stocks to disappoint.'"

"Nope. That's not accurate. So obviously there's a miscommunication there," Jim said.

"Hmmmmmm," Judge said.

One of the day's star guests, Burton Malkiel, the famed Random Walk author, told Bob Pisani, "At some point, value is gonna trounce growth. I don't know when. But at some point it will. ... You'll never be able to predict when one is going to be in the ascendancy."

Later, Judge introduced Bill Nygren saying Nygren is seeing "1999"-like tech valuations.

Nygren asserted the change in the spread between the P.E. ratios of the cheapest stocks and the most expensive stocks right now "is reminisicent of where the market was in the late '90s."

Well, honestly, since about mid-March, we had kind of stopped hearing about 2007, 1999, 1987 and 1929 for a while, which we thought made sense.

Nygren contended that the pandemic isn't going to permanently lift a lot of these tech names, telling Judge, "It will soon be safe again for people to be outside, resuming normal activities."

Nygren said he was "glad" to hear Burton Malkiel say that value will outperform again someday.

Judge asked Bill why he sold Pinterest and received this curious answer. "You can only figure that out when you know why you bought it," Bill said.

Jim missed chance at INTC $56

Well, here's a trade we don't quite get.

In July, longtime INTC holder Jim Lebenthal announced on the Halftime Report that he wanted to unload the suddenly falling stock, but on "strength" in the mid-50s.

Then, in August, Jim reiterated that viewers know he's "looking for an exit" in the name.

So when the stock climbed over $56 this week, it figures Jim would've unloaded if he hadn't already.

But he evidently didn't.

Judge on Friday's (10/23) episode asked Jim about INTC being "such a dog."

That's when Jim revealed, "I'm selling," and explained, "I'm sure, you know, somebody would say, 'Well, Jim, you should've done this 3 months ago.'"

Actually, "somebody" on this page would say, you should've sold it this week.

But Jim said he hung on this long because it's been a "7-year investment" that during that period has "beat the S&P 500." (We would just add that the stock does not care how long Jim has held it.)

Pete Najarian said he still holds INTC and had previously thought it's cheap at 48 and expensive at 60 but is "starting to waver" on whether it's a buy at 48.

But of course, he said there are "absolutely extraordinary" opportunities in selling options against his INTC position.

As to why INTC is struggling, "I just don't get it," Pete said.

Jenny Harrington dialed in to basically say INTC will figure it out.

We could use an update on Tom Lee’s theory (sample size of 2) that stocks roar 20 days after a national peak in COVID-19 cases

Judge opened Friday's (10/23) Halftime Report promising a big-time money manager making a call that the stock market is going "significantly higher, possibly even before the election."

We wouldn't have thought that the guest would be Rick Rieder, who first started off chuckling that "before the election, I think is, uh, it may not happen" and that there's "some interesting things" in the options market that could keep stocks down "for a bit of time."

But Rieder said there's still a good economy "with a tremendous amount of stimulus coming in."

Judge said a lot of people would "take issue" with Rieder's contention that with rates at these levels, free cash flow multiples are "as cheap as they've ever been." Rieder conceded that "most people" would take issue with it.

But, "On the true metrics that you look at, and all the right metrics you look at, I don't think the equity market is high at all," Rieder asserted.

Kevin O'Leary said Rieder's right because there is no alternative to equities, calling the fixed income market "so overvalued, so extended, so ridiculousy expensive ... The risk in the market is not equities. It's fixed income."

Jim Lebenthal said a 30x multiple on tech greats "doesn't faze me" for the reasons Rieder mentioned.

Kevin O’Leary uncorks a crazy trade involving several twists and turns based on one debate comment

Bryn Talkington on Friday's (10/23) Halftime Report said LUV is in a "channel" and she's traded it "3 times since April" and found it's a buy in the mid-30s and a sell around 42, where she said she sold it a day earlier.

Bryn even invoked a classic Fast Money cliche: "You have to trade for the market you have, not the market you want."

(The actual cliche from Jeff Macke in the early days of Fast Money was, "Trade the market you've got, not the market you want.")

Mentioning Joe Biden's debate comments on fossil fuels, Kevin O'Leary suggested an "investment thesis" that there's a "contested outcome for about 5 days" and that you should buy energy stocks in the "chaos" of not knowing if Joe Biden is going to eliminate fossil fuels.

Whatever that means.

"I'm telling you, Biden wants to shut down energy in this country, and I think there's an opportunity if you're an investor when you hear that," O'Leary insisted.

