Traders may well want to dig deep to obtain upside plays during the fourth quarter earnings season, but there are nonetheless possible winners to be observed, according to Goldman Sachs. In a take note to shoppers on Thursday, handling director John Marshall stated the solutions sector indicates Wall Avenue will require to be blown away for organizations to get rewarded this earnings year. “Not like most quarters wherever we are centered on simply call buying, we advocate getting a directionally-well balanced strategy to earnings activities this quarter as minimal implied moves recommend decreased than typical chance of aid rallies on earnings days,” Marshall mentioned. Still, there are some individual shares exactly where Goldman analysts feel specifically self-assured, and all those could be candidates for upside bets possibly via acquiring shares outright or employing phone alternatives. Traders can use phone alternatives to play earnings time by getting contracts that expire right after the report with a a little bit greater strike cost than the latest market place price. If the stock rises above the strike cost soon after the report arrives out, the trader can then use the get in touch with choice to invest in the inventory at a price cut, or sell the option at a income. The following shares have acquire scores from Goldman analysts, wherever the organization expects a healthy earnings defeat. Just one stock on this list that Goldman analysts are specifically bullish on for not just the impending earnings report but the overall 12 months ahead is agricultural enterprise Bunge . Goldman assignments that Bunge will conquer Wall Road earnings estimates by more than 20% about the subsequent 4 quarters. Bunge, alongside with mining stock Freeport-McMoRan , is also on Goldman’s conviction checklist. Yet another industrial title on the checklist is Caterpillar , which is off to a sizzling start out in 2023. The stock strike an all-time significant on Friday and is up 7.7% yr to day. CAT 1Y mountain Caterpillar’s stock strike a 52-week superior on Friday. Caterpillar is not the only warm stock on the listing. Expedia , which has surged 21% so significantly this yr, is also very well-preferred by Goldman analysts. Conversely, there are other shares that seem like adverse outliers to Goldman. Cheesecake Manufacturing facility and Western Digital have earnings downsides of much more than 20% in their upcoming reports, according to Goldman. To engage in these shares, traders could use set possibilities. That trade utilizes the similar framework as call selections but in reverse, and serves as a guess that the inventory will tumble. A gain to both connect with and put alternatives is that the opportunity reduction on the trade is constrained to the price tag compensated upfront to acquire the choices contracts. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.