mike khouw to the screen with stocks of a beta less than one.ut also at the same time outperform the s&p 500 year to date. higher returns in the broader markets but lower volatility. less than one. so ron, we're going to start with you in terms of your picks off of this screen. >> i think philip morris international makes sense. if you're going to get defensive, worried about global growth and want to bury money in a place that's safe, this has been delivering. it's the type of stock that it lets slowing more than suggesting. it's the type of stock that is not recession proof but recession resistant. and it's the typical play you would make if you have the types of concerns that were circulating today. >> i love smoking as an investment, obviously. kids at home, of course it's not going on at my home. the chinese government doesn't seem to care. $95 billion are taxing tobacco products. they love this. philip morris, it's also just about execution. this is a cash flow machine. 10%, 12% a year. this is the 15th, 16th most profitable company in the

mike khouw is joining us now. options trade on the gold miners. you're bearish on the gdx, so what are you doing? >> it's interesting. earlier today it was a well-timed trade. we saw a large options trade in the gdx which is the etf that represents the miners. considering this is down probably 25% over six months. and it's tough to try to diffuse the bomb after it's gone off. shorting it when it's already depressed might be a challenge. one way people could make a bearish bet. or if they want to hedge it could be to buy the june 46 puts. spend about $1.50 for those. and to put that in perspective, that's a relatively low number. this has been moving around quite a lot. the important thing to do here is if you are going to put a trade on, look to spread or roll out of it. >> sounds great. thanks so much. catch more "options action" every friday at 5:00 p.m. follow the show on twitter as well @cnbc options. >> when you're looking at these metals right now, i'm looking at copper. had a great january. continuing to trade nicely. if you believe about t

. >> mike khouw, in terms of the apple ipad trade, where are you going? >> i think it's interesting what we're talking about here sort of the buy rumors, sell news. i expect some of the upcoming announcements may be what's going to come out in what the operating system will be. the opportunity for this to move more. because really nobody has competed with them in this tablet space. if there's any chance they will, i think that's probably where we might see it. i would probably be a better use of options. it's interesting today that some of those competitors when we're taking a look at the bullish versus bearish flows, we're seeing bullish flows in all of the apple ecosystems types of names. but the flows and all of their competitors were more negative. >> let's move on. mike talked about competition. as you know, apple did not announce a smaller laptop today. as the female tablet market to amazon. >> he wasn't inferring you might have one, guy. never do that to you. >> in case you weren't watching last night -- >> i was tied up. >> i'm sure you were tied

that's the question that a lot of people, mike khouw, are going to be facing as apple continues to climb higher and higher. touch 600, that was at 550 today. >> carter made a great point here. he was talking about whether people should be trimming their positions. you may not own apple or think you do. it just represents such a large segment of that index in particular. if we have a graph of what revenues have done for apple over a similar time frame. one of the things you're going to see is that it hasn't just been the price that's gone parabolic lately. basically the company has been performing. when we look at the company fundamentally, the stock is relatively cheap. i want to throw a couple numbers at you. >> ten times. >> here's the thing. $550 billion company give or take, take out itunes. round it up from 40 billion to 50 billion. that leaves about $400 billion business. what do they do? sell smart phones and computers? who's in the smart phone and computer business? companies like nokia, htc, dell. what kind of multiples do they trade for? single digits. so it is trading at a pre

. >>> many of you are probably saying where is mike khouw? he will be back. after three and a half years of never missing a single show, he's off today. on some much-earned vacation. he will be back next week and hopefully the next three-plus years. up next, you make the call. we are taking your calls live. if you want to participate, e-mail us. >>> tonight on cnbc sports biz letting go of a legend. the colts decision to let peyton manning become a free agent. that is tonight 7:00 p.m. eastern on the nbc sports network. time now for you make the call. our caller today is putting bobsledding back on the map for america. he won two world championship titles in history and broke a 62-year medal drought when he slid to gold in vancouver. let's welcome steven holcomb. it is an honor to speak with you. what's your question tonight? >> thanks. i appreciate it. "options action" is one of my favorite tv shows. i'm excited to be on. right now i'm currently trying to defend the four-man gold. hopefully win the two-man gold in the next olympics. one of this biggest spons

. >> before we head to break, >>> many of you are probably saying where is mike khouw? he will be back. after three and a half years of never missing a single show, he's off today. on some much-earned vacation. he will be back next week and hopefully the next three-plus years. up next, you make the call. we are taking your calls live. if you want to participate, e-mail us. the address is "options action"@cnbc.com. back right after this. there's nothing worse than going to the post office and waiting in line. i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore. [ male announcer ] with stamps.com, you can print real u.s. postage for all your letters and packages. it gives you the exact amount of postage you need the instant you need it. can you print only stamps? no. first class. priority mail. certified. international. and the mailman picks it up. i don't leave the shop anymore. [ male announcer ] get a 4-week trial plus $100 in extras including postage and a digital scale. go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. tonight aught cn