That GOOGL antitrust case is such a big deal, no one has mentioned it for 2 days

Brenda Vingiello on Thursday's (10/22) humdrum Halftime Report said she's starting to see "some green shoots" for BA, one being the EU apparently calling the 737 Max safe (the wording was kind of nuanced) and another being that cancellations aren't as bad as thought.

Playing down expectations, Vingiello said it's "more of a long-term play." But Steve Weiss, who last December-February was talking about trading this stock every other day, said it's "too hard" to own BA or airline stocks. (This writer is long AAL and SAVE.)

Josh Brown contended that everyone is already anticipating a volatile market until the election, but after that, "I think we're going north."

Weiss crowed about selling PTON a day ago. As for COVID, Weiss said, "Cases are going so much higher everywhere in the U.S."

Jon Najarian pointed out the VIX was 15.80 before the 2016 election, nearly half of today's level. "I think that continues to come down quite frankly Scott," Doc said, suggesting the best play is to sell volatility.

Brown touted INVH, citing people's ability to live almost anywhere while not having to commute to work 5 days a week or perhaps any days a week.

Brown noted that FAANG giants peaked a few months ago and that the broader market has been lifted recently by other names. "Leadership has been passed already," Brown asserted.

CNBC's Kate Rogers handled the mid-show interview with CMG chief Brian Niccol, the show's star guest, though Judge got his customary question at the end and Josh Brown basically gave Niccol more of a compliment than a question.

Wish we had a dollar for every time Judge said ‘Good stuff’ in the final 15 minutes (a/k/a the definition of ‘near-term’)

Trying to conduct an interview with the Morgan Stanley guy on Wednesday's (10/21) Halftime Report, Judge got noticeably irked when his echo was being heard in the background, as well as some screechy noise.

"I'm not sure if someone has their volume up. I'm sorry to have to do this, but I don't- if someone has their volume up, can you turn it down, because I'm hearing myself on your TVs, or whatever," Judge ordered his panel.

The echo persisted briefly, then went away.

This Morgan Stanley fellow, evidently day trading the market, predicts a 10% "retest" of the pullback in September. (We remember Jim Lebenthal spending weeks if not months in late March/April/early May predicting first a retest and then not a retest but a pullback ...)

Judge asked in mild disbelief if the market will still drop 10% if there's a stimulus deal before the election. "Probably not," the guest admitted.

Judge also said "I'm confused" about the fellow's definition of "near term," pointing out, "This was your call in September." The fellow's answer was, "Another month or so, 6 weeks."

Judge demanded to know if the market really will fall if tech posts blowout earnings. The fellow insisted that this purported pullback is the "most likely outcome."

Meanwhile, Joe Terranova unloaded LLY, saying "I was angry in doing it" because he "badly" wanted the trade to work.

Joe said that 2 weeks ago, he got an "Ask Halftime" question on this name, and "I mentioned this was the area that risk management takes over," Joe said. (Uh-oh ... whenever you hear "risk management" on Fast Money/Halftime, someone has chickened out of a winning trade.)

Apparently, even though LLY has gone from 170 in July to low 140s, Joe made money on the shares, because he said, "I do not turn winning trades into losing trades."

"Sometimes you get a little emotional about it. I wanted this to work," added Joe, as opposed to those other trades in which people don't care if they work.

Joe said for those at the "upper end" of this economy, "this is the early innings" and that Steve Weiss is "completely right" on his bull call on the auto sector. Judge pointed out that while Joe hailed 4 automotive-related stocks, Joe doesn't own any of them. "I'll do further research," Joe explained.

Weiss said he just got stopped out of PTON, a name he trades probably once a week, at 130. "I've got too many positions and I've got too much beta in the portfolio," Weiss said, which sounds a lot like Joe's "risk management" argument.

Judge actually said of SNAP's big day, "Maybe it's an early FB." Remember after the SNAP IPO how the Najarians (despite hailing the options activity in the name every quarter) kept scoffing at how Mark Zuckerberg was going to crush this thing? On June 26, 2017, in fact, Pete said of Zuck, "Look at what he has done to SNAP. Since the day he tried to buy them for $3 billion, and they gave him the Heisman, look at what he's done. He went after them, he's aggressive, and he's beaten them the entire way along as he's gone through this (sic grammar)."

SNAP closed at $17.29 that day. FB closed that day at $153.59. Some crushing.

Joe told Judge about ICE and mentioned the "M" word: "You know that I utilize quality and momentum as my 2 factors for investing philosophy."

