From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Everything has been working lately, as the weight of the evidence continues to stack up in favor of the bottom being in for the current cycle.

The short-term breadth thrusts in late July were among the first signs of it. This week, we’re seeing new highs spread out to longer time frames, such as our 63-day indicators.

The percentage of stocks above their 200-day moving average has rebounded higher after undercutting the critical 15% level. This has marked significant bottoms in the past.

Participation has spread beyond growth stocks over the near term, as materials and energy are also rallying and reclaiming key levels. We can say the same for crypto.

And, most importantly, we’re finally seeing upside resolutions. Not only that, they’re holding.

Some of our favorite charts right now are short-term reversal patterns. We’re seeing them all over in growth stocks.

Let’s talk about some we’re buying.

The most significant insider transaction on today's list comes from a 13D filing by Jeff Ubben’s Value Act.

The hedge fund revealed an ownership stake of 6.70% in The New York Times Company $NYT.

The largest insider buy on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by the executive chairman of Energy Transfer LP $ET, who revealed a purchase worth $12.6 million.

Director Matthew R. Cohler revealed an insider buy worth $991,484 in KKR & Co $KKR.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

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.

Welcome to the Short Report.

We...

This is the video recording of our August 10, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

George L. Ball, the chief financial officer at Parsons Corporation $PSN, filed a Form 4 revealing a purchase of 35,000 shares of PSN.

That’s equivalent to $1,452,500 worth of his company's stock.

Today’s most significant insider transaction report is another Form 4 filing by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.A.

Buffet continues to increase his position in Occidental Petroleum $OXY, as he just reported an additional purchase, this one worth roughly $390 million.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome to Under the Hood, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended August 5, 2022. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with our Minor Leaguers scan.

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.

Watch this video for a behind-the-scenes look at our process.

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

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza

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 direction and make them a pretty penny.

Then we flip through our list of stocks flashing unusual...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our Top 10 Charts Report was just published.

In this weekly note, we highlight 10 of the most important charts or themes we're currently seeing in asset classes around the world.

The New Leaders

Biotech continues to be among the top-performing industry groups over shorter timeframes. They were among the first groups of stocks to bottom back in May. They were also first in line to complete a reversal pattern back in June. 

This is illustrated by the double bottom in the S&P SPDR Biotech ETF (XBI) above. After digesting gains in a tight range for most of July, Biotech stocks are now resolving higher once again. We think the bullish resolution from this high and tight flag is a good roadmap for what other growth stocks and indexes are likely to do in the coming weeks and months.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Check out this week's Momentum Report, our weekly summation of all the major indexes at a Macro, International, Sector, and Industry Group level.

By analyzing the short-term data in these reports, we get a more tactical view of the current state of markets. This information then helps us put near-term developments into the big picture context and provides insights regarding the structural trends at play.

Let's jump right into it with some of the major takeaways from this week's report:

* ASC Plus Members can access the Momentum Report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

Macro Universe:

• This week, our macro universe was slightly negative as 62% of our list closed lower with a median return of -0.27%.
• The US 10-Year Yield $TNX was the big winner, rising by about 20bps.
• The biggest loser was Oil $CL, with a weekly loss of -9.74%.
• There was a 4% drop in the percentage of assets on our list within 5% of their 52-week highs – currently at 2%.
• 30% of our macro list made fresh 4-week highs.
• ...

The largest insider buy on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by the president and CEO of TransUnion $TRU, who revealed a purchase of $1.9 million in the credit reporting agency.

The chief commercial officer of First Solar $FSLR reported a purchase of 9,946 shares, worth roughly $1 million in the solar panel manufacturer.