In a market that's going sideways, it can become quite frustrating to figure out what the trend is. More often than not, there are certain sectors that perform well and certain sectors that don't. But it's also important to identify other avenues of investment that could generate good returns over a period of time.

Today we're exploring one such theme in the form of REITs. Read on, to learn more.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

There are no magic indicators that are right 100% of the time, no silver bullets, no “one Ring to rule them all.” That’s why we spend so much time talking about weighing the evidence and looking at the behavior of risk on and risk off indicators. That being said, there are times when one indicator or another seems particularly relevant. That is now the case with the number of stocks making new highs and new lows on the NYSE+NASDAQ. The spread between new highs and new lows peaked in early 2021 and was fading (though stayed positive) for much of the year. The situation deteriorated in November and new lows started to outnumber new highs. Even as the indexes moved off of their January lows, we’ve continued to see more stocks making new lows than new highs. Since 2000 all of the net gains in the major US indexes (S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000, Value Line Geometric Index) have come when the cumulative net new high list has been expanding. The bottom line is that history suggests the indexes could continue to struggle so long as new lows are outnumbering new highs. 

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While certainly not at panic levels, we've been seeing a persistent $VIX holding north of 20, and the last two days we saw it flirt with 25. This signals to me that there is still a bit of uneasiness remaining in the stock market, leftover from the recent correction.

Scanning my books, I noticed my portfolio is a little light on delta neutral premium trades, so we're going to take the recent rise in volatility as an opportunity to add a little diversification.

As always, I take a gander at my list of the most liquid ETF options and look for the ones with the highest implied volatilities right now. And then if the chart suggests some consolidation is in order, that's where I look to strike.

This is the video recording of our February 11, 2022, All Star Charts Crypto Weekly Strategy Session.

Did The Economist just call the bottom for the market?

Take a look at the latest cover.

They're asking the question, "What would happen if the markets crashed?"

As technicians, our job is to respond and react to the evidence in front of us.

The market has a funny way of punishing those who let their ego and opinions drive their decision-making instead of objectively following money flow.

We say it over and over again: As a trader, your only job is to follow money flow. Everything else is noise.

This morning, we can't help but think about the resolution from this rally seen in a handful of crypto stocks. I think Microstrategy $MSTR and Coinbase $COIN show it better than any other.

What will it be?

I have one trade that stands out head and shoulders above the rest as my number one F-up. I really screwed this one up.

Financially, it was my best trade of the year. Probably my best trade in several years…

But it still stands out as my worst trade of all time.

This was circa 2013. I had recently moved to Boulder, CO and life was good. New vistas, new friends, new environments, new everything.

And one thing I did which was new for me (at the time), was I had come up with a long-term bullish thesis on a stock. And over the course of a couple days, I wrote up about 5 pages of notes on my yellow legal pad outlining exactly how I’d play my bullish thesis using options.

The TL;DR version of my strategy is that I was going to purchase slightly out-of-the-money long calls with about a month until expiration. And then if/when the stock traded up and through the strike price of my long calls, I would take that opportunity to roll those options up and out to the next monthly series, using the proceeds from the sale of the existing ITM options to purchase as many new OTM options in the next month as possible. (For example, I’d sell 5 calls with...

This is the video recording of the February 10th Weekly Town Hall w/ Willie Delwiche

02/10/22 2:00 PM ET

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

There is plenty of chatter today about inflation, the bond market, and the Fed. 

I have a couple charts to share – and a couple key points worth making. 

Inflation continues to run much hotter than a year ago and the Fed is still playing catch-up. The yearly change in the median CPI was at its highest level in a decade going into COVID, and is now at its highest level in 30+ years. Pressure is not letting up, and the 3-month change in the median CPI has surged to its highest level on record.

This week we got a terrific reminder about weighing all the evidence properly from new Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

In a recent podcast, the new Dolphins coach was asked about the role of analytics in today's game and how it impacts his decision making.

I thought McDaniel's answer was a great one and really resonates with how we approach markets here at All Star Charts,

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

The middle of the curve is catching higher as the US 10-year Treasury yield pushes toward its next milestone at 2.00%.

Now that we’re starting to see some follow-through to the upside, it raises the question…

Are these new highs in the 10-year sustainable?