In the final 15 minutes of the program (most of which consisted of commercials), Judge said "Good stuff" 6 times.

Judge says Jim is only tired of talking value vs. growth because Jim’s always trying to pick value stocks that haven’t worked

Jim Lebenthal expressed the frustrations of many on Tuesday's (10/20) Halftime Report.

Jim told Judge, "I'm actually very, very tired of this value vs. growth and this fiscal stimulus is on, and off, I only wanna get back to actual stock-picking-"

"You're only tired of it because you keep trying to pick value stocks," Judge butted in, even talking over Jim, which is something Judge constantly chides people for doing. (That doesn't mean what Judge said isn't true.)

"It's true that I have value stocks. It's true that I have a balanced portfolio as well," Jim explained.

"I'd be tired of it too," Judge snapped.

"I've got plenty of growth tech stocks," Jim continued, before redirecting at Judge, "No- no, you're not listening to me. I've got plenty of growth tech stocks, OK, I've got Apple, I've got Google, I've got Qualcomm, I mean, it's not- it's not all value. Um, but, you know, look, what I wanna be at heart is a stock-specific picker here," Jim said.

Judge let it go.

Jason Snipe pointed out that Google's basic services are free, and that if you look at the MSFT case, "breaking them up actually boded well for Microsoft." That sent us to the Wikipedia library for a refresher. We learned that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson (it's a long time since we've heard that name) did rule against MSFT and ordered a breakup, but the breakup was tossed on appeal, and Microsoft ultimately settled with certain obligations.

Josh Brown said the Google case is "politically motivated" and "one of the biggest non-events I've ever seen." Brown also said that "Ruth Porat is trying to keep them financially disciplined." Actually, Ruth Porat was hired at a gigantic salary to run 4 earnings calls a year.

Brown, who refreshingly wore a suit at home and looked super-sharp, said he's staying long UBER; he said "this is one of my No. 1 plays" in a reopened economy. (This writer is long UBER.)

Jim Lebenthal contended "there's a lot of things going right for GM" and called it a "viable contender" in the electric-vehicle space.

But then Jim said, "They're actually operating driverless cars out in San Francisco." If that's a catalyst, we'll take the other side. (Where in the world are all these driverless cars we were promised 5 years ago?) (Translation: Driverless cars don't work on any level, though driverless long-haul trucks might.)

Jim also said he's "wondering if GM puts their dividend back in soon." (And what was the IPO price when GM resurfaced after the 2008 crisis?)

Marko Kolanovic was hailed for his March bull call and said the path for the market as of now is still higher.

Kolanovic said the market is pricing in a Biden win, though he thinks it's a "closer call" on the election.

Kolanovic got into "Biden value" and "Trump value" stocks, which we think is a bit of a reach at this point.

Pete has been hearing ‘some reports’ that ‘everything is just back to normal’

On Friday's (10/16) Halftime Report, Steve Weiss asserted that "it's purely a momentum market" and touted his purchase of JMIA. That stock was up 20% Friday, so the interest there is not at all a surprise.

Weiss tried to talk himself into a NFLX options (snicker) trade involving selling next Friday's 550 calls for $26.

Pete Najarian revealed that until recently, his thought about BBBY was, "Why does it exist?"

"Shopping has been the proxy, or the substitute, for entertainment," Weiss explained.

Shannon Saccocia suggested more people are shopping at BBBY only because "they're looking for choice that they're not seeing maybe in some of the larger stores." Hmmmmmm. We're not sure how BBBY has any more "choice" than it did 6 months ago, but whatever.

Discussing casinos, Pete curiously claimed, "We presume that everything is just back to normal, for whatever reason, or at least we're hearing some reports of a lot of that, and yet, I don't know that we're even close to normal again Scott."

(We'd like to know 1) who's been issuing those reports and 2) why Pete is listening to them.)

Pete said "it's worthwhile just to put your hands back in your pocket and wait for a little while for some of these names."

Judge wondered what Pete was doing buying the stock of VRT. Of course, Pete said, he'd been seeing "some unusual options in there."

Weiss said he doesn't want "anything" to do with BA for the next "year or 2 years." (Um, we're willing to bet that Weiss could change his tune on that — as he's done several times previously — before those 2 years are over.) (This writer has no position in BA.)

