A 'Rocky Balboa Market' Is Upon Us: How Investors Can Roll With The Punches

The broader markets have managed to stay in the fight, bouncing off the ropes of correction territory and sustaining a recovery rally over the past two weeks.

Capital Wealth Planning founder and CIO Kevin Simpson is warning investors the market may have more punches to throw.

"I've spent 30 years looking at behavioral patterns within the markets and this is just a completely different environment," Simpson said Friday on CNBC.

Simpson believes the "free money trade" that has come with the market's overall uptrend over the last three years is over. He referred to the current market environment as a "Rocky Balboa market."

"I think we're going to take a few more punches before this match is over," he said. 

Understanding The Fight: The main headwind pushing back against market momentum is inflation, he said, adding that a rising-rates environment can be difficult to manage.

"Can the Fed give us a soft landing? It'll be a tough, tough challenge."

Simpson thinks the market is up to the task. He highlighted the strong employment numbers, which leads to increased consumer spending. 

"We've got a chance of avoiding hyperinflation, stagflation and maybe even we can possibly tiptoe around a recession," he said.

See Also: 3 Stocks To Buy To Beat Inflation According To This Wall Street Veteran

Avoiding The Knockout: Simpson told CNBC he is deploying a covered-call strategy amid the Rocky Balboa market.

"When we're selling into strength the idea is we want to sell stocks high," he said. "You forfeit a little potential opportunity to the upside, but the idea of harvesting volatility to be able to protect modestly the downside is really the reason why we like to introduce covered calls into the strategy."

If investors can capture a little bit of the upside while protecting most of the downside, that's an ideal place to be during periods of elevated volatility, he explained.

Simpson noted he recently bought shares of Deere & Co DE and Cisco Systems Inc CSCO.

Photo: Alatele fr/ Flickr from "Rocky Balboa" courtesy of MGM, Columbia Pictures