Thank goodness I don't work in the White House press corps any more, for the week's events would have sent me turning in circles like a whirling dervish.

First, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by tweet. Then threats were made of an additional $60 billion in special tariffs on Chinese imports.

A Democrat overcame a massive 20-point deficit to win in Pennsylvania by election right in the heart of Trump country.

Next, a TV talk show host was named the president's Chief Economic Advisor, replacing the former head of Goldman Sachs. That makes so much sense coming from a reality show presidency.

We learned the president's company was subpoenaed for a criminal investigation followed by more hints that the chief investigator may be about to be fired. A torture expert was appointed head of the CIA.

Then the No. 2 man at the FBI was fired the day before he was to retire.

Oh, I almost forgot. The most important technology takeover of this generation, Broadcom's (AVGO) bid for QUALCOM (QCOM), was stopped in its tracks by the administration.

Fortunately, I now live in another world, where sales, earnings, EPS and dividends are the things that matter, and all of those things are still good, if not great.

In fact, the market did not care a whit about the goings on east of the Potomac. At worst, we were down 389 points on the week, hardly a mosquito bite.

Here's the problem with this logic: If the chaos in Washington is not bad enough to cause a stock market crash now, it WILL become that bad eventually.

We are all passengers on a runaway train and the engineer has gone insane. It is not a matter of IF the train will crash, but WHEN.

Of course, the trampoline for the market was the most perfect Nonfarm Payroll Report in a decade, published on March 9. A market can tolerate a lot of abuse with 313,000 monthly job gains and a YOY Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 2.2%.

This means that inflation is essentially at zero. That's what got us the latest bond rally in which to sell.

If there is a dark cloud behind the silver lining it was the February Retail Sales of -0.1%, the third consecutive down month.

The massive tax cuts were supposed to send us pouring into the stores to spend as if we were storming the Bastille. So far, it isn't. If that doesn't start soon it could become a big problem for the market, and for your retirement funds.

I shall reiterate a conversation I had with a concierge client this morning. At this point in the economic cycle you want to be as aggressive as hell with your trading account. But keep in mind that your last trade will be a total loss.

Black swans can alight at any time, as can a total Washington blowup.

Those who are negative on the market, especially technology stocks, have totally missed the recent bull move and are therefore embarrassed, confused and bitter. They are talking their own book.

If you can tolerate this kind of risk/reward, then go for it. If you can't, better to execute my "Long Cruise" strategy. There will be fabulous short selling opportunities in 2019.

It was a good week for the Mad Hedge Trade Alert Service. Our double long in Apple (AAPL) raced up to a new all-time high.

Our remaining March options in Facebook (FB), both long and short, and our short in the Euro (FXE) all expired at our maximum potential profit points on the Friday options quadruple witching.

I also managed to take advantage of a rare rally in the US Treasury market (TLT) that took the yield down to 2.80% to jump back in on the short side.

You would think that selling bonds right before another Fed interest rate high was a good idea, but I was one of the few who actually executed this trade.

These happy and well foreseen developments took our March performance up to a robust 5.02%, our 2018 number to 10.65%, and our eight-year number to 288.12%. We are a scant 30 basis points below another new all-time high.

Yes, I know I make this look like a walk in the park. The truth is that this is the hardest 10.65% I have ever earned.

This coming week will see only one event of note, on Wednesday, when the Fed raises interest rates by 25 basis points. The Q1 earnings cycle doesn't start for another month. That should bring us the next leg up in the bull market.

On Monday, March 19, nothing of note takes place. Hit the "snooze" button on the alarm.

On Tuesday, March 20, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting begins.

On Wednesday, March 21, at 2 p.m. EST, the FOMC will most likely raise interest rates by 25 basis points to a 1.50%-1.75% range.

Thursday, March 22, leads with the Weekly Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m. EST, which hit a new 49-year low last week at an amazing 210,000. Leading Economic Indicators follow at 10 a.m. EST.

On Friday, March 23, at 8:30 a.m. EST we get February Durable Goods Orders. February New Home Sales follow at 10 a.m.

At 1 p.m. we receive the Baker-Hughes Rig Count, which saw a small rise of three last week.

As for me, I will be working with my electrician to rewire my home to accommodate a doubling of my solar array to accommodate my new all-electric heating system.

The hoops I had to jump through with my local utility, Pacific Gas and Electric (PCG) were unbelievable, and will be the subject of a future research piece.

Suffice it to say, it would be easier for a Democrat to obtain a presidential pardon from the current administration.

Good luck and good trading!

Below please find subscriber Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader March Global Strategy Webinar with my guest co-host Anka Metcalf of TradeOutLoud.com.

