In early May we outlined the "Five Bull Market Barometers" we're watching to identify the beginning of a new bull market in stocks.

If you haven't read our initial post linked above, we'd encourage you to check it out so you understand what the rationale behind these five indicators is.

Now, let's see where these indicators ended the week.

This is our ASC Research Q3 Playbook.

The first section dives deep into the US Stock Market, and the second half covers International Stock Markets and FICC (Fixed Income, Commodities & Currencies).

You can skip right to the trade ideas here if you'd like, or give the full report a read!

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Responses to this week's Mystery Chart were mixed. Some were betting on a breakout and buying while others wanted to fade this against the prior highs.

Others were waiting for more information, which is likely what we'd be doing. Thanks to everyone for participating.

But this chart is already packed with information. Let's dive in and talk about what it is.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

As we head into the second half of the calendar year 2020, we start from scratch with our Q2 playbook and outline our thoughts on every asset class and our plan to profit in the quarter ahead.

Part 1 of this playbook will cover our macro view, touching on Equities, Commodities, Currencies, and Rates.

Part 2 of this playbook will delve deeper into Indian Equities, going sector by sector to identify the trends that matter.

Part 3 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be selling within the context of today's environment.

Part 4 of this playbook will outline the individual stocks we want to be buying within the context of today's environment.

Over the past month I've shared a few happy hour videos with some of my friends. You can find the video with Kimmy & Fahmy here, and my happy hour with Russo & Thrasher here.

Today I sit down with Venture Capitalist and active trader Howard Lindzon. We talked about his favorite stocks, what he's buying now and why. He's very open to discuss what's in his portfolio and is never shy about telling you what he thinks! We discuss $MELI $SFIX $SQ $BABA and $PAGS.

Conversations with Howard are always fun and I learn something every time. I hope you enjoy!

Yesterday's post on "Pulling The Weeds" from our portfolios got some great feedback, so thank you for that.

It also prompted a question about whether we should be adding Equity exposure as the indexes go higher or if we should be lightening up and trying to add back on weakness.

This is a very personal question that'll look different for everyone in practice. In this post, I want to provide a framework to use when thinking about this so you can identify what's most appropriate for your portfolio.

Remember, our job as Market Technicians is to ask the right questions and then allow the market to tell us the answer.

Our view remains that this is a new bull market in stocks, so we want to continue using any weakness towards 10,000 in the Nifty 50 to be adding exposure. With that said, just as we would pull the weeds out of our garden periodically to keep it healthy, we want to do the same with our portfolios.

And what better time to review your portfolio than at the end of the quarter?

In this post, we're going to show a few examples of stocks that remain out of favor...and their characteristics, so that you can identify any of the weeds in your portfolio and determine the best course of action for them.

Last month I shared a video of my Happy Hour with Traders Kimmy Sokoloff and Joe Fahmy. You guys sent in amazing feedback and I really enjoyed doing it. So today, I want to give you a peak at my conversation with Andrew Thrasher and Dan Russo. They both love drinking wine and we've always had that in common, so we discussed some of our favorites as well as our thoughts on the stock market and bond market.

It's cool to be able to sit back and relax with two of the smartest guys out there and hear what they have to say. I hope you enjoy!

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

For the week ended Thursday, July 2, 2020:

Every week we publish performance tables for a variety of different asset classes and categories along with commentary on each.

Being Independence Day weekend, we're going to highlight the continued structural outperformance from the US vs rest of the world in this week's post. As a good patriot and technician, I would be remiss not to take this opportunity to reflect on how grateful US investors should be.

Here are our US Index ETF and Global Index tables.

I find myself on Zoom calls all the time. How about you?

Did you notice that the Communications Index is pushing up against new all-time highs? Did you notice that during the March decline, communications held above their late 2018 lows?

I think all of this points to us paying a little more attention to what's going on in the space.

First of all, check out the Communications Services Index holding above former resistance the past 2 years. That alone is impressive. If we're above 272, there is no reason to be pessimistic about Communications Stocks: