From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by JANA Partners Management LP.

The investment firm reported a purchase of $37 million  in Mercury Systems $MRCY.

The only real safe haven out there continues to be the US Dollar.

That's it.

When money flows into the Dollar, stocks are under pressure. You may not always see it at the index level, but you can certainly see it when you count and go one by one across the stock market.

The US Dollar bottomed on December 27th. That was also the day that the Advance-Decline line on the NYSE put in its top. It was also the day that the Russell2000 Small-cap Index peaked.

Here's the Dollar now making new 3-month highs:

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Crypto markets continue stair stepping higher, as Bitcoin decisively moves into the 50,000s.

Stocks see selling pressure return, with the Russell 2000 Small-Cap index $IWM recording its worst single day performance since the bear market low in June 2022.

Bitcoin shows a surprising amount of relative strength as risk markets weakened in the backdrop of strong spot ETF flows.

FEATURED CHART

In the lead-up to the Bitcoin spot ETF, traditional finance managers were expressing their confidence in the futures market to take advantage of the Bitcoin repricing rally. But as attention turns to a Ethereum spot ETF, it appears that investors aren't showing much conviction in Ethereum, with CME open interest declining YTD.

We could either be early in the process of investors repricing Ethereum to the possibility of a Ethereum spot ETF, or investors may simply have their crypto desires satiated with Bitcoin.

In Monday’s letter, we made the case that the market has successfully resolved higher from the post-ETF consolidation. This came after a number of data sets suggested we had seen a reset in the consensus bullish sentiment and positioning in the lead-up to the ETF approval. With the market pressing higher, we want to position ourselves to take advantage of this reaccelerating trend.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by JANA Partners Management LP.

The investment firm reported a purchase of $37 million  in Mercury Systems $MRCY.

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. New position in ITB.
2. No adjustments are needed today.
3. An exit in TLT.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The most significant transaction on today’s list comes in a 13D filing by Carl Icahn.

Icahn revealed an initial stake in JetBlue Airways Corporation $JBLU of 9.91%.

Rug Pull Season is here!

You guys know me well by now. I'm not exactly one of these fearmongers who spends decades trying to convince people that the next big crash is coming.

There are already plenty of those around.

I'm just trying to make money.

This is a very selfish endeavor for me.

Goal #1: Keep my money. I already have plenty. I want to make sure to hang on to it.

Goal #2: Turn all my money into even more money.

In that order...

There are different ways to accomplish these goals.

Good morning,

Welcome to your daily crypto clarity

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Bitcoin continues to rally higher, hitting 50,000 for the first time since March 2022.

New York expands fraud case against DCG to $3B.

Binance is losing dominance against other crypto venues, with spot volume dominance falling from 60% to 40% throughout 2023. This has been accelerated with CME open interest overtaking Binance in recent months.

FEATURED CHART

Here is Bitcoin dominance YTD; this is calculated by dividing Bitcoin's market capitalization by the total market capitalization of the asset class. As Bitcoin market-cap dominance rises, it suggests that Bitcoin is outperforming most of the asset class.

Following the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETFs, Bitcoin dominance sharply fell but has now quickly recovered as crypto markets have stair-stepped higher. This points to Bitcoin's outperformance relative to smaller market-cap altcoins.

This is normal market conditions, where...

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.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list now, 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 highs in order to...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We held our February Monthly Strategy Session last week. ASC Premium Members can click here to watch the replay and download the chartbook.

Non-members can get a quick recap of the call simply by reading this post each month.

By focusing on long-term, monthly charts, the idea is to take a step back and put things into the context of their structural trends.

This is easily one of our most valuable exercises as it forces us to put aside the day-to-day noise and simply examine markets from a “big-picture” point of view.

With that as our backdrop, let’s dive right in and discuss three of the most important charts and/or themes from this month’s call.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The most significant transaction on today’s list comes in a 13D filing by Carl Icahn.

Icahn revealed an initial stake in JetBlue Airways Corporation $JBLU of 9.91%.

Healthcare continues to lead to the upside. While we already have a bullish bet on a sector ETF, it's time for us to drill in a little deeper in search of more beta if this trend is going to continue.

Today's trade is in a name that has been performing great off its December lows and has also been in a longer-term bull market. But only just recently has it begun to outperform against the broader stock market.

Check out this chart of Merck $MRK:

In today's Daily Digest, we'll review:

1. No new positions today.
2. Adjustment to XRT.
3. An exit in KRE.
4. Current status of open campaigns.

Let's dig in!

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

I’m fed up with precious metals. 

I’m tired of all the failed breakouts and the sideways chop.

So, please, spare me the silver-surfer stories about undervalued silver or how it will outperform gold 16-to-1 during the next bull run. 

I’m tired of it – all of it!

But the diehard gold bugs continue to rally the troops – and maybe they’re on to something.

After all, gold is trading less than a hundred bucks from its all-time high. Is there still a chance for a clean breakout soon?

Let’s take a cold, hard look…

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

I’m fed up with precious metals. 

I’m tired of all the failed breakouts and the sideways chop.

So, please, spare me the silver-surfer stories about undervalued silver or how it will outperform gold 16-to-1 during the next bull run. 

I’m tired of it – all of it!

But the diehard gold bugs continue to rally the troops – and maybe they’re on to something.

After all, gold is trading less than a hundred bucks from its all-time high. Is there still a chance for a clean breakout soon?

Let’s take a cold, hard look…

Check out gold’s four-year base:

I can’t lie: This is the type of base that gets me out of bed in the morning.

It’s a classic inverted head-and-shoulders with an abbreviated right shoulder. It oozes demand!

Plus, momentum is in a bullish regime. This thing looks ready to rip! 

But I’m over it.

Funny how that works. The markets are here to test us, causing maximum pain whenever possible.

So is the market just wearing me down?

Gold futures are coiling within a well-defined symmetrical triangle just below a...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The most significant transaction on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Aon plc $AON director Lester B. Knight.

Knight reported a purchase of 50,000 AON shares, equivalent to $15 million.

There are a few questions that need to be answered before proceeding as an investor of any timeframe.

These questions apply to longer-term investors, day traders, and everyone in between.