Today's number is... 83

We’ve now seen 83 consecutive trading days where the 3-month rolling fund flow for the Russell 2000 (IWM) has been negative — a stretch small caps haven’t experienced since mid-2019.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The green and red candlesticks in the top panel show the price of the Russell 2000.
• The green and red line in the bottom panel shows the rolling 3-month net fund flows for the Russell 2000.

The Takeaway: Nobody wants small caps right now.

And that’s exactly why I’m watching them.

Negative flows for this long isn’t just rare — it’s a clear sign of bearish sentiment.

Historically, when flows dry up like this, it reflects a market that’s been abandoned… and often sets the stage for a reversal.

But it’s not just fund flows.

Short interest in small caps is near 18-month highs.

Traders are leaning heavily against the space — and that kind of crowding rarely ends quietly.

It has also been 899 days since IWM last reached an all-time high.

Sign up for my free note here.

The biggest development this week is unfolding in the market’s most risk-on corners.

When we look down the cap scale, small-cap stocks are breaking out—reclaiming a key level of resistance at the index level.

The Russell 2000 $IWM didn’t just punch through a horizontal brick wall—it also broke above a downward trendline that’s been in place since the highs from last year.

Most importantly, it’s now trading above the anchored VWAP from its all-time high.

That last point is crucial—it means the average buyer since the Russell’s peak is finally in the green.

Buyers are back in control, marking a major development that reinforces the bullish thesis for equities.

...

One of the top-performing areas of the speculative growth theme has been the “new-school” nuclear trade. 

OKLO already tagged one target, SMR is on its way, and NNE is coiled and wants next. 

Click the link to read our nuclear energy deep dive.

These have been some of the top stocks off the April lows, and now the old-school names like Cameco $CCJ are powering higher too.

What I’m saying is the entire nuclear space is red-hot, and I want more of it.

Here’s the VanEck Uranium & Nuclear ETF $NLR breaking out to its highest level since 2008.

After a 50% move in two months’ time, one might think this trend is extended, but it’s not. 

This is a fresh breakout over longer timeframes, and price should keep climbing...

Back in early April, I made a bet that silver would play catch-up to the vastly outperforming gold complex utilizing an options trader's version of a pairs trade. You can read about it here.

Both instruments had a bit of a wild ride following the "Liberation Day" Luau, especially SLV. But thanks to the somewhat offsetting risks of the short-biased GLD trade, we road out the volatility admirably.

Today, following SLV's recent run and dramatic outperformance against GLD, I think now is the time to take our profits.

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

But one recent move continues to stand out.

There’s a quiet resurgence happening in one of the market’s most forgotten corners: Genomics.

The industry has been left for dead after peaking during the 2020 to 2021 boom and suffering an 85% collapse.

But buried under the wreckage are a few real businesses making real progress.

One of them is Adaptive Biotechnologies $ADPT, a $1.6B biotech company on a mission to decode the immune system.

Their goal is simple but revolutionary: make the immune response a measurable, actionable source of insight for diagnosing and treating disease.

They’re already delivering on that promise through clonoSEQ, their flagship test for monitoring minimal residual disease in blood cancers. 

This product is seeing strong clinical uptake and broader support from payers and regulators.

What’s even more exciting is who they’re building with.

They’ve partnered with Microsoft $MSFT to apply machine learning at scale to immune...

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

1. New position in XLB.
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!

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:

📌 Plug Power $PLUG – The CFO Paul Middleton stepped in with another purchase of his company’s stock. 

This is the second purchase he’s made this year, and this comes on the heels of a massive 25% bounce off a key long-term support level dating back to 2017. 

📌 PBF Energy Inc $PBF – Control Empresarial de Capitales S.A. revealed an acquisition of 48,500 shares, equivalent to $872,340.

Here’s The Hot Corner, with data from June 9, 2025:

Click the table to enlarge it.

📌 Appfolio Inc $APPF – Director Robert Donald Casey III stepped in with an eye-catching purchase for $870,000 just as the stock flirts with...

Today's number is... 1.81%

1.81% is the average year-to-date return of an S&P 500 stock in 2025.

Here’s the chart:

Let's break down what the chart shows:

• The gray bar illustrates the average stock in the S&P 500's year-to-date return.
• The green and red bars represent the average year-to-date stock returns by sector for the S&P 500.

The Takeaway: The S&P 500 hasn't exactly advanced much in 2025.

