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...

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.

A “Santa Claus Rally” For Stocks

The last 5 trading days of the year and the first two of the new year represent a historically strong period for the market. This seasonal trend is referred to as the “Santa Claus Rally” and occurs during one of the best 7-day periods based on data all the way back to 1950. The market is off to a good start as today is the first day of this period and the S&P is already back to all-time highs for the first time since November. The main support level we have been watching in recent weeks is those September highs around 4,500. Buyers dug in and successfully defended this zone twice this month, and now they are trying to make a sustained breakout back to fresh record highs. If we hold above the November and December highs ~4,700 we’re likely to see a fresh leg higher for the broader market, and particularly US large caps.

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These are the registration details for our Live Monthly Candlestick Strategy Session for Premium Members of All Star Charts.

This month’s Video Conference Call will be held on Monday January 3rd @ 6PM ET. As always, if you cannot make the call live, the video and slides will be archived and published here along with every other live call since 2015.

Here are the details for Monday evening:

Well, we're on Day 1 of the Santa Rally and so far the fat man is delivering bigly!

Speaking of deliveries, it's likely your 2021 Holiday Season featured the services of our trade today.

Let's get right to it!

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 in the green as 83% of our list closed higher with a median return of 1.58%.
• The US 10-Year Yield $TNX was the winner this week, closing with a 6.49% gain.
• The biggest loser was the Volatility index $VIX which posted a loss of -16.74%.
• There was an 8% gain in the percentage of assets on our list within 5% of their 52-week highs – currently at 53%.
• 45% of our sector list made fresh...

Wall Street sell side analysts are coming out with their 2022 forecasts.

And we all know how accurate those tend to be ;)

In the latest float of the bear parade, wall street's sell side analysts are putting out some of the most bearish forecasts in recent memory.

From the WSJ,

And we already know that Individual investors (AAII) and Financial Advisors (II) are much more bearish going into 2022 than they were over the prior two years.

We're seeing almost half the amount of...

Our general approach following Bitcoin's correction is to sit on the sidelines while the market grinds sideways.

We've seen this play out, with most crypto assets trading under contracting price action.

The case continues to be if we're below the 53,000 to 54,000 zone, we want to remain patient before deploying cash into more aggressive long positions.

There have been a few exceptions that we'll discuss in today's report. But patience continues to be the prudent approach for the vast majority of names out there for now.

This week's biggest development is a dramatic rise in speculative activity, exacerbating volatility and the probability of a long/short squeeze.

This week we’re looking at a long setup in the market's favourite bullish space, IT.

IT has been displaying strength even in a sideways market. Such strength is crucial to note.

Let's take a look at what we have today!

We retired our "Five Bull Market Barometers" in mid-July last year to make room for a new weekly post that's focused on the three most important charts for the week ahead.

This is that post, so let's jump into this week's edition.

As we enter the final week of the year, what's on your mind?

Let us know. We love to hear from you!

I'll go first.

People are so scared. They're afraid of their own shadows.

And they're quick to blame others instead of looking in the mirror.

At first glance, this might seem sad. But sad for who?

Just because you're angry doesn't mean the rest of us have to be.

I see it as opportunity.

The official period for this year's Santa Claus Rally begins on Monday December 27th.

Remember, the Santa Claus Rally includes the last 5 days of the year, and the first 2 days of the following year. So this year's SCR starts on Monday Dec 27th and runs through Tuesday Jan 4th.

The first half of December wasn't the best time for stock investors. But keep in mind that historically, it's the second half of December that's the most bullish time of this month for stocks.

So what should we expect for this year's Santa Claus Rally?

Well, for me it's less about Santa showing up and more about the implications of him not showing up.

Let me explain.

It's Saturday Sunday Morning Chartoons time. 

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

You can find the whole list of trades here.

Below you'll find the full PDF of this week's charts:

With Cryptos finally waking up a bit this week, we're seeing new flowers popping in our gardens.

There are some familiar names ripping like Terra $LUNA, Avalanche $AVAX and Near Protocol $NEAR, but there are also some new ones than some of you might not be familiar with.

Today I want to talk about the Oasis Network $ROSE.

When looking at the chart, it looks a lot like many others out there. This is another one of those, "We only want to be long if we're above the first half highs", type coins.

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

As we approach year-end, we're diving into the individual commodity groups to gauge the status of the primary trends and to get a better idea of where we’re likely headed in 2022. 

Last week, we highlighted precious metals -- by far the worst performers of 2021 with a -10.59% return thus far. We think there's a good chance they'll turn things around next year and start participating.

Today, we’re going to review the other end of the spectrum in terms of performance -- energy! 

While base metals and ags have posted strong gains over the trailing 12-months -- 25.96% and 28.22% respectively -- energy has been the real leader, quietly printing a 46.33% gain despite recent selling pressure.

After crude oil collapsed below zero last year, the entire group had its work cut out. But they’ve covered an amazing amount of ground in a short period of time, and we think they have further to go.

Let’s take a look at what’s happening in this leadership group and how we want to position ourselves as we...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 50 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 50 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:

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We debuted a new scan recently which goes by the name- All Star Momentum.

All Star Momentum is a brand new scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. This time around, we have incorporated our stock universe of Nifty 500 as the base. Among the 500 stocks that we follow, this scan will pump out names that are most likely to generate great returns.

While we go through our lists of sectors and stocks on a weekly basis, we thought of launching a product that would highlight the names that are the strongest performers in our universe and those that are primed for an explosive move.

Just like The Outperformers scan, this is a list of stocks belonging to the sectors that display relative strength in the market at any given point in time. Since sector rotation is the lifeblood of a bull market, we will be ahead of the curve before the gears keep shifting.

It's always fun having Paul Ciana on the podcast. You guys familiar with the show have already heard some our conversations over the years. They're always insightful, and he always gets me thinking.

While here at Allstarcharts.com we approach the world through the lens of an equities investor, and use other asset classes as a supplement, Paul does the exact opposite. His days both begin and end with the study of fixed-income markets, commodities, and currencies. Paul is the Chief Global FICC Technical Strategist at Bank of America.

In this episode, we dive right into it starting with the US dollar, gold, crude oil, and the most important currency crosses for stock market investors to focus on.

We covered a lot in a very short period. Interested in where rates are going? We cover it. Lumber? Yup! Agriculture? Definitely. Precious metals? How could we not?

You won't want to miss this one!

Enjoy...

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.

Some of the best performers in recent decades – stocks like Priceline, Amazon, Netflix, Salesforce, and myriad others – would have been on this list at...

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

Our focus has been on US Treasury yields in recent months – and for good reason. 

The 30-year yield recently undercut its summer lows, and the 10-year yield briefly lost the critical 1.40 level. Both have since recovered. But these crucial rates remain stuck in the same messy ranges that have defined most of 2021. 

Given the lack of decisive action in domestic yields, we think it's a good time to check in on the overseas bond markets in hopes of gleaning some insight into the potential direction of yields outside the US.

In today’s post, we’re going to switch things up and take a look at the 10-year yields from other major developed countries.

Let’s start with the European financial behemoth, Germany:Like much of the developed world, Germany’s 10-year yield has been in the process of carving out a bottom for the past two years.

Though the current rate may...

This is the video recording of our December 22, 2021, All Star Charts Crypto Weekly Strategy Session.