Last night, JC jumped on the mic for the ASC Premium mid-month conference call — one of the two big ones he hosts each month.

He walked us through over 150 charts, diving into everything from sentiment and sector rotation to risk appetite. Classic top-down work, with plenty of actionable insights along the way.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Sentiment is still a mess. The headlines are loud, dramatic, and overwhelmingly bearish. 

Journalists dressed up as economists are out there warning that this won’t end well.

Just take a look at some of the recent The Economist covers.

We’ve seen this movie before. There’s always a reason to sell,...

The title for this post was too easy.

Today's trade is in a $29B ultra-processed packaged foods giant that has been struggling since 2023 and feels like its hanging on the precipice of a deeper fall.

Whether or not that comes to pass, this stock feels like a good place to put on a slightly bearish bet to give my bullish portfolio a bit of diversification in case the broader market stalls here.

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:

📌 Robinhood Markets $HOOD – Board member Christopher Payne – who joined in December – filed a $2 million buy, the first Form 4 we’ve seen in years.

When someone close to the company steps up like that, especially after such a long drought, it gets our attention.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from June 17, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

📌 Mach Natural Resources $MNR – William W. McMullen just dropped $4.1 million into this oil and gas name. That’s a sizable buy, and it comes right as energy stocks have been catching a bid.

📌 ConocoPhillips $COP – Director Kirk Johnson revealed a purchase of 5,300...

Today's number is... 25

It’s taken 25 years for the Russell 1000 vs. Russell 2000 ratio to return to its 2000 peak.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows: 

• The black line is the relative ratio of the Russell 1000 IWB versus the Russell 2000 IWM Index.

The Takeaway: 25 years in the making — this is a key test for market leadership.

The large-caps vs. small-caps chart has been carving out a massive base for a quarter century.

Now, it’s pressing up against resistance not seen since the dot-com era.

Why does it matter?

Because major leadership transitions often start with relative breakouts or rejections like this.

So what now?

If the ratio breaks out, large-caps tighten their grip.

Mega-caps extend their dominance, breadth stays narrow, and passive flows keep rewarding size.

In other words, the market keeps leaning into what’s already worked.

Or

If it rolls over, small-caps could finally take the lead.

That would hint at a risk-on rotation into underowned, overlooked parts of...

Yesterday we highlighted how the world is breaking out, even the most diversified fund on the planet, holding nearly 10,000 companies, just hit all-time highs.

Back in the U.S., the Nasdaq 100 ($QQQ) is flirting with fresh record highs of its own.

In environments like this, we want to be thinking about what to buy, not what to sell.

And this isn’t just a story about mega-cap tech dragging the index higher. With Apple ($AAPL) down 20% year-to-date, it’s clear the...

Energy’s been one of the most active areas of the market lately, with momentum building across the board.

It feels like this forgotten corner of the market is finally getting the attention it needed.

Crude’s squeezing, heating oil has gone vertical, and gasoline’s catching a bid.  

If this momentum sticks, I think Nat Gas is next in line.

Just look at the chart:

Natty gas been coiling right at the breakout level of a textbook bearish-to-bullish reversal for roughly three months.

But what really catches my eye is that price is setting up between two key VWAPs — one from the 2022...

There weren’t any S&P 500 earnings reactions yesterday…

But a major policy headline just rocked the solar industry, and we think it's worth noting.

Late last night, the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a surprise proposal to phase out clean energy tax credits by 2028.

This was well ahead of schedule.

Investors had been pricing in years of continued subsidy support. The abrupt shift caught the industry completely offside.

To make matters worse, a major Wall Street bank doubled down on its bearish view this morning. They're specifically targeting residential solar names like Sunrun $RUN, SolarEdge $SEDG, and Enphase $ENPH.

The market’s response? Carnage.

As you can see, it's very unusual for the Solar ETF to have a double-digit percentage move in a single day. 

However, today was extra violent. Before the market opened, the price had crashed by over 10%.

Every stock was getting smoked.

Many names are still down a lot as we're writing this intraday.

Sunrun, SolarEdge, and Enphase Energy are leading the way on the...

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

1. No new positions today.
2. Rolling XLE to August options.
3. No exits since the last report.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!

If there’s one area of the market that still hasn’t woken up like it should, it’s small-caps.

Nobody wants them right now. The hate is real.

Bearish sentiment is building fast, and short interest in the Russell 2000 $IWM is at 18-month highs.

Investors are pressing their bets, leaning hard against these stocks. But when the crowd gets this aggressive, the unwind is rarely quiet.

Small-caps matter. They’re a real proxy for market breadth — covering everything from regional banks and biotechs to industrials and other under-the-radar names. And when they move, it usually means something bigger is brewing.

Look at the Russell 2000 vs. Russell 1000 ratio sitting right on long-term support.

