From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Ian Culley @Ianculley

So far, 2022 has been a historic year. That theme intensified during the second quarter, which is now in the books.

The bond market is working on one of its worst years on record. The S&P 500 just posted its worst quarterly return since 1970 with the index down more than 16% from January through March.

Bitcoin finished the quarter with its second-worst return in its short history. And now the energy sector – the market’s leader this year – just posted its third-worst monthly return since the 1990s.

The operative words here are “worst” and “return.”

That’s 2022 in a nutshell. The bears are in complete control.

However, one area that has held up through all this is commodities. It was the best-performing asset class in 2021, and it’s the only one to close the first half of 2022 in the green.

Let’s note that the first quarter of 2022 was far different from the second. And before we go running to commodities for safety, let’s put the group’s recent performance in perspective.

This is the video recording of our July 1, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

As the sleepy summer season carries on, so do the short Hot Lists.

Director Timothy J. Wilmott revealed an acquisition worth $1.2 million in Darden Restaurants $DRI.

Mario Gabelli’s GAMCO Investors filed a 13D revealing an ownership stake of 22.3% in Telesat Corporation $TSAT.

It’s another brief Hot List today.

Neil Gagnon, the CEO of Gagnon Advisors LLC, revealed a purchase of approximately 43,200 shares in the small-cap software company SecureWorks Corp $SCWX.

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 the Hall of Famers, the 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.

Today’s Hot List is a short one.

Patrick S. Barrett, executive vice-president and CFO of OceanFirst Financial Corp $OCFC, revealed a purchase of approximately 10,500 shares in his own stock.

The largest insider buy on today’s list is yet another Form 4 filing by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.A.

Buffett just revealed an additional purchase in Occidental Petroleum $OXY, as he continues to build his position in the energy stock.

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.

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza.

Welcome back to our latest Under the Hood column, where we'll cover all the action for the week ended June 24, 2022. This report is published bi-weekly and rotated with our Minor Leaguers column.

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.

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.

Risk Assets Holding on by a Thread

Risk assets have been under consistent selling pressure for some time now. The Russell 2000 and Bitcoin are both excellent examples of the damage that’s already taken place. Both are holding on by a thread at crucial support levels. As you can see in the chart, for Bitcoin, the 2017 highs around $20,000 are the level we're watching. For small-cap stocks, the line in the sand is at the 2018 and 2020 highs around 171. 

If the Russell 2000 and Bitcoin continue to hold these key levels, things are likely improving for stocks and cryptos more broadly. However, if they violate their respective support levels, we have to anticipate increased volatility and another leg lower for risk assets.

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:

The largest insider transaction on today’s list is a Form 4 filing by Nimish P. Shah, who reported a purchase of roughly $5.1 million of Tricida $TCDA.

Thomas Meth, the president of Enviva $EVA, reported a purchase of 8,600 shares, equivalent to $505,508 worth of stock.