There comes a time in every bull market cycle when the worst companies are the best stocks.

And this is a feature as far as I’m concerned… not a bug. 

It speaks to the offensive nature of the market. 

We call it bullish risk appetite, and it’s happening now.

If you know what to do with this kind of market, you can make a killing renting the right stocks at the right time. 

I did a livestream with my friend Herb Greenberg today, and we caught up afterward. I always love hearing his perspective on the stocks we’re trading.

It’s tough to be bearish on some of these speculative growth names in an environment where shorts are getting squeezed, but Herb is the best in the business when it comes to flagging bad actors, so I had to ask him...

“What do you know about this...

I’m going out for drinks tonight with a good friend who owns a real estate agency in Key West.

We’re going to talk about home prices, inventory levels, and mortgage rates… and I can’t wait.

The truth is, I’ve been thinking about the housing market a lot lately. I’m really into it.

Rose and I have decided to give the mainland a shot and are moving up to the Naples area this week. We’ll miss Key West, but we are excited about this new chapter in our lives.

We took our time searching for a place over the past year or so. In the process, I’ve spent countless hours on Zillow $Z and have looked at a variety of South Florida homebuilder communities— from Lennar $LEN to Taylor Morrison $TMHC and Pulte Homes $PHM. 

I’ve dealt with Rocket Companies $RKT, with whom I have my first mortgage. 

And this past week, it’s been all about shopping for furniture on sites like Wayfair $W.

Welcome back for another Top Down Trade of the Week. 

This one’s a classic leadership scan.

We start with the best sectors, then drill into the subgroups. We pick one, and then take a look at the top stocks in it. 

This week, Technology is the big standout—climbing seven spots in our sector rankings.

While Energy maintains the top spot, Industrials and Communications have also gained ground.

Here is a look at our overall industry rankings, which shows semiconductors jumping into the top 5.

Semis just failed to complete a top relative to the broader market and are now reasserting their leadership.

If this risk-on group is in good shape, then stocks...

The major averages were lower this week, but it was still a win for the bulls.

Here’s why…

Since the market bottomed over two months ago, the best stocks have been the riskiest ones.

Of course, I’m talking about the impressive leadership from speculative growth.

We’ve seen this story before, though. We’ve actually already seen it several times in the current cycle.

Speculative tech was an area of standout leadership during the Q4 2023 rally.

The space also outperformed in a major way during the post-election ramp-up coming into the year.

But the momentum and relative strength didn’t last in either of those cases…

I think this time is different…

And the relative trend between the flagship ARK fund and the S&P is a big reason why:

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

We love our bottoms-up scans here at All Star Charts. We tend to get really creative when making new universes as we want to be sure they will deliver us the best opportunities the market has to offer.

However, when it comes to this one, it couldn't be any simpler!

With the goal of finding more bullish setups, we have decided to expand one of our favorite scans and broaden our regular coverage of the largest US stocks.

Welcome to The Junior Hall of Famers.

This scan is composed of the next 150 largest stocks by market cap, those that come after the top 150 and are thus covered by the Hall of Famers universe. Many of these names will someday graduate and join our original Hall Of Famers list. The idea here is to catch these big trends as early on as possible.

There is no need to overcomplicate things. Market cap is a quality filter at the end of the day. It only grows if price is rising. That's good enough for us.

The bottom line is it is a bull market. We...

“I’m gobbling up COIN calls.”

It’s what I told Breakout Multiplier members I was doing during last week’s strategy session.

Today, Coinbase stock rallied 16% after Congress passed the Genius Act, providing regulatory clarity for stablecoins. 

The company also announced the launch of a stablecoin payments stack for e-commerce platforms. The news tanked blue-chip payment names, Visa and Mastercard.

And that’s just the disruptive nature of this business. 

I think Coinbase is one of the most exciting long-term growth stories out there. 

They keep doing all the right things. And now that they finally have a clear and supportive regulatory backdrop, they can execute freely. 

But that’s why I own the common stock… 

The short-dated calls I’ve been pounding the table about have nothing to...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

In this scan, we look to identify the strongest growth stocks as they climb the market-cap ladder from small- to mid- to large- and, ultimately, to mega cap status (over $200B).

Once they graduate from small-cap to mid-cap status (over $2B), they come on our radar. Likewise, when they surpass the roughly $30B mark, they roll off our list.

But the scan doesn't just end there.

We only want to look at the strongest growth industries in the market, as that is typically where these potential 50-baggers come from.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at some point during their journey to becoming the market behemoths they are today.

When you look at the stocks in our table, you'll notice we're only focused on Technology and Growth industry groups such as Software, Semiconductors, Online...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Ricardo Sarraf @nullcharts

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...

I was joking with Patrick earlier, and I told him I buy every ticker he texts me these days. 

“Buy first. Ask questions later.” 

But I was just alluding to the fact that it seems like every bullish chart pattern is working out here. 

I talk to my friends about what I’m seeing and trading throughout the day, and many of us have been on the speculative growth train. 

It’s insane how well these junky stocks are working. And it’s a longer list of them every day. 

I know almost for a fact that a good deal of these are probably zeros over the long run. That doesn’t matter. 

What matters is that they are working now. 

It’s the kind of market to take shots on the crazy stuff. And we have been doing it more and more because we keep being rewarded.  

It’s...

Welcome back for another Top Down Trade of the Week. 

This one’s a classic leadership scan.

We start with the best sectors, then drill into the subgroups. We pick one, and then take a look at the top stocks in it. 

This week, Energy is the big standout—jumping to the top of our sector rankings. 

Healthcare and utilities also made a big move up on the leaderboard as growth sectors faltered. 

Here is a look at our overall industry rankings, which shows oil & gas cracking into the top 10.

It’s not a surprise to see it there—crude oil has been squeezing higher, posting its best week since October 2022.

That kind of price action tends to light a fire under energy stocks, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

Let’s get one thing straight… I’m not some sort of defense industry perma bull.

Trust me, those people exist.

They hang out in the same circles as the ‘end-of-days’ folks, national debt doomers, and gold bugs.

It’s just not for me. I’m an optimist.

However, I’m also a good old-fashioned trend follower.

And these stocks have taken on a new leadership role, so we’ve been buying them. Here is Aerospace & Defense relative to the S&P 500:

This base breakout is in the books, and the path of least resistance is now higher for this ratio. All that means is expect more outperformance from these stocks over longer timeframes.

But I’m most interested in making money right now. This week, this month, this quarter.

And as I flipped through the A&D components today, there was one chart that I just...