If small-caps are about to enter a fresh period of outperformance, this would be a logical place for it to start.

Notice how every major bull run this century has seen small-caps leading — at least in the short term. 

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ricardo Sarraf @nullcharts

When investing in the stock market, we always want to approach it as "a market of stocks."

Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks showing leadership and trending higher.

We may have to look harder to identify them depending on current market conditions. But there are always stocks that are going up.

The same can be said for weak stocks. Regardless of the environment, there are always stocks that are going down, too. 

We already have multiple scans focusing on stocks making all-time highs, such as Hall of Famers, Minor Leaguers, and the 2 to 100 Club.

We filter these universes for stocks that are exhibiting the best momentum and relative strength characteristics. 

Clearly, we spend a lot of time identifying and writing about leading stocks every week, via...

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:

📌 Perpetua Resources $PPTA – Paulson & Co. just stepped in with a massive $100 million buy.

This isn’t just any fund – it's run by John Paulson, the billionaire who famously shorted the housing market during the 2008 crisis and made billions doing it. 

When a trader with that kind of track record makes a move this big, we pay attention.

📌 Sonos $SONO – Coliseum Capital is back at it with a $4.1 million purchase, adding to their already sizeable stake. 

This group has been steadily building a position for a while – a classic sign of high-conviction accumulation from a well-known activist firm.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from June 16,...

Today's number is... 4

There are 4 S&P 500 sectors that now have their 50-day moving average above their 200-day moving average.

The latest? Communication Services.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows: 

• The candlesticks show the price of the S&P 500 Communication Services Index.
• The blue line is the 50-day moving average.
• The red line is the 200-day moving average.

The Takeaway: The Communication Services sector doesn’t just matter — it’s home to some of the biggest stocks on the planet: Meta, Alphabet, Netflix. 

When it turns, the market feels it.

Its 50-day moving average just crossed back above its 200-day moving average.

A bullish signal some call a golden cross. 

Not a timing tool by itself, but a sign that trend conditions are improving.

Only three other sectors are in the same camp — and they’re all near highs.

These four sectors sit just 3.0% off their 52-week highs on average.

The rest? ...

Did you catch what happened with SRM Entertainment $SRM yesterday?

This little-known toy company just secured a $100 million investment from a private investor — and they’re using the funds to buy Tron $TRX, the cryptocurrency, effectively turning the company into a crypto treasury vehicle.

As part of the shift, they’re renaming the company to “Tron Inc.”, bringing on Tron founder Justin Sun as an advisor, and working with Dominari Securities, a brokerage firm reportedly linked to Eric Trump.

In other words, Tron is going public, using SRM as a backdoor listing, and positioning itself as a kind of “MicroStrategy 2.0”, but for TRX instead of Bitcoin.

And the market noticed.

SRM stock exploded over +530% on the day.

This is part of a growing trend:

• Struggling small-cap companies pivoting to crypto in a last-ditch attempt to revive shareholder value.
• Turning their corporate treasuries into speculative crypto bets.
• Tapping into the retail FOMO around digital assets.

Is this sustainable?

Almost certainly not.
 

...

The news cycle has taken a pessimistic turn in recent weeks, and in many ways, that’s justified.

Tensions in the Middle East are escalating, with Israel launching targeted attacks in Iraq. While our hearts go out to those affected, it’s crucial that we don’t let geopolitical shocks derail us from our long-term investment objectives.

As always, we follow market leadership.

And in 2025, that leadership hasn’t come from the United States, it’s been...

We’ve been waiting patiently for a leadership handoff in the metals market. 

It’s happening now.

Platinum and Palladium, the long-forgotten cousins of the precious metals complex, are waking up.

Just look at the charts.

Sign up for my free note here.

I’ve been flipping through charts all day — and man, things look great out there.

It’s wild how fast sentiment can shift these days. Just a couple days ago, people were panicking over geopolitical headlines. But honestly, that was just noise.

There’s always something out there to shake people out of good positions. 

But as technicians, our job is to tune out the noise, and just follow price.

Friday was just any old down day — nothing more. Today, markets came right back and ripped higher.

As I was going through some setups this morning, Steve messaged me: “It almost looks too good out here —...

I was joking with Patrick earlier, and I told him I buy every ticker he texts me these days. 

“Buy first. Ask questions later.” 

But I was just alluding to the fact that it seems like every bullish chart pattern is working out here. 

I talk to my friends about what I’m seeing and trading throughout the day, and many of us have been on the speculative growth train. 

It’s insane how well these junky stocks are working. And it’s a longer list of them every day. 

I know almost for a fact that a good deal of these are probably zeros over the long run. That doesn’t matter. 

What matters is that they are working now. 

It’s the kind of market to take shots on the crazy stuff. And we have been doing it more and more because we keep being rewarded.  

It’s...