From the Desk of Steve Strazza @sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

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.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Artal Group.

The firm reported a purchase of $15 million in Scholar Rock Holding Corporation $SRRK.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on the list comes in a Form 4 filing by Working Capital Advisors (UK) Ltd.

The investment advisory firm revealed a purchase of $166,774 in Funko Inc $FNKO.

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 stocks from around the world.

Here's this week's list:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s Hot Corner is another short one.

The largest insider buy on the list comes in a Form 4 filing by Randall J. Weisenburger, independent director of Carnival Corporation & plc $CCL.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza and Alfonso Depablos @AlfCharts

Markets have been able to stage a significant rebound off the lows from last week.

After some massive bullish engulfing candles Friday, the major averages - led by mega-cap growth stocks, have exhibited strong follow-through to start the week.

That changed a little today as markets gave back some gains as the dollar and rates ticked higher.

The bottom line is there is still work to do. While stocks appear to have found a tradable low, that doesn't tell us much about where we go from here.

If the dollar and rates hold current levels, things are likely to remain messy.

However, even under this scenario, we think there will be some big winners as we march forward to the end of the year. And all indications from the market suggest most of those winners will be from the tech and growth space.

Let's outline some of our favorites right here, right now.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s Hot Corner is a short one.

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by David Naemura, CFO of Neogen Corporation $NEOG.

This is the video recording of the October 11, 2023, Hot Corner Insider Weekly Strategy Session.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Welcome to The 2 to 100 Club.

As many of you know, something we've been working on internally is using various bottom-up tools and scans to complement our top-down approach.

It's really been working for us!

One way we're doing this is by identifying 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.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

The largest insider buy on today’s list comes in a Form 4 filing by Cormorant Asset Management.

The hedge fund reported a $3.5 million purchase of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics $MLTX stock, increasing its ownership stake to 15.20%.

From the Desk of Alfonso Depablos @Alfcharts

As the market has been sending mixed signals since July, we’re seeking information from our risk appetite indicators to try to gauge the next move.

One of our favorite ways to measure risk appetite is to compare the consumer discretionary sector with consumer staples. This tells us whether market participants are positioning themselves defensively, or embracing risk. 

Discretionary stocks include automobiles, retailers, and homebuilders, among other things. Theoretically, we’re talking about products and services consumers buy with their discretionary incomes. 

Meanwhile, staples are what "consumers" will buy regardless of how bad economic conditions get… things like food, toothpaste, cigarettes, etc.

When this ratio points higher, it illustrates a healthy degree of risk-seeking behavior among investors. Alternatively, when it points downwards, it speaks to a defensive tone and typically occurs during bear markets.

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

With investors and executives scrambling to figure out what the geopolitical events of the weekend mean for their portfolios and companies, all was silent on the insider filings front. 

There were no Form 4s, Form 13s, or political reports that meet our materiality threshold.