Meghan Shue fielded a question from Grant in Michigan, an 18-year-old who wants to know what ETF to buy for his "first significant investment." Shue curiously advised looking for an ETF "that mirrors the MSCI, all country world index," though she admitted we "might not see a reversal" of U.S. dominance for the last decade. (We would've told Grant SPY or QQQ, but whatever.) (This writer is long QQQ.)

Judge referred to "Group 1 Automoto (sic)" but corrected his pronunciation of the last word.

Weiss actually made PTON his Final Trade. #MomentumAlert

Wonder if anyone’s kicking themselves for not buying energy, as Carl Icahn predicts

In a fairly sleepy episode of the Halftime Report on Wednesday (10/14) ("Céline and Julie Go Boating" (see reference below) actually would be more exciting, though you have to be patient and let it sink in for all 3 hours, and that's not a knock on the program), Jon Najarian seemed to coin a word, "Instantaneity," to describe how quickly people can launch a platform such as Zoom.

We did a Google check, and the word does exist, although no one uses it, so Najarian might be a pioneer here.

Judge asked Doc about feeling "confident" about any stocks besides growth tech without a stimulus deal. Doc seemed taken aback by the question and eventually said, "I'm so frustrated by the, the lack of this stimulus."

Doc said the question with the vaccine is whether it might "dribble out" this year or take until midway through next year.

Meanwhile, Joe Terranova suggested the market was getting "a little too vertical" but that he's not worried.

"The airlines, on a vaccine, are the optimal trade, uh, within the capital markets," Joe said, an interesting assertion (this writer is long AAL and SAVE). Judge questioned why Joe doesn't like hotels such as MAR for the same reason. "You used to love Marriott," Judge accused; Joe said he was "stopped out" of the stock before the show.

Judge read a memo from Howard Marks, who claims this market offers "the lowest prospective returns in history." Doc took the opportunity to tout the glory of selling upside calls.

The show at least was an upgrade from Tuesday, when Mike Mayo delivered the same-old, same-old on the Bulge Bracket Banks.

The theory used to be that VHS was going to drive movie theaters to extinction

Kevin O'Leary, who's known to often discuss "Mon oncle Antoine" and "Céline and Julie Go Boating" during his time on the Halftime Report (that's a joke), insisted again on Monday (10/12), "I personally think movie theaters are the equivalent of VHS tapes. They are going to zero."

O'Leary touted what he said is DIS' plan to release a "tentpole" title on Disney+ on Christmas Day.

Joe Terranova discussed TWTR, which he said he bought "a few weeks back," and eventually he got to the point: "There seems to be momentum."

O'Leary actually suggested we're transitioning to "the golden age of Twitter, maybe (snicker)."

Judge sounded aghast that Joe would somehow pick MSFT over AAPL.

Kevin O'Leary touted Zoom, stating it's "becoming a standard in its ease of use" and has "pricing power."

Bryn Talkington said BA "has 2 potential paths," one of them being "it goes the way of GE," or "they actually turn things around." Talkington also touted PSTG and got a "good stuff" from Judge. (And in just the last minute after that, Judge came through with "good stuff" 2 more times.)

As stocks appear to have caught euphoria again, Jon Najarian indicated the timing of stimulus isn't a big deal, declaring, "We don't trade the economy. We trade the market ... I'm saying, the market goes higher regardless."

Note: In the picture above, that's not Céline and Julie in the boat.

Mike Farr ‘dying’ to buy GE while Jenny thinks about a food delivery

On Friday's (10/9) Halftime Report, Jim Lebenthal explained that he unloaded his ROKU stake, which he said was up "30% in 6 weeks."

"It is only a momentum trade," Jim explained. "I have to clock (sic) those wins when I get them."

And we gotta wonder why Jim is trying to Momentum-Trade when, if he had just held ROKU since he liked it at $50, he could've had a great return just by doing buy and hold.

Speaking of Momentum Trading, Steve Weiss apologized for making DPZ his Final Trade on Wednesday. "I just don't have patience to wait another month, 2 months for this to recover," Weiss told Judge.

Jenny Harrington for some reason cracked, "Oddly enough, I just ordered Domino's during the program. No, I'm just kidding."

Jenny called GE "an unbelievably dense, complicated company" and suggested that covering this stock alone is a full-time job for any analyst.

Mike Farr said Jenny "makes a lot of sense in her points" about GE, but Farr said he's somehow "dying" to buy the stock because of Larry Culp.

However, Farr hasn't made the purchase yet.

Weiss said that stocks are still the best game in town; "Where else are you going to go?" Jenny said the timing of a stimulus deal isn't as important as "the messaging that it's out there."

