Fun fact, did you know I used to be a Gold Bug?

That's right.

In the early years of my career, being a Gold Bug was actually cool.

Throughout the 2000s, not only were Gold prices going up, they were also outperforming stocks and bonds, by a lot.

I was that guy.

The stock market is near new all-time highs and getting all the attention.

Crypto Currencies are breaking out and everyone is all hyped up for another Defi Summer.

Meanwhile, Gold is quietly hitting new all-time highs.

Never in history has Gold closed at a higher price than it did yesterday:

Banks don't stop falling.

About a year ago, we saw a few tiny banks that no one has ever heard of disappear, and the market moved on just fine.

Is this time going to be like that?

Look at Regional Banks breaking down vs both Large-caps and Small-caps.

So, no matter what you compare them to, Regional Banks look terrible:

From the Desk of Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

In today's post, we're talking about a group of stocks that have emerged as the 'Generals' of the current bull market.

You are thinking, “it must be tech.”

It’s not.

Industrials have been just as strong as tech stocks but with far better internals. No other sector has experienced the kind of broad participation we’re seeing from industrials. These are the real market leaders.

Historically, the Industrial sector is the one with the highest correlation to the overall market. So, the strength of these stocks is also sending us very bullish information about the health of this bull market. 

This is great news, but today’s note is about looking under the hood and finding the best opportunities in the various industrial subgroups.

As one of the most diverse sectors, investors have plenty of options in the world of industrials. We did the work and dug into this space to find out what the strongest areas are and where we want to put our money.

Let’s get into it.

Here’s the Large-Cap Industrial Sector $XLI breaking out of a multi-year base:

...

This is the video recording of our March 4th Monthly Charts Live Strategy Session

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended March 1, 2024. 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.

Whether we’re measuring increasing interest based on large institutional purchases, unusual options...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

You can’t keep the gold bugs down.

They’re a hearty bunch full of true grit, choosing to focus on the silver lining while persevering through countless downturns.

Gold, on the other hand, has been an easy target…

This morning, my Head Technical Analyst Steve Strazza joined me on The Flow Show to put our heads together on a new trade:

Strazza loves the Energy sector here, and of all the charts he likes, I liked this one in Valero Energy $VLO the best:

Best of all, options premiums are near the lowest levels of the year for $VLO:

This isn't entirely surprising. The stock has been consolidating just below all-time highs since early 2022. And the consolidation has been continually tightening.

Sideways markets may not stop you out of your positions, but they are likely to wear you out. And when traders are exiting their positions giving up on the thought of any directional movement, options premiums tend to decline because few participants feel the need to protect their positions or aggressively bet on accelerating...

Last week was Crypto Week here at All Star Charts.

And I think the market got the memo.

Bitcoin just hit $65,000 for the first time in over two years.

Not sure if you got the memo, but this is still a Bull Market in stocks.

That hasn't changed.

Just to be clear.

And this, I think, is where defining who you are and your time horizon is really important.

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.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

US Treasuries are taking a back seat to risk assets.

Bond market volatility is declining. Credit spreads are tightening. And Emerging Market high-yield bonds ($EMHY) are breaking out. 

Meanwhile, stocks are posting new all-time highs.

So, how high will interest rates climb over the near term?

My gut tells me not far — at least not in the coming weeks or months…

Check out the US benchmark rate finding resistance at approximately 4.33:

Last month’s high marks a logical ceiling for the US benchmark rate. 

Those former highs coincide with a key retracement level based on the run-up into the October 2023 peak. Plus, the 10-year yield paused at the same level for almost a month during last year's rally. That’s not a coincidence.

If the US 10-year breaks above 4.33, volatility will hit...