As usual, every asset class long and short was covered. You are certainly an inquisitive lot, and keep those questions coming!

Q: Will the CFIUS (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) rejection of foreign mergers, such as the Qualcomm (QCOM) merger with Broadcom, hurt the American economy?

A: No, we have the superior technology—everybody in the world is always going to aim to buy that, especially Russians and Chinese. However, what this does do is take some of the takeover premium out of the target tech target companies, and that may be what really caused the big-tech sell off yesterday.

Q: What’s the catalyst that gets US Treasuries over 3%?

A: A red hot inflation number. One more 50 basis point, or .5% report on wage growth, and we will blast through 3% like there’s no tomorrow. You will not have a chance to sell, which is why we’re scaling into short bond (TLT) positions right now.

Q: What are your thoughts on Goldman Sacks changing CEOs?

A: It has no impact on Goldman whatsoever. They are run by a management committee (Morgan Stanley used to be run the same way) and they have an incredibly deep bench of talent there. You lose one managing director and there are 10 more great ones behind them.

Q: What will happen to volatility (VIX) for the rest of the year?

A: I’ll use J.P. Morgan’s famous quote, “It will fluctuate.” I think we’re going to see a lot more of these volatility spikes—we basically had none last year so we’re going to get a 3-year accumulation this year. A VIX of $15-$20 seems to be the new range and this is typical of late cycle bull markets, so I would watch out for that.

Q: What about lithium?

A: Long term we like lithium; what caused the recent 25% selloff is Chile, the world’s largest producer, increasing its quota for new lithium production by 400%. Eventually that new supply will get soaked up. Good entry points for all of the lithium stocks—and there are about half a dozen of them, like (SQM)—are setting up. So yes, we like lithium; the number of electric cars in the world is about to increase 100-fold, and a car uses 10,000 times more lithium than a phone.

Q: I’ve had poor results with calls on volatility spikes—I don’t understand it.

A: I can see what your problem is. When volatility spikes-implied volatilities on the options goes through the roof, you pay exceptionally high prices when you buy these things. Then you get eaten up by time decay as the volatility comes back down. You’ve stumbled into a perfect money destruction machine. That’s one of the reasons we do call spreads on volatility spreads—that way you have a short position offsetting a long position, and that eliminates the problem of time decay; the two offset each other. 

Q: What to do about NVIDIA (NVDA)?

A: It looks like it’s breaking out to the upside; however, the main market keeps slapping it back every time it does this. These marginal new highs are worrisome; they suggest that we’re getting close to a final top—this stock is up nearly 10 times in 2 years, so I would not chase it up here. Even though my final target is 320, it may take a while to get there.

Q: In light of the move in Palo Alto Networks (PANW), do you also like FireEye (FEYE)?

A: Absolutely, yes. Big companies tend to buy products from all three of the major cyber security firms at the same time to hedge their bets, so prosperity in one automatically feeds over into the others.

Q: Can we assume Washington will provide traders with zero volatility if Gary Cohen’s demise did almost nothing?

A: The market has been moving under its own power for quite a long time. Any geopolitical selloff has been a buying opportunity for the last 3 years—that even includes the presidential election. So yes, I say zero impact by Washington, and thank goodness for that—you can imagine if the market started discounting all the chaos in Washington.

Q: Do you think the market (SPY) could sell off and retest the 200-day moving average?

A: Yes, it could do that. I think it will try and fail—we’re still in a bull market that has a year to run, but you never know what’s out there in Black Swan land. That’s why I’m advising you to be a little more cautious than you may have been in the last couple years.

Q: What are your expectations for next quarter earnings?

A: I’m looking at up 15% for the next reporting season that starts the end of April for Q1 2018. I think that will give us a new high on the market and after that, watch out. The first quarter of this year is when the first of the tax cut news really hit the market big-time—that’s why we had that huge melt up in January. That’s also flowing through to actual real business with companies. It should show extremely positive results, some of the best corporate results year over year, ever. After that you might want to take a hard look at a short play as we go into summer doldrums.

Q: Can the U.S. dollar (UUP) go any lower?

A: Yes, as long as exploding deficits are the focus of the market, you can expect the dollar to decrease significantly. You can essentially count on our deficits in the U.S. to rise dramatically. All of the figures that we have seen on estimates—$1.2 trillion budget deficit this year, the national debt rising from $20 trillion to $30 trillion—are low-ball numbers, optimistic numbers, best case scenarios missing crucial parts of the equation, which all means a lower dollar.

Q: What’s the best way to make money from a weaker dollar?

A: Wait for the next euro or yen rally and then buy in the money—put spreads on the yen (FXY) and the euro (FXE) —as I always do; it’s the safer play.

With all that said, good luck and good trading.