Judge revealed that Carl Icahn "joked" that in 3 years, people may "kick themselves" for not buying energy stocks (snicker) in 2020.

Weiss was having none of that. "If Chevron doubles from here, Skyworks is gonna triple," Weiss said.

Mike Farr said XOM has to borrow to pay its 10% dividend.

But before anyone gets starry-eyed about tech stocks, Steve Grasso on Friday's (10/9) 5 p.m. Fast Money opined that "You don't wanna be in tech with a Biden election" because of the "regulatory risk" and "inflationary risk," and also, "cap gains taxes are going to double ... you want to sell your winners now."

We think that's more of a political statement than a stock-market forecast, but whatever.

"Buy the things that haven't performed because those are the things that should perform in the first quarter or so and going forward within a Biden election. Obviously it's a leap of faith," Grasso said.

As far as GE, Grasso said it's "OK to buy this."

Judge is far more impressed at bolded words in investor notes than Pete is

In the 34th minute of Wednesday's (10/7) Halftime Report, Judge announced he had a letter "in my possession" from Third Point sent to Disney about Dan Loeb's idea to cancel the dividend and spend the savings on hit shows for Disney+.

Or basically, Loeb wants DIS to be like NFLX.

Steve Weiss said Loeb's call "makes infinite sense" because no one "is in Disney for the dividend." (Weiss didn't explain how anyone — aside from Netflix, and only recently — is going to make money streaming ... and NOT with the found money of simply re-issuing already-paid-for products such as "Cinderella" and "101 Dalmatians" ... but whatever.)

Weiss said he thinks Loeb has probably already brought up this idea with DIS "behind the scenes."

Pete Najarian, though, wondered about one word in Loeb's letter: "permanent."

"It's in bold, and permanently is underlined," Judge explained.

Pete said he totally agrees with cutting the dividend "temporarily," but he's not sure why Loeb wants the cut permanent and is so "adamant because it's bold or it's underlined or whatever."

Judge assured that Loeb's letter is not "scathing" nor written in a "threatening manner at all" but is more of a "suggestive tone."

Joe Terranova said he agrees with Judge that the letter is "not adversarial."

"Dan Loeb is 100% right — the future is in streaming (snicker)," Joe said.

Brenda Vingiello said Loeb is making a "little bit of an aggressive call."

Meanwhile, Pete and Weiss both predicted a stimulus deal ahead; "it's not an if, it's a when," Weiss said, advising stock buyers to stay long.

Pete said it's "extremely unlikely" there's a breakup of the megacap tech names.

Judge mentioned Joe Montana's name during a SPAC conversation.

When to sell your winners? Apparently when your others are dogs

Around CNBCfix HQ, there are the occasional nightmares about that college Statistics class, where you get into all those means and standard deviations, etc. (Honestly, it hurts just thinking about it.)

So, when we hear that kind of terminology applied to equities, we tend to wonder if 1) we just don't have any clue what they're talking about or 2) these are premises that need to be challenged.

One of those is "managing risk," which Rob Sechan brought up on Tuesday's (10/6) Halftime Report while asking a question of Salem Investment Counselors' David Rea, whose firm is No. 1 on CNBC's Financial Advisors list.

Rea revealed that some great stocks become "outsized positions" for clients, so, "We pare those back."

Yes, we get that if the only stock in your portfolio is Snapchat, then your portfolio is going to make much larger moves than the broad indexes.

But what we really can't get a handle on is how the size of one's portfolio is somehow indicative of where a stock is going.

Every single stock in your portfolio is a portfolio of itself. If you don't feel comfortable spending your first $3,000 on shares of SNAP, you shouldn't feel comfortable spending $3,000 of a $300,000 portfolio on SNAP.

And if you're making buy/sell decisions based not upon the opinion of the stock but makeup of the portfolio, then it doesn't really sound like active management ... but closet indexing.

Speaking of statistics, Sechan told Judge that he didn't want to get "too offsides" about election predictions, stating that on Nov. 7, 2016, the betting markets "had Hillary Clinton at 89% chance to win."

On the 5 p.m. Fast Money, Melissa Lee called Donald Trump's negotiating tactic a "shocker (snicker)."

If you’re ready for the election to end, just wait till the ... 2024 rematch?

Judge opened Monday's (10/5) Halftime Report by asking Joe Terranova if stocks were rallying because of the notion that "maybe we won't have a contested election."

