Today's trade is in a name that has a very high short interest and is starting to put the squeeze on shorts. 

And if this stock completes its climb back to all-time highs, there will be a lot of juice to squeeze out of these shorts.

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...

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

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

Let’s dig in!

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:

📌 Byline Bancorp $BY – The CEO and four directors filed Form 4s totaling $1.27 million. These types of cluster buys – especially when multiple insiders act at once – tend to be high-conviction bets. 

They usually believe the stock is undervalued and are positioning for higher prices.

📌 StoneX Group $SNEX – Chairman of the Board John Radziwill stepped in with a $119,000 purchase. 

Board purchases always catch our attention, but when a stock is trading near all-time highs after a parabolic advance, we pay extra close attention.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from June 13, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

Adobe $ADBE is one of the most iconic names in creative software. 

It is the $167B powerhouse behind industry staples like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro.

But Wall Street isn’t cutting it any slack.

Despite delivering double beats in 8 straight quarters, this stock has been punished for 7 of its last 8 earnings reports.

Investors aren’t reacting to the numbers. They’re reacting to the narrative.

And that narrative has shifted.

The rise of AI-native challengers like Midjourney, Runway, and Stability AI has questioned Adobe’s dominance. 

Despite steady revenue growth and ambitious product updates, the market seems unconvinced that Adobe can defend its turf in this new competitive landscape.

In an environment where every software name is expected to show AI hypergrowth, “steady” isn’t cutting it.

The price action reflects that tension.

So what else did we learn from this earnings report? Let’s dive into the details.

*Click the image to enlarge it

Adobe had a -1.71...

Today's number is... 3

My Core Market Model has climbed to 3 — its highest reading since November 2024.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The candlesticks in the top panel is the S&P 500 index price.
• The black line in the bottom panel shows the Core Market Model — a composite of breadth, liquidity, and sentiment.

The Takeaway: At 3, the Core Market Model is sending a clear message: internals are strong and strengthening.

When these inputs align, trend conditions tend to improve — and that’s what we’re seeing now.

Two weeks ago, the model flipped positive. Since then, it’s gained momentum — moving firmly into what I call the Constructive zone.

That’s where markets tend to behave better: pullbacks get shallower, trends persist, and volatility fades.

This isn’t guesswork. Over two decades of data, the Constructive zone has delivered the most reliable forward returns — with tighter drawdowns and less noise.

We’re not stretched. We’re supported. That’s what matters....

Short sellers are under pressure, and it’s starting to show.

They’ve been caught leaning the wrong way and are scrambling to unwind their bets.

That’s when we like to step in with our Freshly Squeezed strategy, right as the squeeze begins.

Here's our latest scan: 

As you can see, Phathom Pharma $PHAT, Tango Thera. $TNGX and AST SpaceMobile $ASTS are at the top of the leaderboard. 

Over the last 10 trading sessions, they've rallied 150.4%, 111.3%, and 66.3%, respectively.

The squeeze in Sezzle $SEZL is continuing to unfold. The stock is up nearly 60% since we bought it last month.

We also have tables sorted by short interest and days-to-cover.

Now let’s break down today’s setup and...

Every weekend, I dive into our insider activity tracker looking for the most interesting and bullish buys — and this week it was all about oil & gas!

Here’s the most notable activity:

The most eye-catching insider buy this week came from Plug Power $PLUG, where the CFO, Paul Middleton, filed a Form 4 disclosing a $672,035 purchase. 

With the stock struggling amid continued dilution and questions around profitability, this kind of size from the finance chief stands out. 

Only time will tell whether it marks a true bottom or not. But for now, it’s just not something we’re looking to buy.

Vitesse Energy $VTS is another one that stands out. The CEO stepped in with a $230K buy.

Over at AirSculpt Technologies $AIRS, director Adam Feinstein made a major move, scooping up $4 million in stock. 

Then there’s Bausch Health $BHC,...

Welcome to The Weekly Beat.

Last week was packed with market earnings reactions. 

We saw double beats, historic selloffs, and a $100B surge in market cap. 

Investors were forced to separate strength from weakness. 

