From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Minor Leaguers.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

Nowadays, to make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

And it doesn't have to be a Russell component — it can be any US-listed equity. With participation expanding around the globe, we want all those ADRs in our universe.

The same price and liquidity filters are applied. Then, as always, we sort by proximity to new...

I'm traveling to Toronto with JC, Steve, and the rest of the team in September. It only makes sense that I should continue adding Canadian exposure to my portfolio. 

I wouldn't want to be an impolite guest, would I?

Today's trade is in a speculative Minerals Miner from Canada.

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolling XLC to August Options.
3. Closed XLI position.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

Nike $NKE just delivered a long-awaited victory, and Wall Street took notice.

The $104B athletic apparel giant posted a double beat and soared over 15%, marking its best earnings reaction since 2021. 

That rally also snapped a brutal streak of 4 consecutive negative reactions.

For months, the stock has been stuck in a downtrend, weighed down by concerns around bloated inventory, margin pressure, and lackluster growth in Greater China. 

This quarter signaled a meaningful shift.

Revenue came in stronger than expected, and gross margins expanded. This is a clear sign that Nike is regaining control of its supply chain and promotional strategy. 

Perhaps most importantly, the company highlighted improving demand trends across key geographies and product categories.

This wasn’t just a “less bad” quarter. It was a decisive step forward.

Management acknowledged past mistakes and laid out a clear path to profitable growth, with a renewed focus on core franchises, channel productivity, and cost discipline.

After a challenging period, Nike is starting to resemble its former self again. It's an iconic American brand...

Every day, we sift through the filings to spot where the real conviction lies – cutting through the noise to highlight the most meaningful insider moves.

Here's what stood out today:

📌 Dick’s Sporting Goods $DKS – BJ’s Wholesale President and CEO Robert Eddy filed a Form 4 for $501,000. 

That’s a big, clean open-market buy from the top seat. Retail remains choppy, but when the top brass puts half a million down, you have to respect it.

📌 Oil-Dri Corp $ODC – GAMCO Investors upped their 13D stake from 5.45% to 9.39%.

Mario Gabelli’s shop doesn’t file 13Ds for fun. A near double in position signals real intent – could get interesting. The stock is already up more than 30% this year. 

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from June 27, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

Today's number is... 4

That’s how many times the S&P 500 has closed at an all-time high in 2025, with the 4th one coming on Friday.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The black line is the S&P 500 index daily price.
• The gray vertical lines mark every day the index closed at an all-time high.

The Takeaway: All-time highs tend to freak people out. 

The instinct is to take profits, wait for a pullback, or assume a top is near. 

But history says that’s usually the wrong move.

After hitting a fresh high, the market continues to rise more often than not. One month after an ATH, the S&P is higher about 60% of the time. That jumps to 68% at three months, 73% at six, and 72% after a full year. The median 12-month return is a solid +8.8%.

In other words, a new high isn’t a warning sign.

It’s often a green light. 

Markets don’t top just because they’ve “gone too far.” 

Most major bull runs are powered by strings of fresh highs, not stopped by them....

Hey Multiplier Members.

Here’s this week’s batch of Squeeze Radar names — look at all those banks and oil stocks.

We kicked off the week leaning hard into the long side.

First, I bought the $TOST 8/15 $50 calls. The stock’s been setting up beautifully, forming a tight coil right below key resistance.

The software stock looked like it was breaking out to start the week, but couldn’t get it done. Then it tried to break down, and failed. 

After the false start and failed move, we’re right back where we started. It’s not uncommon to see heightened volatility at the apex of a coil. I think this one will leave the station soon. 

We bought more time in $BBAI—one of my favorite setups out there. 

The stock’s been coiling tighter and tighter for weeks, and it was only...

Every weekend, I dive into our insider activity tracker looking for the most interesting and bullish buys — and this week, it’s all about institutional money, cluster buys, and CEOs putting skin in the game.

Here’s the most notable activity:

The most notable move this week came from PureCycle Technologies $PCT, where hedge fund Sylebra Capital filed a 13D revealing they boosted their stake from 11.88% to 19.46%. 

That’s a major jump — signaling real conviction from one of the company’s largest shareholders.

We also saw a fresh 13G from GIC Private Ltd in MakeMyTrip $MMYT, disclosing a 7.84% stake.

Anytime a major sovereign wealth fund gets involved, it’s worth paying attention. GIC has made a big push into emerging Asia in recent years with investments in companies like Grab Holdings, Sea Ltd, and GoTo Group. Indian travel platform MMYT is now the latest in this category. 

Welcome to The Weekly Beat.

We’re nearing the end of earnings season, but the action hasn’t slowed down.

Last week brought a mix of surprises — a grocery chain ripped higher, a semiconductor giant was punished for a double beat, and a cruise line delivered one of its best quarters ever.

This week, however, things are shifting.

It’s shaping up to be one of the quietest stretches of the year for earnings, with just a few companies set to report.

With fewer new catalysts, our focus will shift to reviewing the most important reactions of the season and identifying the names that show the strongest trends as we head into Q3 of 2025.

In this week’s recap, we'll cover the biggest takeaways from last week and preview the setups we’re watching next.