It’s up just 2.11% year-to-date.

And the average stock is doing even less, sitting at 1.81%.

This isn’t the kind of backdrop where you can throw darts and expect to win.

It’s been a high-volatility, choppy, and highly selective environment.

Average stock returns across sectors paint a messy picture. 

The average stock in Energy and Consumer Discretionary is down nearly 3%.

Even the traditionally strong Technology sector has seen average returns of just 4.5%.

Communication Services and Utilities lead the way...

Last week, we pointed to the outperformance of large caps over small caps. But interestingly, we've seen both Micro Caps $IWC and Small Cap Growth $IWO transition from red to green on the ETF Power Rankings this week.

On further inspection, there's a fascinating setup that could be developing.

Small Cap Growth $IWO is failing to hold its breakdown relative to Large Cap Growth $IWF. When this line is moving lower (as it has been for a while), it means small cap growth is underperforming large cap growth.

But if this breakdown fails, it would indicate this line could quickly shoot higher.

In other words - small cap growth could be on the verge of an explosive move higher.

The smallest growth stock tend to be very speculative; companies that have not fully proven that they can follow through on their promises, businesses that have long duration on cash flows to pay back their investors, and a lot of operational and market risk.

It's for this reason that they're also highly volatile.

If they can follow through, investors get very rich.

If they do not, they get...

We have been talking about a major rotation in the metals space for months, and now it’s happening in real time.

Platinum is ripping... We just got long.

Dr. Copper is knocking on the door of new all-time highs. We outlined the breakout and target levels to watch on Friday.

And now, Silver is sprinting...

It’s up more than 30% off last month’s low and just printed a fresh multi-decade high.

We think this move is just getting started, and a run at the 1980 / 2011 peak near $50 is officially in play.

Here’s how we're trading it.

All things equal, I want the one that shook out the weak hands… before it left the station.

I want the one that bears had a clean chance to bury… but couldn’t.

I want the one that just trapped the shorts… then squeezed higher.

Bull hooks. Bear traps. Scoop ‘n scores. Shakeouts.

These are all powerful patterns, and are all similar because they are centered on the same thing…

Failed moves.

This is when price violates a key level and quickly reverses in the opposite direction.

“From failed moves come fast moves” is how I learned it.

And that’s exactly what is happening with Bitcoin $BTC right now. Here’s a look:

BTC ramped from about 75k to north of 110k in a matter of five weeks off the April lows.

...

Sign up for my free note here.

If you’ve been following along, you already know the offense is on the field.

$ARKK is resolving higher from a bull flag, small caps are back in gear, and Bitcoin is flirting with all-time highs.

All of this speaks to a positive environment for risk appetite.

And today, it’s been all about space and exploration — at least in my trading account. 

These stocks are mooning. Pun intended.

The ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF $ARKX just printed fresh all-time highs...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the two weeks ended June 6, 2025. This report is published bi-weekly, in rotation with The Minor Leaguers.

What we do here is analyze the most popular stocks during the week and find opportunities to either join in and ride these momentum names higher, or fade the crowd and bet against them.

We use a variety of sources to generate the list of most popular names.

There are so many new data sources available that all we need to do is organize and curate them in a way that shows us exactly what we want: a list of stocks that are seeing an unusual increase in investor interest.

Click here for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

Today's trade is in a silver miner that has already had a great run, but could surprise everyone by further doubling from here.

Buying after a big run is always hard, psychologically, and today is no different. So I'm going to take some of the sting out of the purchase with a creative spread and aggressive rolling strategy.

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

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

Let’s dig in!

Broadcom $AVGO continues to reinforce its place among the market’s top compounders.

The $1.1T semiconductor and infrastructure software giant just posted another double beat. 

Despite the beat, the stock traded down 5% in reaction to the news, showing that expectations were high heading into the event. 

But context matters.

Zooming out, the stock has been rewarded for 17 of its last 22 earnings reports. That kind of consistency is rare, especially at this scale.

What makes the company's story so compelling is its multi-engine business model. 

On one side, it powers global connectivity with networking chips, broadband, and custom silicon. In addition, they provide critical infrastructure for cloud, telecom, and AI data centers. 

On the other hand, it offers a high-margin software platform anchored by the VMware acquisition, generating sticky recurring revenue across enterprise systems.

This blend of hardware scale and software stability has helped them become one of the most reliable long-term performers in the market.

The recent pullback may have caught attention, but the bigger story remains intact......