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, 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...
This is one of our favorite bottom-up scans: Follow the Flow. In this note, we simply create a universe of stocks that experienced the most unusual options activity — either bullish or bearish, but not both.
We utilize options experts, both internally and through our partnership with The TradeXchange. Then, we dig through the level 2 details and do all the work upfront for our clients.
Our goal is to isolate only those options market splashes that represent levered and high-conviction, directional bets.
We also weed out hedging activity and ensure there are no offsetting trades that either neutralize or cap the risk on these unusual options trades.
What remains is a list of stocks that large financial institutions are putting big money behind.
And they’re doing so for one reason only: because they think the stock is about to move in their...
We're going on over 16 months of this so far, and counting....
Remember, stocks peaked in February of 2021, meaning that was the best things were for stocks during this cycle. And it's been a slow deterioration ever since.
The first stocks to peak are what we refer to as the "Culprits". Every bear market has that group that you can point to as the leaders to the downside.
We came into 2022 with a close eye on those Culprits (see here) and we've continued to monitor their declines.
If you haven't been following along, those groups include Chinese...
From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley
One of the most important risk ratios and easily the biggest snooze fest from the past year is finally starting to move.
That’s right – after going nowhere for more than a year, the Copper/Gold ratio is making a directional move! And believe it or not, it’s resolving in the opposite direction of interest rates.
Instead of following rates higher, Copper/Gold is rolling over to the downside and raising questions regarding risk appetite and overall market health.
We can’t emphasize the importance of these developments enough. We’ve been awaiting resolutions of these ranges since early last year, and it’s finally happening.
Let’s talk about it.
Here’s an overlay chart of the Copper/Gold ratio and Copper futures:
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 which you can check out here.
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
And here’s how we arrived at it:
Filter out any stocks that are below their May 10th 2021 high...
And don’t worry: Plenty of banter surrounding the yield curve will take center stage during all this recession talk.
Somehow, an inverted yield curve has become synonymous with recession even though the historical record supporting this narrative leaves room for plenty of interpretation.
The purpose of this post is not to present an argument on whether we’re already in a recession or if one is imminent. We’ll leave that up to the talking heads and economists.
Instead, we'll simply share where the yield curve is today and assess the likelihood of potential inversion.
Let’s take a look…
Here’s a triple-pane chart of the US 30-year, 10-year, and 5-year yields:
These are the registration details for our live mid-month conference call for Premium Members of All Star Charts.
Our next Live Call will be held on Monday June 20th at 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.
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 multiple reports. Now, we're also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.
I'm not sure about you, but these last few weeks have further reinforced my love and passion for crypto.
You know this crypto selloff has been severe when even the media outlets and evening news programs in tiny, old New Zealand are covering it.
Even after years of being with the All Star Charts crew, my family still has no idea what I do every day. Charts? Technical analysis? Cryptocurrencies? You write research? For who?
These are the questions I'm constantly asked. It's pretty hilarious.
So when I try and explain the headlines they're reading behind Luna, Ethereum crashing, or who this Do Kwon dude is, I'm often met with blank stares.
Spending my days obsessive and immersed in crypto feels like a video game. This whole industry and community are on an entire other planet.