• Monday:
  • Kroger $KR reported mixed results and rallied nearly 10% on the news. E-commerce sales grew 15% year-over-year, which management called the "best profit improvement yet on a quarter-over-quarter basis" for the...

Welcome back for another Top Down Trade of the Week. 

This is a classic leadership scan.

We start with the best sectors, then drill into the subgroups. We pick one, and then take a look at the top stocks in it. 

This week, Financials is the big standout—climbing five spots in our sector rankings.

While Technology holds the top spot, it’s worth highlighting Financials this week. 

The consolidation in the Financial Sector SPDR $XLF is likely to resolve higher soon- just like Technology $XLK, Communications $XLC, and Industrials $XLI did this week. 

These are all very different sectors, but they share one critical thing in common. These groups all represent risk appetite. 

The market is on offense right now, so we’re going to keep fishing in risk-on areas. 

...

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

We’ve been pounding the table on Copper futures since China started ripping last year.

However, it has been a slower start than we anticipated.

Now, our patience is being rewarded... We're seeing evidence that the trade is heating up.

Copper futures are trading at fresh all-time highs as they play catch-up with Gold futures.

We're also beginning to see the Copper miners play catch-up to the underlying commodity.

This has been on our radar for months, but we've only recently seen significant changes.

The red line represents Copper futures, and the blue candlesticks represent the Global X Copper Miners ETF $COPX. 

Historically, these two have danced together.

However, that relationship broke down earlier this year as the futures reached new...

New highs and bull flags. 

That’s the picture of the market right now.

The Nasdaq is printing all-time highs. The S&P is knocking on the door. Semiconductors, Industrials, Communications—you name it—they’re all breaking out together.

The playbook has been simple. 

New highs… followed by bull flags… followed by more new highs.

This is what bull markets look like.

And right now, we’re seeing these bullish continuation patterns everywhere.

One group that we think is the next to go is Discretionary.

XLY is coiled up right at its former highs from 2021.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. Click here to check it out.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

*Click table to enlarge view

We filter out any laggards that are down -5% or more relative to the S&P 500 over the trailing month.

Then, we...

In today’s Daily Digest, we’ll review the following:

1. New position in XLV.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

You remember Vanilla Ice. Don't pretend you don't.

He has nothing to do with today's trade, but the name of the stock reminded me of him.

Broker-Dealers are showing incredible strength right now, I want to get long the chart that looks the best of the lot.

Micron $MU just delivered another double beat, but the market wasn’t impressed.

This marks the 3rd consecutive earnings report where investors have punished the stock despite strong headline numbers.

That’s a big red flag.

This company sits at the heart of the semiconductor supply chain, manufacturing DRAM and NAND memory chips that power everything from smartphones to servers. 

Management has repeatedly identified 2025 and 2026 as major inflection points...

They’ve cited tighter supply conditions, a stronger pricing environment, and accelerating AI-driven demand as long-term tailwinds.

However, the market demands more than long-term promises... it wants margin expansion now.

As investors shift toward names demonstrating operating leverage today, the lack of upside follow-through in the stock is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

It’s still one of the most important players in the AI arms race.

However, until the strong fundamentals translate into bullish price action, it’ll remain stuck in neutral.

Will that change soon?

We'll see when they report again in 90 days.

So what else did we learn...

Every day, we sift through the filings to spot where the real conviction lies – cutting through the noise to highlight the most meaningful insider moves.

Here's what stood out today:

📌 CTO Realty Growth $CTO – The President and CEO, General Counsel, and CFO all filed Form 4s totaling $116,000 in buys.

When the whole top team steps in together – even at a smaller REIT – it’s rarely noisy. Coordinated insider buying like this often marks a turning point for overlooked income plays.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from June 26, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

📌 Allot Ltd $ALLT – Lynrock Lake LP filed a 13G, increasing their stake from 22.18% to 25.28%.

That’s already a controlling-sized position pushing even higher. When a fund leans in like this, especially on a stock that rallied...

Today's number is... 6

These are the 6 risk indicators I track for confirmation or divergence of the move in the S&P 500 — and right now, four are confirming the rally while two remain neutral, as the index hovers just 0.05% below its record high.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The top row tracks equity leadership: High Beta vs. Low Volatility, Cyclicals vs. Defensives, and Discretionary vs. Staples.
• The bottom row captures macro and internal confirmation: the Inverted US Dollar, the Advance-Decline Line, and High-Yield vs. Treasury Bonds.

The Takeaway: These 6 charts track the tug-of-war between offense and defense. Together, they show where money is flowing — and whether this rally is built on broad support or narrow leadership.

4 out of 6 signals are in clear confirmation mode, lending strong support to the S&P 500’s climb. 

High Beta stocks and Cyclicals are leading the charge — a textbook sign of risk-on behavior. 

Market breadth is strong, with the Advance-Decline Line...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The Junior International Hall of Famers.

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

This scan is composed of the next 100 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 100 and are thus covered by the International Hall of Famers universe.

Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original International Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these future big boys are up to.

This is our Junior International Hall of Famers list:

Click table to enlarge view

And here’s how we arrived at it…

We removed laggards which are down 5% or more relative to the ACWI Ex. U.S. Index $ACWX over the trailing...