With inflation expectations just off their highs, short-term rates surging in the US, and yields ripping higher across the globe, we think the answer is a resounding yes! 

A few weeks ago, we discussed how global yields -- particularly those in developed Europe -- were confirming the new highs for US yields.

Since then, we've only seen this trend accelerate. With central banks turning increasingly hawkish, rates continue to break out to new highs around the world.

Today, we're going to dive further into this theme by taking a look at a handful of benchmark rates outside the US. 

Let’s dive in!

First up is the German 10-year:

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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.

But, now, we’re also highlighting lagging stocks on a recurring basis.

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We debuted a new scan recently- The Outperformers.

The Outperformers is our newest scan that pinpoints the very best stocks in the market. It’s the fastest, easiest way to find quality names that are primed for major moves.

The goal is that as the market rally progresses, the sector rotation within the market will reflect in this scan. So while our Top/Down Analysis helps us with the broader view of the market, this Bottom/Up scan makes sure that we catch the slightest change in sentiment.

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaway: Sentiment has unwound to a point that it’s now seen as an opportunity rather than a risk. Pessimism runs high, investors are cranky, and we have had the most bears since 2016. On top of that, our universe of risk-on/risk-off ratios continues to lean toward the risk-off side of the scale. There are signs of budding pessimism (Consensus bulls have risen for the second week in a row and the NAAIM exposure index fails to register excessive pessimism) after the recent bounce in the major equity indexes. But without a strong enough reaction to produce meaningful breadth thrusts it’s difficult to be bullish on the broader market.       

Sentiment Report Chart of the Week: Sentiment Composite Points To Opportunity

Sometimes the best approach is to set aside movements in individual indicators and look at an aggregate. Our Sentiment Composite has moved from being a market headwind in early 2021 to a tailwind now in 2022. After pessimism reaches an extreme,...

To quote Steve Strazza: "When commodity stocks go, they go!"

This pretty much sums up the talk we had this morning when coming up with today's trade idea.

We were looking across the strongest sectors and hunting for opportunities to get involved. One challenge we were having is many of the stocks we liked had either already had a big move and we'd be chasing, earnings were on deck in less than a week, or the options chains were too thin for us to get good fills.

Finally, after some searching, we found a name that made sense. And it was one I wasn't familiar with.

If you've been involved with crypto, chances are you've encountered a headline like this:

Crypto investors seem to appreciate these statistics. But most likely aren't aware that the mechanism of forced selling can provide an incredible wealth of information.

Believe it or not, we can use this data to manage risk, find future support and resistance zones, and even help piece together a macro directional bias.

First things first, what is a liquidation?

From the desk of Steven Strazza @Sstrazza and Grant Hawkridge @granthawkridge

In April 2020, crude oil traded below zero and marked the perfect capitulation event for a number of trends.

Around the very same time, both commodities and stocks bottomed and kicked off major rallies.

Until recently, commodities had underperformed stocks for about a decade. To make matters worse, they were moving lower on an absolute basis for most of that time as well. 

Not only have commodities started to trend higher on an absolute basis again. They're also undergoing a reversal in their relative trend with stocks and other alternatives.

We’ve been clear about our bullish position as we’ve discussed the potential for a new commodity supercycle for over a year. 

Now, we want to take that thesis one step further as the evidence is building in favor of commodities experiencing a sustained period of outperformance relative to stocks.

To best take advantage of this trend, we want to be overweight commodities and commodity-related stocks.

Let’s...

From the desk of Willie Delwiche.

Key Takeaways:

• Risk pairs moving toward risk off extremes
• Risk On is weakening more than Risk Off is strengthening
• Risk indicators point to risk off environment across multiple time frames

After highlighting our Risk Off - Risk On Range-O-Meter last Friday, I want to do a deeper dive into what we are seeing from a risk perspective. A majority of our Risk Off vs Risk On asset pairs (13 of 20) have seen more strength out of the Risk Off component than the Risk On Component in recent weeks. Over the past month the average pair has dropped below the 50% threshold and is now in the bottom half of its recent range. Financial sector pairs (Broker Dealers vs S&P 500, Regional Banks vs REITs) stand out as exceptions - areas where Risk On assets are showing strength and working toward new highs).

When we view this through the lens of our Custom Risk On - Risk Off...