Joe said "the two primary drivers (snicker)" for Monday's rally are the prospect of stimulus and "removal of the possibility of a contested election."

Time to point out a few things that somehow may be getting missed, even by the stock market.

1. There isn't going to be some ridiculous "contested election." Republicans won't stand for Trump stalling. If there's a state like Florida 2000, everyone will wait for a couple recounts. That's all.

2. If the polls are correct, Donald Trump will spend the next 4 years tweeting from the sidelines, holding the occasional counter-rally and most likely end up in a rematch with Joe Biden, or facing off against Kamala Harris.

3. If the market rallied based in part on Trump's condition, then it either means 1) the market thinks he will or might win, or 2) the market is relieved that he won't be incapacitated by Election Day, in which case we've got a REAL mess as to who's really on the GOP ballot.

Steve Liesman, who was brought in to discuss the "second wave" (we're still in the first, and hopefully only) of the virus, made the show's best observation when he stated, "There does not appear to be the political will for a major shutdown again."

Exactly. If we get a repeat of New York in April, yes, everything will get shut down. Short of that, it's going to be endless back-and-forth in dealing with businesses that may fold and rising infection rates.

Two enormous factors are working against shutdowns, one being that municipalities have to keep as many businesses open as possible, the other that people can't live in a shell forever and will gradually start doing more "normal" things.

Anyway, as far as stocks, Judge tangled with Kourtney Gibson, who complained about referring to all financials as a "value trap."

"That's a broad sector, guys, come on, let's, let's stop pretending like it's all just a consumer bank and it's all solely wedded to interest rates," Gibson pleaded.

She even touted Steve Weiss' old favorite, C. "This is an opportunity to get in ... still a buy," Kourtney said.

Judge grumbled that he's been hearing that argument forever (as have viewers of the show), and it doesn't work. Gibson demanded to know what "time horizon" Judge was talking about. "If you bought 'em a week ago, they're up right now," Gibson said.

Well, it's curious to tout C and mention "time horizon" ... because C is basically the same price as the beginning of 2013, which was after the 1-for-10 reverse split, which was after the time Joe Terranova and Pete Najarian often talked up how all the "institutional buying" would drive the shares once they topped $5.

Judge insisted to Kourtney, "The big banks ... And I've had people come on this program repeatedly (that would be Mike Mayo; Dick Bove is no longer a guest) and say 'They're gonna work,' and 'Who cares about interest rates because they've got all these other businesses and they're trading for such large amounts below their book values.' And people go into these stocks, and then they sit there, and they feel like they're in quicksand because they go nowhere."

Speaking of time horizons, later in the show, when Sean in NYC asked if now's a good time to buy ESG stocks, Gibson said, "Timing the market, if any of us could do that right all the time, we would probably not be sitting here right now."

Meanwhile, Kari Firestone said there's been some "healing" since stocks got "a little extended on the Nasdaq side."

Sarat Sethi said to keep tech exposure.

Judge lost his connection with Joe just when Judge was asking Joe about adding COF.

Then Judge thought Joe could hear him, but viewers only heard Joe talking to the producers.

Finally, Judge connected with Joe, admittedly only on the phone. Joe said he expected COF's net interest income to "exceed expectations" (Zzzzzz).

In the biggest waffle since Legg'o my Egg'o, Joe said he bought ALB in the "upper 90s" and sold it in the "mid-80s," because of Tesla's battery day. "This stock is a hold," Joe said. We think that means "don't buy" and "don't sell." (But we're not sure.) (This writer is long ALB.)

Judge got a little discombobulated when producers were filling his ear with apparent updates on New York City's shutdown situation.

In baseball, it’s called a manager

In the beginning, Thursday's (10/2) Halftime Report featured more of the churn — in terms of both stock action and commentary — that we've come to expect since early September.

Then Steve Weiss, trying to illustrate that who the president is may be irrelevant to stock price movement, explained why he either bought or sold Peloton again actually uttered this howler:

"You know the Mets won in '69, but very few can remember that it was Davey Johnson who was the manager of the team at that point," Weiss said.

Actually, no one remembers it ... because Johnson didn't manage the '69 Mets.

We figured, once again, Weiss' comment would slip through unchallenged, but for once, Judge's fact-check was activated. "You lost me at the Mets in 1969," Judge shook his head and mentioning Gil Hodges.

Then Weiss said it was actually "'73."

At the end of the show, Jon Najarian informed Weiss that Yogi Berra was the "coach" of the Mets in 1973.

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