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 Trade Exchange. 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 @Sstrazza

Welcome to our latest Minor Leaguers report.

We've had some great trades come out of this small-cap-focused column since we launched it back in 2020 and started rotating it with our flagship bottom-up scan, Under the Hood.

For the first year or so, we focused only on Russell 2000 stocks with a market cap between $1 and $2B.

That was fun, but we wanted to branch out a bit and allow some new stocks to find their way onto our list.

We expanded our universe to include some mid-caps.

To make the cut for our Minor Leaguers list, a company must have a market cap between $1 and $4B.

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.

Equal Over Cap-Weight

The equal-weight S&P 500 (RSP) emerged to fresh multi-year highs relative to the cap-weighted S&P 500 index (SPY). Seeing this ratio break out of a multi-year base is a development that indicates a healthy expansion in participation and is further evidence of improving market internals.

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 was reported in a Form 4 filing by Vertiv Holdings $VTR Director Joseph Deangelo.

Deangelo disclosed a purchase of VTR worth roughly $1 million.

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

Our Hall of Famers list is composed of the 150 largest US-based stocks.

These stocks range from the mega-cap growth behemoths like Apple and Microsoft – with market caps in excess of $2T – to some of the new-age large-cap disruptors such as Moderna, Square, and Snap.

It has all the big names and more.

It doesn’t include ADRs or any stock not domiciled in the US. But don’t worry; we developed a separate universe for that. Click here to check out the International Hall of Famers.

The Hall of Famers is simple.

We take our list of 150 names and then apply our technical filters so the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Let’s dive right in and check out what these big boys are up to.

Here’s this week’s list:

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

With slow but steady improvement in breadth over the past few weeks, we have more and more stocks rising to the top of our scans and making new highs.

Due to continued weakness from the largest stocks, the indexes are masking a lot of this internal strength. But that's OK; we don't have to trade the indexes or any of those issues!

We're finally re-entering an environment where we have plenty of options on the long side.

Here are some new favorites from our Inside Scoop universe...

The most significant insider transaction on today's list comes in a 13D from Carl Icahn.

Icahn reported a new position in the mid-cap packaging and container stock, Crown Holdings $CCK.

The largest insider transaction on today's list is a Form 4 filing by the chairman and CEO of American Assets Trust $AAT, Ernest Rady.

Rady reported the purchase of $1.3 million.

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.

This is the video recording of our November 2, 2022, Inside Scoop Weekly Strategy Session.

The largest insider transaction on today's list was reported in a Form 4 filing by former Coca-Cola $KO director Herbert Allen.

Allen reported a purchase worth roughly $2 million.