And with several prominent names sitting at critical levels, the stakes are only getting higher. 

In this week’s recap, we’re covering the key reactions from last week and previewing the setups we’re focused on heading into next week.

• Monday:
  • Broadcom $AVGO reported a double beat and fell 5% on the news. This dip was quickly bought, and the stock closed the week at a fresh all-time high.
  • Lululemon $LULU posted a double beat and slipped 19.8% in response to it. This was the worst earnings reaction since 2017.
• Tuesday:
  • No earnings reactions in the...

Welcome back for another Top Down Trade of the Week. 

This one’s 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, Energy is the big standout—jumping to the top of our sector rankings. 

Healthcare and utilities also made a big move up on the leaderboard as growth sectors faltered. 

Here is a look at our overall industry rankings, which shows oil & gas cracking into the top 10.

It’s not a surprise to see it there—crude oil has been squeezing higher, posting its best week since October 2022.

That kind of price action tends to light a fire under energy stocks, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

Written Portfolio Update of the RoundUp10 and Starting 10 portfolios through June 13, 2025

Portfolio Update Through June 5, 2025

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.

Crude oil just ripped higher with its biggest 3-day rally since March 2022.

And the timing couldn’t be more interesting.

The energy trade looked like it was unraveling.

But the bulls are stepping in and repairing the damage.

Valid tops have turned into "not tops" and bear traps.

This burst of upside momentum comes right as crude is bouncing off a major support zone, both in absolute terms and relative to the broader market. 

Energy stocks have been under pressure for months, but this looks like a potential turning point.

Not only is the price action improving, but positioning is also offside. 

Short interest in the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF $XOP just hit its highest level in years.

A lot of the individual stocks have the highest short interest ever.

The unwind could fuel a powerful move higher across...

Let’s get one thing straight… I’m not some sort of defense industry perma bull.

Trust me, those people exist.

They hang out in the same circles as the ‘end-of-days’ folks, national debt doomers, and gold bugs.

It’s just not for me. I’m an optimist.

However, I’m also a good old-fashioned trend follower.

And these stocks have taken on a new leadership role, so we’ve been buying them. Here is Aerospace & Defense relative to the S&P 500:

This base breakout is in the books, and the path of least resistance is now higher for this ratio. All that means is expect more outperformance from these stocks over longer timeframes.

But I’m most interested in making money right now. This week, this month, this quarter.

And as I flipped through the A&D components today, there was one chart that I just...

Sign up for my free note here.

With geopolitical pressures heating up in the Middle East, cybersecurity stocks are back in focus.

These companies build the digital armor that protects governments, businesses, and ordinary folks from online threats—and honestly, that feels more essential than ever right now.

The Cybersecurity ETF $HACK is up 34% from its April lows, and it’s been outperforming the broader market the whole way.

After a clean retest of its prior cycle highs, HACK is boomeranging with a near-vertical move. 

Now it’s bumping up against that 161.8% Fibonacci extension around 85 — the same level that stopped it cold earlier this year.

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...

Oracle $ORCL is proving that old tech can still deliver new growth.

The $600B enterprise software giant just posted a double beat, and the stock surged 13.3% to fresh all-time highs.

Buyers followed through on Friday with an additional 7.7% increase.

It’s the latest sign that Oracle’s multi-year cloud transformation is working.

After decades as a dominant database provider, Oracle has successfully repositioned itself as a modern cloud infrastructure and applications company. 

And that pivot is accelerating.

Total revenues are ramping higher, and the management team expects this to accelerate.

They raised full-year revenue guidance to the fastest in decades.

In addition, they're benefiting from major tailwinds in generative AI and large language model training. 

Partnerships with Nvidia, OpenAI, and Microsoft are positioning them as a key player in the future of cloud computing.

And the market is rewarding this shift.

The market is consistently rewarding the stock for its earnings reports..

Oracle has quietly re-entered the conversation as one of the most essential platforms in enterprise software...

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

1. No new positions today.
2. Adjustment to USO position.
3. Closed KRE for profit.
4. Current status of open campaigns.
5. Volatility Snapshot.

Let’s dig in!